Episodes

Podcastepisodesevery Friday

New episodes every Friday. The Before the Weekend wrap on Australian real estate, plus Quick Bites with industry leaders. Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or right here.

Play the whole series in order, from episode one to the latest. It keeps rolling as you browse, and loops back to the start.

EP. 23

Before the Weekend

Behind Closed Doors and the Rent Rolls Worth Zip

16 Oct 2026 · 52m

This week on Before the Weekend, Kasey McDonald and Peter Schravemade work through what's happening in real estate behind closed doors - the stories that don't make the vendor pack. Peter shares the calls he's taken this week from principals of high-quality, award-winning agencies doing it tough, including one who has never seen the buyer tap turn off like this - 42 open homes, zero people through. The hosts pay tribute to Sunshine Coast agent Adam Dunlop and make the case for checking in on your mates, your principal, your property managers, your clients and even your competitors. The Rise Initiative's free Real Care app, with three confidential counselling sessions, gets a strong recommendation, alongside Charles Tarbey's reminder that agents are not responsible for market conditions. The cashflow crunch: Brisbane's preliminary clearance rate down to around 20 per cent, capital-city selling times blowing out from 23 to 39 days, Domain taking a developer to the NSW Supreme Court for a winding-up, and Kasey on agency mergers as an alternative to liquidation. The rent roll trap: Marshall White's Anthony Wiseman on buyers and valuers stripping non-compliant properties out of rent roll valuations, Cara Bergmann's $24,000 arrears case from cut-price PM teams, why discounting management fees is the wrong play, REEF CEO Bryan Wilcox on what a federal ban on non-competes could do to agency client books, and the annual principal-to-owner call as a retention strategy. Compliance and Victoria: the hidden risk of DIY AML compliance, scammers impersonating AUSTRAC, and Kasey's week on the ground in Victorian agencies - bond claims now requiring notice and evidence, the application fee ban, two-yearly gas and electrical checks, energy efficiency standards on the way, and investors telling PMs to put them onto a salesperson. Plus Kasey's read from Victorian PMs that more than 40 per cent of Melbourne sales listings are coming out of property management departments, the Greens' landlord licence proposal, Victoria's $1 billion land tax shortfall, Cotality's Bend It Like Buyers report (4.9 per cent is the rate buyers say would bring them back) and a rapid-fire wrap on investors shifting to new builds and commercial. If you or someone you work with is doing it tough: Real Care app, Lifeline 13 11 14, Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636, Small Business Debt Helpline 1800 413 828.

Show notes

EP. 22

Before the Weekend

Rents Hit the Ceiling and PropertyMe Opens Its Data

9 Oct 2026 · 54m

This week on Before the Weekend, Kasey McDonald and Peter Schravemade work through a week where the rental market finally said what Tim Lawless told them in March: tenants have no elasticity left. First, the Domain September quarter rent report. Capital-city house rents were flat at $700 a week despite a 1 per cent vacancy rate, Sydney and Canberra recorded their first quarterly falls in two years, and the Gold Coast is the most expensive city in the country for houses at $920 a week. Peter does the minimum-wage arithmetic - $26.44 an hour, about $1,000 a week, $920 to rent - and Kasey's message to property managers is to get to street-level data, present the facts to landlords, and think about who stays housed rather than who pays the most. Then PropertyMe. The platform 6,500 agencies run on has released an external MCP server, AiMe Connect, so users on the Advanced tier and above can ask Claude or ChatGPT questions of their live portfolio data. Peter explains what a Model Context Protocol server actually is, why he calls it the new gold standard for proptech, why "we've got one but haven't released it" doesn't count, and what to ask any vendor who claims to have AI. Kasey walks through what it changes for a property manager's Monday. Then Victoria's next tranche of rental law, starting Monday 13 October: evidence and advance notice for every bond claim, records proving minimum standards on request from Consumer Affairs, gas and electrical checks extended to tenancies that began before March 2021, and a ban on application and rent-tech fees. Kasey has the list; Peter's ask of every state is the same - talk to the industry first. From there to New South Wales, where minimum energy-efficiency rental standards are under consideration and a Renew report puts the landlord's cost at $15,000 to $34,000 a property. LJ Hooker has become the exclusive distributor of OHOME, a factory-built two-bedroom backyard dwelling at around $250,000 installed, assessed online against the owner's lot. Neither host can recall a franchise doing anything like it. Both think it's smart. On the Gold Coast, a six-bedroom Mermaid Waters house that is 80 per cent built has gone to market as a mortgagee-in-possession sale, with APRA data showing interest-only loans at 23.5 per cent of new lending, the highest since 2019. And a Main Beach agency principal has pleaded guilty to two domestic-violence offences and been fined $3,500 with no conviction recorded - which, as Peter points out, is the detail that keeps his Queensland licence. Then Kasey's favourite television program. The Victorian government has confirmed it sold the heritage-listed Sunbury asylum site to The Block for $1 million, with no public campaign, on a Valuer-General-certified valuation. Peter doesn't accept it and says so. Also this week: congratulations to Rob Mandanici, the new president of REIWA, and thanks to outgoing president Suzanne Brown for her service; and an Irvine, California agent arrested at LAX, alleged to have been acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government. Before the Weekend is a weekly podcast for Australian property professionals, hosted by Kasey McDonald and Peter Schravemade. New episodes every Friday.

