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🎧 Discover the agents behind the For Sale signs and the sales pitch.
Elite Real Estate Agents of SEQ is the go-to podcast for anyone buying, selling, or simply curious about the people driving Southeast Queensland’s dynamic real estate market.
Hosted by Adam Bell, each episode features a genuine, down-to-earth conversation with one of the region’s top-performing real estate agents. From the Gold Coast to Brisbane and everywhere in between, these agents share their personal stories, expert insights, and what it really takes to succeed in a competitive market.
✅ Learn how top agents win listings, build trust, and deliver results
✅ Get local property insights straight from the people making the deals happen
✅ Find out what to look for in a great agent—beyond just a flashy billboard
✅ Meet the agent who could be the perfect fit for your property journey
Whether you’re a homeowner researching agents, an investor watching the market, or a fellow agent looking for inspiration, this podcast puts a spotlight on the real people behind real estate in SEQ.
Welcome to the Elite Real Estate agents of SEQ podcast, where I sit down with some of the most successful and respected real estate agents working right here in one of Australia's most beautiful and sought after regions southeast Queensland. This podcast gives you a genuine behind the scenes look at who these agents are as people, what makes them stand out in the industry.
And most importantly, can help you decide if they're the right fit to guide your property journey. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the conversation. You might just be listening to the perfect person to sell your property.
Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Elite Real Estate Agents of Southeast Queensland Podcast. Now, today's guest who I've got here in the studio with me today is Brad Scott, principal of Smart Real Estate, and he truly exemplifies what it means to be an elite. Agent in Southeast Queensland.
With nearly two decades in the industry, Brad has built a reputation for delivering exceptional results and personalized service. He made an immediate impact in his very first year in real estate, being named Rookie of the Year back in 2007, after selling almost 30 properties in a single month, which to me is just outstanding for somebody in their first year, and he hasn't slowed down since.
Brad and his agency have gone on to achieve national recognition, including open agent of the year, national Open Agent of the year, Queensland Open Campaign of the Year, Queensland and Open Agency of the Year, Queensland. And that's competing against more than 4,000 agents across the country. Known for his innovation, integrity, and results driven mindset.
Brad continues to set standards through smart real estate with strong focus on delivering tailored property solutions and building lasting relationship. So let's dive into the story behind the agent. The guy behind the sold side. I was gonna say the for sale sign, but let's say the sold sign and discover what makes Brad Scott, one of Southeast Queensland's Elite.
Brad, welcome to the podcast. Thanks,
Adam. It was a great intro. Yeah.
Geez. It,
bit of a mouthful.
Yeah. Bit of a mouthful. Now I can relax and we can just have a chat mate. Look, we, this is all about us finding out about you as a person and how you go about being so successful as a real estate agent.
Gimme a bit of your backstory. Where did it all start? I know you actually started in, in banking, wasn't it?
Yeah. So about 20 years ago I was down in Victoria finished my university degree in finance. I was selected. Second of about 1100 that applied for a position at the National Australia Bank in business banking.
Wow.
Okay. Yep.
And, so yeah, that was quite good. Did that for a short period, really enjoyed it. It was more of a sales role, then decided to move to the Gold Coast, and that was more of a relationship management. Sure. Which was a bit like property management. Not really for me. No. Sales was in the blood.
Yeah. I'm just, I love. Sort of sales. Decided to leave the bank. Started up a business with my uncle back in 2007 where Little Truffle is a restaurant on the Gold Coast Highway, mermaid Beach. I
know that one. Just on the corner there. Yep,
yep. So that used to be our office really. And we had a low commission type model right at the stage.
Yep. And it wasn't really, wasn't, didn't have longevity as a business. Yep. We, I decided to leave, set up my own company when I was about 27, I think at the time. And been going now for almost 20 years.
Wow. So you never had that apprenticeship type scenario in with a big banner agency or anything like that, just No, it
Didn't really interest me.
Nope.
I always wanna I saw the big. Franchise groups is a, a model where they have systems, which I think are good. But I wanted to be creative. I wanted to be different. I wanted to step outside the square have that creative control, which a lot of the large agencies don't have, don't get.
Yep. So being an independent. Allowed me to do things my way and have a lot more control over the creative and what we wanted to do and be in the marketplace. Sure, yeah. Sure.
So tell me a bit more about Brad Scott, outside of work, outside of being a real estate agent. What are you into?
What are your interests?
So probably foremost, i'm my father. Yep. So that's probably my biggest thing. Two, two kids. Yeah. I've got two kids to my wife Ko. Yep. I've got one with my ex. Sure. Who's 21? Emily? Sarah and Dylan. They're both at a Emmanuel. Both doing really well very heavily into sport.
