Real Advocacy v Real Estate Agency
Busy Winter, Hot Start: The Market’s Warming Up
Why We're Building Our Own GPT for James Home Ratings
With more and more searches now happening through AI platforms and large language models—currently over 25% of all global search traffic—two things are becoming clear:
Firstly: if you want your property found (or want to find the right property), you’ll need to adapt to how people are already searching now. Many are not looking on traditional media or even what was considered the new media, but is now the old media (socials) – and that is an issues for buyers, sellers and agents.
Secondly as communicators, we have a responsibility to ensure what we publish is our own thinking (if we claim it to be)—not just regurgitated content from elsewhere with some smart prompts into “the machine”.
That’s why we’re building a custom GPT—James Home Ratings GPT. It’s already well underway, and what you see here is just a very early version.
This GPT will reflect only our views, our values, and our voice. No scraped content. No outsourced models. Just structured thinking from years of experience in Melbourne’s top-end real estate market – FROM US.
You’re welcome to explore it and see what it can do (very little right now, as I am petrified of an embarrassing answer). So please note—it’s deliberately limited in scope while we test and refine the outputs. We are cautious about quality and how this tech is used, so if anything seems off or if you have feedback, I’d (Mal) genuinely appreciate you letting me know.
You can reach me directly: 📧 mal@james.net.au
Thanks for being part of this journey and letting me/us be part of yours.
Exciting!
— Mal
You were right and I was not.
Eighteen months ago, I trialed something new—direct agency work in Bayside, alongside my buyer and seller advocacy in Boroondara and Stonnington. Everyone said it was a mistake.
They were right.
And I made it, nobody else.
I’ve got nothing but respect for my time with Shelter. Zali and Danny run a brilliant ship. Behind the scenes, they’re also doing substantial amounts of good for the extreme poor in Asia. And I will continue to totally support them and work in conjunction with them where it makes sense for the client.
But being an agent? It’s not me. I can’t do it with conviction.
Andy Nasr, Joel Fredman, Matthew Pillios, Zali Reynolds, Melina Scriva. They’re professionals, and they’re great at what they do and they are better than me at doing that.
Agency life? It narrowed me. It compromised the broader view I like/need to operate with. You’re tied to one patch. One perspective. Saying the same lines. Over and over.
As an agent, you must speak differently than I felt I could as an advocate. That’s not a criticism—it’s just the reality.
But I realised I missed what advocacy gives you: room for strategy, innovation, trying things, different outcomes. The luxury of time. The privilege of trust. The wonderment of a better… great result….thought through….earned.
Agency v Advocacy. What We Ask. What We Want. What We Need.
Let me tell you a story to highlight the difference between advocacy and agency as I see it – my truth.
There’s a lovely woman I’ve been working with this year. I helped her buy a home. Then she asked me to sell one (multi-agent). And now, I’m assisting her with the early stages of a renovation with further advocacy.
A few weeks ago, we sat with two contractors. She turned to me and said: “What do you think?”
I paused.
“One will do what you ask,” I said. “The other might do what you actually want.”
I said might because:
– I’m not sure he wants to yet.
– And I’m not sure she knows what she wants yet.
And that’s the bridge I like to walk with my clients along: from ask to want to need.
That’s what real advocacy is.
Agency delivers what you ask for: “Buy me a house.” “Sell my home.”
Advocacy explores what you really want. And then asks: Is this it? And how do we get it?
That’s in part why I believe in ratings. Its not a gimmick. Not to replace me with AI. But to help you:
– Think clearly
– Feel safely to decide and
– Act wisely
…all for you and what you really really want/need.
Ratings and advocacy are science but they also include trust, truth, and intuition.
Focused. Relevant. Yours.
In Africa, we’re building a nomadic health system. It has thousands of moving parts—delivering child surgeries across borders, across language barriers, and often across hope itself. That project—chaotic as it is—has confirmed we are all the same deep down.
- People want stuff, mainly to be happy and well and up with the Jones’s or the Baraka’s.
- To do so the majority of us need opportunity and we also need boundaries.
- Most people crave trust/their truth as part of that.
- In the end we all want a sense of purpose and many people just want a simple life with meaning.
Those lessons apply to real estate, too. And our ratings and advocacy aren’t about complexity. They’re about connection to the things that people really really want, around clarity. Truth. Trust.
This return to clarity over my Christmas trip reignited something I’d become a bit cloudy over whilst standing on homes – sincerity and my love of giving structured, meaningful advice, that can make a positive difference (….for the receiver).
The journey back to Ratings:
Fifteen years ago, James Home Ratings had hundreds of thousands of visitors to their sites…. it was viral.
