Diego Traglia left school at the age of 13 but his determination to succeed has taken him to the rarefied heights of New Zealand real estate: he has been voted the country’s top agent on Rate My Agent and is Harcourts’ third ranked agent worldwide. He’s also the breakout star of the hit reality TV show Rich Listers.
Q: Will we be seeing you back on our TV screens again soon?
Yes, I’m just finishing season two of Rich Listers at the moment. It’s been a very good season compared to season one. It’s much more realistic, so everything that I’ve filmed was either something that I was selling or trying to get on the market, doing appraisals for, or dealing with buyers that were looking to buy properties. It’s been a really good experience.
Q: A lot of agents have had a tough year as a result of the downturn. How have you managed to stay at the top of your game?
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In every down cycle, the good agents will thrive and bad agents will go and get a part-time job. It’s down to the reputation and the trust that we have built in our community. My team has been very busy this year and we’ve managed to sell some 200 houses in what has been a very difficult market. Of course we are welcoming the positive change in the market.
Q: What do you put your success down to?
Results speak louder than anything. Any agent can say they’re number one and sell the most and win all the awards, and thank God I can say that, but if you don’t deliver, all of it will shatter from people complaining and not writing you the right type of reviews.
Anyone can sell property – you just underprice it and it sells – but to get the best results, you’ve got to have the right systems and processes in place and you’ve got to put in the time and energy into marketing and promotion. But it’s not just about what you do on the portals. It’s about the conversations you have with buyers in the background – they who might not have even thought about the property you’re marketing.
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We’re able to meet 120 people a week – whether they’re coming from online enquiries or open homes, those numbers bring you power. If you’re an agent and you’ve only got one listing, you haven’t got that many people you can call. You can’t actually go, ‘Hey look, you’ve seen this property, but I’d like to show you another house I think you’ll really like’.
Q: Have you got a good team around you?
I know everyone says this, but I’ve got the best team in New Zealand. We’re a well-oiled machine. The oil that makes the engine run is my admin.
A lot of agents try to do everything themselves – spending a lot of time writing ad copy, putting up open home signs, that kind of thing. If you’re a professional, if you’re the best of the best, you’ve got to invest your time in what makes money: selling properties. I’ve got two buyer agents and I’ve got several sales associates who help me with the listings. I’ve also got a marketing manager, an operations manager and a PA.
We’re always improving as better never stops, but you name it, we’ve got it. My team allows me to do three things: list, sell and talk to people.
Traglia slogged seven days a week for his six years in real estate. Photo / Fiona Goodall
Q: It sounds hectic, what do you do to relax?
The only thing I do in my downtime is spend time with my daughters and my family. I get a day / day-and-a-half off a week, which is more than most agents because most agents work seven days. And so did I for six years, but now that I am in a position where I can have a day off, I take the opportunity to spend it with my kids.
Q: Any words of wisdom for agents starting out?
Be ready for the hardest two to three years of your life. When I first started, I made so many calls and knocked on so many doors asking people for business. With that came so many rejections. I’ve been rejected more than most. But then you build the business, you build the reputation and you build expertise, and people come to you because they know you are the best. Now I enjoy my job so much more because I can just have conversations without having to ask for business.
Q: It’s not just a sales job, is it?
Definitely not. You need to have the skills to help people in some very tough situations and negotiating can be extremely stressful. So it’s not about selling, it’s about guiding people through a journey. Being an agent is having the information and skills that will allow you to help a potential vendor or buyer to achieve their goals in a meaningful way. And I’m going to repeat that, in a meaningful way. Unfortunately, this industry, like car sales, can get a bad reputation. Before I started out I had a very bad experience buying a house and I thought ‘I can do a much better job than that’. I bought the house and the agent didn’t really care too much – I had to drive and get the keys and he gave me a bottle of wine that still had the sticker on the bottom saying $9.99!
I know this sounds like a bit of a sales pitch but I genuinely mean it – if you care and you’ve got meaning, you’re going to be 10 times more successful than any other agent because people appreciate that.
Power rankings: The OneRoof Stats
No.5: Diego Traglia
Agency: Harcourts, Auckland
No. of listings: 203
Total value of listings: $201,335,999
Average value of listings: $991,803
* Data covers 12 months from August 2022 and based on listings on OneRoof for that period. Value of listings based on search price