Show notes

EP. 21

Before the Weekend

eXp Calls Back, Surcharges, NSW Legislation

2 Oct 2026 · 1h 4m

This week on Before the Weekend, Kasey McDonald and Peter Schravemade start with a correction. Last week we ran the eXp Australia story as unconfirmed. This week Mindy Powell-Hodges, Country Leader of eXp Australia, called: the sales representative and Class 2 pathway has been discontinued because of regulatory change, and very few agents are affected - which matches Peter's own calls to eXp agents. The bigger story is in eXp's own press release, where the fine print describes a transition to a fully licensed Class 1 model. The open-door recruiting that built the US model no longer exists here. NSW has passed the Residential Tenancies Amendment (Protection of Personal Information) Bill. From early 2027 every agent uses a standardised application form, cannot ask for photos, social media, children's details or tattoos, collects ID only from the preferred applicant, and must disclose digitally altered or AI-generated listing images that hide faults. Penalties run to $49,500. Peter's view from a decade in property imagery: most of what hits the portals today falls on the wrong side of that wording. The Government's own example of an "AI-doctored" listing turned out to be a $5,000 mural. Then the receipt. REINSW CEO Tim McKibbin's internal master table counts 33 Acts and regulations - around 2,100 individual amendments, 209 carrying penalties - landing on NSW agents between October 2024 and early 2027, each written up as a psychosocial risk for the people doing the work. Aaron Barber's "500 changes" was conservative. Kasey reports from the road on what that load looks like on a PM desk. Money moving: the card surcharge ban is live from 1 October, DEFT has stopped taking cards for 1.2 million rent payments a month, Services Australia still clips 99 cents on every Centrepay rent payment NSW made compulsory, and a "Supplier Trade Fee" has appeared on realestate.com.au invoices - a real Amex arrangement, but one to watch. Also this week: a Mareeba couple with good income and references rejected 15 times at 0.8 per cent vacancy in Cairns; a Sunshine Coast principal convicted after threatening to end an employee's career and a Gold Coast agent off the road; the Newcastle family who can't get their lodgers out, and why renting rooms in your own home sits outside the tenancy Act; agents sliding into DMs on Threads; and the NRL grand final.

Show notes

EP. 20

Before the Weekend

eXp Australia, One Third of Nothing and 90 Seconds Outside the Car

25 Sept 2026 · 1h 10m

This week on Before the Weekend, Kasey McDonald and Peter Schravemade work through a week where the claims did not survive contact with the people who actually do the job. First, eXp Australia. Three social media posts, no press release and no mainstream coverage, but agents inside the business confirm it: the Class 2 and sales representative pathway is being terminated. Independent contractors with their own licence and entity are unaffected. The recruiters who built teams on the promise of passive income are not. Peter has written to eXp Australia director Chris Janzon for a response and will bring him on if he answers. Then the $593 million black hole. realestate.com.au says negatively geared Queensland landlords are heading for a mass sell-off before the negative gearing and capital gains changes land. Peter is not convinced the number holds - the PIPA figure of 35.5 per cent of Queensland investors selling in the last 12 months predates the tax change entirely - but the instruction to principals is the same either way: audit the rent roll for the owners who are negatively geared, and get in front of them before they list. Then the article Peter filed under T for trash. RentBetter founder Jeremy Goldschmidt told the Sydney Morning Herald that one third of Australia's 2.2 million rentals are now leased without an agent. The Queensland RTA, which holds every bond in the state, says 89 per cent of rentals are professionally managed. NSW is 93 per cent. And 83.1 per cent of RTA infringement notices last quarter went to private lessors, against about 15 per cent for agents. Kasey adds the story of a 22-year-old on a private landlord's lease that contradicted the Act. "Completely fabricated, not true, not even in the vicinity." Then Consumer Affairs Victoria fines one agency and drags two more to court over late bonds, and former REIV president Adam Docking is punched four or five times and robbed putting out an open-for-inspection sign in Vermont at midday on a Saturday. His warning to every agent and property manager: never leave the keys in the car. Paul Tommasini of the Tenancy Skills Institute joins to explain why the property manager is the first responder in the homelessness system: property managers say about 50 per cent of failed tenancies could have been saved with simple interventions, the Brisbane and Mackay pilots pushed that above 90 per cent, and PM Assist turns a referral into a two-minute job - because every day a tenancy drifts costs another hundred dollars nobody gets back. Also this week: rates go up Tuesday and David Koch blames Canberra, nearly half of Australians in share houses are over 40, the Victorian auction rules start next week without the paperwork, and Jellis Craig's Andrew McCann calls it the worst market in 30 years.

