How Michael Pead found his swing in real estate

Michael Pead is the first to admit real estate wasn’t his first choice as a career.

The Canberra-born and bred agent planned on being a professional golfer, but the universe had other plans for the now 37-year-old.

“I had a good crack at playing professional golf,” Pead says. “I was good, but I just wasn’t quite good enough. So I did a bachelor of sports management and coaching exercise science.

“I was looking at going down the path of employment at somewhere like the Australian Institute of Sport or with a footy team like the [Canberra] Raiders.

“But I fell into real estate by default as I had a contact with an agency here in Canberra who said they had a gig for me if I wanted to give it a crack.”

That was almost 11 years ago, and while the now HIVE Property agent has long since left that first role as a leasing consultant, he says it taught him how a real estate agency operates and the importance of first-rate customer service.

After 18 months in leasing, Pead took a job at another agency and set about building his sales career from scratch.

He admits there were moments where he wondered if he’d made the right move.

“A lot of people’s impression of what a real estate agent is and how they go about their business is the exact opposite of how it really is,” Pead says.

“People think it’s flashy, easy work, and you just put a key in the door, open it, and it sells. But it’s not like that.

“There was a period of time where I was thinking, ‘Wow, I’m really poor and this doesn’t seem to be working.’”

Yet Pead isn’t one to quit, and he persevered for more than a year before he began to gather momentum.

He says that, as a younger agent, he often felt like an imposter in the living room, attempting to give people advice on selling their biggest asset.

In an effort to appear more confident, Pead says he “pretended to be someone else”, but quickly found that option didn’t help him win listings either.

“I think I went in there trying to talk too much and not asking the right questions,” he explains.

“I was trying to prove myself and that I was the right person for the job. But it was when I became comfortable in my own skin and stopped trying to be someone else that things changed and took off.”

Getting back to basics with call sessions, letterbox drops and doorknocking also helped Pead win listings, and after a few good sales, he had leverage to attract more clients.

Pead joined the HIVE team earlier this year, having long admired what director Josh Morrissey and the team have created in the Canberra market, particularly in terms of marketing their listings.

“They’re making huge inroads in the Canberra market,” he says. “They’ve really differentiated themselves from their competition and that’s a really big factor for me in terms of using that to continue to grow.”

Over the years, Pead has chalked up many notable sales, but the one that stands out the most isn’t the highest price or the most difficult. 

Rather, it was having the privilege of selling his childhood friend’s home and how that enabled him to move on to the next phase of his life.

“A really good friend of mine was moving to Queensland … and we were able to get a really good result and enabled them to get there,” Pead recalls.

“On the back of that, he convinced his whole family to move to Queensland, and I went through the process of selling his mum’s place and his grandparents’ place as well.

“I sold three homes for the family in about three months, and we knocked every sale out of the park for them in terms of over-delivering on our price expectations.”

Not one to rest on his laurels, Pead added the title of auctioneer to his resume about six years ago, emphasising that he loves helping vendors achieve the best results.

“A really good auctioneer has the opportunity to make a huge difference in the end sale price,” he says.

And what makes a good auctioneer?

Pead says market knowledge, the ability to build rapport with buyers quickly and preparing both parties for the various scenarios that may play out on auction day are crucial.

Looking forward, he says he’s preparing to work as hard as possible over the next decade, build a team and give the best service he can to his clients.

“I’m really keen to put my head down and just go all out,” Pead says.