If someone owns a classic car, for example, you will never hear them do a ring-around of mechanics or spray painter shops to see who is the cheapest. 🚗💨

A conversation you’ll never hear at a pub:

🗣️ “Hey fellas, you know that beautiful 1968 HK GTS Monaro of mine that I’ve had forever. Well, it needs a paint job and I rang around and found someone who’ll do it for hundreds of dollars less than everyone else. Booked it straight in.”

When a professional sportsman has a knee injury, their focus is not on arranging the cheapest surgeon to do the job. ⚽💔

Matildas captain Sam Kerr injured her knee a while back and this was not the conversation at the time.

👥 Matildas football manager:
“Sam, we’ve rung around and we’ve found a really cheap orthopedic surgeon in Mt Isa who reckons he can get you in for surgery next week. It’ll be thousands of dollars cheaper than the other options.”

👩‍⚕️ Sam:
“Sounds great, book me in.”

That conversation will never happen because the team and the player know there is a price to pay for going with the cheapest option. 💸❌

It’s not how much you pay, it’s how much it hurts the player and the club to go with someone who is not going to create the best possible result. 🧠💪

It’s the same for the owner of the HK Monaro. The car is too important for the cheapest option — and you will probably lose money in the end. 🕰️🛑

Which is why it’s so odd that, in real estate, you will often get a call along these lines:

📞 “Gidday mate, I’m planning to sell my house and I’m just ringing real estate agencies to see who can offer me the best deal. What’s your commission?”

Now I know that the cost is important. Agents get paid well and the cost of commission is absolutely something that a seller needs to factor in. There is no reason for someone to charge over-the-top commission that’s higher than everyone else. That’s a rip-off. 💰🚫

Agents have to justify their commission — produce a result that means the investment in commission is a good one. 📈✅

The truth is that the person who does a ring-around to find the cheapest agent usually ends up with the person who has one trick up their sleeve: low commission. A bit like the cheap spray painter and the cheap surgeon — not very good, but cheaper than everyone else. 🎩🐇

And the problem is that saving money at the start can cost you in the end. 💣💸

You can save $1000 on commission but lose $30,000 on the sale price because the stupid agent didn’t know how to create competition for your property and negotiate the best price. 🏡📉

Good work by the agent can produce a result that means the difference in commission between that agent and the cheaper one is not only irrelevant but completely justified. 🤝📈

I recently sold a three-bedroom, one-bathroom house in Beaconsfield with no pool and no shed for $590,000 after getting 38 groups of buyers at the open house and receiving eight offers on the property. 📊💼

The sellers were hoping for something in the low $500,000s and comparable sales reflected that expectation. 🎯

The thing is that the sellers were not thinking about whether my commission was $1000 higher than someone cheaper — they were thinking about the result. 🏆

I know I am not the only agent to get better-than-expected results in this market and I mention this one, not to brag, but to simply illustrate that cheaper isn’t always better. 😅

Well, maybe to brag a bit. 🙃

Oh, shut up! At least I didn’t start off with it! 😄