Show notes

EP. 19

Before the Weekend

Two Licences, One Portal and the Eight-Year Deposit

18 Sept 2026 · 1h 19m

The ACCC has made realestate.com.au rewrite its agency contracts. For three years REA cannot require or incentivise agencies to list all or most of their properties with it, or push them into premium listings. No finding of wrongdoing, no penalty - but agents now have a choice to explain to vendors. South Australia has opened a select committee into the conduct of real estate professionals - underquoting, appraisals, undisclosed faults, rental bidding. Submissions close 23 October. REISA's Andrea Heading wants scrutiny that is evidence-based, and a reminder that agents are not building inspectors. Two Queensland licences, on opposite ends of the same provision: Tony O'Doherty in the Supreme Court arguing an Irish conviction should not cancel a Queensland licence, decision reserved - and a Brisbane agent sentenced this week over child abuse material. Plus arson at a Jacobs Well agency, a second Result Strata director banned, NSW Smart Rental Bonds statewide, and the modelling that says the 2027 CGT changes add eight years to a young saver's deposit. Then Sarah Cincotta on why investors are leaving, what landlords are really saying in the Facebook groups, and why retention is the growth strategy nobody is running.

Show notes

EP. 18

Before the Weekend

Reserves Seven Days Out, a Licence Lost and Housefishing in New Farm

11 Sept 2026 · 1h 6m

This week on Before the Weekend, Kasey McDonald and Peter Schravemade work through a week where the rules got stricter and the people living under them got very little say in how. First, Victoria. Auctioneer and coach Andy Reid called Peter after last week's episode to say we had it slightly wrong, so he came on to fix it. After a briefing from Consumer Affairs Victoria's Nicole Rich, the draft clause that appeared to stop buyers making an offer until they had held the contract for 14 days has been put down to a typo - the contract now simply has to be available for 14 days before the auction. From 1 October the statement of information becomes the property price statement, "a statement of information on steroids" with detail on every comparable sale. The reserve has to be published seven calendar days out, and while it can come down during the auction it cannot go up. An offer above the reserve that is rejected on price resets the seven days; one rejected in writing on process does not. Campaigns launched before 1 October get two weeks' grace, so the auctions of 3 and 10 October run under the old rules. Andy's read is that auctions accelerate at the bottom of the market and drift away at the top, and his line on the new rules: "it's actually one of the best conditioning tools we've ever been given." Peter's worry is the week the market moves after the reserve is set, and he wants a month of results before he believes it. Then AUSTRAC. Section 167 notices started going out in late August to agencies that have not enrolled, a reminder that the deadline has passed. Then the story that divided the industry. McGrath Bulimba principal Tony O'Doherty has had his Queensland real estate licence cancelled over an assault in Ireland in 2013, when he was 23. He pleaded guilty by video link in November 2025 and received a two-year sentence, fully suspended. He is appealing, and McGrath is standing behind him. Kasey walks through what changes inside an office when the licensee goes, down to the form 6s and the name on the door, and Peter asks the harder question: at what point does society let someone move on, and what precedent does it set if it does? Then housefishing in New Farm. A rental listing at 22 Mark Street appears to have been built with AI images that bear little resemblance to the house. Peter, once called the catfisher of real estate from his years at BoxBrownie, draws the ethical line - a grey sky or a Queensland lawn can be fixed, power lines cannot - and says this one is beyond any disclaimer: walls stretched, power points gone, every image changed. Queensland's Property Occupations Act allows up to 540 penalty units for false or misleading representations, and Kasey asks what rights a tenant has if they signed without ever inspecting. Then Revenue NSW and the contractor who is really an employee. Most internal conjunction arrangements fail every payroll tax exemption, and section 47 can set aside the ones that pass. Also this week: Kasey reports back from the REIQ Property Insider Lunch, where Treasurer David Janetzki said loan applications and approvals are down and Queensland is not paying for Jim Chalmers' budget, and the AFR's John Kehoe put the tax changes at 60 basis points on an investor loan with transactions down about 15 per cent; the WA rent cap debate returns; and Kasey heads to PM/ONE in Sydney while Peter flies from PropTech Connect in London to the REACH gathering in Colorado.

