If you’ve done a property deal or two, you’ll know that your profit margin can be made or whittled away in the contract negotiation. My guest this week, is a master real estate negotiator, with a unique combination of professional and personal real estate success that make him an enviable resource in contract negotiations.
Scott Aggett has been a vendor, purchaser, agent and investor, so he understands all sides of the equation. But most of all, he wants to see others thrive in the market. He’s a wealth of knowledge about how to strike a deal and what it takes to be successful in property. I hope you enjoy this episode of Small Talk Big Ideas!
About Scott Aggett
Scott Aggett’s career and passion for real estate began in Sydney in 1995 as a licenced real estate agent. After a successful decade of residential sales and personal property investments first in Sydney and then London, Scott returned to Australia as a co-founding director and lead sales agent of Belle Property Potts Point – Sydney’s premier boutique real estate agency, with two further franchises opening thereafter. From 2004 to 2015, Scott mentored and managed the transaction of hundreds of millions of dollars in sales and rentals across the three business’s agent teams.
Now focused on his young family and managing the redevelopment of residential and commercial investments both locally and overseas, Scott is vested in helping other purchasers to negotiate the best sale price and contract conditions possible through Hello Haus – his flagship contract negotiation agency, Hello Haus.
Transcript
Voice Over (00:00:03):
Thanks for joining us for the Small Talk Big Ideas podcast. A podcast to enrich yourself, where we have conversations with inspiring people about all things property, business and life. And now the host of Small Talk Big Ideas, Ian Ugarte.
Ian Ugarte (00:00:23):
On this episode we talk to Scott Aggett, a person introduced to me by James Slack Smith in other podcast and I hope you enjoy today. Scott went to a near death experience in his early ages and has now started hellohaus.co a negotiation business for property owners or property purchases that want to do the best out of their purchase, and he gets paid from saving you money. So that’s a good outcome. Enjoy today’s episode of Small Talk Big Ideas. And as usual, you can follow us on all the social media channels. Scott Aggett.
Scott Aggett (00:00:58):
[inaudible 00:00:58].
Ian Ugarte (00:00:59):
Hello?
Scott Aggett (00:01:00):
Hello Haus.
Ian Ugarte (00:01:02):
Hello Haus. H-A-U-S.
Scott Aggett (00:01:04):
Yeah.
Ian Ugarte (00:01:05):
So like, the car Haus.
Scott Aggett (00:01:07):
Or German Haus.
Ian Ugarte (00:01:09):
Is that right?
Scott Aggett (00:01:10):
Yeah. Which matches was my daughter’s name, [Elsy 00:01:13] was just short for Elizabeth in German and my son Wolfgang, it’s fairly German.
Ian Ugarte (00:01:17):
So you have a German background?
Scott Aggett (00:01:18):
No, we don’t have any. But well, I should say that my wife, her mother is a Schroeder. Their key way is 100%. But there is definitely a German bloodline there. But we didn’t name Elsy for any reference to German history. And Wolfgang or Wolfie, we just love the name. We wanted a strong male name that was an old name, like Elsy is as well. And that’s not used. It’s not common.
Ian Ugarte (00:01:42):
It’s interesting because you could talk about past lives and perhaps you were in a past life. If you believe in that.
Scott Aggett (00:01:48):
Is it German?
Ian Ugarte (00:01:49):
Yeah. Possibly.
Scott Aggett (00:01:51):
Yeah.
Ian Ugarte (00:01:54):
Our marriage was based on what I saw in Braveheart. So I always had an affinity, that Scottish type stuff. And so the tartan, we don’t have any wedding bands, the tartan, that in the ceremony in Braveheart was they tore a section of the tartan off and they wrapped around the hand and that was part.
Scott Aggett (00:02:12):
Sweet.
Ian Ugarte (00:02:14):
So we actually did that, we wrapped a ribbon around each other’s hands, cut the ribbon, she put half around my neck, I put half around hers. But I’ve always wondered whether, an indigenous is the other thing for me. I’ve got an Australian indigenous as a big attraction to me to help out there. I wonder whether you’re a German?
Scott Aggett (00:02:32):
Yeah. No, it’s a good question, isn’t it? And I used to live in London for five years, and I twice came across people that did history, bloodlines, surnames and things. And Aggett is not a common name. And you can trace that back to Staffordshire in Mid to North England. But the two surname people that I met that historians, one said it was Welsh, another one said it was Aggett, which was the first or the last family in the village, the gatekeeper.
Ian Ugarte (00:03:01):
Right.
Scott Aggett (00:03:01):
Yeah. So who knows? Maybe it was a village outside of Hamburg, who knows?
Ian Ugarte (00:03:06):
There’s an agate crystal as well.
Scott Aggett (00:03:08):
Yeah. A-G-A-T-E, a different spelling.
Ian Ugarte (00:03:10):
We name all our structures, we are purchasing structures over crystals.
Scott Aggett (00:03:13):
Nice.
Ian Ugarte (00:03:13):
So we pick a crystal with an energy that we like, and then we go down that one. Anyway, no one really knows what you do yet. So let’s start with firstly-
Scott Aggett (00:03:24):
I’m really sorry.
Ian Ugarte (00:03:24):
I’ll ask you the question. Are you a buyer’s agent?
Scott Aggett (00:03:26):
No, I’m not a filthy buyer’s agent.
Ian Ugarte (00:03:28):
I’ve always got a problem in general. And I’d say a very big percentage of general. I don’t like buyer’s agents. I think they have a conflict of interest, finding newer properties so that they get paid.
Scott Aggett (00:03:45):
Keep talking.
Ian Ugarte (00:03:45):
Yeah. And so I’ll do it in for you. I think I may have found one or two buyer’s agents that I think consistently does very good purchases for their clients. But otherwise, I think, getting paid and we’ve got a buyer’s agency, getting paid because you found something for someone means that you don’t necessarily, you might cross over the line and go, “Well, that’s not quite right. But I’ll get it for them anyway.”
Scott Aggett (00:04:16):
Yeah. The incentives aren’t aligned, as far as I’m concerned. But I agree with what you just said then that there’s legitimate buyer’s agents, and I’ve come across quite a few of those in my dealings as an estate agent previously in my former life. So I’m not out there bad mouthing buyer’s agents in general, I was just doing that as a joke. But I do think the incentives aren’t aligned. And that’s a major problem. And I say that from experience, I think you hear a lot of people that will commentate on these things in the property industry. But unless you’ve sat in all those seats and understand how the dynamics of a deal really works, it’s difficult to be an expert to pass judgment on that. So I think I’m coming from a good place that I was an estate agent. I saw it day-to-day, I dealt with buyer’s agents non-stop and they were the first buyers that we called if we had a property that you want to sell for big money quickly, and we knew they had a buyer that just missed out on something else, we would ring them. And we would make them pay an absolute premium with cream on top.
And they did that because they knew they had a client. And as far as I’m concerned, it was an easy sale for them. So I looked at it and thought, it’s another version of being an estate agent, which is just full of holes that you can punch through. Good buyer’s agents will always do the right thing and represent the client’s, good estate agents will always do the right thing and represent both sides of the coin as best they can. There’s plenty of really good agents out there as well. But there’s also lots of really average agents, but it’s the same in every industry.
Ian Ugarte (00:05:33):
Yeah. Now you briefly talk about the business that I think is really interesting, which is Hello Haus. You’re a negotiator?
Scott Aggett (00:05:44):
Yeah.
Ian Ugarte (00:05:45):
Tell us how that works.
Scott Aggett (00:05:46):
Well, the number one thing that I enjoyed about being a real estate agent was the argy-bargy of negotiation time. So I got out of the industry in 2015, incredibly frustrated by the lying and the game playing that you’ve got to do on both sides of it, dealing with vendors, winning listings, and also dealing with the buyers to get them in position to action a purchase. So I was burned by the industry. I’d been in it for 20 years, and I wanted to do something that was completely transparent, and come out to service the buyers, which I thought, it’s a bad time, but they’re really lambs to the slaughter really, when you go up against a trained estate agent that works on scripts and dialogues daily or weekly, verse someone that might be in the market every seven or 10 years as a one off transaction that’s hugely emotional.
It’s just not fair. So I thought this can be done better. I’ll build a transparent, real estate business here that helps purchasers and tries to make a difference in the marketplace. So that’s kind of how I started on that negotiation journey because it was something that I really loved.
Ian Ugarte (00:06:46):
So rather than being buyer’s agent, the client finds the property, and you end up negotiating on behalf of the client and see if he can get it for the price or less than what you both agree on.
Scott Aggett (00:06:56):
Yeah. So I really say that I’m the insurance policy you need as a buyer that A, you win the property and B, that you buy it for the least amount possible.
Ian Ugarte (00:07:03):
Yeah.
Scott Aggett (00:07:03):
That’s pretty simple. So I work closely with people that have got the ability to find their own properties. They can do their own legwork, and then I step in, I’m happy to coach them up until a certain point where they engage me if they find the right property that they want to trigger. And then we get them to set a target price. I ask them to set it because I want that transparency first. And then I’ll talk to them in workshop it if it needs to be moved, if I think they’re unrealistic, and they’re not going to buy the property because that’s the first goal is to own it. I’ll reset that and then ascertain how I build a strategy around it to buy it at the lowest price I can.
Ian Ugarte (00:07:33):
Okay. We’ll talk about that in more detail. But let’s talk about you and where you grew up. Where were you born? Where did you grow up?
Scott Aggett (00:07:40):
I was born in Ryde, lived there till I was three and then lived on the Gold Coast. My dad had a service station at Mermaid Beach. So we lived there from when I was three to nine in Palm Beach.
Ian Ugarte (00:07:50):
That would have been very different back then.
Scott Aggett (00:07:52):
Yeah. It was awesome. I just grew up the whole time on a canal and swimming nonstop with my dog. And it was so much fun. I had such fond memories of Palm Beach and the Gold Coast. And then went home at nine and we move back to Epping. And then did all my schooling in Epping.
Ian Ugarte (00:08:07):
What school?
Scott Aggett (00:08:08):
I went to Epping Public and Epping Boys. Yeah.
Ian Ugarte (00:08:11):
Right out education.
