The Reinvention Blueprint: From Sydney Agent to Byron's #1 - Will Phillips #120

Will Phillips sold his own house at a loss, in Sydney, while working as a Sydney agent. He says it was the best thing that ever happened to him. He then left an 18 year career and a shareholding, bought a caravan and drove around Australia for a year with two kids.

Will Phillips spent 18 years at Bresic Whitney and was ranked number one agent under 30, then restarted from zero in Byron Bay and now runs the Sotheby's office there.

What you will learn:

- How he won his first ten listings in a market he had never worked in, and the one thing he did that nobody else there was doing

- Why he called buyers first instead of hunting for sellers, and the text he sends to 300 people about a single qualified buyer

- The spreadsheet he rebuilt from scratch at 39 to learn a new market: every property, his guess, and the actual result

- Why he says every agent doing well should get a mentor who is not in real estate

- What over-committing on a mortgage, a car and an image actually cost him, and what changed when he sold it all

Chapters

00:00 Eighteen years, a shareholding, and walking away

02:56 When your life is on repeat

05:42 Selling his own house at a loss

07:08 Questioning the ego and the expenses

08:31 The letter he put on a stranger's door in Byron

11:21 Winning the first ten listings out of ten

13:34 Whether he had actually flicked it in Sydney, or just ridden a brand

17:01 Twenty to thirty hot buyers, called weekly

18:26 The text that makes an agent look like they are on the ball

19:53 Qualification, and the three things you ask everyone

22:41 Notifications off, and a work life blend

24:09 The industry idolises obsession, and what that misses

26:59 Get a mentor who is not in real estate

31:17 What he looks for when hiring: vulnerability

34:04 The best form of prospecting is execution

41:06 Making it awkward not to share a buyer

42:29 What he wants from a buyers agent, and how referrals really work

45:20 Representing billionaires, and being blunt about shopping an offer

50:56 Noticing the Sydney animal coming back

56:31 Advice to his first day self

Will Phillips now buys on the numbers, after learning the other way. Property should work the same way.

Most properties only make money if the market does. The ones that pay for themselves from the day you settle are bought differently, and it comes down to four points.

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General information only. Not financial, tax, legal or credit advice. Bothsides is not a mortgage broker or credit provider.