'Why are we competing with each other? Why don’t we work together?'

Heather Walton and Ross Hawkins have known each other for 20 years, and for much of that time they’ve been friendly rivals, working for competing real estate companies. Then last month Ross moved to the Ray White business Heather owns in Epsom and, working together, they sold $41m worth of property in four weeks.

That’s a lot of money. Are you still reeling?

Heather: We can’t believe it. We are both big performers working in the higher end of the industry, but even for us this has been amazing.

Ross: Normally your first month of setting up anything new is about getting rolling, but we hit the ground running. It’s been incredible.

Why has it worked so well?

Heather: We both work hard and we’re on the same page. Ross is like the male version of me and we’ve got a lot in common.

We both have boys the same age — my son Harrison and Ross’s son Charlie are 15 and they’re friends (Ross also has 12-year-old Sam). We love boating and we both have places in Queenstown as well as properties at the beach.

Ross: We have the same dogs, schnauzers. And we’ve both got a cat.

Heather: We both also have incredibly supportive partners, my husband Mark and Ross’s wife Emma.

How did you meet?

Heather: Twenty years ago I was a legal executive at solicitors Knight Coldicutt, doing property law for developers. I was dealing with the contracts for the new development at Princes Wharf, which Ross was selling.

Ross: It was my first real estate project. Heather was looking after all my contracts so we had a lot to do with each other, but on different sides of the transaction.

Fast forward two decades to last month and you were both selling residential real estate for different companies. How did you end up joining forces?

Heather: We were competing for the same listings. I spoke to one client about listing her house and she said, “I love you, Heather, but I love Ross too, and I am going to have to commit to him.”

I thought, Dammit! Then I rang Ross and said, “Why are we competing with each other? Why don’t we work together?”

Ross: We went out for drinks with our partners and the decision was made pretty quickly. I could see what we could both bring to the table and it was a no-brainer.

Heather: I did wonder about how he’d find our office, it’s a very different environment. Ross has come from a boutique company with a flash office. We have dogs running around and the radio going.

Ross: My main concern was that Ray White might be too big a corporate company, but in fact Heather’s Black Group Realty is a small business within the bigger company and there’s a great family environment.

What was life like before real estate?

Ross: I was in the family textile business. My grandfather was the Barker of Barker and Pollock and I started working there in the school holidays. I went on to set up the knitted fabric division and from a young age I travelled overseas to fashion shows.

Then I did an OE and when I came back the rag trade had changed, so I decided to do my real estate papers. I’d always been interested in property – I thought about doing architecture when I was at school and I bought land on Rakino Island when I was 20, which I still own.

Heather: I always wanted to be a lawyer, I wanted to fight for the underdog. I couldn’t afford to go to law school so I worked as a legal executive at a little firm in Papakura. When I moved to Knight Coldicutt I realised I had bitten off more than I could chew and I’d work until two in the morning to keep my head above water.

I was faking it until I made it. I ended up being business development manager, then I did in-house legal work for a development company and when someone suggested I did my real estate licence, I thought, Why not?

You’ve both won awards for being top sales people. Heather, you were a finalist in the New Zealand Women of Influence Awards last year. Are you proud of your achievements?

Heather: I struggle with accolades. I still don’t believe I have achieved enough, but it was a real honour to be a Women of Influence finalist.

I speak at events about my experience of being in an abusive relationship — before my marriage to my lovely husband Mark — and try to empower other women.

Nobody wants to admit they have been in a situation like that, but I am passionate about showing women you can get out of it. I talk about breaking the cycle and having self-worth.

So you’ve had lows as well as highs?

Heather: I had to start again after leaving my relationship. That was hard.

Ross: I set up my own property development business, buying the 2000-acre Mount Cardrona station in the Queenstown Lakes district.

We spent six years planning to build a town for 3000 people and were about to launch it when the global financial crisis hit and killed the dream. I’d worked for six years with no income, waiting for the big return at the end.

Heather: Something similar happened to me. I poured my heart and soul into a 200-acre block we were developing in central Otago, but the global financial crisis changed everything.

Ross: I went back to real estate and obviously it has worked out well. You have to be careful about finding work/life balance or you can burn out and wake up in the morning thinking, I can’t do this.

But if you can find that balance then it is a great industry to be in — the kind that gets into your blood.

Heather: My next thing is sharing that passion — I’ve started a real estate academy for people coming to the business. I’m going to throw Ross in the deep end with that — I think he will be great.