Scott Aggett (00:08:14):
I hated school to be honest. I had amazing friends, I had a great group of friends, but I absolutely hated being told what to do. I had this really bad attitude towards teachers, which I really regret now as an adult and as a father. But I don’t know, I had this idea in my mindset from a very young age that, “Why should I listen to you about this when you’ve never gone out and done it in the real world?” And I just couldn’t get my head around that. And I just didn’t listen. And I had a football in my hand the entire time. And all I wanted to do was play sport.
Ian Ugarte (00:08:43):
Do you ever have an opportunity to go back and run into any of the teachers that you were-
Scott Aggett (00:08:48):
No, not really. Actually, it’d be interesting to go back and have a chat with them. But yeah, it’s not until I think that you can… Well A, when I got a lot smarter as an adult, but B, had children because that really sink in for me that how silly that actually was. But that’s just the reality, you can’t go back at it and change those views. That was what I went through at the time.
Ian Ugarte (00:09:04):
I think well, there’s a level of intelligence that happens there, that there is an IQ that allows you to think differently, whereas most are falling into the line of, “I have to do this and I’ll just keep on learning.” I’ve got a daughter that’s into a third school.
Scott Aggett (00:09:21):
Yeah.
Ian Ugarte (00:09:22):
And it’s interesting because the second school which is a Christian college, not that we’re Christians, it’s just it was a school to send her to see if she could get into alignment. Her younger sister who started year seven this year, Macy is in year 11. So she’s moved on to another school, but the younger one is now at the older school and I ran into a teacher and it’s just a buzz in the staff room, “How can this child be from the same family?” Because they were making judgments about us. But Macy is just an extraordinary, intelligent person and is starting to learn like you said that now there’s a regret about, “Maybe I shouldn’t have done it that way. And I should have said it differently.” And for me, I went to a private boys school in Sydney.
And I always felt like they were picking me out, that I always got in trouble because of whatever. And I had the opportunity to go back and speak to the headmaster, that was the one that was always picking on me, and thankfully, was old enough at that point in time to say to him, “I completely understand what you were doing.” And how I was out of a line and how I thought I was the one in the conspiracy theory. We had a really great conversation. It was really fun.
Scott Aggett (00:10:39):
I’m sure lots of kids have a challenge with that same outlook, aren’t they all? For different reasons as well. But as I say, you can’t go back and paint over these things. That was part of my childhood experience, but I really didn’t enjoy and I think that’s what probably drove me into getting into a sales job or something that I could do and be the master of my own destiny pretty quickly after I left school.
Ian Ugarte (00:11:00):
So you left school, what did you do?
Scott Aggett (00:11:02):
I did the full-time real estate licensing course at TAFE in Crows Nest. So did that for a year. And then I started working at Ray White head office in the city in the CBD.
Ian Ugarte (00:11:12):
Yeah. And in commercial.
Scott Aggett (00:11:16):
No, I did just the office lackey job. One of my family members is married to my sister’s side, actually, is Peter Matthews. I don’t know if you know Peter.
Ian Ugarte (00:11:28):
Yep.
Scott Aggett (00:11:28):
Is one of Australia’s leading auctioneers, and was a phenomenal real estate agent himself in Sydney. And I did my work experience at school with Pete at Ray White in Bankstown.
Ian Ugarte (00:11:38):
And you probably didn’t realize who he was or-
Scott Aggett (00:11:41):
Oh, no. I knew who he was because he was effectively family at that point.
Ian Ugarte (00:11:44):
Right.
Scott Aggett (00:11:45):
But right from age 16, I did that as work experience. I went out and be his sales agent at Ray White. Yeah. And Pete got me this job at head office where he was doing a lot of auctioneering work. And I would set up the auction rooms and I would collate all the franchise numbers from across the country and report to Brian White. So that was just an office lackey job. But what I got to do, which was fantastic, the best part of that was, I was A, seeing all the numbers from the offices, all the franchise numbers, what they were doing, which was really interesting. And B, I was physically at every single corporate auction they did. And they might do, I don’t, I can’t remember 10 or 20 on every Thursday, or every Tuesday and Thursday. So I’ve just watched so many auctions more than most people, unless you’re an auctioneer. I’ve seen so many of them play.
Ian Ugarte (00:12:29):
This was interesting. We were last night with our private mentoring students that came up hot market right now. One of them is going to auction, what’s the auction techniques and tip? And I said, just go to as many as you can go to because you’re going to see a whole bunch of scenarios play out. You’re going to see the same thing repeating itself from the auctioneer, it drives me insane. Going once, going twice. So just go seek some-
Scott Aggett (00:12:55):
instruction. Yeah.
Ian Ugarte (00:12:56):
You just go, “Fuck, we know what’s going to happen.” It’s like going to a property spreaker, wealth creation seminar. This is $75,000 worth but today, you can get it for five. You go, “Come on. Are we that stupid?” Okay. So you start working in there. When do you actually get to the front face of selling properties?
Scott Aggett (00:13:15):
Well, I did property management first. So I did three years and the first three years, I did Ray White Dee Why, Ray White Lindfield. I did some sales at Lindfield as well, just selling apartments and things like that. And then I got to age, I must have been 20. And I was playing rugby at that point for Eastwood and then changed over and played for Gordon.
Ian Ugarte (00:13:35):
Good player?
Scott Aggett (00:13:36):
Not really, I played first grade Colts with Stirling Mortlock and Joe Wilson, a few players that played for the Wallabies the following year. That’s my claim to fame. But I was always the kind of just getting into the first grade Colts team.
Ian Ugarte (00:13:47):
What position?
Scott Aggett (00:13:48):
Full-back.
Ian Ugarte (00:13:48):
Yeah.
Scott Aggett (00:13:49):
Yeah. I had those two guys, future Wallabies in front of me. So I basically never made a tackle for the whole season, which was good.
Ian Ugarte (00:13:58):
So yeah, interesting. Do you think in hindsight that you could have made it to top level?
Scott Aggett (00:14:10):
I don’t think so. I don’t think I was motivated enough. And I was full of self doubt. I think at that age, it has probably taken me quite a few years, maybe even into my 30s that I’ve got more confidence around what I actually do.
Ian Ugarte (00:14:19):
So that’s my question with what you know now and the confidence you got now, firstly, would you want to get to the top grade? And with what you know now, do you think it would have got you there?
Scott Aggett (00:14:28):
Probably would have wanted to, whether I physically could have done it is a different story. But yeah, I think if you’ve got the desire to in whatever body shape you are, you can probably arrive at those things. But it’s interesting to look back at all that. But I think it comes down to want, isn’t it? Like if you look back at it, whether the confidence is one thing, but I clearly didn’t want it enough. It just wasn’t a priority enough for me. I saw it more as a social thing, I think at that age than I did a career or a potential career.
I did this with tennis as well, when I was, I think 14, just turned 15 I went to America playing tennis tournament to America and Canada. And I was never good enough to ever break through or do anything that was compelling. So I never tried any harder than that, if you know what I mean, like I was playing probably six or seven days a week socially in different competitions and things, but I knew I’d never get to that level. So I just stopped. I haven’t played tennis since I was 15. I basically came over from America. I’ve never picked up a tennis racket.
Ian Ugarte (00:15:24):
It same with golf. I was a pretty decent golfer. I think it was 12 of 12. I was 12 years old hitting a 12 handicap. And it was going down and just didn’t take it-
Scott Aggett (00:15:36):
Lost interest.
Ian Ugarte (00:15:37):
Okay. So you’re playing footy, you’ve sold a few property through Lindfield?
Scott Aggett (00:15:42):
Yep.
Ian Ugarte (00:15:42):
When did you get to really sell?
Scott Aggett (00:15:43):
Well, I think it depends how much you want to dig into this, really. But at age 20, I had an opportunity, I really wanted to travel. We had the travel bug, I hadn’t really been overseas other than that American trip when I was 15. So together with my girlfriend at the time, then she was at university at UTS doing business degree. She has since gone on to do Three Birds Renovations.
Ian Ugarte (00:16:06):
What does that-
Scott Aggett (00:16:07):
Yeah. Lana. She’s the driving force behind that.
Ian Ugarte (00:16:08):
She’s married to-
Scott Aggett (00:16:09):
Jason Tyler. Yeah. So JT and Lana are still really close friends of mine. But Lana and I were together then and I think it was just in my 21st birthday. And she was at UTS, and I really wanted to go traveling. So I thought, “How am I going to do this and get a job over there? I want to go snowboarding.” So I want to go and do this and try and work out if I can get a job in the ski field. So I forged her university results and scanned them with my name over the top of it, sent that to the US embassy, and got myself a work visa for the US and then got a job as a snowboard instructor in Colorado. And I had snowboarded for about maybe 14, 15 days ever in my life over so five years before that, completely self taught, completely useless like a horrible, horrible snowboarder.
And I got there and I thought, “How am I going to do this at this ski school that I’m trying to get a job?” And they had maybe 80 or 100 kids trialing for the ski and snowboard team to become instructors, all of which were American and Canadian, a couple of people from overseas. And I did this lesson with them. And I was the worst by far. It was embarrassing how bad I was. They all grew up in the snow and garden skiers and snowboarders. I was terrible.
Ian Ugarte (00:17:24):
But let me guess, they loved the accent.
Scott Aggett (00:17:27):
They loved the accent. But not only did they love the accent, they loved the fact that I was a salesperson because all the other kids were boneheads and ski bombs and I could sell. So they were like, “This is gold. So A, you’ve got this great accent and B, you can sell, so you’re on the snowboard team.” So I just everyday went along with the snowboard pro and [inaudible 00:17:45].
Ian Ugarte (00:17:46):
Skill versus talent.
Scott Aggett (00:17:47):
Yeah. Exactly to match your story. So I became a snowboard instructor in Colorado. And then that finished on Australia Day 1999 by a very large tree that I hit at full speed. So that was the end of my rugby and all other sport and started my terrible back pain and end of my snowboarding career. Well, pause the snowball career. We’ll come back to that later I’m sure.
Ian Ugarte (00:18:05):
So what happened? So you just lost control, hit a tree head on or?