So they're both at state level. In swimming. Swimming, which is good. Okay. I used to be a state swimmer myself. Yep. Back in the day. So we wanted to get them into that. They love it. Enjoy it. They've also, does that
mean, does that mean those five o'clock, those four 30 morning starts, is that still what swimmers do?
Yeah,
they've been, they were up training this morning at four 30 they're up. Wow. And by the time I get up around five 30, they're done. Wow. Yeah, they're early. And Sarah, we just got back yesterday actually from a four day event. Yep. Up at the sunny coast, Sarah was luckily enough to be in the state age championship.
For Southport. Carrara. Yep. In the 13 blue team. So they did really well. Competed over about, they did 20 games over four days and got third in the state. Wow. Fantastic result. And missed it by one point, getting second.
Excellent. Yeah. Excellent. Okay. So do you still swim yourself now?
Yeah, so I I swim every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Do about a hundred laps in the pool. Wow. Okay. And at Emmanuel in the heated pool try and consistently do that and go walking and go to the gym over nighttime and used to do paragliding a few years ago and had a big accident. And crashed and was in hospital for about six months.
Broke both my arms, my back, my right leg in 2018 and had to learn to walk again.
Wow.
And it was a big, that would be a life changing experience. Yeah. It was reframes you what's really important in life, and for me, I think it was good. It was a very traumatic experience, probably more so for my wife and kids than myself.
Yep. But I think for me it's got me to focus more on spending quality time with the kids, especially and spending time watching them play sport, which my dad was a workaholic and he never really came. Watch me play sport. Yep. And I understand why. But as a
kid sometimes
you don't
get that.
No, you don't. And I'm, I've got two kids who play sport as well and there's something special about. Your parents coming and being there Yeah. And watching what you do. It's super important. It, it actually, it's actually flipped around for me now, Brett. I play old man's cricket.
I play over fifties cricket, and I want the sun to come and watch me and he's too busy and I, he's probably on the iPad or something. Yeah, that's right. Alright before we do delve more into the the business and career side of things. Yeah. What would you be doing if you weren't a real estate agent?
Early on, I, back 20 years ago, my original plan was to be an architect. Did a lot of work experience doing that, and then went over to America, had a bit of a gap year from I was originally, I. Looking, doing architecture. Then I went into civil engineering at university, at Monash, in Melbourne.
Didn't enjoy that. Went on a break year, went over to America, lived in Aspen for two years. Okay. Was doing ski instructing. Okay. And worked in a, that
would've been a good experience. Yeah.
Met a lot of. Celebrities, really. Yeah, drop
a couple of names. Go on.
Day one when I met Kurt Russell, and Goldie Horn.
Yep. Day one. Day one. But yeah, I was there for two years. Antonio Banderas lives there. He was a really cool guy. Worked with Mel Gibson's kid. But yeah, like we had Bill Clinton come in worked at Will Smith's party. Yep. It was Wow. Yeah, it was Leanne Rimes, Britney Spears. Yep.
It was lot, a lot of people, so they all go there and relax and that's
where they go. Yeah. Biggest
thing I learn early on was. End of the day, they're all just people. Yep. So they're just like you and me. It's
what you forget. I think of it, don't you, when you just see them from afar and see that they are just people.
Yeah. It was like
you see these people on the big screen and stuff like that and Yep. So Richard Branson, who I'd read all his books and Yep. I talked to him and he could literally just be like, one of your mate's stats. Yeah. I
remember, and I can't remember who it was, but I did meet someone one day and they introduced themselves just as their first name and you're thinking.
You don't have to do I know who you are. Yeah, but they, that they still do. They're just people, aren't they? That's it. Wow. That that would've been a really interesting experience. So I've got a question here. Is there anything throughout your your life and experience that has helped shape what you do in your career?
Yeah, so I think yeah, it's a mixture. You look at your. Your path and where you go. And I think through a combination of liking real estate and that technical drawing and architecture to like when I was in America, I was actually met a few guys in Chicago who were a bit like Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort, right?
Yep. And I spent some time with them in Chicago, had some very. Good times. Yep. Bit like Jordan. Okay. And which I go into, but I I liked that when I was 20. Yep. And then I came back and then I was gonna go into stockbroking, so that's why I did a degree in finance. And then when I finished it, I was looking at it and saying is that the sort of person I wanna be 10, 20 years from now?
