Luke Who’s Talking

Suzanne Hibberd is Australia’s No.1 female real estate agent and ranks seventh overall nationally in REB’s Top 100 Agents. The director of Abode Property has spent more than 30 years selling across Sutherland Shire, Cronulla and St George real estate, and she’s known for one thing above all: telling people exactly how it is.In this episode of Luke Who’s Talking, Suzanne takes Luke through how she manages around 50 listings at once, including off-the-plan apartment projects that start with site amalgamation and development site acquisition. She explains why 90% of her sales now come from private appointments rather than Saturday open homes, and why she rarely takes a property to auction. She also covers vendor management in a tough market: why she tells vendors not to buy until she’s sold their home, and why she’d rather hand a listing back than work with the wrong client.She also shares what she looks for when hiring, why lying is the one thing that gets you fired, and her advice for new real estate agents doing it tough: bring the energy, shake the tree, and pick up the phone.Real estate is 12 rounds every day. Roll with the punches.Key takeawaysHonesty wins repeat business. Suzanne has sold some properties four times for the same family. If a vendor doesn’t need to sell right now, she tells them.Don’t buy before you’ve sold. A tight settlement on the next home puts pressure on the vendor, and that pressure ends up hurting the price.Overquoting is the real problem. She thinks agents who quote 10–20% above the comparable sales to win a listing deserve as much scrutiny as underquoters.Project marketing starts with site acquisition. Her apartment projects come from amalgamating development sites. From there she advises developers on the apartment mix and finishes, based on what will actually sell.Private appointments beat open homes. In her market, around 90% of sales come from private appointments. Once open homes are scheduled, buyers stop calling.Not all business is good business. 10% of clients can take up 90% of your time. She has handed back listings and whole projects rather than put her name to them.Hire for honesty and work ethic. She says she can teach everything else. Lying is the one thing that gets someone fired.New agents: find a seller every day. Pick up the phone instead of texting. Offer to help senior agents. If you meet a good buyer, go out and find them a property.

With more than 30 years’ experience in real estate across the ACT, Mario Sanfrancesco has established himself as a leading agent in Canberra’s premium property market. His career has been recognised with numerous accolades, including being named Auctioneer of the Year three times, and he’s been ranked in Australia’s Top 100 Real Estate Agents by REB for four consecutive years, as high as 20th in Australia. He holds the record for the highest residential sale by auction in the ACT, along with numerous suburb sales records across Canberra.Previously a partner in one of Australia’s leading real estate offices, Mario brings a depth of experience, knowledge and relationships built over more than three decades in the industry. In this episode of Luke Who’s Talking, he tells Luke exactly how that success was built: work hard, remain focused, act with integrity, and stay in your lane. He talks about surrounding yourself with the right people, building a team that shares your values, and the culture of trust, commitment and teamwork that comes with it.Mario also opens up on the things that keep him grounded, including why he sold his brand new Porsche after just 11 months, and why “perception is not reality” is the best piece of advice he’s ever been given.Away from real estate, Mario is a family man, married with two children, and he brings those same values of commitment, integrity and a genuine desire to achieve the best possible outcome to everything he does for the people he represents.Available to watch on Spotify & Apple PodcastsFollow @lukewho'stalking on Instagram & Tiktok to new episode updates------------------------------------------------------Mario Sanfrancesco, Canberra real estate, ACT real estate, Canberra property market, inner south Canberra, Tuggeranong real estate, Blackshaw Manuka, real estate auctioneer, Auctioneer of the Year, REB Top 100 real estate agents, property auctions Canberra, residential auction sale, LJ Hooker, real estate team culture, real estate leadership, humble leadership, real estate mindset, real estate coaching, work life balance real estate, real estate podcast, Luke Who’s Talking, sales, Canberra property, premium property market, suburb sales records

Aaron Davis is Harcourts' charismatic "Auction Champion" - one of New Zealand's most in-demand auctioneers, with 20 years in the industry and somewhere in the region of 10,000 auctions called.New Zealand's market has been "moderating" (softening) for five years. Off the 2021 peak, most Auckland homes are now selling for around 20% less than their owners paid, and last year one in four resales went for less than the original purchase price. Aaron's take: markets don't make anyone look good anymore, and the agents still winning are the ones who deal only in the truth... relative to today, not to what a property was worth in 2021 or might be worth next year.Aaron and Luke get into what he calls "the gap" between vendor expectation and real market value, why buyer feedback reports are mostly fiction, how pre-booked strategy meetings remove the anxiety from a campaign, cash-versus-conditional-versus-trade offers in a market with fewer buyers, and why re-pricing a property the moment it fails at auction beats sitting on a number that's gone stale.For agents watching Australia's east coast start to soften, this is a five-year head start from someone who's already lived through it.----------------------------------------------New Zealand real estate, Auckland property market, auctioneer, Harcourts, real estate auctions, property clearance rates, moderating market, negative equity, real estate podcast, price conditioning, vendor management, auction strategy, real estate agent training, Luke Who's Talking