Scott Aggett (00:18:10):
I was with Lana actually, she came over to see me for a week and with a whole of my other friends that were there that I had made in that ski season. And it was last run of the day at Vail and we’d gone up the gondola together about eight or 10 of us and someone had said, “Last round of the day, you meet with the bottom.” And someone else said, “Never ever say it’s the last run of the day. It’s bad luck.” Got to the top. I was riding really fast because obviously, I was instructing that point riding all day, every day. So I let them all ride off into the sunset down to the bottom of the mountain, there was a huge long run until I couldn’t see them. And I thought I’ll chase them and I’ll beat them to the bottom.
So I started doing a few turns, built up my speed to full speed heading towards the woods on a wide open run. Hit some snow cookie, lost my edge and went straight into the woods and it wouldn’t have been… If it wasn’t a particular tree, I would have hit whatever tree there was. I was heading straight for it. And I remember kind of just trying to almost in that split second do a baseball slide almost to try to go into it without headfirst and I smashed my shoulder, broke my wrist, crushed my kneecap like a spider’s web, crushed my meniscus inside my knee.
Ian Ugarte (00:19:13):
Narrowed down the bottom of hill that wouldn’t have done it out-
Scott Aggett (00:19:15):
Down the bottom and they couldn’t find me and then, so it was the last run of the day, starting to get dark, obviously very cold in January. And then they couldn’t find me. They went on for about 45 minutes and I was unconscious. I’d fallen into the woods headfirst down and no one could see me or no one knew where I was because I was the last rider. So everyone’s partying for straight eight on the bottom and they’re sitting there waiting, they were freaking out. And then I was very, very lucky. I got my life saved that day. There was two old men cross country skiing. And I was going in and out of consciousness and screaming and one of them heard the noise, crossed his skis, hiked through the trees up the hill, found me, the other guy skied down and got ski patrol then came back and then put me in the banana boat, cut all my ski gear open put the heat vaccine and the oxygen mask.
And they had no idea what I’d done if I had broken my neck, or what it was I couldn’t talk. And they put me in the banana boat and got me down, And so there was 1000s of people or hundreds of people at least at the bottom of Vail, celebrating Australia Day and then my girlfriend is watching this lonely banana boat come down still had no idea if it was me or what it was. And there was a snowcat ambulance waiting and then straight into the snowcat ambulance. But just before I got into I remember, I had no idea what I had done. I thought I had broken my neck or I was a mess. And Lana came screaming over to the ambulance and had me on the ground and was just uncontrolled, just screaming her eyes out or her lungs out and I was just panicking because I couldn’t see what was wrong. I had no idea. And it turns out it was nowhere near as bad as what I had thought. Thank God. That was a pretty heavy experience for me.
Ian Ugarte (00:20:52):
And if it wasn’t for those two guys.
Scott Aggett (00:20:55):
Yeah. I don’t know what would happen. But it was pretty brutally cold in Colorado in late Jan as it gets to nightfall. And I would have thought that I wouldn’t have got out of there, not that night at least. So you would have been brown bread for sure.
Ian Ugarte (00:21:06):
Wow. Okay. Back to Aus.
Scott Aggett (00:21:11):
Yeah. Back to Aus on crutches and had surgery in Australia. And then had like three months of rehab. And then I thought, “What am I going to do? I don’t want to be in Australia.” I wanted to go to the US to go snowboarding and then tour England to try and play rugby and get a job in real estate or this and I thought, I’ll just go to London anyway and land there and see what happens. So I got a two-year working holiday visa. And once I’ve done my rehab, got on a plane and flew over there and met up with a couple of rugby mates from Sydney that were living there and working and just in sharehouse and I went for one job interview and landed at Foxtons, in Easton. Foxtons at that time was like, well, the best way to explain this. I think McGraw followed Foxtons.
Ian Ugarte (00:21:51):
Right.
Scott Aggett (00:21:52):
Yeah. In terms of their business model. And their branding and they were really the stock on a real estate agency in the world, I think at that point, in terms of technology and how they went about the business. So I worked in property management there in new business lettings actually, which is exactly the same as sales role, you just match a tenant with a property. And I did lots of deals there, and did that for nine months and then got poached by a competitor in the street, help set up their business for two years, and then got poached by another competitor and did that for another two years set up their business. And then chase my girlfriend at the time home after I bought a couple of properties and sold a couple of properties in London. So that was 21 to 25.
And then chase my girlfriend at the time of five years that I met there. When I first arrived to come home, she wanted to do a second degree. So I ended up back in Sydney and begrudgingly, really, I didn’t want to be back. But missed all my friends in the UK and I had created a life for myself over there and was doing really well, and had to start from scratch in Sydney again.
Ian Ugarte (00:22:53):
Back to Ray White?
Scott Aggett (00:22:55):
No, I went for one job interview which was Belle Property in Edgecliff or Darlinghurst at the time, and got that job in sales. So I’d never really been a full-time sales agent, as I said, so I was starting from scratch. I didn’t know anyone in the eastern suburbs. I wasn’t from there. But started from scratch working with those guys. And it was when it was owned by Chris Mann, who was the original founder of it. And John Hewson, the politician. So I did that for, I can’t remember the amount of… It must have been two or three years working for head office when they were three franchises. They had one in Manly. And then a couple of offices of their own. They own one in Port Douglas. And then, they were going bankrupt fast and doing a pretty average job of it.
Ian Ugarte (00:23:42):
Why?
Scott Aggett (00:23:44):
They started being property developers and doing things like this in Port Douglas, which just drained their cash they-
Ian Ugarte (00:23:49):
Their gain went upside down.
Scott Aggett (00:23:50):
Yeah. They built the pool development in Port Douglas, which was really expensive, and I think was just too big too soon. Just not focused on being residential estate agents. But Chris was an incredible person to follow around hugely successful estate agent at the time, writing big, big numbers like a James DAC figure in real estate, in those days. He coined the term expressions of interest, I think, as well and started that whole sale method in Potts Point was with buying around those areas. So he was a really interesting person and quite entrepreneurial to work with. But they were going out of business fast and they were just running out of cash. There were about 60 or 70 staff, though too heavy, so they were coming back all the time and making adjustments and they couldn’t pay our superannuation. And they came to my boss at the time Mark Murphy and said, “If you and Mark take a franchise, we’ll basically trade off the super that we owe you, and we’ll give you a business.”
Ian Ugarte (00:24:44):
Really?
Scott Aggett (00:24:44):
Yeah. So that’s how probably Potts Point started was Mark and I trading off our super at the time and starting the first franchise in the eastern suburbs of Belle Property.
Ian Ugarte (00:24:54):
It’s pretty cheap or wasn’t it?
Scott Aggett (00:24:57):
I don’t know in retrospect, what were we paying for? The business that was going bankrupt.
Ian Ugarte (00:25:00):
Sure.
Scott Aggett (00:25:01):
Yeah. So probably not in the grand scheme of things, but just less is life. That’s how it fell the cards laid that way. So I don’t look back and think we paid too much or we paid too little.
Ian Ugarte (00:25:11):
You really didn’t have a choice.
Scott Aggett (00:25:12):
Yeah. But also not even the choice. But there’s the opportunity, right? That opportunity wasn’t there yesterday and is there today. So I think you’re either one of those people that jump in at that point, or you get really tentative and I was just to feed in, in half a second and work the rest out later.
Ian Ugarte (00:25:27):
So you get your first franchise with Belle?
Scott Aggett (00:25:27):
29.
Ian Ugarte (00:25:29):
At 29.
Scott Aggett (00:25:31):
Yep.
Ian Ugarte (00:25:32):
You had to build a rent roll from nothing?
Scott Aggett (00:25:34):
I had to build everything from scratch.
Ian Ugarte (00:25:36):
Right.
Scott Aggett (00:25:36):
Yeah. All the systems. All we had was the brand to work with. And that was it. And no real infrastructure because they were going bankrupt. So we went on to have a second franchise with them as well. So we opened up Walsh Bay under the Harbour Bridge, on the waterfront there. So we had two businesses. And then at that point, Peter Hanscomb, came in who’s the current owner of Belle Property. Who came from Ray White in Brisbane. And he was also a CEO, I think at one point of McGrath initially, or groomed to be co CEO of McGrath. I think John Wooden step away at that point. So he left-
Ian Ugarte (00:26:09):
A segue there.
Scott Aggett (00:26:10):
Yeah.
Ian Ugarte (00:26:10):
I like what John McGraw has done. I hear he’s a very strong personality. Have you had much dealings with him?
Scott Aggett (00:26:20):
Not really. I’ve met him personally, quite a few times. But I don’t know him at all.
Ian Ugarte (00:26:23):
Because he was an auctioneer.
Scott Aggett (00:26:25):
Yeah. And I think he’s obviously a phenomenal estate agent and a great business person to get that business to where it is. So I don’t have anything bad to say about-
Ian Ugarte (00:26:32):
I read one of his early books, and it just made a lot of sense and very practical. From Monday to Friday, just ate the standard food that you should eat, and if it’s not on the menu, just ask him to make you a chicken sandwich.
Scott Aggett (00:26:45):
I think it was fish, was it? He only had fish in every meal. And he laminated all these power words in the shower, and he reversed into every car spot, so he could drive out in a positive fashion forward in the morning. That’s why John and I will fall apart because I we were never meant to be friends.
Ian Ugarte (00:26:59):
But it was really simple. You sell a house. You go by and say hello to those people all the time because that friend of mine next when they want to sell, they’ll be thinking, “Oh, that was the guy that sold it to me. And he’s been really nice to me, I’ll contact him.” We sold one of our properties. We don’t sell many properties, but our last Sydney property we sold through McGraw. It was in eastern suburbs. And the agent rang me goes, “Oh my god, John just rang me and he tore strips off me because the sold sign was like three millimeters off being parallel to the like level. It was really up there.
Scott Aggett (00:26:59):
Perfectionist.
Ian Ugarte (00:27:33):
Absolutely perfectionist. Okay. So now you’ve got two Belles.
Scott Aggett (00:27:36):
Two bills. Yeah. And then Peter Hanscomb stepped in and with a huge vision to grow the business and make it into Australia’s leading boutique agency, which he did. And I think when I left, they had over a seven or eight year period, he took it to about 80 franchises, which was awesome. So being in that hot seat in terms of the first two franchises in the east, that gave me the opportunity to do more franchises. And we branched out after I sold on Potts Point in Walsh Bay. Mark, my business partner, at the time, wanted to get out of it and do something different. He moved to London. He’d had enough of doing that day to day and I still had that kind of I wasn’t ready to get out of real estate, but I absolutely looking back at it.
