Ray White’s 14th call-a-thon hit a new level this week with 8,124 appraisals booked across Australasia, 100 per cent powered by NurtureCloud, the group’s cutting edge prop tech platform. Appraisals are the lifeblood of real estate and Ray White holds its Real Estate of Origin events three times a year to create friendly rivalry and banter between the states and New Zealand. Ray White Marsden claimed bragging rights this year booking a whopping 321 appraisals, and RWC Gold Coast finished in second place on 253 appraisals. Ray White Aspley Group took out the number one multi-office business with 545 appraisals. The top agent winner was the unstoppable Lydia Robins of Ray White Deception Bay who booked 196 appraisals, followed by Rebecca Cuderman from Ray White Marsden with 161 appraisals. No one other single group could drum up this many appraisals in four hours which will ensure the group is set up for the new year. Ray White can measure the advantage that the appraisal drives offer the leading group. Last year across the three Real Estate of Origin events, Ray White members generated 22,995 appraisals, and the group won more than 1,500 listings from appraisals generated on REOO days. 
Garima Mangotra, Manpreet Kaur, Keron Petzer, Jett Müeller, Kaylea Sayer, Kenton De Klerk and Riah Manser.
Ray White Marsden (pictured) stormed home at this year’s Real Estate of Origin.
Ray White AKG founder Avi Khan said his team of 28 sales agents crushed the call-a-thon with 2600 calls. “We had been working up to this day, we have been doing role plays and working out our call lists,” he said. “My team logged 321 appraisals today from Brookwater to the southside of Brisbane and Logan. “I am so proud of my team. We have always participated in REOO but this year we levelled up. We are still in a sellers’ market and we offered up to date real time data to all our potential sellers about what is happening in the market.” 
RWC Gold Coast agent Jackson Rameau, RWC Property Management BDE Leteicha Wilson, and RWC Gold Coast team leader Luke Boulden. Further south, RWC Gold Coast were diving into phone calls as a team for REOO today. “We’re in the relationship business and the way to maintain those is to pick up the phone, not just with current clients but to help create new relationships and build that pipeline,” RWC Gold Coast team leader Luke Boulden said. Sales agent Jackson Rameau said his team were focusing on using today to book face to face appraisals. “You need to be making calls every day, but today we’re really trying to organise those face to face appointments. Making phone calls is important, but catching up face to face is just as important. “My team and I have made over 180 dials today between the three of us. We’ve booked 60 in-person appraisals plus around 20 desktop appraisals.” 
With more than 30 years of real estate experience, Ray White Head of Strategy (Real Estate) Mark McLeod hosted the online live event from the media room at Ray White Queensland Corporate. Mark McLeod and Ray White Queensland CEO Jason Andrew spoke about the power of creating competition. “Days like this should be etched in stone by every single business owner inside the Ray White Group. This is such a great way to energise your staff in a competitive way to drive the things that actually make a difference – appraisals! We know our businesses do appraisals every day, but the ones who carve out these three days a year can track their impact,” Mr McLeod said. “With the group clearance rate around 80 per cent, and Queensland hovering on 70 per cent, we have a tonne of registered bidders right now, this is what our people are letting people know,” Mr Andrew said of the auction focused business. “Our job is to be specific, timely and relevant. We have so much relevant information to give to our potential vendors.” Mr McLeod said it was no surprise that there was a direct correlation between appraisals and business performance. “Customer contact hours is something we can measure. Houses don’t list properties, humans do. So get a zoom or google hangout and get the customer contact in place. Get belly to belly.” “We track all calls in NurtureCloud, the calls trigger propensity. The appraisal in NurtureCloud sparks an activity to track the propensity of your customers. So you need to use NurtureCloud to get the full benefit out of the system. We are 100 per cent powered by NurtureCloud today and it is changing the face of the real estate industry.” 
In Adelaide at Coopers Stadium, Ray White Head of Performance and Recognition Bianca Denham, who co-hosted the live zoom session, said that conducting appraisals was the most important activity that any agent could do. “By coordinating these events, we are doing our part to assist Ray White members to drive growth in their businesses,” she said. “After each event, we see a spike in listing numbers, but we are now tracking the longer term effects of conducting these events and it’s very powerful to see the network effects.”. 
In Brisbane, Ray White Bribie Island principal Bryce Hawkins said he’d learned some great tips from NurtureCloud GM Courtney Martin (both pictured) . He sent out a bulk SMS through NurtureCloud to 30 locals to alert them to a recent record sale in the Bongaree market. “It took less than 60 seconds to send the SMS out and I got back lots of positive feedback, lots of ‘wows’ plus one appraisal. How good is that?” 