Steve Gillis didn't start out as a player agent. He was a rugby league reporter at News Limited, and by his own account he knew everyone in the game: the players, the coaches, the CEOs, the referees, the touch judges and the tuck shop lady. He turned that into an NRL player management business in 1993, and had 30 NRL clients on the books by the time Super League arrived.In this episode of Luke Who's Talking, Steve takes Luke inside a job most people misread. Why he recruits 25 blue chip juniors instead of 50 hopefuls. What he looks for scouting junior rugby league talent, and why the parents tell him as much as the player does. How the NRL salary cap really works from an agent's side of the negotiating table. Why the average NRL career is around 50 first grade games, and what separates the players who go past 300.There's also the honest part. The calls at 2 and 3 in the morning that are never "how are you going". Player welfare, concussion, CTE and where the game's legal exposure sits. NRL expansion into Perth and PNG, State of Origin match payments, and the NRL's interest in buying the English Super League. And why, after 30 years, he told his own 25 year old son he wasn't allowed to do it.A conversation about talent, timing, reputation and long careers, with plenty in it for anyone in real estate, recruitment or sales.--------------------------------------------NRL, rugby league, NRL player manager, player agent, sports agent, sports management, NRL contracts, NRL salary cap, State of Origin, junior rugby league, rugby league pathways, player welfare, concussion, CTE, NRL expansion, Perth Bears, PNG NRL, Super League, Steve Gillis, Gillis Schaikovsky, real estate podcast, Luke Who's Talking, sales, recruitment, leadership

Bill Malouf didn't grow up in real estate. He ran his family's hotel in Auburn, and got into the industry at 35 after seven agents wasted his time trying to buy a family home, while one, George Devine, showed him two houses and sold him one of them.With no listings, no history and no credibility, he bought a painter's scrapbook and spent the next two years turning up to every auction in the eastern suburbs, recording his own opinion of value before the hammer fell. Ground floor or top floor. Lift or no lift. Views or no views. That book is what he still tells new agents to start today.In this episode Bill takes Luke through the Coogee Bay Hotel sale that put him on the map, why he stopped taking $30m-plus properties to auction after a conversation with John Singleton, the sealed-contract method he runs instead, and why he'll write his price on his hand before he'll ask a vendor for theirs.There's also a $43m deal that leaked from a 6am gym session, a 1:30am phone call from a stranger testing whether he really never turns his phone off, and a one-bedroom unit he refused to hand to anyone else.No graphs. No market-share slides. No fluff.

Real estate is a high-performance, high-divorce, always-on industry. So what happens to your family when you're chasing every listing and answering every call at 8pm?Luke sits down with Dr Justin Coulson, parenting expert, author of 10 books, and founder of Happy Families, for a conversation built for agents who run on an ABN and carry all the pressure that comes with it. Justin gets it: he's spent 16 years building his own business under exactly that kind of load.Together they unpack the habits that quietly cost agents the thing they say matters most. Justin shares his three L's (love, limits, and laughter) and the "bucket" model of connection versus correction that applies as much to your team as it does to your kids. He challenges the scarcity mentality behind being 100% available, and makes the case that the client who wants to list at 5:45pm will still want to list at 8:15am tomorrow, once you've actually been present at home.Luke and Justin also dig into the smartphone's grip on both work and family, the morning rituals that set up your whole day, co-parenting through separation in an industry where it's all too common, and the quarterly "planning getaway" Justin runs with his wife, borrowing the same discipline agents use for their business goals and applying it to the family.Whether you're a new agent, a team leader, or a principal juggling a growing business and a growing family, this one's a reminder that the listings will still be there, and a practical guide to showing up better at home.Find Justin at happyfamilies.com.au.