And even at the time, I knew I absolutely hated it. I hated it. I hated the day to day of it, but I just couldn’t step away from the earning that really good money, and building wealth. And I just enjoyed the lifestyle that it afforded me on that side of things. So stupidly or not, I don’t know, I’m glad I went and did it in retrospect, but I didn’t enjoy it. But it was a good life experience. I went off and did Belle Property, Surry Hills and did that for another four years.
Ian Ugarte (00:27:36):
And sold that.
Scott Aggett (00:28:43):
And sold out at the end of 2015. But that was a real struggle.
Ian Ugarte (00:28:47):
So you move back to Queensland then?
Scott Aggett (00:28:50):
Yeah. So part of this journey, I guess, is probably to do with my dad as well because my dad had Parkinson’s for 33 years or 35 years, and passed away in 2016 in August of 2016. So my sisters and I were all in Sydney as well. And we were, constantly with him as much as possible in a nursing home and watching him. But we didn’t want to do anything until we worked out what happened with dad really. So, which we knew eventually was going to be him passing. So when he passed away in August, I think we were in Queensland six weeks later.
So I’d had that year, almost a year of winding down, getting rid of the stress, not working at all. I just had our first child in that in 2015, so a year earlier. And I just wanted to spend time with Elsy and Bids, my wife and just get the hell away from Sydney and real estate and my wife’s from New Zealand. She’s from Christchurch and got no affiliation with Sydney. So her brother was on the Gold Coast and wanted to come to the Gold Coast and we kind of made that move.
Ian Ugarte (00:29:52):
I see you have a good relationship with your father?
Scott Aggett (00:29:56):
Yeah. Very close.
Ian Ugarte (00:29:57):
And what’s it like to say of that many years the fall down of his health and get to that point?
Scott Aggett (00:30:04):
Yes, so it’s crushing watching your strong man like that go through that change in your life for such a long period, it was horrible for my sisters and I and for our mom. But it is what it is, right? That’s just part of life and he did as well as he could. He was a real family man and engaged with the grandkids and stuff like that. Probably the hardest thing for me was I watching that, but then not having my kids have him around and like to have that grandparent. When I grew up, I had one grandparent the other three had passed away. So I don’t have any recollection of those. So I didn’t want that, obviously. No one wants that for their children. So that was probably a tough thing.
Ian Ugarte (00:30:41):
I think that’s probably one of the things for me. I’m a child of immigrants to Australia. Australian born, and I just would have been conception on a plane.
Scott Aggett (00:30:54):
Where from?
Ian Ugarte (00:30:56):
From Spain, Northern Spain. And so I had three grandparents live, but only I really got to meet them twice.
Scott Aggett (00:31:07):
Yeah.
Ian Ugarte (00:31:08):
And I look at my children. So Christine’s parents have passed away. So they really, now have two grandparents, my kids, and we moved them away from Sydney. And I’ve got this great regret that I see other people have a bond with their grandparents. And it’s one of the regrets of moving up here. I love being in Queensland. But yeah.
Scott Aggett (00:31:31):
Yeah. Family is pretty key, isn’t it? But it’s probably a good segue to the fast forward to today where I’m just finishing a renovation on a property that we bought as an interim home for us, which will be hopefully a long term investment property, but I bought literally five meters away from my in-laws. So I bought them a house last year, well, found them a house. They bought it themselves, that I got it and renovated for them was a waterfront townhouse in Mermaid Waters and we’ve literally bought, there’s one in between us attached. So we’re literally five meters away from them. So I’m trying to work out a way now how I can dig a tunnel through to my father-in-law’s wine collection. And also have like a babysitting gate where I can exchange my children for wine.
Ian Ugarte (00:32:12):
The only way to get-
Scott Aggett (00:32:14):
You can have Woolfie, but you’ll need that bottle of Central Otago. The pain that come with it.
Ian Ugarte (00:32:19):
It’s a can of vodka, I don’t why through.
Scott Aggett (00:32:22):
But we’re really close like they’re so amazing. My wife’s parents, they’re such beautiful humans and all they want is to be involved with the grandkids. So literally my kids are just in their house non stop, like my son will wake up, he’s two and a half and like, “I want to go to nan’s house.” It’s the first thing he says. And nan we’ll be at the door before he gets a chance to say, “I want to get to nan’s house.” So it’s quite sweet, but they have their own privacy and they’ve grown on our back at all. They’re just super chilled.
Ian Ugarte (00:32:47):
There’s a lot to be said about multi generational homes.
Scott Aggett (00:32:49):
Yeah.
Ian Ugarte (00:32:50):
Where if I had stayed in Spain, I would have lived in a multi generation, I’d still be living in a multi generation. Like my parents would be living with me and very much an Asian culture thing where actually your grandparents bring up the children, while the parents go out and work.
Scott Aggett (00:33:07):
But it’s big in so many corners of the world, isn’t it?
Ian Ugarte (00:33:09):
Yeah.
Scott Aggett (00:33:10):
It’s not a unique thing. So we’ve really enjoyed having them close by and having the family, but of course what comes with that is you miss what you left behind in Sydney, right? So I’ve got two sisters. One is in Sydney and I miss that family dearly and I only get to see them occasionally, not often enough. And then coming up here was nice because my sister lives in Palmview and my mom lives in Bodrum. So I got to see both them last night and your smiley face today.
Ian Ugarte (00:33:34):
Which make you what?
Scott Aggett (00:33:37):
At Mankinds, which is like a male grooming shop on Crown Street in Surry Hills. She was my therapist. She was a skin specialist.
Ian Ugarte (00:33:45):
Therapist.
Scott Aggett (00:33:46):
Yeah. Well, skin therapist.
Ian Ugarte (00:33:49):
Someone who fixes your skin and then counsels you at the same [inaudible 00:33:52].
Scott Aggett (00:33:52):
Well, it’s quite a nice story. Actually, my best friend’s gave me a voucher to get massage or a facial from that. And I had never had one in my life. I’m not a guy that likes massages, I’m not into it at all. I’ve never had a facial in my life. It’s sat on my fridge as a bachelor for the best part of a year with the use by date on it. And then I thought, “Oh, I better go use that,” out of respect to my friends who gave me this beautiful present. So booked in this spa. It was across the road from my office Mankind opposite the clock on Crown Street there, went in and met Bridget. So she was the girl that was going to do the facial and normally guys, I’ve been told go in there and just basically fall asleep or, quiet time for an hour while someone massages you or works on your skin or do whatever.
But because I was nervous and I’d never done this before I was just a fish out of water. I was just doing what I always do, talk. So I started talking and Bids is actually quite a quiet person, a real introvert. But she was answering my questions and talking and engaging and the rest of it. And basically, it just became a counseling session. Actually I wasn’t a bachelor at that point. I was right at the end of a relationship that I’d been in for five years that I was trying to get out of actively that I wasn’t enjoying.
And I just spent time talking to her and I got on really well and just chatted. And then when again three months later, six months later, and then had a similar conversation, where you up to now? Well, I’ve broken up from that person, and I’m single on the rest of it. And this is what I’m up to. And what about you? And then I went again, another three months later, and then Bridget asked me, “Who are you looking for? Who are you trying to find?” And I said to her, this is probably a cheesy line, but it wasn’t delivered cheesy. I said, “Somebody just like you with great banter. Someone that I have fantastic banter with.” And we kind of both laughed, and then I asked her out on a date and then married her. Yeah. It was match made in heaven.
Ian Ugarte (00:35:42):
And that was the last message she ever gave you.
Scott Aggett (00:35:44):
Yes. Yeah.
Ian Ugarte (00:35:48):
Interestingly enough for Christine. I had just finished a message course. And I gave her a message as one of our first dates.
Scott Aggett (00:35:56):
Yeah.
Ian Ugarte (00:35:56):
So anyway, that sounds sleazy. So you then, on the Gold Coast, you’ve got a few businesses.
Scott Aggett (00:36:05):
Yeah. So the long story of the Gold Coast one, so we moved when I said to you when dad passed away, and then I said, to Bids. So that’s what I call my wife Bridget, Bids. I said, to Bids at the time, “I want to go to Italy or France, learn another language, not speak to any other humans, live in the countryside with our kid, and just live a completely different lifestyle for a year or two years, and to see what happens in our life and what direction we go.” Because we absolutely love Italy in particular, but we’ve got family in Spain and things as well. But anyway, so Bids is like, “Yep, fine. We’ll go to Europe and do this because that’s a dream of yours.” And when she loves traveling as well, but she said, “On the way to go into Europe, can we go to see my brother and family on the Gold Coast and spend a bit of time there because I never get a chance to see them?” And I said, “Yes, sure I love the Gold Coast, I never go up there anymore. Got lots of fond memories. So let’s go out. We’ll go out for like a month or two.”
And she’s like, “That’s awesome. That’ll be great.” So then I thought about going up there, I was like, I really want to be a property developer, whether I do this here, there or somewhere else. And Gold Coast is a lot cheaper to do it. It’s an easy place to get started. It’s familiar. Why don’t I buy a house up there, and we’ll go and move into it? And I’ll renovate it from Sydney. And I’ll do it, fly in, fly out and do it. So I did this for a matter of maybe two months, and I would fly out I’d see 15 open for inspections or 20 in a day and fly back the same night. And I did that for maybe four to eight weeks until I knew the market. I was looking specifically at one suburb. So I really honed in on that.
Ian Ugarte (00:37:27):
So realistically because it’s something comes up all the time. Christine’s good enough now that within eight hours, she could probably get to know a market really well.
Scott Aggett (00:37:39):
Yeah. All the same.
Ian Ugarte (00:37:40):
So effectively, all the same.
Scott Aggett (00:37:41):
All the same.
Ian Ugarte (00:37:41):
But that comes from years and years and years and years of experience.
Scott Aggett (00:37:45):
Yeah. To know what you’re looking for. And to look at the things that are potentially hiding, I guess, what’s not being told in the story. But once you identify a suburb, it’s pretty easy, then just load up on the data and dig into the recent sales and what’s currently on the market. So I did that, bought a house, renovated, moved in, in September that year. And then thought, “Actually, we really love it here.” And then we’ve four and a half years later, we’re still there. And I’ve done six houses in four and a half years.
