'I love being a part of the buzz when a house sells'

Rachel Berry got into the real estate industry seven years ago thanks to her addiction to attending open homes. Today, she is Ray White’s top Auckland saleswoman.

Q: What did you do before real estate?

I did marketing after uni. I did the graduate programme at BP and moved to Melbourne with them. When I came back I got into FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) and brand marketing, and then I had my two daughters. When my youngest was about to start school, I wondered whether to go back to marketing, or to give real estate a crack.

Q: Why real estate?

My husband and I had renovated about six houses. We bought them to do up, to try to get ahead and did the work ourselves before selling them. We lived in some hovels! And it got to the point where I became obsessed with going [to] open homes, even when I wasn’t actually looking for a property. I loved getting inspiration from open homes.

I started thinking about real estate because I wanted to be the agent I wanted to deal with – the one who answers their phone, who is responsive, who will really help you. I was also looking for something that would give me a good work-life balance.

Q: Did you get off to a good start?

I did. My first listing was for a one-bedroom unit owned by a friend who had got the local area expert in but they never got back to her. She said to me, “You’re smart, I’m going to back you.” I sold that, and my next listing was for a section. Sections are super-challenging to sell and everyone in the office was like, “Oh, she’s a rookie and she’s trying to sell a section.” And it was a sloping section. But I sold it. And from that I met a developer and built a relationship, and I later ended up selling six townhouses for him.

My third or fourth listing was a bungalow and some of the people who came through the open home had a $3 million house to sell in Grey Lynn and I got that listing. So in my first year in real estate I brought in the biggest listing my office ever had. It was an epic result and it also happened to be my birthday. It was a pretty good first year.

Q: Have you had any particularly memorable sales?

There have been a lot. One was where there was a difference of $40,000 between what the vendor wanted and the purchaser was offering and someone said, “You are not going to close this,” and I said, “Yes, I am.” I had to get really creative, ringing around everybody involved and getting everyone to chip in until they all came to the party and we got the deal done.

Another example is where I phoned another agent to get a conditional offer on paper for someone’s house so they could then come to an auction for my vendor’s property and bid. If they hadn’t been there I wouldn’t have got the result the vendor wanted – and that person bought the house. It’s about stitching deals together and really understanding people. I ask a lot of questions because there could just be one thing holding everything up and if I know about it, I can try to sort things out. This job involves a lot of problem solving.

Q: What do you love about your job?

I love being a part of the buzz when a house sells – you’re part of a massive life journey for the vendors and the purchasers. I still get emotional, it’s great when you can help to make people happy. I also love the challenge of closing a deal. I enjoy the creativity involved in getting it across the line. I love the people I get to meet – I get so much energy from people. I come home from doing open homes and I’m buzzing from the people I met.

Q: Why do you think you’ve done so well?

I think being a good negotiator helps. That’s one of the most valuable skills an agent can have. Having a background in marketing has also been handy. Plus I have always known to ask for things that will help – like ringing NZME when they’re doing the pagination for OneRoof and asking if my listings can go on the top righthand side of the page or at the front. If you don’t ask, you don’t get.

And it helps to be relatable. A lot of my clients are very similar to me – they have kids, they have a busy life, so I can understand what they’re going through. I know what it’s like to sell a house when you’ve got toddlers!

Berry: “I think I’m naturally an energetic person. I wake up in the morning and I feel energized by the sunrise.” Photo / Fiona Goodall

Joining forces with [fellow Ray White agent] John Covich has also been awesome. In my second year of real estate he encouraged me to team up with him and to be honest, I kind of didn’t want to. I wanted to prove that I could do this myself. But it turned out to be a great move – I love working with him.

John had been in the business for 25 years and brought so much experience to the table – I’ve learned a lot from him. We’re a really good team and we’ve ended up being good friends. We recently got the customer excellence award at the Ray White awards and I am almost prouder of that than the volume of work we do, because it means we have happy buyers and sellers. I believe that what you put in is what you get back. I put a lot into what I do, and I love it.

Q: How do you manage the large volume of work that you do?

It is demanding so you have to be organised, which I am. I have an amazing team who support me – there are five of us and everyone is in their lane, doing what they do best. I’m super-proud of how well we work together.

I also get great support from the office. I’m at Ray White Mt Eden, although about 75% of the properties I sell are in Mt Albert, where I live. They have great technology and systems in place to enable me to know everything that is going on with all of the listings we have. I get updates on every single thing that happens so if a vendor rings me I know exactly where we are at, even if it is something I haven’t been involved in. That’s great for my control freak nature!

Even though we do a large volume of sales, it is very personalised. Every campaign is unique.

Q: What do you do when you’re not working?

I’m really busy with my family – my daughters are now 14 and 12 and I spend a lot of time driving them to rowing and cycling and hockey, which I am very happy to do. I also love entertaining, although it is my husband who is the great cook. I just put the sprinkles on top and everyone goes, “Wow, that’s amazing”. My friends joke that I am the last 5%.

We’ve got a small boat so we enjoy going out to the islands in the Hauraki Gulf fishing. We’re going to do the Routeburn Track over Easter with several other families we are really close to.

Q: How do you find the time and energy to fit everything in?

I think I’m naturally an energetic person. I wake up in the morning and I feel energized by the sunrise. I do look after myself, I exercise most mornings, I walk the dog. I think you just make time to do things. If you book it in, if it’s in the calendar, it happens.

Q: Do you have that work/life balance you were after?

I think so. I am very busy but you just make things work. If someone rings me and I am out on the boat then I do the deal on the boat. In real estate you can do that, which is one of the great things about the job.

- Click here to find properties listed with Rachel Berry