John McGrath's snub of a young Elliot Placks was a 'sliding doors' moment

Ray White Double Bay director Elliot Placks has claimed John McGrath wouldn't see his then junior staffer so he left for Ray White.

Placks said McGrath believed he was too young as Placks sought to move into sales.

He had created a business plan for McGrath to look at.

“I was getting 10 appraisals each week and I was only 20. I was good at it,” Placks said.

“I knew my target area and my commission based on the leads and appraisals I had created over the last two years," Placks recently said in a self promotional press release.

"But (then McGrath CEO) John McGrath wouldn’t see me.

"I was too young - told to stay as an assistant for a few more years."

After McGrath's snub, Placks joined Ray White Double Bay in 2003 and was made a director in 2011.

“I knew in my heart that I was ready and if he didn’t see the vision, I told him I’m going out to see who else sees it.

“I just wanted to become a sales agent, so I marched down to Ray White Double Bay and spoke to (former director) Trevor Leach, Craig Pontey and Mike Finger.

“Within the first half hour Mike told me I had a job, and that he’s never done that with anyone before.”

In his first year of selling real estate in 2003, Placks was named the number three top selling agent for Ray White in NSW and since then he’s consistently been a top 10 sales performer within the group.

Placks began his real estate career at McGrath while also working a boutique restaurant at Rose Bay and in fact he was "working in real estate to save enough money to buy the restaurant”.

Faced with the decision between buying the restaurant, he shifted to real estate full-time.

“The great thing about the restaurant in Rose Bay was I talked to a lot of people about their property and I got a lot of leads,” he said.

“That’s the unique part of real estate, sometimes you can sit at a coffee shop and chat to people and get leads.”