Ian Ugarte (00:38:10):
So you still haven’t got to Italy yet?
Scott Aggett (00:38:12):
Well, been ideally lots of times on holidays in that meantime, but never made it to live there. And I doubt now in retrospect that we’ll get to do that for some time. Because we’re at now-
Ian Ugarte (00:38:22):
At that age.
Scott Aggett (00:38:22):
It’s school age now, right? With our first.
Ian Ugarte (00:38:24):
So if you were to go to Italy, regardless of timing, would you be going into something in the hills or older state house and doing that up? Or?
Scott Aggett (00:38:35):
No, I think we would go to Sicily or solid Elba, like an island of Tuscany there or up near Genoa. It’s got to be coastal. We both love the water. So wherever it is, it’s going to be lapping on to the Mediterranean. Yeah. Even if it was something small. But definitely love affair with the water and Italian food and language.
Ian Ugarte (00:38:57):
Okay. So you’re now on the Gold Coast living there, everything’s good. And you find that you think you can probably fulfill a market that doesn’t exist because I don’t know. It’s the first time I’ve ever heard of anyone that does what you do.
Scott Aggett (00:39:11):
In terms of the Hello Haus? The negotiation side of things?
Ian Ugarte (00:39:13):
Yeah.
Scott Aggett (00:39:13):
Yeah. Well, it was burning a hole in my brain for a few years because I had this idea for probably a decade plus from when I was an estate agent, and just didn’t really know how to execute. And probably going back to your motivation point, I wasn’t motivated to execute on it because I had other things that was going on. But I realized that to do the development thing, which is my passion, which is what I really love architecture and design and buying properties. I really enjoyed that part of it. I needed to have an income stream because it was just lumpy and risky. So I thought, “Okay. Well, I’ve got to build a business myself.” Let’s build a business that I can stay in t-shirt and shorts. I can stay at home with the kids. I can be with my wife all the time. I can travel whenever I want to. I don’t have any staff and I can do something that I love. What is it? I was like, Hello Haus, that negotiation business.
So that’s how it was born and then I just had to work out get it out of my head onto paper, and model out how it could potentially work. But that was challenging because as you said, no one’s done it before and no one’s still doing it today. So it really was, without sounding egotistical, it was breaking new ground, so there was no model for me to follow. I just had to work it out on the run.
Ian Ugarte (00:40:18):
So it’s hellohaus.co?
Scott Aggett (00:40:21):
Yes.
Ian Ugarte (00:40:21):
A few testimonials there. And so what was your first conversation to get the first project or the first client?
Scott Aggett (00:40:32):
I think I promoted it through my own social networks and just put it out there on Facebook that I’m launching this and this is what I’m going to do. And then I had friends and family in different areas refer on friends that were looking to buyer in the market, that were having challenges. And what you realize is you scratch the surface, as you will know, everybody knows someone buying a home in Australia because it’s like a contact sport. Australians love talking about it at dinner parties and at family meetups. Everyone knows someone that’s going through it, everyone has problems going through it because it’s just not easy the buying process when you’re buying a home in Australia. So there’s no shortage of clients, right? There’s tons of people that need help with just finding those people and letting them know that that service exists.
But that’s probably the problem today is still that it’s a niche service, that’s I’m still really finding its feet working out how to market it, how do I advertise it? So my referrals come from mortgage brokers, and then friends and family, and my own social networks. And mortgage brokers because they’ve got a pipeline of pre approved clients, they need to get through that pipeline as quick as possible. Those clients don’t want to be looking for three, six, nine months, especially in a rising market like this. So they refer them to me, and I have the ability to close those properties, those deals for them much faster. So it’s a win-win for everybody.
Ian Ugarte (00:41:44):
Okay. Let’s talk about the business model. How do you make this work? You’ve got clients, you charge a fee?
Scott Aggett (00:41:51):
Yep.
Ian Ugarte (00:41:52):
Tell us about that.
Scott Aggett (00:41:52):
So I charge… So first and foremost, I’ve mentioned this earlier, but I work with clients that got the ability to find their own properties. So if they want to use a buyer’s agent, or they can’t do that legwork, they’re going to use someone else. So it’s not a service that’s going to fit for them. But where I best work is with people that have got the ability to find their own home or investment property that they want to purchase. So I’ll coach them up into that point to help them find those properties faster. And I don’t charge them any money to do that. I’ll give them all the tips and techniques to find those listings. But when they have found the right property they want to chase, I get them to set me a target price, which is their maximum walkaway price. And I charge at that point $2,000 upfront 1995 plus GST, that’s an upfront retainer that’s charged once only.
So if they miss out on a property, or it takes them two or three gos, I don’t charge them again for that. But once they sent me a target price, I get to task on trying to buy it at that price or below, and I charge them a 15% performance fee of anything I save below that target. So if you give me an example, properties on it, 1,000,050 they come to me and they give me a target price of a million I secured at 980 I’ve saved them $20,000. So I’ll charge them 15% of that $20,000. That’s $3,000 performance fee, in addition to the $2,000 up front.
Ian Ugarte (00:43:01):
So what if I come to you and say it’s on for 1,000,050, I want to get for 900?
Scott Aggett (00:43:06):
Yeah. Sure. People do this to me every day. So it’s probably the first question people ask me when they go to engage me, what’s stopping me from setting you an unrealistic target price? And what I say to them is the whole purpose of me building this business was transparency. So I’m going to be brutally honest with you, how much do you want to own this property? You’ve come to me at this point because you need an assistance of an expert property negotiator. Do you want to be looking again in a month’s time three months time, six months time? No, you really want to buy the property? Okay. Give me the reasons why you think this property is worth 900,000?
Ian Ugarte (00:43:36):
Because that’s what I want to pay.
Scott Aggett (00:43:37):
Correct. So there’ll be an element of people that say that. That’s just what I want to pay. And then there’ll be an element of people that turn around and say, “Well, the comparables are 950, 970, 980,” and I say, “Okay. Well, realistically, where do you think you need to be to buy this property? And then I’m going to try and work backwards, then from that point and save as much as I can.” But you’ve got to be realistic in the first place. Otherwise, it’s a waste of your own time. So I’m just going back around to them.
Ian Ugarte (00:43:59):
So you must have a process that when someone says, “900,” and you know it’s not going to go for under 980, you must have a process that you’re just looking searching, finding comparables, and going, “Look, realistically, you’re really kidding yourself.”
Scott Aggett (00:44:10):
Yeah. And it’s about 30 seconds work. And if you look on realestate.com, you’ll see the last three sales or whatever that blew that out of the water.
Ian Ugarte (00:44:17):
Well, that’s an important point because there’s people looking on the market on property for sale, not property sold.
Scott Aggett (00:44:23):
Yes.
Ian Ugarte (00:44:24):
Because that’s dreaming versus reality.
Scott Aggett (00:44:26):
Yeah. And I’ll also say to people, “Look, if you really want to pay 900, I’ll support that. Let me call the agent for you. I won’t charge you don’t pay the two grand up front. Let me just bring the agent for you now, I’ll just do this as a service, and I’ll be back on the phone in a minute.” Because I know the answer, right? And then I ring the agent, and the agent say, “Mate, you’re absolutely dreaming. The last one sold for 975, you’re going to have to pay 980 plus to own this. I’ve got four contracts out or whatever.” So it’s, it literally is less than a minute and I just bring the back and say, as I expected, the agents got interest at this level. Let’s get serious about it. Do you want to buy this house? Do you need my help?
Ian Ugarte (00:44:55):
So with the average negotiation, you know all the cues, you know the sentences, you know the keywords when you’re negotiating on behalf of a client. And so you’re essentially in a point where the agents, they can’t pull the wool over your eyes. You’ve seen it all before.
Scott Aggett (00:45:13):
Yeah. I used to coach agents on those dialogues and scripts. So I’ve got a fair understanding of what lines they’re going to use. But more importantly, when they’re going to use that line, so I can anticipate it, and why they’re using it. So you say certain things because you’re hiding certain other things, right? Or you want to arrive at a different outcome or a different place. So I’ll get a sense of when the line is coming and then that’ll give me an indication of whether or not there’s another buyer or really what the vendor’s motivation is or where they are on price.
Ian Ugarte (00:45:41):
Different to the current market now, but when a market’s not hot, and I actually had Terry [Wright 00:45:47] in here the other day, and he said at the moment, you could just throw a dart at an Australian map, and you’re probably going to get a good chance of growth at the moment, sort of once, maybe twice in a generation time. This is right now. You wouldn’t be old enough at the ’85, ’88 boom that happened?
Scott Aggett (00:46:08):
Well, I was born in ’77. I’m 43. But I definitely don’t know anything about the ’80s real estate market.
Ian Ugarte (00:46:13):
Yeah. So I was a couple few years older than you, but ’85 to ’88. I remember my brother bought in that seven 8% interest rates, property’s doubled, almost doubled from ’85 to ’88. And so that’s one maybe twice in a generation that you’ll see a market that’s going on like this. But the one thing that always drives me insane in markets that aren’t hot, is that a property can sit on the market for 200 days, you ring up when you’re interested.
Scott Aggett (00:46:13):
There’s always another buyer.
Ian Ugarte (00:46:38):
There’s always another buyer.
Scott Aggett (00:46:39):
There’s contractor, you wouldn’t believe it.
Ian Ugarte (00:46:40):
There’s another contractor.
Scott Aggett (00:46:42):
Someone’s coming on Monday.
Ian Ugarte (00:46:43):
Unbelievable.
Scott Aggett (00:46:44):
They’ll have their finance ready by Thursday.
Ian Ugarte (00:46:46):
So at what point in time, like for me, I think the figures for me, if I was to guess it would be like 95% untrue, 5% true in the cases I’ve had over the years.
Scott Aggett (00:46:55):
Yeah.
Ian Ugarte (00:46:56):
How do you handle it?
Scott Aggett (00:46:58):
Well, I just know how to read through the shit, right? So that’s exactly going back to the point that I just said, as soon as you know these things, you know those reasons. And if you ask a few more key questions and push a bit harder, you’ll get to understand the motivation and whether or not really there is another buyer there. And I guess it’s just a sense of timing for me, understanding the agent speak and to be able to see through it and punch holes through it and get the right outcome for my clients. But I’ll give you a good example, this happens to me every single week. I’ll say on a Tuesday or Wednesday, before the Saturday auction, my clients will ring me, they’ll give me their instructions on what they want to do if they want me to beat or make a pre auction offer or wherever it may be.
