1300 TSALES

What is T-SALES?

You've heard of it and wondered what it is all about...
T-SALES Revolving Tender®, or T-SALES as it is also known, is a simplified form of for sale by tender, which is designed specifically for the residential, lifestyle and rural markets.

Tendering for property is a well-established method for selling property, which has been more common for selling commercial property. In 1999, we changed that by designing a system that employs the benefits of tender, but in a much simpler, user-friendly form.

The story starts in the early 1990s when three real estate companies located in Armadale, in Perth’s south-east, commenced using auction to sell some of their 'bread and butter' residential listings. Auction was rarely used in Perth, much less in the outer suburbs where the method was not used at all, except for an occasional Public Trustee sale, where these auctions were mostly unsuccessful.

The three agents became successful using auction, despite the pushback by other traditional agents who were happy to stay the same. Some auctions achieved unexpectedly high sales prices resulting in greater success. One of the agents sold their business, and the new owner did not continue with auctions, while another was taken over by his son, who also discontinued the auctions. The third agent persisted and became more successful—to the point of becoming so busy that the model was unsustainable! That agent loved the auction system, but realised that without increasing staff, he would ‘burn-out’, so phased out auctions. The agent was Patrick Grogan who owned and operated a franchised real estate office in Armadale.

The Jarrahdale Experience…

In 1998, a prospect ‘Mike’, whom T-SALES founder Patrick Grogan had been working with for years, contacted Patrick to look at a property he was thinking of buying. The property was being sold directly by the owner, a multi-national mining corporation. It was for sale by tender. Notwithstanding the fact that Patrick would not be receiving a commission from the deal, he looked at the property with Mike out of courtesy: Patrick was keen to list the prospect’s existing property in Bedfordale, a lifestyle, weekend retreat, which would be a very attractive listing to handle.

The mining company was disposing of two properties: One, Mike reasoned was worth $600,000 to $650,000 and, while the object of his desires, he could not afford that much. The other property, he concluded, was worth $425,000 but, because other buyers would offer that much, he would tender $426,000.

Subsequently Mike’s tender was accepted. Shortly after the tenders were finalised, Mike discovered there was only one other tender. He had paid a staggering $226,000 more than the other tender! Worse still, the superior property, which he coveted most, did not sell for $650,000, nor $600,000, but $350,000.

Over the next few months, Mike developed the property pouring money into soil improvements - plus purchasing costs! After being unable to sleep with the thought of his mistake, Mike, on the verge of a nervous break-down, called Patrick to list the property for sale.

With a listing price set at $395,000, Patrick went in search of a buyer – unsuccessfully, as one would expect given the history. Later, a very distressed Mike called, instructing Patrick to offer the property for sale by tender. Patrick knew nothing about tender. Nevertheless, it was worth trying, so he created a makeshift tender document and started advertising for tenders.

There was an immediate increase in enquiries. A call came that would change his idea of tender forever! The other ($200,000) tenderer from the original tender campaign came out of hiding. He was very anxious because he thought he was going to lose the opportunity to buy the property, which he was keen to acquire. After some negotiating, a deal was finally struck at $350,000 on 31 August 1999. Mike, despite his loss, was very relieved.

From this case history Patrick concluded these things:
1. Tenders do work;
2. Tenders can achieve prices well in excess of expectations (as with auction)
3. Tenders flush out buyers, making them anxious to take advantage of the opportunity.

Back in the suburbs

Patrick Grogan, like all agents in the area, was oversupplied with stock.

Patrick recalls, “Competing for limited buyers, we could be holding forty to sixty listings at any given time, the larger agencies often held double that amount.

“Creating good advertising copy was exhausting. We were good ad writers, but just how many ways can you describe a ‘3x1’ on 600sqm and make it sound unique?

“Seller meetings were not ‘exciting’. I insisted on weekly price meetings with sellers. While these were helpful, it did become tiresome, especially by the sixth month!

“Salespeople found their listings boring! Home opens lead to demotivation because few people came to see the houses.

“As expected, advertising costs started to blow out and holding large volumes of stock meant advertising costs were becoming unsustainable.”

The need…

In the second half of 1999, this creative real estate agent saw the need for a new, innovative system for marketing real estate. The resulting system would change the way real estate is sold.

“The results have been astounding—in fact the system was so successful it created its own ‘boom’ even before there was a boom!”, Patrick explained.

Discovering the solution

Patrick went in search of a system that would offer sellers all the benefits of auction without the stress, and without the costs…He found no suitable solution, so he created his own.
The result
The result is a system designed by a Western Australian real estate agent for the WA market...and that’s why it works.

T-SALES Revolving Tender® is the solution…