Show notes

EP. 17

Before the Weekend

500 Changes, the July 1 Valuation and a War on Auctions

4 Sept 2026 · 1h 46m

This week on Before the Weekend, Kasey McDonald and Peter Schravemade work through a week where every regulator wanted more from the industry and none of them wanted to talk to it. First, audits. NSW Fair Trading's strata and property taskforce finished a statewide sweep of agents holding consumer money: 34 businesses facing potential licence suspension, 41 overdue audits lodged, 32 warnings, three industry bans, six mandatory training orders and more than $200,000 in fines, with a Penrith agency losing its licence and copping $22,000. Nobody here is accused of stealing, they simply did not lodge the audit. Then the ones who did steal: a NSW property manager, 162 transactions and roughly $151,000 plus $36,000, gets a 12-month community sentence, while a Brisbane operator who took $131,000 gets four and a half years jail. Same crime, wildly different states. Then Scams Awareness Week and the email account somewhere in the transaction that criminals are watching for weeks. The rule is simple: anything over $5,000 gets a phone call before it moves. Then Victoria declares war on auctions. Reserves set 14 days out, a property price statement seven days before unconditional, all signed off by a premier who has since left the building. Peter's read is that buyers will simply drift to private treaty, which has no transparency at all. Then the Tenancy Skills Institute's Two Tides of Homelessness report, 327 property managers, nearly 126,000 tenancies, and 6.43 per cent of them at risk, up from 4.8 per cent a year ago. The finding that matters: in Queensland, portfolios with no referral pathway saw at-risk tenancies jump 150 per cent while those using PM Assist fell 18.47 per cent. Property managers themselves said 52 per cent of the 3,114 failed tenancies were preventable. Then a Gold Coast developer allegedly terminating five-year-old off-the-plan contracts under sunset clauses, the test case for the 2023 reform, and 1,522 NSW construction firms gone in a single financial year. Josh Stanton of Opteon joins to make sense of the 1 July 2027 valuation deadline from a regional desk in Gladstone: why metro investors should wait four to six weeks and regional ones until September or October, a worked Kirkwood example that lands $8,450 more tax under the new regime rather than the tens of thousands being reported, and the warning nobody else is making, do your renovations before 1 July, because the new system does not appear to treat them kindly. Then the interview that changes the mood. Aaron Barber, general manager of the REINSW, on 500 legislative changes in 18 months, a domestic violence regulation published on 7 June and handed to the institute on 7 August, and reforms that now require the property manager to notify the remaining co-tenant, change the locks and chase damage from a person who may be violent. Seven property managers have already refused the four-hour CPD course because it would be triggering. When Aaron asked the minister for a meeting, the response was: "You are playing games, stop playing games." Also this week: Kasey heads to the REIQ Property Insider Luncheon, Peter packs for PropTech Connect in London and the REACH portfolio gathering in Boulder, a licensed conveyancer allegedly short nearly $1 million, and why your real estate institute membership just earned its keep. If anything in this episode is close to home, 1800RESPECT is 1800 737 732.

Show notes

EP. 16

Before the Weekend

A Developer's Collapse, the Rate Flip and Four Different Brisbanes

28 Aug 2026 · 1h 20m

This week on Before the Weekend, Kasey McDonald and Peter Schravemade work through a numbers week in which almost none of the numbers agreed with each other. First, Universal Property Group. Administrators were appointed Tuesday to a business carrying roughly $3.2 billion in liabilities, $2.85 billion of it borrowing, spread across hundreds of numbered subsidiaries running as high as UPG 460. They want $20 million just to keep it trading for five weeks. The number that matters to anyone holding a contract is the $27 million of buyer money sitting outside protected accounts, alongside $209 million of completed stock nobody has been able to shift, in the middle of a supply crisis. Then Perth, where REIWA disqualified an agent from its own awards because the figures he submitted did not stack up. That would have been the story on its own. The second matter is heavier: the same agent is alleged to have bought his own vendor's home through a company registered the same day the offer was made, at the agency's own address, with the disclosure form arriving almost six weeks after the contract was signed. There was a ghost open home and there were retrospective valuations. Peter is careful throughout that all of it is alleged. Then the flip. Three of the big four now forecast a rate hike where the consensus was a cut in 2027, with Westpac the last one holding. Peter puts the ACTU's two-year lease mandate against the arithmetic a property manager actually faces, $5 a week incremental against an $80 step-up, and argues the mandate would produce exactly the behaviour it was written to prevent. Then the story nobody else ran. Four providers published vacancy rates for the same cities in the same quarter and none of them match. Sydney: Domain 1.1 per cent, SQM 1.7, PropTrack 1.7, Cotality 1.9. Brisbane: Domain 0.6 against Cotality 1.2. Darwin 0.1 against 0.9, a ninefold gap. Cotality calls Sydney and Brisbane the loosest capitals while Domain and SQM have Brisbane among the tightest. As Peter puts it: "Brisbane, no one seems to know where the hell the vacancy rate is." Also this week: national house rents at $730 a week and 69 per cent of weekly pay in Sydney, a Highland Property rent roll doubled to 5,000 by running property management as its own business unit with its own P&L, New Zealand naming and shaming its worst property managers, Ingenia's $992.5 million move on Peet, and a study finding 81 per cent of Australian homes sit below the World Health Organization's 18 degree safe minimum across winter.

Show notes

EP. 15

Before the Weekend

Operation Claw, the Thirty Per Cent and a Trip to Bali

21 Aug 2026 · 1h 33m

This week on Before the Weekend, Kasey McDonald and Peter Schravemade work through the week the buyer's agent industry stopped being a story about one bad operator. First, AUSTRAC. Operation Claw pooled data from ten major Australian banks and found potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in suspected fraudulent home loans - inflated incomes, misrepresented employment, offshore and third-party funds at settlement, most of it linked to Sydney property. Peter has been one of the loudest critics of how many AML checkpoints Tranche 2 forces on a single transaction, and says this is the answer to the question he put to AUSTRAC's CEO on stage last year. He's still not happy about how it was implemented. Then the number every property manager will be asked about for the next twelve months. Ray White modelling puts the break-even gross yield for a leveraged investor at 5.15 per cent. Capital city yields are sitting at 3.95. Something has to close that gap, and rents can't. Peter puts his own money where his mouth is and explains why he just locked his tenants onto two-year leases - and why he thinks making that compulsory, as the ACTU proposed on Tuesday, would be the fastest way to make the problem worse. Josh Deckart of Zapiio joins to give the state of the buyer's agent market from the inside: the SMSF wave that ran to the deadline and then stopped dead, why he could name fifty small operators who have already left, and the argument nobody else is making - that the budget put jet fuel on the commercial market, where leases are CPI-linked and every increase gets passed to a small business tenant. Two hours after that interview was recorded, Atlas Property Group announced it was entering voluntary liquidation. Then the interview that changes the mood. Peter Diamantidis of Ray White United Group has spent three years building a recognition program that rewards property managers exactly like sales stars - overseas trips, partners included, gated on hard metrics his teams don't get to negotiate. He set a target of 500 new organic managements. They brought in eleven hundred. Three property managers have left in three years. His answer to principals who think it's too expensive: "Just pay two recruiter fees, there's your trip." Also this week: Real acquires REMAX, McGrath partners with 172-year-old Hodges, the REIV takes on the Victorian government over auction reserve disclosure, and the last regional markets standing.