And they’ll ask me, you know where it’s at and can I speak to the agent, and I’ll ring the agent. But before that, I’ll say to the owner, or the purchase that I’m working with, “I’ll dial you into the call. So you can hear everything that’s going on as well. The dialogue just so you understand, what’s happening, what the agents telling me if you want to be involved, otherwise, I’ll tell you what happens.” And I’ll say to them at that point, “This is exactly what I expect, the agent will say to me on this call on this day. And word for word, the agent will pick up the phone and say, “We’ve got a really motivated seller, don’t miss this opportunity to be there. It’s going to be sold on the day, they’ve got to sell they’ve committed elsewhere,” whatever it might be, but I can give you the exact line on the same day. And my buyers just like crime souls laughing because I’ve said exactly what the agents going to say in advance.
And it’s so scripted. The whole industry, they’re coached by the same people, they use the same throwaway lines at the same point. So if you do this long enough, and often enough, and you’ve been behind the scenes, and this is why you go back to the buyer’s agent conversation. If someone’s never been an agent, or they don’t buy or negotiate at the volume that you do as an agent, how do you understand the nuts and bolts of a deal? How have you got enough life experience in that job to put yourself or your client in the best position possible? You can’t. So all these buyer’s agents running around saying they’re great negotiators, I’m like, “You negotiated once on one property.” That agent is negotiating with the vendor from before they listed it the whole way through the campaign. That agent is negotiating, and it’s you plus maybe five, six, seven, 20 other buyers in the same campaign. They have just got so much more negotiation experience than you. They can outbluff you. They can outmaneuver you. They train on scripts and dialogues every day. You don’t.
Ian Ugarte (00:49:16):
Yeah.
Scott Aggett (00:49:16):
Yeah.
Ian Ugarte (00:49:16):
And that’s your strength.
Scott Aggett (00:49:17):
So [crosstalk 00:49:17] negotiator.
Ian Ugarte (00:49:18):
That’s your strength because you’ve been there, done that for the so many.
Scott Aggett (00:49:21):
Totally. So I just I bite back a bit when buyer’s agents say to me that they’re, exceptional negotiators. And they’ve got the ability to win all these deals off market, which is a giant furphy as well.
Ian Ugarte (00:49:31):
I consider myself to be a reasonable negotiator. I love the thrill of the chase. I love it. Once I got the deal thing, or whatever. It’s that part of it. But my best mate is Steve McKnight. And he’s bought and sold a property every week as an investor for the last 19 years.
Scott Aggett (00:49:49):
So he knows his stuff, right?
Ian Ugarte (00:49:50):
Yeah. And so same thing-
Scott Aggett (00:49:52):
He comes out of knowledge and power.
Ian Ugarte (00:49:54):
Absolutely. The same thing as you, the walk away. That’s when the agents going to poke the bear too much. I’ll have to start to settle it down again. And he’s really interesting to talk to. Auctions. You bid at auctions, too?
Scott Aggett (00:50:08):
I bid at auctions. I normally do two or three a weekend for clients across the country.
Ian Ugarte (00:50:11):
Over the phone?
Scott Aggett (00:50:12):
I always over the phone. I don’t meet any clients. I don’t see any property.
Ian Ugarte (00:50:14):
What’s the legal process now, if you’re bidding over the phone on behalf of someone else? Do they have to-
Scott Aggett (00:50:18):
Authority register. Yeah. Authority. It’s simple to do.
Ian Ugarte (00:50:22):
So you’re not actually in there. Like I love being face to face at auctions because you’re watching the bidders going in. And you know when you’ve got them or haven’t got them, depending on your style.
Scott Aggett (00:50:33):
That’s a really interesting point that I’ll hang you up on there.
Ian Ugarte (00:50:36):
Yep.
Scott Aggett (00:50:36):
That I disagree with.
Ian Ugarte (00:50:38):
Go on.
Scott Aggett (00:50:39):
So many people say to me, and you see this written a lot in the property industry about their auction strategies. And the rest of it. I firmly believe, as I said to you up front, having seen 1000s of auctions, and been running those as an auction agent as well, coaching agents to do this, selling 20 to 25 auctions a month as a team, that the person with the deepest pockets and their hand up last wins every auction.
Ian Ugarte (00:50:39):
Absolutely.
Scott Aggett (00:51:02):
They might be the occasional one where you put pressure on people and they crack because they’re super emotional about it. But the commercial reality of it is, you’ve got to have-
Ian Ugarte (00:51:13):
The highest bidder is always going to win.
Scott Aggett (00:51:14):
The highest bidder is going to win, right? So I say to people this the whole time like, I don’t need to be there because the rest of its theater. It’s just numbers. I am brutal. I am a non emotional, third party. And that’s why you want me in your pocket because no one can pull the wool over me at that point. And I don’t need to see them face-to-face to realize that, I just want to know the numbers. And I want to know the dialogue and control that as best I can.
Ian Ugarte (00:51:38):
And I said that last night, we were talking about auction techniques and doing this and doing that. And Steve’s got a particular technique and I’ve got one too, and I said exactly that, and just back here, in the end, someone who’s going to pay more than you is going to pay more than you. It just doesn’t matter what you do in there.
Scott Aggett (00:51:52):
Totally.
Ian Ugarte (00:51:53):
Occasionally, you’ll be able to throw them off their queue, but that’s about it.
Scott Aggett (00:51:55):
But buyers get really worked up about this, like the general public. Like people that I deal with, they really stress about it, and they listen to every word, the agent tells them. And when the agent tells them that, “Oh, my God, we’ve got the reserve back. And it’s way less than we thought.” And when you make a pre auction offer, and they tell you that, “Thanks for your offer, but it’s not enough.” But the auction will be less than that on the day. And that’ll buy it on the day. And it’s like, “Well, hang on. None of that makes sense.” Yeah. So in other words, hang on, we’ve quoted a price, you’ve offered an exceptional price. That’s way above our guide price, which we’re legally allowed to quote, we’re not going to accept that because we’ve got tons of other people telling us it’s worth that or more, we’re going to lie to you about that and reject your offer. Now, I’m going to lie to you again and bait you about the reserve price being less to get you along to auction that. It’s like lies, lies and lies.
Ian Ugarte (00:52:43):
And they don’t even know the reserve until auction most days.
Scott Aggett (00:52:47):
Yeah. Most vendors don’t set it to the day before or on the day.
Ian Ugarte (00:52:50):
Yeah. On the day.
Scott Aggett (00:52:50):
And the agents got no control out of that. So even if they knew on a Tuesday, on Saturday morning, the vendor could turn around and say, “Actually, I want 100 grand more.”
Ian Ugarte (00:52:59):
Yeah.
Scott Aggett (00:53:00):
Yeah.
Ian Ugarte (00:53:02):
So that must make it difficult for you, especially in a hot market to buy something at auction when the price has been set by your client?
Scott Aggett (00:53:09):
Yeah. My preference isn’t to bid at auction if I can. So all those ones that I’ve been at auction for two reasons. One, they instructed me way too late, like in week four, or two days before the auction, for the first time, I’ve spoken to them, for example, or they’ve got me nice and early, which is my preference. And I try and make an offer to stop it during the campaign. And that’s not enough. And then the buyers still want to go along to auction and bid for it. But one thing happens every time that if you miss out on a strong offer that you make pre auction, that you’re always going to pay more for it on the day.
And most of my clients end up missing out because they set the parameters around where they feel as fair market value. And then when it goes to a competitive process, they’re just mentally not in that headspace to pay another 50 100 grand 150 grand for it. So I often think that if we miss it at that point, it’s wiser to just move on, rather than wait three weeks and compete at the auction and do all the hanging on.
Ian Ugarte (00:54:01):
The theater.
Scott Aggett (00:54:02):
Yeah.
Ian Ugarte (00:54:03):
So with the market the way it is now, it’s extremely hot, which throws more tendency towards auctions. What’s your success rate? If you can put a percentage to it, to a property that’s going to auction where you think you can get it, you can pull it off the market and get it on behalf of the client beforehand.
Scott Aggett (00:54:24):
Yeah. That’s a really hard question, actually. And I can probably give you those figures if I went and actually looked it up and look back at the history of it. You’ve got no control over a number of different things. How many buyers are you competing against, at every auction? Every auction is different. So the buyer depth is key to it. The vendors expectations, price wise and motivation, and then the buyers budget. So for me to hang my hat on and say, “I’m only successful 30% of the time.” There’s so many variables that affect that, that are out of my control.
Ian Ugarte (00:54:51):
What about not getting it to auction? So you actually get off the market-
Scott Aggett (00:54:52):
Stopping it?
Ian Ugarte (00:54:53):
Stopping it. Yeah.
Scott Aggett (00:54:56):
I’d say we’re probably in the 40 to 50% range.
Ian Ugarte (00:55:00):
That’s not bad.
Scott Aggett (00:55:01):
Yeah. I’d say at that level, at least less than half anyway, for sure.
Ian Ugarte (00:55:04):
And most of that would be dialogue and understanding-
Scott Aggett (00:55:07):
It’s all dialogue.
Ian Ugarte (00:55:08):
Yeah.
Scott Aggett (00:55:08):
Yeah. It’s all dialogue because they’re only going to sell it to you. By virtue of winning the property, you’re going to be the highest bidder, right? So whether you buy it prior to auction, they perceive you to be the highest bidder, if you’re selling to you at that point. So you’ve got to really control the process as best you can. And how I typically do that in an auction environment and pre auction in that situation to buy it is by introducing time pressure and a second property. Because you’ve got to reverse the fear of loss at that point, and try and take control of it as best you can. But it’s difficult to do. And that’s the challenge in this market.
Ian Ugarte (00:55:42):
What about, it’s very difficult to get take New South Wales out because they got five day cooling off. And yeah, unless they sign a 66W. In other markets around the country, you can put conditions in obviously, financed your diligent building and pest.
Scott Aggett (00:55:57):
All of which are weak points in your offload in this market.
