As a real estate agent, it pays to be top of mind when someone is considering selling their property.

There are many ways that you can try to do this (without badgering people) and over the years, one of the ways that I’ve done this is to take the time to be helpful to local journalists.

Journalists are always looking for good stories and I’ve gone out of my way to be available to them when they call me.

Every now and then, the Courier Mail will run a story on a particular suburb (they call it a ‘Suburb Profile’) and I’ve helped them out on a few of these over the previous six months.

Many times, a journalist will have a strict deadline and when they need a story, they need one fast…and I’m surprised by the number of agents that don’t go out of their way to make themselves available…especially when the publicity is free!

Around six weeks ago, I received a call from one of the Courier Mail journalists asking me if I was available to help them with a suburb profile on Geebung.

My first reaction was “Geebung? I’ve sold a few properties there over the years but I’m not really the most active agent in this area”.

The Courier Mail journalist said to me “Well I can’t find another agent who will help me so do you know much about the suburb?”

“Yeah I guess so” said I.

“I’ll be there in an hour” said the journalist.

So he turned up, interviewed me, and ran the story as per usual.

Often, the journalists have done their research and will have an idea how they want the story to run so they do ask questions where they look for specific answers…and sometimes, you end up saying things that you may not have actually said (if you know what I mean).

Anyway, I read the article and thought nothing further of it.

On Tuesday morning last week, Tommy (our CEO) calls me and the conversation went like this…

“Mick you’re not going to believe this!”

“What’s that?” I said.

“I’ve just opened a letter and you have a letter written to you from a local school in Geebung” he said (laughing his head off).

“What’s it about?”

And he read it to me.

Without transcribing the entire letter, it described the article and how I was asked about where kids go to school if they live in Geebung and that it was surrounded by fabulous local schools in nearby suburbs.

A few of the parents noticed this article and were disappointed that I hadn’t mentioned a few of the local schools in Geebung itself.

The article did the rounds of the school and eventually, the kids of the school were involved and the teachers decided that it would be a great exercise to voice their opinions and teach the kids to speak up if they feel like they need to be heard.

So the end of the letter went like this…”Please find enclosed a sample of the 200 letters our students have written voicing their concerns that our school wasn’t mentioned in the article”.

“Two hundred letters from two hundred angry students!” I thought.

Firstly, the article mentioned Secondary schools and this was a Primary school so whilst what was mentioned in the article was correct, it’s not a wonderful thing for your business to upset an entire local school community.

“Good grief” as Charlie Brown would say!

Many of the kids’ letters invited me to attend the school and see how wonderful it actually is.

I hopped on the front foot and thought I should visit the school in person, take the kids up on their offer…and apologise.

I called the journalist from the Courier Mail (who was very excited as this gave him the opportunity to run yet another story)and we attended the very next day.

I must say that the school (St Kevin’s Catholic Primary School) was very welcoming and seemed genuinely surprised that I had taken the time to come and see them.

The kids did show me around the school and the staff were very friendly and welcoming (despite the images in my mind of being mauled by two hundred angry students when I arrived).

The Courier Mail ran the story two days later (the article was titled “Kids Teach Real Estate Agent a Lesson”) check out this article in our ‘property insights’ section, and I’ve promised to write back to every single student that wrote to me…yes – all two hundred of them as I thought this was the right thing to do.

Let’s just say that my staff and I are rather busy right now as we’re trying to get them all done within the next week ready to present them to school before the Easter school holidays.

At the end of the day, I didn’t really have much of a hand in the story and we didn’t say anything that was factually incorrect but I need to take responsibility for what was published and what I was quoted as saying.

I’m happy that the kids learned to voice their opinions and speak up in a healthy manner…and hopefully they learned that this does achieve results and their win was that the Courier Mail ended up doing an entire article about their school alone rather than just having a brief mention in a much smaller story.

Sometimes, being a real estate salesperson involves far more than properties, buyers and sellers…and this was my top of mind thought as I was running around trying to help the kids round up the escapee chicken called ‘Caramel’.

 

Until next week, Happy Listing & Happy Selling.

 

Here is the original article and some letters from the students at St Kevin’s

 

This Brisbane suburb is loved by locals, but largely unknown

Darren Cartwright, The Courier-Mail

January 9, 2018 12:00am

Subscriber only

IT’S a Brisbane suburb many would know by name, and quite possibly because of a famous poem which has no bearing on its locality, and yet they’d be hard pressed to find it on a map.

