Real Estate Brilliance Life Member Andy McIntyre, joined 2018
“My advice to anyone in real estate – get trained so you can do it properly”. After buying a real estate agency, Andy McIntryre fumbled his way through the industry for several years until training saw him double his personal income and triple that of the business. Wanting a change, and to work for himself rather than someone else, Andy McIntyre took a huge leap of faith in 2009 and bought a real estate agency – with absolutely no experience in the industry. Shortly afterward he suffered two major blows – the GFC and the death of the owner of the company, who he had been expecting to show him the ropes and guide him through the industry. “I was in a real hole, I had to get a licensee, and then try and run the business while learning about sales and property management,” Andy said.
“I just fumbled my way through for the next four years or so.” Reading the E-myth by Michael E. Gerber provided a wake-up call. “I read it about five years after buying the business and I realized I’d done everything he says wannabe entrepreneurs do – I’d just bought myself a job, I’d forked out a tonne of money and bought myself a wage in order to pay all that money back and not get ahead,” Andy said. “After that I started thinking seriously about changing what I was doing – I had to stop the way I was working, I had to put a structure in place for my business and have a proper plan for my business. I always knew that, but I just got so wrapped up in what I was doing, I just didn’t do it.”
That was the first step and he started doing some training, eventually joining Ryan Thompson at Real Estate Brilliance when he saw the results one of his agents, Paul Parkinson, was getting. “My personal business was OK, but it was still really up and down, and I still wasn’t great at what I was doing. Persistence and doggedness got me through,” Andy said. “Then I saw what Paul was going with Ryan and I thought ‘I’ll just see how he goes first because Paul will be quite vocal about how good or bad Ryan will be’. And he was really enjoying it and getting a lot out of it and I was seeing those results and decided to jump on board.” Andy’s first goal was to improve his own real estate skills and one of the things he found attractive about the program was the structure.
“I come from a very regimented background, having been in the navy and been a project manager for most of my career, and I like structure. Ryan had a blueprint that I could implement and it was easy,” he said. “Another benefit was meeting other agents and business owners and feeding off them, it became a bit of a networking club too.” Andy said training also provides personal insight.
“The great thing I see about having a coach is you become more self-reliant and more self-critical about what you’re doing,” he said. “You’re like: ‘OK, Ryan said X and I’ve not done that, that’s why I’ve not got the numbers I’m supposed to have by now’. “So I can pinpoint exactly why my revenue might be down, such as not doing my phone calls.” Not only has Andy seen results for himself, the agency has as well.
“I’ve doubled my business in the time I’ve been with Ryan and the company has tripled its revenue,” he said.
But it’s not just about the money. “I’ve got a very good team now so it’s all about nurturing that,” Andy said. “I don’t want them to all become million-dollar agents, because a lot of them don’t want that, but I want them all to be able to achieve what they really want to achieve, I want to be able to help them get to where they want to be and where they’re happy, whether that’s work life balance or income.
“If they’re happy in what they’re doing the business will benefit.”