Show notes

EP. 14

Before the Weekend

Billboards, Trust Accounts and 588 Empty Homes

14 Aug 2026 · 1h 22m

This week on Before the Weekend, Kasey McDonald and Peter Schravemade work through a week where the running theme was what people chose not to say. Two agents started from the identical insight - the public doesn't much like real estate agents. One put a self-deprecating joke about himself on a billboard in Wynnum and said up front he wrote the review himself. The other invented a theft, accused a woman who doesn't exist, and didn't tell anyone until the last slide. Half a million views later, Peter asks the question nobody else is asking: did it sell the house? Then NSW publishes the results of a statewide, intelligence-led trust account operation - more than $200,000 in fines, 34 businesses on notice, and 41 overdue audits that only arrived once licences were threatened. The Supreme Court hands down its deposit flicking judgment, which says considerably more than the media statement announcing it. Also this week: a Victorian buyer left with a $32,000 termite bill, and a Facebook post the vendor wrote before she signed the Section 32. The RBA holds at 4.35 per cent while ANZ forecasts Sydney down 9.9 per cent across 2026. The Sydney Plan commences with one genuinely new idea buried inside it. A Canberra agent who slept rough as a teenager is trying to renovate twenty vacant public housing homes and have families in them by Christmas, while 588 sit empty and 3,650 people wait. And Peter reads REA's new AI Search Trends report properly, and finds the story is what isn't in it.

Show notes

EP. QB·07

Quick Bite

Successful Until It Wasn't, with Peter Hutton

11 Aug 2026 · 62 min

A special edition of Before the Weekend, recorded in Brisbane. Peter Schravemade sits down with Peter Hutton, who built Hutton & Hutton from his dining table into a three-office, thirty-person Brisbane agency turning over $200 million a year - and then watched around 70 per cent of its revenue walk out the door in eight weeks. The first resignation arrived in the first week of December, a month after the opening party for a new heritage-listed head office. A second office followed six weeks later. Recruiters stopped returning calls. By his own account he spent that year asleep under his desk most afternoons, and signed the liquidation paperwork on the sixth of January with something close to relief. Hutton has since taken the business apart structurally and found six things that went wrong. They became his book, Keep 100% Of What You Earn, and he is unusually direct about all of them: the termination clause he wrote himself, the red flags he chose not to act on, the lease he should not have signed, the third office he opened too early, and the ceiling he hit as a manager of people. The conversation also covers what the industry does to its own - the rumour that circulated in New Farm, the creditor who built a website asking if anyone knew where Peter Hutton was hiding, and the envelope of white powder that put his family on a footpath for six hours while a hazmat team worked. His argument, borrowed from a wartime statistician, is that the industry studies the wrong businesses. The aircraft that came home taught the analysts nothing. It was the ones that didn't that showed them where to put the armour.

Show notes

EP. 13

Before the Weekend

Tenant Privacy, Portal Profits and The Block Is Back

7 Aug 2026 · 1h 50m

This week on Before the Weekend, Kasey McDonald and Peter Schravemade dig into the Victorian petition to ban "continuous video sweeps" during rental inspections, and why the technology being described isn't what's actually happening, plus the data privacy questions nobody in the coverage thought to ask. Kasey sits down with Kasey Lawrence of The Rental Network, consultant, trainer, and the industry's unofficial agony aunt, on the "listen up" text message that mortified the internet, Victoria's prescribed rental application form, bond portability's teething problems, and why the money hiding in the average rent roll would shock most principals. Also this week: Cotality confirms the downturn has spread to Brisbane and Adelaide as the RBA meets Tuesday; REA Group grows earnings 15% on flat listings, and what that means for agents' and vendors' marketing spend; one year of CoStar-owned Domain, graded against the boardroom revolt in the US; whether off-market (or as Pete insists, "off-portal") sales have gone too far; the $52,000 strata levy letter no owner wants to receive; Peter's interview of the week with Ellis Taylor of Real Time; and The Block returns.

