We can all agree that 2023 is going to look vastly different to 2022. The decline in property pricing is predicted to continue, inflationary pressures will keep building, and borrowing is becoming more difficult.  

However, learning from previous cycles, a tough market is often the best time to change your approach, stand out, and build your brand, your market share and unlock your full potential.  

As reported in the Financial Review, average house prices across the country fell 5.2 per cent in the September quarter, just the latest in a series of quarterly drops. The article continues: 

“Buyers are beginning to pull back,” noted Hayden Groves, president of the Real Estate Institute of Australia. “New loans to owner-occupiers fell 3.2 per cent in October, on top of a 4 per cent drop in September.” 

“There’s not a lot of wriggle room if interest rate rises continue,” he acknowledged. “It’s a shock to the system.” 

Of course, this is not only bad news for sellers, but also for real estate agents, whose commissions are based on sales values.  

The real threat to real estate agents who don’t change their approach to the declining market is a loss on income, lifestyle, and security. 

So, how can an agent combat these threats? By building their own brand and standing out, agents will attract more business and make more money.  

For agents who have thought about building their own brand, it’s often the fear of the unknown that stops them taking the leap. But they should be fearing the known – if an agents comms split remains the same and the market drops, they stand to lose a lot of money (see below graph).  

In this example with a base GCI of $500,000, if an agent’s GCI drops by 30%, they will lose $75,000 if they stay where they are. In comparison, if the agent moves to their own brand and retain more of their GCI, they will see income grow by $87,500 despite a drop in GCI. 

As great agents tend to do, if they maintain their GCI and move to their own brand, they stand to make an additional $150,000 in take home pay. 

Luckily, making the move from working under someone else to building your own future is easier than ever. In fact, it's the UrbanX mission to empower agents to build a unique brand on an established back end and keep between 75-90% of their GCI. 

In the AFR article Dan Argent, CEO of UrbanX explains how the platform is designed with the real estate agent’s best interests at heart, and how their partnership approach shifts the power away from the franchise brands to the individual agent. 

“Agents can come to us with nothing, just their track record and their experience. We will design their brand, design their website, design their templates, come up with their marketing strategy and, on an ongoing basis, do all their back-end administration.” 

With over 90 partners (40 launched in 2022 alone), over $2billion in sales last year, and being named as an AFR Fast Starter, it’s clear the market is responding to the new approach to real estate.  

If you’re an established agent with a track record of $250,000+ GCI and want to see how much better 2023 could be for you, check out the UrbanX commission calculator now.