Never waste a crisis

Let me tell you about the time I was exited...

My early days in real estate were with the Taylor family in their company AH Taylor & Sons, in property management. By the end of my twenties, they had built the team up to the point where they had eight offices.

Both they and I had grown.

I was originally running the Petersham office before they asked me to run the Inner West offices as their group property manager. They then expanded to the eastern suburbs and I was asked to start running the property management team from Randwick. Shortly thereafter I became the director of the eastern suburbs office covering both sales and property management. By then I was in my early thirties, a director and manager of their eight businesses.  

Even in my early thirties as a new manager, I began mentoring people. At the same time I was being mentored by Brian Taylor, one of the sons of the owner who was also one of the directors of the business. He taught me a hell of a lot. The sons or grandsons of the founder Hugh Taylor are still in real estate today. One of the grandsons, Peter Taylor, has a great commercial business in the inner suburbs of Sydney. 

Running their eastern suburbs business was a really big learning curve and it wasn’t about money as much as it was about learning and being successful. It was in this role that I could see that I had this knack to help people get to where they wanted to go.

Out of the Taylor’s business unknowingly blossomed the partnership that started Ray White Double Bay.

But it wasn’t a smooth beginning.

The property manager at SE Turtle was Trevor Leach who later became my partner at Ray White Double Bay; and Craig Pontey, a 17 year old young rebel, was in the property management team. (Over a two year period, Craig had smashed three company cars and I had to convince the directors not to get rid of him. Craig and I just hit it off and even though he was a nightmare, I believed in him.)

One year the Taylor family, whom we all worked for, decided to start operating a sales team in the Double Bay market by setting themselves up at Edgecliff. At that stage, my cousin Lillian had just gone through a divorce and needed a job. She was an excellent salesperson in the retail arena so I got her a position as a salesperson with us. I was still based in Randwick at this stage, but the newly appointed sales manager was swiftly exited from the Edgecliff business due to a misdemeanour and I was asked to mind this new business as part of my responsibilities for a week or two. I was just to spend a day there every week, but the weeks soon blew out beyond two and I would end up in that business a few more days a week before it evolved into five days.

The business was in trouble.

It was in the red and there were these amazing established competitors nearby: LJ Hooker, Richardson and Wrench, Raine and Horne and some splinter companies. All the operators of those competitor brands were ‘old’ to my mind, in their forties and fifties, and they were truly established. They had the whole market sewn up. 

We had no real ‘in’ to that part of the market, except that I had attended Vaucluse High with some boys who have turned out to be pretty accomplished in today’s community: David Lowy, Phil Stricker one of the world’s greatest prostate cancer surgeons, Phil Wolanski, Steve Glanz of Baker McKenzie, Jacques Kosmin of Kosmin & Associate Lawyers and various other now senior directors and managing directors in major companies. We were all interested in soccer, sport and music generally. 

What I know know is: self-belief, and surrounding yourself with people who believe in you is the key to success.

I remember saying to my wife Sue, who always has been there and believed in me, that even if we lost everything and the business went bust, I'm really not at all fearful because I believed I could do it all again.

That belief was put to the test early in my thirties. 

Trevor Leach had left the Taylors’ business by the time I was in the Double Bay business. He went out on his own opening his own business in Rose Bay. It was called, wait for it, Leach Real Estate. He was connected and built up a good property management business, but selling was not his forte. Trevor would continually call and say, “when are you coming here? I’ve got your name plaque on the desk.” I wasn’t intending to leave, but somewhere in my heart, I knew I wanted to do my own thing. Call it the Jewish guilt that so many sons have: the expectation that you have to own your own business. Another day we were at a function, Trevor was there. He approached me again, “your name is on the desk.” 

At the Taylors’ business at the time, their next generation of sons was becoming more involved and it was no longer feeling right for me. I started feeling like I was not as relevant as I had been to their business. I wanted my own direction too. 

I came up with an idea and I approached the Taylors, who were now like fathers to me. I’d been with them 14 years after all. I suggested we incorporate Trevor back into the business somehow, or I go into business with him. The idea was that we combine the businesses somehow with the Taylors.

It turns out, they saw this idea not as an opportunity... but as a threat. 

But I'll tell you more about that shortly.

Up until this point, I had been running the Double Bay office which had been moved to a little office upstairs off the main street, off New South Head Road. I’d dragged Craig into the Double Bay office from Randwick. We had the bare minimum in equipment. He had a little typewriter desk that wheeled around, really antiquated. He sat opposite me, smashing cars up and having a great big social life. I was married, owned property, starting a family. He was in property management but I was constantly badgering him to move to sales. He wasn’t inclined. I’d repeatedly say, “you’re going to be much better off as a salesperson.” One day I got the shits with him, I grabbed him by the collar, pushed him on the desk and said, “Craig, no further discussion. You’re going to be a salesperson.” He got the message and soon after became a salesman. I felt like a bit of a father figure for him and he always sought counsel from me in the early years. 