Then life shifted for me: kids growing into a happy home was my priority and so ratings only became a part of what I did for my clients ….the overall business drifted without focus. Ratings themselves continued to work and still do today basically unchanged in nearly 20 years since its invention.
COVID hit just as I was getting my own time back again and I went back to school. A full-time, face-to-face Master’s at RMIT in blockchain, AI, and digital currencies – mainly for African children and myself, but amazingly also for real estate advocacy by default.
For what I came to see was this: the very same tools transforming child surgery across borders was now transforming Melbourne real estate. Huh?
- The biggest sale in Melbourne recently? Based on Crypto.
- Every contract signed today? Likely on a blockchain.
- And AI? Already endemic in our industry – read the ads on realestate.com.au.
AI and other technologies can all sound overwhelming. But it doesn’t have to be.
Yes, AI can be negative. But so can female emotion. So can male ego. So can your phone and socials and chocolate (ok not chocolate). All of them, in their extremes, can be destructive.
But when channelled well, they can also be life transformative. We are at another dawn of something incredibly good for the world.
That’s my take anyway!
Because I want to be part of a something that makes a difference. morechildsurgeries.com makes a difference. James buyer and seller advocacy makes a difference.
- I want to lead a team that improves lives—not just clients, but agents, buyers, sellers and our wider community.
- I want to fund more surgeries—for more kids. Because one operation changes a child One changed child frees up a family to be more productive. Several families better off and the village transforms and then a nation becomes more productive, more self-sufficient, as has happened many times in the last century.
- I want to help my own kids find homes in a world that’s harder than the one I grew up in. Boomers helping their children isn’t weakness. It’s wisdom.
But mostly?
I want to stay vital. I don’t want to live off passive income or superannuation or others labours. That was never really my thing. I want to contribute, to be part of it.
In my earlier years I’ve learned the hard way that chasing asset bases can feel hollow. Not for everyone—but for me – yes.
I like the thick of it.
The people.
The puzzle.
The purpose.
Your life can be pretty bloody good when you let it be. See you on the hustings.
What really matters?
Ratings and James is on the move. You’ll see some changes below just starting to evolve today.
In the end, whether buying or selling a Top End Melbourne home—or not—we are all asking the same question:
What do I really want?
Hopefully we are on the right track for you.
It will take several weeks to repopulate public ratings in bigger numbers.
Which video works for you @ 115 Richardson Street Albert Park?
We’re trialling a new style of video with one simple idea: less is more.
With all the noise out there—endless words, flashy edits, and over-polished scripts and myriads of info—you can end up hearing/seeing/feeling nothing at all.
It starts to blur. You don’t hear. You don’t see. You don’t feel it.
So we’re stripping it back.
Our videos (and all our communiqués) are designed to help you decide:
What is it I want and so do I want to see this house? And if you’ve already been through it, what do we think—through the lens of our independent ratings?
That’s it. Clear. Honest. Minimal fluff. lets see how we go, how we evolve hey!
I’ll be at most OFIs in red. And of course our auction reporters will remain out there in force. Say hi.
Below is currently an off-market we are sale-managing at 115 Richardson St Albert Park with Ben Manolitsas (0400201626). If not sold privately, it will likely come to market in the next few weeks for a pre–Grand Final auction.
And below that 11 Clyde St Glen Iris sale managing with the dynamic duo of Danielle Waterton (0413709444) and Ian McLennan (0413709111) open this Saturday 1.00pm to 1.30pm and going to auction August 30th. I love this home – its a sanctuary.
More homes coming on next week in Sackville Ward Kew ($15m with a tennis court) and a Canterbury family home and after that an Armadale family home as well.
Out and about and on more and more homes
Do you have an off-market for any of these buying clients?
| PRICE | POSITION | PROPERTY |
| 3.5m | Brighton Church St Precinct | Apartment |
| 5m | Malvern East | Family home double garage |
| 2m | Carnegie to Richmond | Townhouse |
| 3.5m | Camberwell; Canterbury, Kew | New Home |
| 1.5m | Caulfield South Elsternwick Brighton North | 3B/2B/2C Land for dog |
| 7m | Larger block and family home | Bigger yard, will reno |
| 6m | Camberwell Hawthorn | Renovation Value Add up to $2m |
| 3m | Surrey Hills, Canterbury area | Low maintenance, no reno |
| 1.6m | Fitzroy North, Carlton North | First family home |
| 1.5m | Anderson Park Area – Hawthorn | Townhouse for single |
If you do great – we can come and have a look. Simone 0400304111 or Mal 0408107988