Long term? Yep. Yeah. 'cause these guys were, a lot of 'em were burning out. In the early forties. Yep. Bit like sports. It's gotta
take its toll if you look at that movie and yeah,
they were go. And for me, I wanted something that was fulfilling, something that was money and real estate orientated.
And yeah, I think real estate was just a natural choice and I got into it and I loved it. I've been doing it ever since and I still get up and I enjoy every day. Yep. It's something I'm passionate about, and
yeah.
So
Cool, cool, cool. Tell us about smart real estate. Tell us how it's grown, how it's evolved.
Yeah. What it looks like today. Yeah.
So we've been around for, since we were incepted in 2007. We started off in a small home office in Royal Pines and. It was myself and Julie and Wayne and Wayne's been with me pretty much for the whole time, for about 18 years up until he just retired at age 74 just last Christmas.
Yep. So learned a lot with Wayne. Had a lot of good times with Wayne. And we subsequently then moved into a we were expanded. We went into an office in Chevron Island. And we had just the, it was a two story building. We had the downstairs building with sales and rentals in there for a few years, and then we grew quite quickly.
Then we took the upstairs part of the office as well. And we've been there for long time. 15, 16 years. Yep. And we've had people come and go over the years and a lot of good memories and a lot of ups and downs and, I think at the big busiest we had about 20 odd people employed there.
We've scaled back down a little bit now. We've just bought a new waterfront office in on, on Ferry Road in Southport, which we're currently renovating. Yep. Going through that process of turning a a residential property into a commercial property. And getting big job.
Yeah, learning a lot. I've done probably about a dozen renos on residential. Yep. Through my career. Much easier to deal with, but with commercial, it's learning a lot lessons with certifiers and energy efficiency reports and traffic engineers and all the fun stuff. Yeah. Yeah. So it's, yeah, it's good.
We, we are getting that all ready and then we're going to look to for the next 20 years and expand again. And we're getting some new sales guys in there and yeah,
move forward, continue continuing to build. Fantastic. Yep. Now, we've obviously spent a bit of time together on your podcast before, and so we have talked about this and it is, it's how I know about it.
But obviously the two standard models that most people understand are out there for selling properties are your private tree sale auction, and your auction. Yep. There's a third one, isn't there? There is, yeah. Which I didn't know about before I met you. Yep. And I'm sure a lot of people out there don't know exists.
And this is the open offered Open offers method. Method of sale, isn't it? Yeah. So mate, explain it to us because I think it's brilliant.
Yeah. So basically, essentially what it is in a nutshell is it's a hybrid of the two methods. Because I think with both auction and private treaty with the legislation, there are some pros and cons to both.
I was probably more a private treaty agent throughout my career. I've done a lot of auctions, haven't had a lot of success with it. Yep. I got a bit put off by it. I know some agents are very pro and I understand why they do it, but I'm always trying to think how can I be innovative? How can I be different?
How can I add value to my client? Yep. And do something and deliver a result that is, phenomenal is probably a good word, for me it's like. I think agents are very different and you have different. Sets of skills and expertise. Yep. Experience energy. And for me it's like, how can I get my client an extra 50, a hundred, $200,000 that other agents I know can't get for them?
Yep. And that's where all my mindset is always constantly there. But also at the same time, we've gotta be fair and transparent to buyers. Yep. On the other side of the transaction. And open offers just really, it was instrumental. Like as soon as I saw it, I was like, wow you can be transparent.
You can be open like an auction, like you can see people sitting there bidding. It blew me away because it's
basically a transparent o online auction where you see, it's an online private
treaty process and it's over the
period of time. It starts from the time of listing and Yep.
And up until, so we normally do a
14 day campaign as a rule, and you'll see offers coming in day one. And it will build up slowly. Sometimes it goes a bit faster and at the end of the 14 days, it's very, it's great for if you've got a tenanted property, 'cause tenants don't wanna open homes for months and months.
They get pretty frustrated pretty quickly. Also, for own occupiers, like they don't wanna be put out for months, having to clean the house up and leave for 30 minutes on a Saturday morning. So I just say, look, how about if we just do. Two Saturdays and I will bring you, pretty much 95% of the market have multiple offers on the table.
They'll be conditional and unconditional offers. You'll see transparently from day one through to day 14 where the offers are at. There's no reserve price, so you're not obligated to sell at any stage. And then at the end of the 14 days, you can pick and choose any offer. It doesn't have to be the top one.
Yep. If somebody's a little bit lower based on conditions, cash, unconditional. You, they're 10 grand lower. You can take that offer or you can take no offer. It's very flexible, it's very communication's. Great with the tenant, with the buyers and the owners. And it's I just the transparency of it's probably the biggest thing, oh, that's the
one thing that really grabbed me, that there's no, with the other two, two methods, there is an element of a little bit of smoke and mirrors and it's just the way it's set up. Yep. But there is nothing with this. It's, everyone knows what's going on from day one right through to the, the final siren when yeah.