(Little did we know that at some time in the future we would become partners and lifelong friends. Later on into the growth of the Ray White Double Bay venture, Craig took control of part of the business and he did it really well. In a strange way, we’re not a match, but he has been an anchor for me. We live life vastly differently: I was always about the future and he lives for today. I just couldn’t think like that. So I thought, I’m going to learn from him. The way he lived was unique and challenging for me to understand and he helped me break the mold of being secure, measured and never going out on a limb. Perhaps that’s what makes a good partnership. Craig lives on the edge; I stay strictly away from it. That’s part of why our partnership works.) 

Back to the story. There were only three of us in this tiny office: Craig, my cousin Lillian and I. I had turned the sales business from red to black. The Taylors had never seen so much money produced from an office. I had been really determined and had great connections in the area and grew the Double Bay business exponentially.

After a year or so of growth and proving our potential, the Taylors had bought the shop downstairs from our little office, which is today a Vintage Wine Cellar. They spent a lot of money renovating it and at the same time, I started growing a really good Double Bay team for them. It went from strength to strength. Our first major listing was on Courtney Road in April of 1988 and it was the first auction property we ever held, I still speak to the owners today. It was a milestone property for us: it was the first full page in the Wentworth Courier we ever had and was successfully sold onsite for around a million dollars. A record price, because in those days houses were generally selling for $500,000 - $750,000, we’d never see one for circa one million, particularly in the back streets of Rose Bay. 

As we built up the business, I thought it was a good time to suggest expanding by bringing Trevor back into the business. The Taylors apparently didn’t think it was a good idea and a few days later they invited Craig and I out to Petersham for a director’s meeting. We sat down to find only one of the directors there and the accountant.

I thought, “that’s a bit strange.” 

“Why would we sell the jewel in the crown?” Max Taylor said to me. 

They communicated that they were not very happy with the direction we wanted to take.

“We’d like you to leave.”

They said that Brian Taylor, the other Director who had been a father figure to me, was down at Double Bay changing the locks as we sat in that meeting. I was flawed.

I felt disappointed, let down, blindsided but we didn’t have the luxury to wallow for long. The cold wind of disaster was blowing up my arse... to steal a phrase from our long-time country auctioneer the late, great Tony Fountain. I had the plan already there that I’d presented to them. So instead of going through it with them, I figured I could go through it with Trevor who had just, mere months prior, put up Ray White signs.

(I had driven past weeks earlier, called him and said, “What’s Ray White?”. An improvement on ‘Leach Real Estate’ no doubt, but no one knew who or what it was. It was only that I’d been to Queensland that I had heard of them and had seen their signs. In Sydney, they were no brand at all. I know that over 30 years we have helped build the Ray White brand here in New South Wales and Australia at large because of my contacts and successes. That is a bold statement but there is no doubt about it and Brian White has said it on many occasions that our efforts were key to their growth.)

I marched right out of the Taylor’s office in Petersham and straight into Trevor Leach’s office. “I think it’s time we start.”

We shook hands and I recommended that Craig Pontey be involved as a salesperson in our new business, and Lillian who was brilliant too. 

Meanwhile, Craig wasn’t sure it was what he wanted to do. He asked for time to think about it. After he'd had a think he returned and announced he wanted to be a partner which was fine by me, but not by Trevor. So achieving a three-partner business was probably the first negotiation we brokered. We ended up becoming partners on a handshake, 31 years ago, in November 1987. So there we were - five people: Trevor, Craig, Lillian, Sandra Miles, and I. Trevor was really good at property management, Craig was doing well in development sales. There was no written agreement between the partners for the first eight months. 

Curiously, one by one, the six sales staff from the previous office at Taylor’s business joined us. 

In the first two years of the business, when we had around ten staff, you’re wondering how to pay the bills. You’ve got kids, you’ve stretched yourself to buy a house (Sue and I’d paid $30,000 too much for our home which is probably $2million in today’s money!)... All these things were going through my head. I guess I was reverting to worst-case scenarios. 

But even with this fear of the unknown looming, and the potential for failure omnipresent, we had to truly believe even if we lost it all we could do it all again. We could start over and still be successful.

We’d rely on that belief many times more over the next 30+ years of leadership at Ray White Double Bay. That self-belief has buoyed us through some hairy times that ultimately lead us to become arguably the most powerful, successful real estate office in Australia. 

A crisis spawned the creation of one of the most successful and longevous real estate businesses in Australia.

Never waste a crisis.