Blair Haddow is a high flier in the real estate world. He’s been in the top five percent of Bayley’s agents nationwide for the last 10 years and among his many sales is the highest price ($5.1m) paid for a Grey Lynn property. He was also a high flier, literally, in his previous job as a flight attendant, and says the skills he developed there have helped with his real estate career.
When did you start as a flight attendant?
I lived in London from the age of 20 for four years and worked for Virgin Atlantic. It was my way of doing an OE and I could travel with work and get staff travel as well. I speak fluent Japanese, which is how I got the job.
I loved living in London but after a friend who flew for Air New Zealand told me they were looking at taking on crew who spoke Asian languages, I decided to apply. Air New Zealand hadn’t recruited any long-haul crew for about eight years and they were only taking one course of Asian language-speakers so it seemed like too good an opportunity to miss. By that stage I wanted to come home and buy a house and do all the things you can’t do in London because it is so expensive.
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Did everything work out?
It did. I got offered a contract with Air New Zealand and worked as long-haul cabin crew/flight service manager for 13 years. And I bought a number of houses. I was buying, upgrading and then selling on a regular basis – I’ve always liked design and renovation and I saw property as a way of getting ahead. For a while I was moving every eight months, on average.
One villa I renovated in Sheehan Street set the record for a sale in Ponsonby back in 2003. Up until then the highest prices were around $860,000 and that sold for $1,150,000.
Along the way I developed a good relationship with an agent who ended up selling my properties and helping me to find new ones. I felt very valued as a client and I think dealing with her (she’s not in real estate any more) was probably what planted the seed about real estate as a career for me.
Why did you make the switch?
To me flying always felt like it had an expiry date. You are always managing fatigue, although you don’t realise how tired you are all the time until you leave. I knew I would do something else and real estate appealed.
Did your previous career help when it came to working in real estate?
Definitely. There were a lot of transferrable skills, particularly people skills. You deal with a wide range of people who are flying for all sorts of reasons, and there are a lot of things going on at 39,000 feet! I was managing a lot of people – on a 747 there are 400 passengers plus a lot of crew to look after. You have to have good time management and structure, and it teaches you good discipline, which has all been helpful in real estate.
Plus I found that it gave me a good network of potential clients because a lot of cabin crew are very property-centric. I’ve got a lot of good cabin crew clients who have been very loyal to me.
Can you remember your first sale?
My first sale came out of a conversation coming home from Hong Kong. We were in the galley at 3 o’clock in the morning and one of the crew said he and his partner were looking at buying a house in Herne Bay, and I said, “I’m your guy!” I sold them a really nice townhouse.
Haddow: "I was buying, upgrading and then selling on a regular basis. I saw property as a way of getting ahead." Photo / Fiona Goodall
But my actual first listing was a colleague who phoned after I’d left and said she wanted me to sell her property. Being naïve I said, “Why me?”, which I would never do now! She said, “Because if you run a sales campaign the same way you used to run the aircraft we would have no problem using you.” I thought that was a nice thing for her to say when I had no real estate experience or track record.
You now have a fantastic track record – what’s the secret of your success?
Structure is a large part of it. I am very much about structure and being organised. I get up at 4.30am four days a week and I am at the gym working out with my personal trainer by 5.30am. I am home by 6.45am and ready to start the day. Doing my workout then gives me energy and it sets me up for the rest of the day. I feel like I’ve done something for myself so I can get on with what I need to do.
Being authentic is important, and so is being consistent – if I say I am going to do something, I always deliver, in fact I try to over-deliver. I love helping people and seeing their journey through real estate.
In the 13 years you’ve been in real estate, have you had a lot of repeat business?
Over 90% of my business is repeats or referrals. Some people I have sold numerous houses for. I also find a lot of people recommend me to others. It is amazing to have such loyal clients.
I have ended up becoming really good friends with some of my clients. I sold a house in Grey Lynn to a lovely girl called Gretchen, then I later sold it for her and I have since sold two others for her. She refers a lot of people to me and I refer people to her – she’s a stockbroker and I am one of her clients. She’s become one of my best friends and that was all through work.
I am also really good friends with a couple whose property I sold about nine years ago. We have dinner and a catch up once a month and I was meant to go and stay with them last year in a house they own in Bordeaux but unfortunately that didn’t happen.
Do you still frequently buy and sell your own homes?
No. I lived in my last home, in Ponsonby, for eight years. I gutted that and completely refitted it. I have just moved in to my current home and I’m here for good – they’ll be taking me out in a box. I love it so much, it’s perfect. It’s a villa in St Mary’s Bay that was beautifully renovated by a developer and the location is fantastic. It’s so close to Jervois Rd yet so peaceful you feel like you’re in the country. When I first moved in it was so quiet it woke me up at night. I thought, "Why are there no people in my driveway eating McDonald’s at three o’clock in the morning?"
How was the house-buying experience for you?
Terrifying! It was a good reminder of what the people we are dealing with are going through. I fell in love with this house and wanted it so much. When I put in a pre-auction offer and it wasn’t accepted I thought, That’s not fair! It’s a good offer. I upped it and it still wasn’t accepted. I didn’t sleep for three days before the auction and I felt sick all day before I managed to buy it. I was so thrilled to get it.
That experience really made me appreciate how tough it can be for buyers and what a big deal it is, buying and selling houses.
Do you get much time off work?
I am good at scheduling time off – it’s all part of being structured – so I try to have Fridays out of the office and every Saturday off. I only do open homes on Sundays. I plan breaks because I think it is important to have things to look forward to. I’m going skiing in Queenstown in July and I normally do a hike the week before Christmas with one of my oldest friends. We go away, hang out together and turn our phones off. That was challenging the first time I did it but now I love having a digital detox.
