A year ago, Matt Lancashire, one of Brisbane’s top real estate agents, was ready to quit.
Despite clocking hundreds of millions in sales annually and leading a team across five Ray White offices with 160 staff, Matt had hit a wall.
After years of dealing with brusque clients and the relentless grind, burnout had taken hold.
“We’re in an industry which is highly scrutinised, but I try to change people’s perceptions of real estate agents through my transactions.
“But, I’d go out on Saturdays and just cop sh*t from people all day. It wears you down.”
At his breaking point, Matt called his business partner, Haesley Cush, and said, “Mate, I’m out, buy my shares, I’m done.”
After all the success he’d built, Matt was seriously considering walking away.
Sitting down with a psychologist ultimately spun his perspective around.
“She basically changed my life. She said to me, look at priests, look at lawyers, look at car sales people. It’s not real estate, it’s people.’ And she was right,” Matt says.
“If you take it personally, you’re going to hate your job. So, instead of taking people’s rudeness to heart, I started to approach it with empathy.
“Maybe something was going on in their lives that made them act that way? It completely changed how I saw the job”.
With that in mind, he says that emotional intelligence is what this industry needs right now, more than anything.
“It’s the most underrated skill of all,” he says. “You literally need to have empathy for people.
“Being able to communicate with people, being able to learn when to shut up, to stop talking and start listening is incredibly important.
“We are dealing with people’s emotions 24/7, and 60 percent of my business at the moment comes about because of divorce. You’ve got to be able to manage emotion.”
This newfound perspective gave Matt the reset he needed, and the turnaround is apparent.
At the Ray White Queensland 2023-24 annual awards held on Thursday, Matt took home multiple accolades, including the No.1 principal award for settled commission.
His group, Ray White Collective, was named the No.1 multi-office group, and Ray White New Farm secured the title of No.1 office in Queensland.
The awards recognised the bustling last financial year, with his total value of sold properties sitting at an impressive $233 million.
Matt could’ve been forgiven for celebrating the night away, but when Elite Agent caught up with him the following day, he’d been up since 4:50 a.m, starting another day in the fast-paced world of Brisbane real estate.
Accolades aside, Matt’s journey to real estate success wasn’t a straightforward one – before becoming a property powerhouse, he was an electrician, a job he admits he wasn’t particularly good at.
“I failed school badly. Like, you know, probably the worst marks you could ever think of getting,” he recalls.
Coming from a family of high achievers—his father a surgeon, his brother also a surgeon, his mother a detective, and his sister a teacher, Matt felt the pressure.
“I didn’t know what I wanted to do, so my only fallback plan was to do a trade.”
His entry into real estate came by accident. While travelling overseas, Matt ran out of money.
Desperate to keep his travels going, he decided to sell a house he owned in Brisbane with a mate.
When the hired agent failed to make the sale, Matt took over, calling every potential buyer.
“I called every person on the list that had been through the house, secured multiple offers, and sold the house for more than the price we wanted at auction. I thought, ‘well, that was easy’.”
But the reality of real estate hit hard once Matt joined Ray White New Farm in 2006 under Haesley’s mentorship, (he had gone to Kindergarten with Matt’s older brother and was a friend of the family).
It took nine months to make his first sale and during that time, his credit card debt ballooned to $60,000.
“Our families are pretty tight and Haesley’s mum, Judith Cush who is a veteran of the real estate industry and is amazing, would literally pray that I’d make it. I was a shocking agent at first,” he admits.
“But the turning point was when I realised there was no plan B.”
With no fallback, Matt threw himself into the job. Borrowing $1,000 from his parents, he bought a new suit and a ticket to Sydney to meet top-performing agents, including the legendary James Dack, who gave him advice that changed his approach to real estate.
“Be big in print, list auctions, run a structured business, and work hard,” were the four key tips James gave him, and Matt took them seriously.
He began structuring his days meticulously, with two daily prospecting sessions, and knocked on nearly 2,000 doors in his area to build relationships with homeowners.
And, the path to success came with significant sacrifices.
In his early years, Matt missed weddings, social events, and even showed up hours late to his own 30th birthday.
“My mates were fuming,” he says. “But by the time I turned 40, they finally understood why I made those sacrifices. They could see the fruits of that sacrifice, and now like 10 years on, it made sense.”
Now, as a father of four (Monty, 9, Lulu, 7, Ziggy, 5 and Goldie, 16 months), Matt has found a better work-life balance, though he still works a demanding 80-to-90 hour week.
He makes a point to walk his older kids to school when he can, and together with his wife Caitlyn, has donated close to $400,000 to their school through charity events.
Oh, and still finds time to run marathons. “You just make it work,” he says.
His routine involves waking up at 4-ish to fit in a run before his kids wake up.
“It’s just the way I operate. I don’t know any different.”
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