Also in Brisbane, RWC General Manager James Linacre welcomed the group’s commercial members to the first REOO of 2024. “It’s exciting to have our biggest commercial contingent yet participating in the day, with 15 offices picking up the phone and booking appraisals,” Mr Linacre said. Ray White Head of Research Vanessa Rader provided some important talking points for commercial agents picking up the phones today. She said sentiment and confidence were two keywords to discuss. “In terms of inflation we’re sitting at 4.1 per cent, so we’re still above that 2-3 per cent band, but the RBA is confident we will see one or two interest rate reductions this year,” Ms Rader said. “As people feel more confident with what’s going on in the economy they’re more likely to sell. “Sentiment is better, and confidence is higher, so we expect to see those sales volumes increase.” 
In New Zealand there was plenty of action at the Ray White Takanini and Karaka office today, with a “fast and furious” themed event. “Each REOO we provide a fun and interactive event,” Ray White Takanini and Karaka COO Katie Rawson-Massey said. “This time it’s the fast and furious so rev up your engines, hit the gas, and prepare to leave the competition in the dust. Buckle up for the fastest and most furious REOO yet! “We have lots of games and prizes to be won, and plenty of food, drinks, sugar and caffeine. “The main activity is the Hyper Stimulator which was voted by Sim Race Magazine as the world’s best racing car simulator. The track we have is the Hamptons Downs track – which is just south of our offices.” Sales agent Gabriel Elkhishin (pictured above) aimed to make the most of the day. “REOO sets up your business for short-term and long-term success,” Mr Elkhishin said. “One day of active work leads to multiple future opportunities.” 
Sales agent Sam Kim, who had the highest score on the Hampton Downs race simulator (pictured above), said he enjoyed participating in REOO. “It’s good to make calls in numbers to support and encourage each other,” he said. “We get to share each other’s successes and talk about objections and overcome them together.” 
Also in New Zealand, Ray White Whangarei had 20 team members in the office making calls today. “We’ve had a really good day, most of our team is here giving it a good crack,” Ray White Whangarei principal Rod Parkinson said (pictured above with fellow Ray White Whangarei business owner Vanessa McKenzie). “One of our agents called someone in his database who said ‘we’re now ready to list and we were just about to call you’. “It just shows that inputs drive outputs.” 
Ray White NSW State Auctioneer Perry Edmondson-Clark was in Newcastle. “I am keen to see NSW take home the win this year,” he said. 
Ray White NSW Chief Auctioneer Alex Pattaro was on the South Coast at Kiama. In Sydney, Ray White Chief Economist Nerida Conisbee said it has been a fast start to the year with potential for two rate cuts this year. “Market’s are pricing in one cut before June and one before the end of the year, which will lead to greater acceleration in price growth. Perth has been the strongest market followed by Brisbane and Adelaide, with strong conditions elsewhere. “The start of the year is fast, our open home attendance was well above our long term average attendance in January and February, and we are seeing a pick up in the number of properties for sale. “The pipeline will lead to even more sales and ultimately that’s what we want. “The big surprise so far in 2024 is the potential for rate cuts. November’s rate rise had a dampening effect on the market but by December we saw new inflation data which showed things were stabilising. “There’s a lot of buoyancy among buyers, with renters trying to buy, and still a lot of buyers out there and more sellers coming to market.” 
In Rochedale, Queensland, RWC CSR principal Mukhtaar Hashim (pictured above) said they had had a very successful REOO. “It’s a fantastic day and a really good event to get the whole team together,” Mr Hashim said. “We’ve had some amazing results as well including landing some portfolios.” 
In Western Australia, the Ray White Broome (pictured above) team were getting into the REOO spirit by dressing up in yellow. “We hit the phone and made 70 or 80 calls and had quite a high conversion rate. It’s been a really good result overall,” Ray White Broome sales agent Giles Tipping said. “Broome is a small town and we know a lot of the people we’re calling. “A lot of people wanted to hear about what’s happening in the market and how that affects the value of their home. “There were a lot of receptive people we spoke to who at least wanted to chat about the market if they didn’t want an appraisal.” 
In Sydney, RWC SC agent Baxter van Heyst was making the most REOO and picking up the phone to book some appraisals. “Real estate can be a roller coaster of an industry, and it’s important to stick on top of your appraisals,” he said. “Appraisals = pipeline = sales.”
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