Words of wisdom from The Wolf of Wall Street
Sales trainer Jordan Belfort, who was immortalised in film by Leonardo DiCaprio, was busy giving tips to Australian estate agents, before jetting off to do more of the same in Monaco.
Sales trainer Jordan Belfort was busy giving tips to Australian estate agents last week.
It was not, however, a return to the big Australasian Real Estate Conference (AREC) where his 2014 attendance sparked widespread concerns about the merits of the industry taking on his wisdom.
This time Belfort was here for the One Life Club run by Queensland estate agent Emil Juresic, who was chauffeuring him around Brisbane in his $1.3m Lamborghini Aventador Ultimae.
Belfort was jailed in 1999 over a pump-and-dump stock fraud scheme where he enriched himself by $200m at the expense of duped investors. He wrote about his crime-backed partying lifestyle in his 2007 memoir, The Wolf of Wall Street, which inspired the film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Margot Robbie, who’s been house hunting recently around Byron Bay.
AREC founder and veteran estate agent John McGrath defended his decision to have the convicted fraudster turned motivational speaker address the 3300 AREC attendees during his 2014 tour.
Belfort was “arguably the world’s best salesman”, who had “found himself on the dark side of success and used some of his God-given talent in sales for the wrong reasons; and he owns his mistakes”, McGrath advised.
Last week Belfort gave lectures in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. Then it was off to the next one in Monaco where he could possibly be welcomed back aboard his mate James Packer’s IJE yacht, which moored there on Friday.
Sock it to them
The biggest entourage attending Belfort’s Sydney session was from Josh Tesolin’s estate agency. He’s the Ray White network’s rising star who sold 367 properties last year totalling $372m in Sydney’s west and northwest.
Tesolin stood out among Belfort’s attendees with his trademark colourful socks. Attendees – mostly sockless young males – paid $299 for standard admittance, $499 for premium tickets and $699 for a VIP pass.
Tesolin’s weekend auction successes saw prices well over guidance, including $865,000 for the three-bedder at 4 Kellaway St, Doonside which had a $700,000 guide. He might care to seek out price guidance best practice insights from industry veterans amid the emerging market momentum.
Celebrities on tap
Some 4100 estate agents are currently on the Gold Coast for the two-day 25th AREC conference. Gold passes cost $950, platinum cost $1300, while a virtual ticket was $850.
It kicked off at 8.25am on Sunday when actor turned businesswoman Reese Witherspoon beamed in from the US, then it was on to New York agent Ryan Serhant, dubbed the world’s leading agent. Monday’s 8.25am kick-off is Caitlyn Jenner. Attendees will also hear from local agents including Boroondara bigshot James Tostevin who’s attended all 25 ARECs.
Sunset shines
Those estate agents not at AREC earning CPD points were presumably at home bingeing on the latest season of Selling Sunset, the sexy Los Angeles real estate show. It was briefly Netflix’s top show on the weekend, but bumped off by Arnold Schwarzenegger’s acting comeback in the FUBAR series.
Schwarzenegger, of course, has periodically appeared at Glenn Twiddle’s coaching summits for Australian estate agents.
“I made my first million in real estate, not in movies,’’ Schwarzenegger once advised his audience of agents.
Sunset’s season six features a luxury home at Santa Monica which Chelsea Lazkani, the over-coutured Oppenheim agent, advised had been built, with a basement basketball half-court, by someone who owns a “very famous basketball team in Australia”. That meant Romie Chaudhari, owner of the South East Melbourne Phoenix, who is Miami-based.
LeBron James has apparently played on the court.
Rather than sell, the five-bedroom house was recently available as a $US85,000 per month rental through The Agency.
Not the Australian estate agency that lost its recent trademark stoush in the Federal Court, but the international one headed by Mauricio Umansky who stars in another Netflix series, Buying Beverly Hills.
Top of the Hill
The nation’s priciest weekend listing was an all-white, Hunters Hill new-build which sold at an undisclosed price two days before its scheduled auction.
Casa Cooya, the home of Moreece Elcham, from the Massari real estate investment outfit, came with $12.5m guidance through McGrath agent Tracey Dixon. The local whisper is the non-waterfront fell short when sold to a CBD apartment dweller.
But it was a big price nonetheless for the four-bedroom, three-bathroom Toocooya Rd mansion designed by John Rose of Tanner Kibble Denton with just a glimpse of the Gladesville Bridge.
The top declared Sydney sale was $5.16m for a five-bedroom, three-bathroom house at 5 McBurney St, Naremburn. Complete with basketball hoop, it sold through Peter Chauncy at McGrath who’d also sold it at a record $2,999,000 in 2014.
With a 78 per cent success rate, Sydney had 708 auctions last week, down 5 per cent on the prior week. There were 1109 auctions this time last year with a 56 per cent clearance rate, according to CoreLogic.
$8m in Toorak
The price of the top sale in Melbourne was also kept under wraps.
The 1930s plain Tudor offering at 225 Kooyong Rd, Toorak is understood to have been sold for $8m after being passed in at $7.65m.
The guide from Marshall White agent Anthony Reis had been $7.5m to $8.25m. It attracted just two auction bidders.
The six-bedroom, six-bathroom home sits on an elevated 1006sq m holding with views to the Dandenong Ranges. It was bought in 2004 for $2,625,000.
A Black Rock sale at $5,732,000 was Melbourne’s top advised sale. The KG Architecture-designed five-bedroom, three-bathroom home at 25 Red Bluff St was auctioned by Lambros Bollas from O’Brien Real Estate. There were three bidders after the $5m opening bid. It was called on the market at $5.5m, having been marketed with a $4.8m to $5m price guide.
Melbourne saw a steady 850 auctions, some 42 per cent fewer than this time last year. Melbourne’s preliminary clearance rate held above 70 per cent for the seventh consecutive week, at 77 per cent.
Steady as she goes
The national numbers were steady at around 1920, significantly lower than this time last year with 3226 auctions. With 1522 results collected so far by CoreLogic, there was a slight jump to a 75.9 per cent success rate, the highest preliminary rate since November 2021.
Adelaide had the highest success rate at 81 per cent, Brisbane at 60 per cent.
Brisbane’s top sale was a two storey at 96 Crosby Road, Ascot that sold for $2.128m.
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