And I, and
I, look I don't. Criticize other agents. I think it's, no, it's, no. They have their
place there. There's pros and cons to both of those. But what is great is that it takes away those, yeah. This scenario area. It's like
The legislation sort of stipulates that you're an auction.
We can't legally talk about price or give price guides that we can't give price comparables, which I think, maybe he's a little bit silly to a certain degree. Buyers wanna have a bit of a guide or a bit of an, an idea. That's one of the big changes in the auction space.
Yep. With private treaty. And once you've got two or more offers, which I would on probably 95% of my sales, you have to do a multiple offer situation where you get to put in your best in file offer. Best fine one go. Yeah. One chance. And it's blind. And obviously I can't tell you what the other offer is. No.
'cause that would be gazumping and giving that disadvantage to the other person. And I say I wouldn't do it to you, so I won't do it to that person. To be fair to all parties. But the problem with that is at the end, we'll generally call the second buyer and say, oh, sorry. Unfortunately you missed out.
Yep. And it might be like five grand or 10 grand. Yep. And then that second buyer says. We can go another 50 if we have to. I'll give you another 20 now and let's just do the deal. And I'm like you told me that was your best and final one. Yeah. It just, the deals done look like it's inherently like
that and that's what you're dealing with and which is what is so great about, about open offers.
Alright, let's talk some numbers. Yep. Can you estimate how many properties you've sold across your career, roughly total? I'm
not a big
numbers
stat. Not big stats. Yeah. Not a big on stats. Like I just. For me some agents are great at forecasting and planning and stuff like that. For me, I'm just like, go every day.
Yep. I'm just like, if I can sell 50 this year, or 80 or a hundred or 120, I'm just go. On average I'd be probably getting up around a thousand properties sold over the last 20 years. Wow. Okay. And an average year is. Anywhere from 50 to 80. Okay. Depending on the year property.
So your average median price that you are selling to medium sale price, generally between that one and $3 million Price. Point three. Have you got a landmark sale with a big price tag? Oh, look I don't, I used to focus on the big ego driven Sure. Sales, the 10, 15, 20 million homes when I was younger.
Yep. But I soon realized and was smart enough to sit back and go. And there are some agents that focus on that and love that and are very, look at me. Look at me. Yep. For me, if you look at a histogram. And you look at how many transactions take place in that 5 million plus market, there's not many that take place.
And on the flip side too, and the one bedroom, cheap ones, there's not a lot. So I focus where is most of the people? Where are the moms and dads, buying. Your four bedroom houses in the burbs, you know those prices are now between one and three mil. Yep. And that's where we like to focus ourself, not on doing the 10, 20 million sales.
Sure. Because you hear about the good stories, you don't hear about the 10 that they don't sell. Sure. My yeah. Directions changed. Okay. As I've matured and got older. So
do you have a sale that stands out? Do you have a favorite sale that you can think back to over the years?
I've got a few for different reasons, but results based, one quickly, we had a three bedroom apartment, like in one of the.
Towers, well-known towers in surface. And one of the top agencies on the Gold Coast was selling it for 90 days, needed a little bit of work. The seller said they wanted at least 1.4 million. The highest offer of this other agency was able to bring was 1.3 over that 90 day period.
They
did a great marketing campaign.
He said, look, Brad, we've heard about you and what you do differently. We want to get 1.4 or we won't sell it. Do you think you can help? And I said, look. If you're with a bad agent, I probably could, but to be fair, they're probably one of the best agencies on the coast apart from us. But I said, look, I'll give it a crack.
It's gonna cost about five grand in marketing. I'm not making any promises. I wanna manage your expectations. Then we subsequently had, it was holiday let, and we weren't allowed to actually show the property because they were blocking us from showing it. Wow. The holiday. Managers because they didn't want us to sell it.
That's right. Sort of what happens, unfortunately. Yep. So long story short, we basically were able to get a two hour window to get in there between cleaners and new holiday turns. Getting in there. We did 3D tours, videos, floor plans, photos, drones, everything. We did a six day campaign on that property. We didn't show a single person through it.
We ended up selling it for 1,780,000. Wow. In six days with not one person through all online, all the marketing. And was that Open offers? Open offers. And we said to the buyers, they said, can we get in and have a look? I'm like, unfortunately. The manager has booked it out for three weeks and essentially is blocking us from getting in.