Show notes

EP. QB·06

Quick Bite

The Talent Raid, with Jacqui Barnes and Ellis Taylor

6 Aug 2026 · 36 min

A special edition of Before the Weekend, recorded in Sydney. Peter Schravemade is joined by Jacqui Barnes, Head of People and Growth at Laing+Simmons and author of the Women in Real Estate Insights Report, and Ellis Taylor, Director of Real Time Australia, the recruiter that Blackbird and AirTree name as their number one preferred talent supplier. Two months on from the report's launch, Jacqui returns with the person who is using her findings against the industry. Ellis is candid about it: the hardest stretch for a new agent is months six to eighteen, and that is precisely when he calls. "That's when I target them." Jacqui's response is that the industry has handed him the opportunity. Agencies spend seventy to eighty thousand dollars a year bringing someone up to speed, then make a judgement call at month nine on a two-year journey, without doing much to help the person get there. The conversation covers what the report found about the gap between the support leaders believe they provide and what their people actually experience, why tech sales retains people that real estate loses, how AI-driven talent engineering builds a personalised eighteen-month campaign around your best juniors, and what an agency has to do to make itself hard to raid. Both guests finish with something an agency owner can act on before Monday.

Show notes

EP. 12

Before the Weekend

Allan Resigns, the REIV Breaks Ranks and Deposit Flicking

31 July 2026 · 83 min

Victoria changed premiers this week after months of questions over debt, infrastructure, crime and integrity. On the same day as the second reading of the Consumer Legislation Amendment Bill 2026, the REIV took what it called an unprecedented step and stood alongside the Opposition to demand the Bill be substantially redrafted. Consumer Affairs Victoria forced changes to one of the country's biggest rental application platforms, and a Melbourne band managed to pin almost every part of the housing crisis on real estate agents, landlords and property investors. Peter Schravemade and Kasey McDonald also work through allegations of development land being flipped to associates in Melbourne's growth corridors, a seven-figure defamation judgment between competing Sydney agents, a Double Bay agency that collapsed while suing a former employee who has since died, and a NSW Supreme Court fight over what critics are calling deposit flicking. Then there is Dashdot. Two months after a collapse that left hundreds of customers and employees owed millions, its founders are back offering business coaching. The episode closes on the RBA's warning that housing has weakened more than expected, Queensland's claim of a record 50,000 homes under construction, the review of 46,210 Queensland social housing tenancies, Australia's 13 million spare bedrooms, and new Suburbtrends research showing the average number one agency captures under a fifth of its local commission pool. The through line is accountability. Misconduct should be exposed and agents should be accountable for the services they provide, but agents do not set migration levels, zoning, land release, construction costs or infrastructure delivery. You cannot fine your way out of a housing shortage.

Show notes

EP. 11

Before the Weekend

Agents in the Firing Line, with Mike Mortlock

24 July 2026 · 82 min

Episode 11 examines what happens when housing policy becomes personal and governments turn a complex market failure into a fight with the real estate profession. Peter Schravemade and Kasey McDonald lead with the Victorian reserve-price dispute, where Premier Jacinta Allan publicly addressed REIV CEO Toby Balazs after the institute challenged the Government's exact seven-day disclosure model. The hosts separate agreement on the need to stop underquoting from the disagreement over how transparency should be delivered. They then examine REINSW's request for the removal of NSW Fair Trading Minister Anoulack Chanthivong and ask whether effective regulation is possible when consultation between government and the peak professional body has broken down. Guest Mike Mortlock brings the housing and tax discussion into focus. As Managing Director of MCG Quantity Surveyors, PIPA Treasurer and host of Geared for Growth, Mike explains why the national housing target was unrealistic, why he challenges Treasury's rent modelling and why smaller property investors may be more exposed than wealthier owners. He also discusses new-home contracts connected with SMSF borrowing and gives property managers a practical framework for owner conversations. The final stories concern Queensland's public-housing eviction policy and an alleged insider disclosure of sensitive client data by a real estate employee. The episode closes with a challenge to both government and the profession: governments must stop using agents as convenient election villains, while property professionals must operate with greater transparency and discipline than ever.

Show notes

EP. 10

Before the Weekend

LIFT 2026, Proptech Pulse and a Cooling Market

17 July 2026 · 1h 3m

Episode 10 marks a milestone for Before the Weekend, recorded fresh from one of the biggest weeks of the year for Queensland real estate and proptech. Peter Schravemade and Kasey McDonald give their honest assessment of REIQ LIFT 2026, including the strongest sessions, the energy in the room and the recurring message that technology only creates value when people can adopt, connect and trust it. Kasey also speaks with REISA Chair Cain Cooke about South Australia's resilient market, the importance of becoming a trusted adviser and using technology to create more time for human conversations. The pair recap Top of the Props, where Homesnoop claimed the judges' award and Crayons CRM won People's Choice, before unpacking the inaugural Proptech Pulse 2026. The report surveyed 146 Australian and New Zealand proptech leaders and found that change management, integration and customer adoption are now bigger challenges than building the technology itself. They also examine Queensland's sharp quarterly fall in property transactions, claims that Sydney's market is dead, rising rents, the meaning of genuinely affordable housing, concerns prompted by updates to Forms Live contracts, and an agency incentive program designed to reward property managers on the same footing as sales teams.