Ian Ugarte (00:55:59):
So that’s my question.
Scott Aggett (00:56:01):
Yep.
Ian Ugarte (00:56:02):
Does that mean you need to start releasing, removing, and possibly putting yourself at risk?
Scott Aggett (00:56:07):
Well, I do it a different way. So well, putting yourself at risk is correct because if you leave it a few days longer, you’re definitely exposing yourself to being bitten by somebody else. But if you can have really clear dialogue, and be upfront and open with the agent to say how seriously interested you are and how strong and offer you’re going to make, but very quickly get your ducks lined up and do a building and pest inspection or a strata report, or whatever you need to do evaluation, then you can remove a lot of those speed humps and put yourself in a position where it’s a much cleaner offer. So that’s what I try to do with my clients. So the term I use is speed kills. And I say that to all my clients, when I first speak to them to say, “I’m going to push you to a level of uncomfortableness,” and it’s based around speed because most buyers will go and see something on the Saturday at the first open or can’t make it I need to go shopping on that day.
I’ll get there next Saturday, at which point, you’ve got 10 or 20 competitors multiple contracts out, it just makes my job really difficult. And for you to buy it at that point very hard as well. So I say to them, you’ve got to sit before the market or at that first open home. And then if you like it, get me on the phone, the minute you walk out of the open for inspection, I’ll start building a strategy and start researching it. I want your instruction that night. And I want to have a building and pest lined up to do Monday. And if that means bribing a building and pest guy, paying them 200 bucks cash, in addition to what they normally charge to jump the queue for days, whatever you have to do, if this is the property that you want to buy, get yourself in a position to do it before anyone else.
Because most buyers just drag their feet or wait till Monday, Tuesday they talk about it with Uncle Pete and mom and dad and workshop at work with their friends. And then they’ll get around to waiting on the building and pest inspection that the agents coordinating that another buyer is doing that’s going to be ready next Wednesday. And by that point, you just opened up the floodgates to everybody else. So speed is paramount to the success in buying property at the right price.
Ian Ugarte (00:57:57):
What’s your biggest paid success? Because I know you had an unpaid success. But what’s the biggest drop in strike price have you done for a client?
Scott Aggett (00:58:07):
Under target price?
Ian Ugarte (00:58:08):
Under target price.
Scott Aggett (00:58:09):
800 grand. Yeah. And my average below target price up till Christmas time was 23 and a half thousand below the client’s set target price.
Ian Ugarte (00:58:17):
What’s the average buy price?
Scott Aggett (00:58:19):
Around one and a quarter million.
Ian Ugarte (00:58:20):
So 1.25.
Scott Aggett (00:58:22):
2.1%.
Ian Ugarte (00:58:22):
So you’re saving them 2.1%?
Scott Aggett (00:58:24):
Yeah. But you’ve got to remember that’s below the target price they sent me. So it might be 10% below the asking price.
Ian Ugarte (00:58:24):
Right.
Scott Aggett (00:58:30):
Or whatever it might be. So it’s very difficult to market my business on the basis of how much money I save people. So I initially set the business that when I was in its infancy, saying it was Australia’s only, no win no fee property negotiation business. So I completely put myself on the line and said, “I’ll work for free unless I can buy it below the target price, at or below the target price.” But the problem with that is I had to keep going out and market myself to new customers saying, “I’m saving X below the target price.” So the new buyers come in just set that bar lower every time. So that’s why I had to put a retainer in place. It also weeds out the waste of time buyers and makes people get serious about it straightaway with a real target price. Rather than they’re not going to spend two grand to pay the retainer and just waste my time offering 900 on 1,000,050, as you said before. So that really sorts out the serious buyers from the time wasters.
Ian Ugarte (00:59:19):
So the 800k one was overseas?
Scott Aggett (00:59:22):
Was in London, but I’ve done others. Like I did one in Dolans Bay in New South Wales in Sydney. I think I saved them about 600 grand to five million. Yeah. They’re big numbers. If you talk about, rather than focus on the dollars, I focus on the percentage because that’s more important to me because I buy at every price point. So thank God I did this one. I bought my in-laws house on next door to where I am, as I said to you last year and went through the whole process. I told them, “Let’s treat it as a Hello Haus business deal because I don’t want to get involved in this family.” You sent me a target price. Let’s do the due diligence together and make sure you’re comfortable with it. They sent me a target I think of 385 and I bought it for 320 and whatever the numbers were.
Ian Ugarte (01:00:02):
This is a waterfront-
Scott Aggett (01:00:03):
A waterfront three bedroom townhouse-
Ian Ugarte (01:00:05):
How much?
Scott Aggett (01:00:05):
… north facing in Mermaid Waters last year.
Ian Ugarte (01:00:07):
For three-
Scott Aggett (01:00:08):
- Yeah. It was a nice deal I’ve probably bought out of the… Well, it’d be very close to the best deal I’ve ever bought out of the 27 properties I bought for myself. And they were sight unseen. They’re on holidays in Sydney seeing their other daughter. And I rang them and said, “I found a property for you, I’ll buy this, all sort it out.” It came on, on the Friday afternoon. I bought it on Saturday lunchtime.
Ian Ugarte (01:00:28):
Yeah.
Scott Aggett (01:00:29):
And I hadn’t even seen it. Yeah.
Ian Ugarte (01:00:30):
That’s extraordinary. Like you wouldn’t be able to buy that.
Scott Aggett (01:00:30):
It was a craft day. It was literally a meth house.
Ian Ugarte (01:00:34):
What do you think it was really worth?
Scott Aggett (01:00:36):
It was worth probably about 400 to 420.
Ian Ugarte (01:00:39):
And why did you get so cheap?
Scott Aggett (01:00:41):
It was a myth.
Ian Ugarte (01:00:43):
Why did you negotiate it so well?
Scott Aggett (01:00:45):
Yeah. Well, a couple things. It was a horrible meth house. So it literally had like drug holes in the walls and syringes and things like that. It was a horrible, horrible place, but they were happy to get it if they could get it at the right price. So that was irrelevant, but that would turn tons of people off. And I knew that but over time, people would realize that they were going to renovate anyway. So it was irrelevant, but it would take them two, three, four days. I know from being an estate agent, how long it takes people to realize this, the penny drops, it’s the right one, and then they jumped into it. So I rushed the agent, it turns out that it was going to like a full closure, if he didn’t sell it by a certain day. And he had 11 days to exchange and settle it.
So there was no other buyers were able to at least we didn’t know this. So I just made an all cash offer, and bought it on the spot and said afternoon and settled basically instantly. So it was just one of those freak things that happened. And because I knew the market. I knew its value. I knew what we could do with it. I knew what I was going to cost to renovate it. And I knew the downside.
Ian Ugarte (01:01:44):
And you already owned your one too?
Scott Aggett (01:01:45):
No, I didn’t own that one.
Ian Ugarte (01:01:47):
What did you pay for yours?
Scott Aggett (01:01:48):
535 last year November. But there’s a story with mine as well, which is interesting. But yeah, substantially more than theirs. But theirs is worth they spent 175 grand on the refurb so let’s call it the rose I’m just under 500,000. Theirs is probably worth 700,000 straightaway. So they’ve got 200 grand equity in-
Ian Ugarte (01:02:06):
How amazing.
Scott Aggett (01:02:08):
… in a year and probably 150 that without a rising market, just straight out of just buying in the market. And that’s been my skill set the whole time. Like, people will say to you, “I bought this and I sold it for x and I made lots of money.” But you sat on it for three years or four years. Like I’ve done deals where I bought a studio apartment in Potts Point always off other people, never my own stock. So never insider trading. Always on the open market. I bought a studio for like, I can’t remember the numbers to say 215 grand in Potts Point years ago. And I had a five week settlement. And I found another buyer for it and sold it before I owned it. So I instantly settled on it and flipped it and made $75,000 on a studio.
Ian Ugarte (01:02:47):
Yeah.
Scott Aggett (01:02:47):
So that 30% in five weeks.
Ian Ugarte (01:02:49):
22 square meters or something.
Scott Aggett (01:02:51):
So if you know the market, you can spot these odd ones and they don’t come up very often. But you’ve got to be able to act on it like greased lightning, and do it really fast. So my one, the one that we just bought next door to them. So it’s a long story. The short of it is, we’ve been developing the houses and we want to buy and knock down at Mermaid Beach and build a house and we haven’t been out of find the one that we want. So when you’re going to go and rent for a year, two years in between while we did that because I wanted the equity out of our house and the cash out of the one we were in. So it was going to cost me 100 grand in rent on 20 grand in rent. And we have to live in someone else’s house that we didn’t want to live in and the pain points of all that.
And I saw them renovating, starting to renovate the one two doors up from nan and pops. And I knew the guy that manages the village, the townhouse and I went to him and said what are they doing with this one and he said well, it’s a really rare one, it’s semi detached, all the others are sort of attached, and it’s got eight meters of waterfront view, all the others got five. It’s got an extra whole half a house on the side so it’s much bigger land and much bigger per square meter internally. It’s the pick of the whole sort of complex like that. But the owners had for 25 years has been a rental property it’s horrible inside they want to tidy it up and put on the market and sell it for 560 in February. This was in September October. And I said to them, go to her offer a 525 grand and not touch anything further just down tools and go away. And he did and then she came back and ended up buying for 10 grand more.
But it suited us to buy A because in-law is next door, so we have a lot of family traveling from Sydney and New Zealand so it’s a great fit for us. B, the kids are next door to their grandparents and C, we were going to go and spend 100 120 grand on rent. So for us we were going to have instant equity in this property. It was a smarter business decision for us to pilot. So for that number it worked for me perfectly. There was no point being silly trying to chip 10 or 20 grand just buy it and be happy with it.
Ian Ugarte (01:04:41):
It’s often the thing I see a lot people haggling over price. They get cute and with conditions and then their ego gets stuck but, two and a half grand I’m not paying extra two and a half grand. What’s two and a half grand in 10 years time?
Scott Aggett (01:04:54):
Well, the markets moving at that point 10 grand a month. So just another week of waiting, but we renovated that. I got it, and spend 150 grand in cash on it. And so I’m in for just under 700. And I could sell it today for 850.
Ian Ugarte (01:05:08):
Yeah.
