22 Jan 2026
Words John Miller Informer

All Good Things …

It is with trepidation that after 20 years with ResortBrokers, and 55 years in the workforce, I call time on a great career. It’s time to “go smell the roses” and spend more time with my wife, son and his partner and the grandkids.

I’d firstly like to thank Ian, Trudy, Tim, Carla and Alex and all the ResortBrokers’ team for putting up with me for the past 20 years. It’s been a wild ride at times through the good, the bad and the ugly.

The journey began on 27 April 2005 after a throwaway comment I made to a ResortBrokers’ agent to whom I’d referred a couple of leads from my contacts in the hotel industry. I said, “Rather than give you leads, I should work for ResortBrokers.”

Following a meeting with the then principal of ResortBrokers’ Sunshine Coast team, I quit my job and took the plunge into the uncertain world of commission-only sales.

When I joined ResortBrokers there were three brokers covering the Sunshine Coast —I became the fourth. After two weeks in the role, two of the three were shown the door. That left me (the rookie) and Steve Dawson, ResortBrokers’ man on the ground on the Sunny Coast. Talk about a baptism of fire.

One of the first things I was told was to not take a listing for the sake of building your book. However, that quickly when out the window. Against better advice, I listed several management rights that were wildly overpriced, full of problems and more.

Lesson learnt. I never fell into that trap again. Being a commission-only salesperson, you must back yourself and keep the faith. It took 11 months before I made my first management rights sale: Colonial Resort in Noosaville.

Since 2005, the change I’ve seen in the industry has been phenomenal. Even with the shock of the GFC, Covid and other lean years, the industry has grown from strength to strength. The major difference is in the value of assets. In 2005, the average price of a manager’s unit was around $400,000. Now, it’s more like $1 million. Also, committees have become more involved in the sales process and settlement timeframes have doubled.

In 2006, I was awarded ResortBrokers’ Rookie of the Year, and I recall a comment from one of our associates that at 51 years of age I must be the oldest rookie around!

Over the next decade through networking and relationship building I was able to build up a pool of loyal clients, some who stayed with me over numerous sales, many for over a decade or more.

From 2007, I was fortunate to win numerous ResortBrokers’ awards, including Top Management Rights Broker in 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2023.

In 2023, along with fellow broker Chenoa Daniel, we set a new Sunshine Coast management rights record with the sale of Oceans Mooloolaba Beach for $11.2 million.

My other notable sales, again with my colleague Chenoa, include Maison Noosa, On the Beach Noosa, The Rise Noosa, Tingirana Noosa, Breeze Mooloolaba, Number One in Hastings Street Noosa and Rumba Beach Resort (Caloundra).

While I predominately covered the Sunshine Coast, I’ve been involved in some of the largest management rights and freehold hotel sales throughout Australia.

With Alex Cook, I sold the management rights to Soul Surfers Paradise to Mantra Group for a then-record price of $27.5 million. Another record deal was the $12.5 million sale of a 64-unit freehold hotel, now Sebel West Perth, to a Singaporean investor, and the sale of the 128-unit Peppers Pier Resort, which became Oaks Hervey Bay Resort and Spa, to hospitality giant Minor International.

My Western Australia sales of note are The Frangipani Broome to Mantra Group and Sanctuary Resort Broome to Minor Hotels (Oaks). I was also fortunate to sell three management rights businesses in Mandurah to Victoria-based Saltwater Properties, as well as Broome Beach Resort, The Billi Resort (Broome) and Karratha Central Apartments in conjunction with our WA maestro Blair Macdonald.

My last sale of note was a conjunction with fellow ResortBrokers’ stalwart Russell Rogers, being the rights to the 160-key Lake Crackenback Resort & Spa to Minor Hotels.

If I can pass on any advice to younger brokers from my time in the field, it’s the critical importance of developing, nurturing and maintaining strong relationships with your clients. I know ResortBrokers’ supremo Ian Crooks will second this as he’s the champion at it.

You need to be able to identify career buyers from one-off punters and build a strong, lasting relationship with them based on mutual trust. I can’t stress this enough.

To illustrate this, over the past 20 years I’ve been fortunate to settle a smidge under half a billion dollars in management rights sales, but $93 million of that total was with just three buyers, and these were individuals not corporates or consortiums. There’s plenty more examples I could quote.

To highlight this, I’m still in contact with two of these individuals. The third sadly passed away a few months ago, but because of the enduring relationship I built with him and his family, with Chenoa I’ve sold four management rights to his daughter and son-in-law, with more to come.

Corporates change key staff, and you can lose the relationship. Consortiums are fine, but when they do sell there’s many moving parts. It’s individuals that are the key to long-term relationships.

Thanks to all those who supported me over the last 20 years, including ResortBrokers’ fabulous HQ team and many great associates — finance brokers, lawyers, accountants (sometimes) and, yes, even valuers — for making a difficult ride a lot easier!

Au revoir, mes amis. END