Show notes

EP. 09

Before the Weekend

Realworks, LIFT and Market Confidence

10 July 2026 · 62 min

This week on Before the Weekend, Kasey McDonald and Peter Schravemade are joined by REIQ CEO Antonia Mercorella for a timely conversation about the Realworks forms transition, what Queensland agencies should be checking inside their businesses, and why compliant forms still sit at the centre of agency risk. The episode also previews REIQ LIFT, Top of the Props and the upcoming PropTech Pulse report, with a focus on practical technology, industry collaboration and the need for real estate businesses to build flexible, secure and compliant tech stacks. Kasey and Peter then move through a packed national news block: the hidden government costs built into new housing, warnings of a possible house price correction, the Bank of Mum and Dad pulling back, NSW Fair Trading action against Netstrata, Victorian rental advertising fines, Section 27 changes, NSW rental reforms and failed sale re-letting rules. The episode closes with quick mentions on AML, SMS Sender ID registration and Mike DelPrete's take on the shift from portal wars to pressure on portals.

Show notes

EP. 08

Before the Weekend

Realworks, trust and the new compliance burden for real estate

3 July 2026 · 81 min

This week on Before the Weekend, Kasey McDonald and Peter Schravemade unpack one of the biggest operational stories to hit Queensland real estate this year: the Realworks transition, the end of REIQ's relationship with Dynamic Methods, and what it means for forms, templates, historical documents and compliance workflows. The conversation looks beyond the software problem and asks whether real estate forms have become critical industry infrastructure. Kasey and Peter also cover falling property industry confidence, Queensland's decline in dwelling approvals, the SMSF borrowing debate, the start of AML/CTF obligations for real estate, ACMA's SMS Sender ID and spam compliance changes, a cautious shift in buyer behaviour, allegations around misleading property images, and a QCAT compensation decision involving a real estate salesperson. The common thread is trust: trust in platforms, trust in forms, trust in communications, trust in compliance systems and trust in the professionals who carry the risk on the ground.

Show notes

EP. QB·05

Quick Bite

Victoria's Real Estate Reform Storm with Toby Balazs

26 June 2026 · 33 min

In this Quick Bite episode of Before the Weekend, Peter Schravemade is joined by Toby Balazs, CEO of the Real Estate Institute of Victoria, to unpack the growing wave of regulatory pressure facing Victorian real estate professionals. Toby discusses the proposed disclosure of auction reserve prices, changes to rental legislation, the impact of more than 150 Residential Tenancies Act changes, pressure on property managers, investor confidence, housing supply, Section 27 deposit release, AML obligations and the practical realities for agents trying to operate in a heavily regulated market. The conversation also explores whether new rules designed to improve fairness and transparency may create unintended consequences for buyers, vendors, renters, rental providers and the wider Victorian property sector.

Show notes

EP. 07

Before the Weekend

Confidence Check: Market Corrections, Pricing Pressure and People-First Leadership

26 June 2026 · 90 min

In Episode 7 of Before the Weekend, Kasey McDonald and Peter Schravemade unpack a week where confidence became the central theme across Australian real estate. They discuss falling auction clearance rates, Domain's forecasts for Sydney and Melbourne price falls, investor uncertainty following federal budget changes, Victoria's latest rental reforms, REIQ's Realworks transition, and the growing conversation around price transparency sparked by the Property Seeker Chrome extension. Peter also shares key takeaways from the PIPA Summit and REISA Revolution, including AI, AML, energy efficiency ratings and the shift from transaction-focused agents to trusted advisers. This week's feature interview is with Avi Kahn from Ray White AKG, who joins Kasey to discuss leadership, culture, growth, industry reputation, training, technology and why he would abolish price guides across Australia.

Show notes

EP. 06

Before the Weekend

Dashdot Collapse, REA's Data Deals and the Fight for Industry Control

19 June 2026 · 90 min

In Episode 6 of Before the Weekend, Peter Schravemade and Kasey McDonald unpack a huge week in Australian real estate, beginning with the collapse of buyer's agency Dashdot and the serious questions it raises about upfront fees, consumer protection, trust and the property investment advice sector. The episode also covers Queensland's worsening rental supply crisis, with new analysis suggesting the state has lost nearly 13,000 rental bedrooms over three years, plus a Gold Coast prestige sales feud that asks who really gets to define market value: the selling agent, the buyer's agent, the auction floor or the final buyer. Peter and Kasey also discuss another trust account misuse case in Victoria, a Sunshine Coast unfair dismissal claim dismissed after just one week of employment, and Ben Ikin's move into proptech as CEO of SearchX. The feature conversation then turns to REA Group's growing network of strategic partnerships, with Adrian Knowles, CEO of Harcourts Australia, joining to explain the Harcourts and REA Group deal, and Sadhana Smiles from REIP responding to questions about data sovereignty, REIP Nexus, proptech partnerships and whether the industry is moving closer to, or further away from, control of its own data. It is a long episode, but an important one, covering trust, data, portals, technology, agency risk and the future direction of the real estate industry.