Shannan Whitney is the founder of Bresic Whitney, one of Sydney's most recognised boutique real estate brands. What started as two agents in 2002 has grown into a business with 95 agents, six offices and over 300 staff across Sydney's inner city markets.Before starting Bresic Whitney, Shannan spent nearly a decade at McGrath after being headhunted at 19. That experience shaped his standards, his understanding of service and ultimately gave him the foundation to build something of his own.In this episode we cover the brutal reality of the first five years in real estate, why Shannan still prospects and still shows up on Saturdays in his fourth decade, how he thinks about recruiting and developing agents versus just selecting them, the skill of having direct conversations without being destructive, why the auction method is fundamentally about price and nothing else, and the surprisingly simple advice he gives to agents trying to balance parenthood with a career that never switches off.🎧 New episodes fortnightly📲 Follow @lukewhostalking_ on Instagram and TikTokSponsored by The Agency

What happens when one of Sydney's top real estate agents starts questioning her relationship with alcohol, in an industry where drinking is practically written into the culture?Stephanie Farah is an award-winning real estate agent with over a decade of experience specialising in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs and a third-generation member of one of the area's most respected real estate families. She is also one of the more honest voices in the industry when it comes to the conversation nobody in real estate really wants to have: Discussing stress, alcohol, mental health and what it actually takes to perform at a high level without using a drink to take the edge off. In this bonus snippet from Luke Who's Talking, Stephanie and Luke get into a conversation that goes well beyond property. Alcohol is still part of Stephanie's life, but rarely, and intentionally. What changed, why it changed, and how she manages the pressure and stress of a demanding career without defaulting to it is what this six minutes is really about.In this episode we cover:How Stephanie's relationship with alcohol has shifted over timeThe effect that change has had on her mental health and overall wellbeingHow she manages stress and pressure in one of Sydney's most competitive real estate markets without relying on alcoholWhat the sober-curious movement means for high performers in intense industriesThe honest conversation about drinking culture in real estate that most people avoidThis is a bonus clip taken from the full Stephanie Farah episode of Luke Who's Talking, available now in the feed.Whether you work in real estate, run your own business or simply want to perform better and feel better without alcohol being the answer - this conversation is worth six minutes of your time.Follow Luke Who's Talking on Instagram @lukewhostalking_ | Sponsored by The Agency

Andrew Liddell is a BresicWhitney Director with more than 15 years of experience, one of Balmain's highest-performing property professionals and consistently ranked in the Top 50 agents nationwide. But if you looked at where he started, you would never have predicted it.Andrew left school with no clear direction, moved to London at 19 and spent years working in hospitality across Europe and Canada before finding his way into real estate in 2010. What hospitality gave him... the ability to read people, adapt to any situation and make every interaction feel personal, which became the foundation everything else was built on.Dedicated to transforming the contemporary real estate experience, Andrew leads an exceptional sales team alongside long-time business partner Adrian Oddi. Operating under BresicWhitney's unique network model, the opposite of a franchise, his team regularly taps into buyers across multiple offices, consistently delivering bigger results for their clients. Last year alone, 37 out of 115 sales across Andrew's team never hit the open market.A family man with four young children, Andrew is committed to repeat clientele, long-term relationships and the unparalleled BresicWhitney reputation. He's also one of the more honest voices in the industry when it comes to what a sustainable, high-performance career actually looks like, and what it costs if you're not careful.In this episode of Luke Who's Talking, we cover:How Andrew got his start in real estate and what the early years really looked likeThe advice he received starting out that shaped everything - be a good person and look after your buyersThe power of off-market sales and how to build the buyer network that makes 37 out of 115 possibleWhy every listing is an opportunity to generate three or four more, not just close the one in front of youHow Andrew structures his days around a 5am gym session so he's home before his family wakes upWhat it means to stop making real estate about yourself, and why that shift changes everything"I've been to the gym and back home before my family wakes up."Whether you are a new agent building your foundations or an experienced professional wanting to build something more sustainable and more human - Andrew's story is proof that the long game always wins.Follow Luke Who's Talking on Instagram @lukewhostalking_ | Sponsored by The Agency

This is not a career highlight reel. This is a 10-minute conversation about what actually goes on at home when you're a Top 50 agent with four kids and a partner who holds everything together.Andrew Liddell: BresicWhitney Director, consistently ranked in the Top 50 agents in Australia. Andrew sat down with Luke and talked about the parts of the job that don't make it into award nominations. The chaos of four kids aged four to twelve. Making school lunches at 10pm because it's one less thing for his partner. The phone that goes straight in the tie drawer the moment he walks through the door. Booking the family holidays at the start of the year so there's always something to look forward to. And the raw honesty in explaining how he will come to his kids to say sorry for the way he handled something.This bonus snippet is taken from the full Andrew Liddell episode, coming soon on Luke Who's Talking."I don't want to turn around one day and realise it wasn't about the deal. It was about being present."If you are building a career in real estate and trying to figure out how to not lose everything else in the process - this one is for you.Follow Luke Who's Talking on Instagram @lukewhostalking_ | Sponsored by The Agency