Stone Macarthur’s newest agent Andrew Diadyk easily ranks among the industry’s most dedicated. With no sales experience or support, the 24-year-old kicked off his eponymous agency making calls from his bedroom.
Stone Macarthur’s newest agent Andrew Diadyk easily ranks among the industry’s most dedicated. With no sales experience or support, the 24-year-old kicked off his eponymous agency making calls from his bedroom.
It was a gamble that paid off handsomely: after single-handedly selling 32 homes in the past 12 months with no assistance he has landed a role at one of the region’s most successful agencies.
“I’ve been doing everything on my own for three years from printing contracts to handing over keys,” says Mr Diadyk, adding he is looking forward to working in Stone’s Macarthur office with the ‘luxury’ of administrative support.
He lists Stone’s modern branding and marketing among major reasons for joining the Macarthur office, as well as the unique supportive environment Stone offers to agents, something he had initially sought to no avail.
“I didn’t want to join a business that was just a turn-over machine that didn’t care about their staff,” Mr Diadyk says. “I didn’t know of any agency that didn’t operate like that, and it took a long time to find one.
“So I set up an agency at the age of 20 on my own with no track record, no history, because I thought I had the skill set and confidence. Looking back now I realise I was pretty green.”
In the early days Mr Diadyk says he was “doing all the admin in my bedroom and meeting buyers and sellers at a café or their office”.
“I also looked very young for a 21-year-old - I looked 18 which didn’t help.”
Stone Macarthur principal Chris Philp says Mr Diadyk’s achievement is remarkable given that while he had a real estate licence he had yet to make a sale before setting up on his own.
“Andrew is truly remarkable,” Mr Philp says. “He kicked off not really knowing anyone, making calls from his bedroom and has been operating alone for three years. It’s unheard of.”
“He was also up against seasoned agents in one of Sydney’s busiest markets which makes him all that more extraordinary.”
The longest period Mr Diadyk went without selling a property was three months, tempting him to give up. “It was very hard,” he says. “But I didn’t want to disappoint myself because I knew I could do it.”
Ambitious from the start, Mr Diadyk left school at 15 to study business at TAFE before landing his first job as an assistant a real estate agency two years later. “I was so shy I could barely make a telephone call,” he concedes. “My first telephone call trying to inquire about whether someone wanted to sell was just a disaster.”
After a year he switched to another local agency where he worked as an assistant to both an agent and strata manager. “That was the biggest learning curve because I ended up looking after insurance compliance and repairs and maintenance in up to 50 buildings,” Mr Diadyk says. “That’s what gave me the knowledge around even better dialogue on the telephone and email correspondence, and how to conduct conversations with owner’s corporations.”
Before long Mr Diadyk knew he wanted a career as a sales agent – so he set up on his own, cold calling prospective clients from his bedroom and door knocking three hours a day.
His first client was a woman selling her home within a villa complex who chose Mr Diadyk over other several agents for his knowledge of strata management. “She knew I could best communicate the benefits of strata property to potential buyers,” says Mr Diadyk, who went on to sell the villa on the first inspection and above reserve.
Now he has joined Stone Macarthur Mr Diadyk says the sky is the limit for him. “Seeing I’m going from a one-man -and to an agency I know those 32 sales over the past year are just the starting point for me,” he says.
“I still think of myself as in the very early stages of my career and capabilities.”