Show notes

EP. 05

Before the Weekend

Transparency, Trust and Turbulence in Real Estate

12 June 2026 · 60 min

This week on Before the Weekend, Peter Schravemade and Kasey McDonald unpack a week of significant developments across the real estate industry. The pair examine REA Group's new partnerships with major franchise networks including Harcourts and Ray White, and what it could mean for the future of industry data independence and the Real Estate Industry Partners (REIP) initiative. They also discuss signs of a changing market as listings begin to accumulate in parts of Australia, creating new challenges for agents and vendors alike. As market conditions shift, are we about to see the true value of agent skill and negotiation return to the spotlight? Victoria features heavily in this week's episode, with discussion around proposed reserve price disclosure laws, rental reforms, and concerns that new legislation could have unintended consequences for buyers, sellers and property managers. Other topics include: - The Sydney Morning Herald investigation into agent review systems and pricing accuracy - The first major property-related AML/CTF prosecution and what it means for the industry - Whether agents should be giving investment advice - The role of reviews, ratings and consumer trust - A lighter look at some of the more creative (and questionable) real estate advertising appearing online If you're working in sales, property management, proptech or simply keeping an eye on the future of the industry, Episode 5 is packed with insights, opinions and discussion points to take into the weekend.

Show notes

EP. QB·04

Quick Bite

AI, Leadership and Why Real Estate Must Avoid Intellectual Laziness

5 June 2026 · 15 min

Ahead of her first visit to Australia for REIQ LIFT 2026, Peter Schravemade sits down with Miami-based REALTOR®, architect, technology pioneer and industry leader Ines Hegedus-Garcia. Ines shares her unique journey from architecture to real estate, explains why leadership starts with having "a seat at the table", and discusses the global challenges currently facing the profession. The conversation explores artificial intelligence, the future role of agents, and why leaders must resist what she calls "intellectual laziness" in an age of AI-generated content. Ines argues that authenticity, critical thinking and human judgement will become increasingly important as technology continues to evolve. She also offers a preview of what attendees can expect from her keynote at REIQ LIFT 2026 and discusses why Australia, the Great Barrier Reef and rugby are all on her must-see list. If you are interested in leadership, technology, innovation and the future of real estate, this is a conversation you will not want to miss.

Show notes

EP. 04

Before the Weekend

AI Cold Callers, Sign Wars and Strata Kickbacks

5 June 2026 · 60 min

This week on Before the Weekend, Peter Schravemade and Kasey McDonald tackle another big week of headlines across the real estate industry. The conversation begins with the rise of AI-powered prospecting after an ABC investigation into "Daniel", an AI sales caller allegedly contacting prospective property buyers. The pair discuss disclosure, transparency, and whether consumers really care if they're speaking to a machine. They then unpack a bizarre sign war playing out in Logan, where directional signs fitted with Apple AirTags allegedly led one agent directly to a rival agency's bin. Is it petty competition, social media theatre, or something more concerning? The discussion shifts to allegations of kickbacks in the strata management sector, exploring contractor relationships, procurement transparency, and whether reform is needed in building management and owners corporations. Also covered this week: property management trust account fraud in New South Wales, a Victorian agent fined over licensing and trust account issues, the importance of due diligence when buying property, a landlord's failed attempt to recover damage costs after missing a tribunal deadline, Gold Coast rents overtaking Sydney, and the impact of negative industry headlines on consumer trust. Plus, Peter previews an upcoming Quick Bite episode with Miami real estate leader and REIQ LIFT 2026 keynote speaker Ines Hegedus-Garcia.

Show notes

EP. 03

Before the Weekend

Housing Headwinds, Industry Change and the Future of Real Estate

29 May 2026 · 85 min

Fresh from AREC 2026, Peter and Kasey sit down with Cotality's Tim Lawless on housing affordability, rental stress and the looming downturn, then dig into Jacqui Barnes' Real Women in Real Estate Report 2026 on leadership, culture and retention.

Show notes

EP. QB·03

Quick Bite

Leadership, Legacy and the Future of Real Estate

28 May 2026 · 26 min

Fresh from AREC and days after her REIA President's Award, Leanne Pilkington joins Pete at the Loose Moose for a candid Quick Bite on leadership, culture, and the future of Australian real estate.

Show notes

EP. QB·02

Quick Bite

The Confidence Gap

23 May 2026 · 15 min

A Quick Bite recorded live at the REIV in Abbotsford with Antonia Mercorella, CEO of the REIQ. A grounded conversation about the real challenges facing first-home buyers in Australia, from supply and financial literacy to co-buying, rentvesting and the confidence gap.

Show notes

EP. QB·01

Quick Bite

Andrea Heading on REISA Revolution 2026

22 May 2026 · 3 min

A Quick Bite with REISA CEO Andrea Heading on Revolution 2026. This year's theme is Future Fit, with an AI keynote from Professor Toby Walsh, split sales and property management streams, and Macquarie networking drinks at the National Wine Centre in Adelaide on June 24.

Show notes

EP. 002

Before the Weekend

Auctions, AREC and Google's return to real estate

22 May 2026 · 1 hr 12 min

Pete, live from Melbourne ahead of AREC and the National Awards for Excellence, joins Kasey to unpack auctions as a measure of market confidence, the state of industry conferences, and Google's re-entry into property search. Plus exclusive interviews with Jacob Caine and Anna Post from the National Association of Realtors.

Show notes

EP. 001

Before the Weekend

The Inaugural Episode

15 May 2026 · 1 hr 5 min

In the inaugural episode of Before the Weekend, hosts Peter Schravemade and Kasey McDonald unpack some of the biggest issues currently impacting the Australian real estate industry. Joined by special guests Hayley Mitchell, Ashleigh Goodchild and Antonia Mercorella.

Show notes