On getting into real estate
I had enjoyed a fantastic career in the hotel industry working for some of the world’s best brands, specialising in sales and marketing.
Along my career path I was fortunate enough to have been promoted to a role within Australia, so I packed up in London having never been to Australia before, and could hardly believe my luck at being posted to the wonderful city of Melbourne.
Fast forward a decade and post-children, the hotel industry was just not conducive to being a parent or to any sort of work-life balance, so I decided to re-align to another industry that would utilise my skillset, plus provide me with the next challenge.
I’ve always been passionate about real estate and it seemed like a very obvious choice. The hours and commitment required are still challenging and sometimes extremely intense, but at least now I work two minutes from home, so I’m never too far away from the children.
The happiest moment in my career
In the hotel industry it was the fabulous career postings and travel.
I was part of the launch team of a luxury hotel in Helsinki, Finland, and although it’s the coldest city I’ve ever lived in, it was exciting to present the city with their first five-star hotel.
In real estate, it was absolutely my first real estate listing and just the feeling of, “I can do this and I can make this transition”.
The most memorable moment
A sensational ‘resort style’ home in Hampton, which is one of the Bayside areas that we specialise in.
It was grand-scale contemporary living, in terms of being more than 2000sqm, but it somehow managed to retain a very real and cosy feel.
The architect was John Lochhead and he managed to create such wonderful simplicity in the design. The owner was also a builder so the quality was outstanding.
Showing buyers around was an absolute pleasure, from the 15-car basement, tennis court and pool to the simpler area of the herb garden and children’s play areas. It still holds one of the suburb’s sales records, which was wonderful from a career perspective and really entrenched us in the Hampton market.
Best advice she’s received
At the very beginning of my real estate career someone told me to dress as though I could afford to buy the homes I was selling.
Being from the hotel and corporate background my presentation was never a challenge, but this is one that resonated with me and still makes me smile.
Biggest challenge
I think employee retention is going to be a big one to watch. I certainly see many enter the industry but just not staying the distance for a variety of reasons, sometimes not realising the hours or weekends that are involved, or it taking so much more time to financially establish themselves than they thought.
I think it’s important to align yourself next to a great mentor for the first few years and really learn and absorb as quickly as you can.
We have a very healthy company culture at Marshall White to assist and nurture the new ones to the industry to really help them establish themselves as quickly as possible. Our training program is second to none and I think the industry as a whole needs to really embrace this.
Change for good?
It’s been so satisfying seeing so many women enter our industry and I’d love to see this grow even more, in particular in senior positions.
Our roles do allow us some level of flexibility that is really not always available in the corporate world so there is a family-friendly work life that can be achieved
‘Elite’ agent means
The obvious answer is of course all around our earning capacity, but this is not what it is all about for me.
Being an elite agent to me is about delivering a level of exceptional service to the vendors who have trusted to employ us and who have trusted us with a large financial asset.
They deserve a superb process delivered with enthusiasm and consistent high energy. Elite agents communicate constantly face-to-face or via phone with vendors and buyers and never hide behind text messages, even when the news is not positive and it would be easier to do so.
It’s about demonstrating that no stone has been left unturned, no opportunity not jumped upon to deliver the best financial outcome possible.
#WeAreRealEstate is a series of short interviews with 140 agents all over Australia exploring the industry’s hopes, concerns, future challenges, and what it really means to be an Elite Agent.