But we had with the 3D tour, all that, it's a bit like Google Street view. Yep. You can, it's the next best thing to Sure. Physically inspecting it. And yeah, we had multiple, I think we had about six or seven different buyers fighting it out and price went for 1.78, which was just mind blowing to me.
Mind blowing.
Yeah. Mind blowing. Alright. Maybe at the opposite end of the scale, a listing that didn't go to plan. Is there any stories you've got there that something unexpected
maybe unexpectedly? I don't really focus too much on. The negatives are the ones that don't work. It's pretty rare. There's not a lot that don't go well.
No, there's always the odd one or two. Look, I say to clients, at the end of six weeks, generally you get a 98% no. Where the value of your home is. And I say, if you haven't accepted an offer by the sixth week, which is about halfway through our 90 day exclusive Yep. You're probably not gonna sell.
And I said, it's not my fault. Nope. I've done my job. You just want too much. Yep. And you'll have heaps of options and heaps of offers there for you to choose from. And if you so choose not to accept any of those offers that's totally fine. Yeah. We will have, maybe two or three of those a year.
Do you ever not accept a listing because of a client's expectation? Question without notice.
Yeah. There are some. There are some. It does happen. Yeah. Oh, yeah. There's, there's you don't wanna waste your time. Do you look or theirs. Yeah. Look, for me, the biggest thing.
Right now is my time. And the amount of time we invest into a property, it's people think it's easy and that it's quick. We will compress a 90 day campaign into two weeks. Yep. And we are running multiple properties at any one point in time, so we have to be selective on who we take on. Each week I'll meet with potentially 10 sellers on average.
And I'll hand pick maybe to work with three or four of them. There would be six. And I say to 'em up front I say, look. As much as this is an interview for you, I'm also interviewing you. Yeah. Because you are selecting different agents. Yep. I've gotta select my clients because it's gotta be a two-way.
Yep. We're working together as a team here. That's it. And there needs to be that synergy
that,
It
needs, we need to work together. Yep. And we need to have that mutual respect for each other. And I say, look, you own the football team. Yep. I'm the coach.
We need to get along,
we need to work together and have the same goals.
And
I love that analogy. I love that.
And I say, look if I think we're gonna butt heads Yep. Or I think your expectation's just not realistic. I'm at the end of today's meeting, I'll just say, look, I don't think I'm the right agent for you. And same and vice versa. If you don't think I'm the right agent, please let me know.
No hard feelings. Yep. And that's a
little bit about, we've talked about the different styles of agents, the different approaches that, a little bit about what this podcast is all about. Meeting the people you know behind. 'cause you all have your personalities, you all have your fit and you're not gonna be right for everybody.
No, definitely not. But you're gonna be perfect for. For, the perfect people. And hopefully this can go a long way to people getting a bit of a feel for that. But we've come to our quick fire round. I'm gonna, I'm gonna throw five quick questions at you. Yep. Okay. Short, sharp answers, first things that, that, that come to mind.
Okay. Here we go. One word to describe your negotiation style. Excellent. Three words your clients would use to describe you.
A hardworking, diligent, and a great communicator.
Biggest myth about real estate agents we're all the same weirdest thing you've seen in an open home that you can say.
I won't say that one.
I've had some unique characters who have had some very strange questions. Yeah.
Okay. If your real estate career was a movie, what would it be called?
I don't think it would be wiffle of Wall Street or anything, but yeah. Success.
Great. Top tip, overall tip for homeowners when selling?
Yeah. Biggest tip, just go with your gut.
Interview two or three. Look at their different proposals and strategies and just choose the one that you think is gonna get you the most money.
Perfect. Final question, if someone is listening to this right now or watching on YouTube and they're considering, using you as their agent, what would you say to them?
Give me a call, book an appointment. I'd love to sit down and have a chat and show you what we do and how we do it differently and see if we can help you.
Fantastic. Excellent. Brad Scott from Smart Real Estate, thank you so much for joining me on the Elite Real Estate Agents of Southeast Queensland Podcast.
It's been a pleasure talking to you. Thanks, Adam. Thanks so much for joining us on this episode of Elite Real Estate Agents of SEQ. If today's guest sounded like the right agent to help with your next move, please reach out. You'll find all their details in the show notes and episode description. And if you're a real estate agent interested in being showcased on the podcast, visit www dot.
Pod pro australia.com au to learn more and register your interest. If you enjoyed the podcast, we'd love it if you could like share and rate the podcast and let us know in the comments if there's an agent you've dealt with and you think they should be featured next. Thanks again for listening and we'll see you on the next episode.