Geebung on Brisbane’s northside is one of those places people tend to hear of but have no idea where it’s located.

Not even Banjo Patterson’s famous Geebung Polo Club ode is affiliated with the suburb.

Even local cafe owner Paul Edwards recounts recently ordering supplies from a business in Nundah, just a few kilometres south of his Railway Parade establishment, only for the receptionist to ask where Geebung was.

Paul Edwards, from Bite My Biscuit, admits he’d only ever driven through Geebung before moving his cafe to the suburb. Picture: Darren Cartwright

“I said ‘you’re kidding, it’s only two suburbs away’ and I had to spell it,” Mr Edwards said.

“I think it’s off everyone’s radar. Chermside is where everyone goes and it’s right next door.”

The owner of Bite My Biscuit even admits to being a little bit unsure of Geebung before he relocated his cafe from Stafford to opposite the railway station five years ago.

He took the punt to move after one of his regular customers, who lives at Geebung, mentioned a shop was available for lease.

“She said there was an empty shop here and it’s only five minutes from home, but I really didn’t know much about Geebung and I had lived in Wavell Heights for 15 years,” he said.

“I drove through but never stopped.”

But it would pay for people to make a pay a little more attention to Geebung, says Innov8 Property principal Michael Spillane.

He said even though Geebung is just 12 kilometres from the CBD and sidles more affluent suburbs, the median house-price is a mere $530,000. The highest sale for 2017 was $860,000 (Jan- Aug.).

Mr Spillane said there was so much room for growth that the suburb was prime for home renovators or even professionals looking to flip a house.

“It’s a forgotten and older suburb and some people don’t know Geebung’s locality even though they’ve heard of it,” he said.

“It’s not big geographically and it’s known to have a lower socio-economic background, but it’s perfectly placed when you think of access to Sandgate and Gympie roads, it’s not far from the airport, it has two railway stations and is extremely close to Chermside shopping centre.”

The two railway stations are Sunshine and Geebung and the latter of the two has undergone a major facelift which coincided with the opening of a $200 million rail overpass at Robinson Rd which the RACQ identified as one of Queensland’s worst traffic black spots.

The flyover on Robinson’s Rd opened in 2014 and connects Robinson East and Robinson West Roads.

Mr Edwards said the overpass had not affected his trade and was primarily for traffic passing through the area rather than heading into Geebung.

“We arrived as they were building it and the station was updated when they put in the overpass and they put in new lifts as well,” he said.

“We have a lot of young families come in and it can be extremely busy one minute. It’s like everyone moves in waves around here.”

Bite My Biscuit maybe one of the more recently established trades in Geebung but the oldest family-run business in the area, and possibly the oldest in Brisbane, is Gerns Continental Smallgoods in Buhot Rd.

The business started in 1895 after Heindrich Gerns, who emigrated from Hanover, Germany, bought 20 acres for 20 pounds.

Hendrich’s grandson Edwin Gerns, who is semi-retired and handed down the business to his son Andrew, said he’s seen a lot of changes over the decades.

“There used to just see paddocks around here but not anymore,” he said.

Gerns Continental Smallgoods and retail store sits at the rear of a block in a dead-end street at Geebung.

Edwin said his grandmother offered his father some motherly advice which he wished his dad had listened to now that Geebung is very much part of suburbia.

“In 1914 the homestead was built,” Edwin said.

“My grandmother said to my dad one day on the deck of the homestead, ‘why don’t you buy 70 acres there for 70 pounds for somewhere for the kids to play’ but he was too busy making salami.”

Within 500m of Gerns Continental Small Goods is Geebung State School while St Kevin’s Catholic Primary School is also nearby.

Mr Spillane said Geebung may only have a couple of schools but there are several respected one in the surrounding neighbourhoods which were very accessible and added to the appeal of the suburb for younger families.

Geebung’s public high school catchment area includes Aspley, Wavell and Craiglea state high schools and Earnshaw State College.

“There are a lot of schools around and Nudgee College is not that far away and neither is the Australian Catholic University at Banyo,” Mr Spillane said.

As for growth in real estate prices, Mr Spillane said the suburb had improved more than 20 per cent in the past five years and it was likely to climb at an even faster rate given the demand on properties in nearby suburbs like Chermside and Wavell Heights.

“When you think about it, you’re paying close to $500,000 for a two-bedroom unit at Chermside and yet you can buy a two or three bedroom house with land in the next suburb and it’s on a train line and Chermside isn’t.”

“And it’s quick to the city from there as well.”

 

 

 

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