Scott Aggett (01:05:09):
So I made 150 grand tax free.
Ian Ugarte (01:05:11):
Instead of paying 120.
Scott Aggett (01:05:12):
Yeah. Instead of going backwards and the other end.
Ian Ugarte (01:05:15):
A lot of people say that negotiation is about winning. True?
Scott Aggett (01:05:24):
Partly, yes. Because you want to win, right? That’s the aim of the game. But if you want to dig into that further then the answer is no because the ultimate outcome for me is to be win, win, win. It’s got to be a fair outcome. So the way that I aim to do this is to control the negotiation as best I can, but make the agent feel like he’s in complete control. And that’s a real skill. That’s very, very difficult to do. And I quite like messing with agents, inexperienced agents’ minds.
Ian Ugarte (01:05:53):
Fun, isn’t it?
Scott Aggett (01:05:55):
Yeah. By making them feel like they’ve got me and they won and the rest of it, but I had 20, 30, 50, 100 grand more up my sleeve.
Ian Ugarte (01:05:55):
Yeah.
Scott Aggett (01:06:02):
Yeah. It’s fun doing that. That’s the bit that you said before that you enjoy that. That’s the fun part for me as well. I love that battle.
Ian Ugarte (01:06:09):
So great business model. Amazing the turnover that you’re getting, like you’ve got how many average do you negotiate on a week?
Scott Aggett (01:06:17):
I’ve bought eight houses in the last 10 days around the country. Yeah. I’m negotiating every day on a property because you don’t win them all. But I would say probably buy on average, typically, two properties a week is probably pretty normal for me. It’s just a busy time right now.
Ian Ugarte (01:06:35):
[crosstalk 01:06:35] one problem with your business model.
Scott Aggett (01:06:38):
You don’t own the business?
Ian Ugarte (01:06:39):
No. My business is Scott Aggett.
Scott Aggett (01:06:43):
Yeah. 100%.
Ian Ugarte (01:06:45):
Can you grow this business? Can you train someone to do what you know?
Scott Aggett (01:06:49):
A good agent that’s had the career that I have had would definitely be able to do this in Melbourne, Perth, or whatever. And maybe I could build a business of negotiation experts and sit atop of that across the country. But it comes back to what we talked about before, which is the lifestyle part of it, right? Like I got out of having 25 staff and working really hard. I don’t really have… Well, I’ll be honest, I don’t have ambitions to have a team of people. I’m very happy earning to a certain level, but being complete control of my own destiny. No one tells me what to do or where I need to be. It’s a nice lifestyle to have. So in life, I constantly ask friends in business and mates and family about this. And there’s no right or wrong answer. But I’ll ask you the same question. Like, how much money is enough?
Ian Ugarte (01:07:36):
It’s something that led me to the last dollar but now.
Scott Aggett (01:07:39):
Yeah.
Ian Ugarte (01:07:39):
Because I had and was building to a ridiculous amount of money. And I look at it now. And actually, I was less than half a day away from suicide because it didn’t make me happy.
Scott Aggett (01:07:52):
Yeah. And I don’t mean it from an ego perspective, in terms of how big is your bank balance? I mean how much do you need to earn a year-
Ian Ugarte (01:07:59):
To be comfortable.
Scott Aggett (01:07:59):
… before you just think, “Do you know what, that’s enough work to do per week or per month or whatever?” Now, I’m missing the kids. I don’t want to do that deal. I want to go and hang out at the park and push them on the swings. And I guess I’m just got to that point where I’m like, 38 an hour of real estate. And I’m like, “Okay. Well, how can I do this smarter and build a business around lifestyle? And then how much is enough then?” So to answer your question, yes, it’s very difficult because it’s hard to leverage my time. I just mentioned to you before walking in that I’ve just done a pitch deck on another business because I’ve already arrived at the same point, right? In terms of designing so much of this is what I get that you can do, and for me to grow the business just means I’ve got to be more on my phone, which means my wife’s going to be upset with that, and the kids aren’t going to see me as much.
Ian Ugarte (01:08:43):
A great tadley, I just feel so grateful for the position I’m in. My team reckons I work hard. Actually I think I work that hard.
Scott Aggett (01:08:56):
Well, if you love it, it doesn’t feel like work to some degree.
Ian Ugarte (01:08:59):
Yeah. But I’ve got choice.
Scott Aggett (01:09:00):
Yeah.
Ian Ugarte (01:09:01):
I’m here talking to you this morning by two o’clock this afternoon, whatevs. I’ll do whatever I like, whenever I like. I work from home. It’s exactly what you’re talking about exactly what you’re doing. And I’ve got choice and freedom to do what I want to do. And I was just going to say on how horrible I started playing, wallball soccer again. And I don’t know why. But the competitive edge got back into me, white line fever. And I’m growing. I’m playing with over 35s most of us are over the age of 40. And some of them can’t pay the $420 for richer and have to pay it off on-
Scott Aggett (01:09:42):
Installment.
Ian Ugarte (01:09:43):
… installments and I’m going… It sounds so wrong for me to say that you shouldn’t be in a better position to do that and life circumstances don’t often give you that. But I look at it and I think, “I think you could have more control.” And it’s just a bit of a headspace thing to say, “I should be able to earn or I should be able to do more.” And it’s not about working more or working harder.
Scott Aggett (01:10:08):
It’s being smarter about it.
Ian Ugarte (01:10:09):
Yeah. Absolutely.
Scott Aggett (01:10:09):
Yeah.
Ian Ugarte (01:10:10):
But again, I don’t want to sound like a toll, or an ungrateful person with the position. I might say I’m grateful like you’ve seen the river I live on. Certainly probably not a canal like yours, but it’s a nice spot.
Scott Aggett (01:10:23):
It’s got sharks like mine.
Ian Ugarte (01:10:23):
It’s got pool sharks.
Scott Aggett (01:10:25):
There you go.
Ian Ugarte (01:10:25):
Not that I’ve ever been attacked by one. [inaudible 01:10:27] is a furphy. But anyway, have you seen any?
Scott Aggett (01:10:30):
I never had. But there’s been lots of attacks and sightings in the Gold Coast.
Ian Ugarte (01:10:37):
I can’t see any attacks or found any news articles up here for the last 15-
Scott Aggett (01:10:41):
No one swims anywhere. Let me put it that way. But I grew up swimming in those canals. I can assure you there was lots of sharks there the whole time. And I swam with a dog, which was the worst thing you could possibly do.
Ian Ugarte (01:10:50):
Later heaps of stingrays Jenny.
Scott Aggett (01:10:52):
Yeah.
Ian Ugarte (01:10:53):
But that’s about it. What’s your advice to someone that feels like they’re going to miss out if they don’t buy something right now?
Scott Aggett (01:11:01):
Oh, the old FOMO, right? Well, I think you got to understand the bigger picture, why are you buying a property? Why is it important for you to do that? And what are the positives in doing that now, versus doing it tomorrow? If you’ve got the financial capability to do it, and stay within your means. And if that’s going to leverage you financially in life and get ahead, then it’s probably a decision, that’s a smart one to do it. And if you’re going to do it this year, I would do it sooner rather than later. Because you’re in a rapidly rising market, it’s probably going to get more expensive for you in six months, 12 months time. But I think a lot of people in Australia, I use the word contacts, but before I get a lot of like, 19, 20 year olds and things saying to me, “I’m saving up to buy a property.” And I think that’s brilliant. And, it’s really positive that people want to get on that journey. But I’m also one that it’s for living life.
I’m a terrible property investor, I’ve had 27 properties. I should be really wealthy. I’m comfortable. But I could be a lot wealthier if I held on to those properties. But I put priority on life experiences. So while a lot of my friends and family had their heads down working really hard, I was in Italy, having a great time or traveling all over the world. I think I did somewhere between six and 12 weeks overseas every year, while I was a real estate agent. So I guess it’s just down to priorities, right? Like what’s the most important thing to you, and I don’t want people diving into the property market too early, unless they’ve had a bit of life experience and can actually enjoy themselves because I think you just end up working really hard and don’t get to see the big picture.
Ian Ugarte (01:12:36):
It’s nice. Just a little bit opposite on that.
Scott Aggett (01:12:40):
Yeah.
Ian Ugarte (01:12:40):
Do I get a why that I did it? Like I just went hard at it from my day, like I’m just 29, 30 years this year in property, while my friends were out and about traveling the world and whatever, here I was working hard to pay for those properties, especially the shitty properties I bought back then. But they set me up.
Scott Aggett (01:12:58):
Yeah. But you may-
Ian Ugarte (01:12:59):
But to have the freedom I’ve got today.
Scott Aggett (01:13:00):
Yeah. And you may not regret missing out on those opportunities, but they would have potentially, and I would have. So it’s horses for courses, right? And I think you just got to know who you are. And that’s why I guess it’s hard to be giving generalized advice is not like that.
Ian Ugarte (01:13:14):
So you’re happy to take on more clients?
Scott Aggett (01:13:17):
Always. Yeah.
Ian Ugarte (01:13:19):
hellohaus.co.
Scott Aggett (01:13:20):
.co, that’s it.
Ian Ugarte (01:13:21):
Thanks Scott.
Scott Aggett (01:13:22):
Couldn’t get hellohaus.com.
Ian Ugarte (01:13:26):
What is hellohaus.com?
Scott Aggett (01:13:27):
I don’t know. I think it’s an interior design agency in the UK. That’s hellohaus.com. But the clients that use me are normally referred into me or see me for some reason, so there’s no problems finding me.
Ian Ugarte (01:13:38):
Okay. Awesome. Thanks for coming in today.
Scott Aggett (01:13:40):
My pleasure. Thanks for having me.
Ian Ugarte (01:13:42):
There you haven’t, Scott Aggett, what an interesting guy, very deep and thought provoking. I hope that you get to use his services and save yourself a huge bundle of cash on the next purchase of your property. As always, you can follow us on Twitter, on Instagram and on Facebook. And you can also get to more information at ianugarte.com.au. We’ll see you in the next episode of Small Talk Big Ideas.
Voice Over (01:14:08):
Thanks for tuning in to the Small Talk Big Ideas podcast. We hope we’ve succeeded in our goal to inspire and challenge you. And we look forward to catching you on the next episode of Small Talk Big Ideas with Ian Ugarte.