WELCOMING LOCAL JOSEPH KARAM TO THE MARRICKVILLE OFFICE

We’re more than a little excited to welcome Joseph Karam to our growing Marrickville team. It’s not overstating things to say that Joseph is considered a bit of a local hotshot so we’re really thrilled that he’s joined the C&H family. Apart from being a highly successful agent, he’s also a really genuine, community-minded guy who fits the Cobden & Hayson culture perfectly and shares our solutions-based approach to property.

“I was really keen to make a move, take a different angle and step away from your traditional ‘list, sell, list, sell’ view of real estate where you market yourself and property in a certain way,” says Joseph. “I wanted to be more people focused. Being a boutique agency without many of the restrictive parameters that franchises often operate within, I believed C&H would allow my creative selling style to come through.

I’ve been in the industry for almost six years now and started off in property management, which is really the backbone of any agency. It requires a lot of problem solving of issues large and small. When I decided to step over into sales after 18 months I found this experience extremely beneficial. Today when I service my clients I put a great deal of effort into value added services like organising trades, renovations and the like, making sure that each property presents perfectly and achieves the best result for our client. This is an integral component of property management so I feel like I’m well equipped to give good advice in this area.

The key requirements to being a really good agent, especially in today’s unusual climate, are knowing your product and being honest and transparent. Being upfront and operating with integrity is the only way to do business. It comes back to your character. Real estate’s a long game, nothing’s an overnight success, and if you want to do something powerful you need to set the right foundations.

Such a vital part of my role is making sure that everyone’s comfortable through a huge life event and an often nerve-wracking process. I do everything I can to remove the stress and focus on how I’m going to get them to their next step. Everything I do is completely tailored – a really good agent knows exactly what strategy to employ for each client, property and market. It’s also incredibly beneficial to have the advantage of a centralised database across our five-office network, which gives us access to more buyers – this is a competitive edge for Cobden & Hayson.

If we look at where the local market’s heading for the remainder of the year and into next year, we’re in pretty good condition all things considered. The industry’s doing better than expected, propped up by historically low interest rates, a lack of supply and a number of COVID-related government incentives like JobKeeper. Buyers can really see the value in our market and success now comes down to how you service those buyers.

The Marrickville market’s definitely competitive and I’m up against some well established agents, however what I bring to the table is plenty of energy, drive, ambition. Things change rapidly in this industry so you need to adapt quickly if you want to remain at the forefront of people’s minds. I look at my move to C&H as an opportunity to really elevate my service, customer experience and results and I’m thrilled to be on board.”