My friend and dentist, Alex Negus, quoted me $8,000 for some fairly extensive work. It was a tidy sum, and in the course of talking about it I discovered he wanted a ring for his wife. I had Burlington Jewellers by then. He had something I needed, and I could make something he wanted. There seemed little point in sending two cheques past each other.
I designed and made an 18-carat emerald and diamond ring. The ring would have sold for about $8,000, the same as the dental work. It cost me around $3,000 to make. He got the ring he wanted and I got my teeth done. I didn’t ask him what it cost to do my teeth. He didn’t ask what it cost me to make the ring. We each knew what we’d have paid to get what we wanted.
A stereo and a running account
I changed cars often in those days, and one of the first things I’d do with a new one was upgrade the stereo. I got to know Nick at A1 Car Audio, and we worked out a standing arrangement. He’d fit a sound system and I’d put the retail value to his credit at Burlington. He could use it whenever he wanted something from the shop.
It didn’t always have to be a stereo. Once Nick came across some rather good cognac. I took it and credited him for the bottles. That was one thing I had no intention of trading on. I drank it.
The ledger was what made it possible to keep going. The dentist wanted a ring at about the same time I needed my teeth done. That was luck. Nick didn’t have to want anything from the shop the day I wanted a stereo. I could write down what I owed him and settle it when he found something he liked. As more people got involved, I kept track of who had supplied what, at what value, and who was still owed something. A deal no longer had to begin and end on the same afternoon.
What somebody else could use
The same way of thinking carried over into real estate. If I could offer something the other person genuinely wanted, we could often agree on a price without the usual haggling. I might have bought a block of land cheaply, but the price I’d paid for it had little to do with whether a car dealer wanted it. The trick was finding the person who did.
There’s a story of its own about how a Jaguar E-Type came into a house sale, and another about the flight that took me to the Yalgoo land auction. Both came from the same habit. Once I knew what somebody was trying to buy or sell, I’d ask what else they might be willing to take.
The Real Estate Institute of Western Australia asked if I’d talk to agents about putting deals like that together. I considered it, then politely declined. I liked having a corner of the business to myself, and I’d spent years getting to know the people who made it work. I wasn’t quite ready to hand out the contents of my little black book.
By then, when someone mentioned they wanted a new stereo or had a block of land to sell, I’d find myself thinking about who else I’d spoken to that week. Sometimes I could see a deal before either of them knew the other existed. That was the part I liked best. Although, if I’m honest, the cognac ran it close.
