How this Raine & Horne office increased contracts exchanged by 29%

Stuart Bourne and his team at Raine & Horne Lower North Shore have cemented their place as some of the best agents throughout Lane Cove, Mosman and Willoughby areas of Sydney. Their remarkable market presence, track record and operational excellence speak for themselves.

One of the most significant advantages behind the team’s operations is using Realtair to list and sell from end to end.

How it happened: Being forced to change during COVID

Back in 2020, COVID was a driving force behind Stuart and his team looking at how they were able to continue listing and selling properties in the Lower North Shore of Sydney during lockdowns.

“We were forced to onboard technology more than ever. We’ve learned a lot from COVID, and it’s almost like the industry needed it – we were being left behind compared to other sectors,” says Stuart.

Even though using technology is not new for Stuart and his team, the separate tools and processes meant they were paying for multiple subscriptions and not using them enough. Once Stuart took the time to look closely at what they had, he noticed there was significant waste.

“Nothing was being used 100%. I did a massive audit through the business, cleaned out much of the tech, and realised we could replace them with smoother systems and processes.”

From then on, he implemented two rules for selecting new tech:

1. The tech has to improve their customer service
2. The tech has to be easy for the agents to use

This led Stuart to look at Realtair’s end-to-end platform to prospect, sign and sell listings.

Choosing Realtair: Navigating change management

The way Stuart tackled the change management challenge is two-fold:

1. Lead from the front
2. Finding your champions

He and the team went through a process of looking at everything available on the market. In the end, it was clear that Realtair was the one that could do everything but in one platform. 

Stuart then made a leadership decision for the business to adopt Realtair.

“It was difficult getting everyone on board. But all you needed was one agent who was willing to give it a go. We were lucky some of our top-performing agents took the lead – that social proof was valuable in getting the rest of the team on board,” says Stuart.

In addition, Stuart credits his team with helping each other with questions along with the platform’s user-friendliness.

Alex Banning, a Director at Raine & Horne Lower North Shore, also added, “Once you know how to use Realtair, it’s just simple 1-2-3. The support is excellent, so if I muck up something I can just call and the team are really helpful. There’s no need to fear changing the way you do things.”

Even though change management comes with growing pains, after implementing Realtair they could not go back to the way they had been doing things before.

You don’t think you need tech – until you do

The ability to exchange contracts remotely is a saving grace agents don’t realise they need – until they’re in a pinch.

Stuart recalls a vendor who was on a remote film set when a pre-auction offer was successfully negotiated with the only buyer.

“The vendor was saying she’ll come in next week when she’s back in Sydney to sign the contract. In my head, I was like: ‘This deal’s going to fall over.’ I told her she didn’t have to do that, we can send the contract over. The only thing she had to do was get access to the internet,” Stuart explains.

“We were able to exchange the contract later that night at 11PM. From that day I was sold: This is the best product ever.”

In addition, using Realtair for deposit collection meant that Stuart and his team were able to alleviate the cybersecurity risk that comes with having humans involved in verifying bank details.

“With Realtair’s system, there is two-step authentication. The client inputs their own information and we aren’t handling it anymore,” Stuart adds. “If you’re still managing deposits over email you’re a sitting duck waiting for a lawsuit to happen.”

The key to a happier, growing business

Ultimately, the decision to change their operating processes through the adoption of Realtair was about one thing: supporting their agents.

The shift to Realtair meant that:

• Agents can now list and sell completely remote
• The prospecting to settlement process has been streamlined
• The whole business’s pipeline from end to end is visible

Raine & Horne Lower North Shore wrote $9.7mil GCI in 2022 and exchanged 336 Contracts of Sale, an increase of 29% compared to their usual 260 contracts per year before Realtair.

“I have a vision that an agent’s admin is completely removed. I would love to see an agent just list, sell and negotiate – that’s all I want them to do in our business. The agents don’t have admin assistants, but junior agents they can nurture and grow as part of their team.  The agency then moves to a supporting role,” Stuart explains.

With Realtair, he is one step closer to realising this vision that provides more freedom and control back to the agent.

“It’s allowed us to grow heavily and step away from the weeds to focus on the business. My agents love it – we couldn’t go back.”