- Ray White agents Steven Liang and Raj Sharma entrusted to sell their boss’s family home.
- They used their database to find a buyer and got a sale price well above CV.
- Boss Tom Rawson was under pressure to sell, having already bought another home.
A real estate boss who entrusted the sale of his family home to two of his employees has admitted he had sleepless nights while the property was on the market.
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But his agents’ determination to secure a deal ended in a quick sale and a winning result.
Ray White Manukau co-owner Tom Rawson told OneRoof Steven Liang and Raj Sharma found a buyer for his four-bedroom renovated home on West Tamaki Road, in Auckland’s Glendowie, almost a week before the planned sale deadline.
There had been a lot more at stake than simply selling the boss’s home. Rawson and his wife had committed themselves to another home and so had to sell before settling on their new purchase.
“I was like, geez, selling the boss’s house, no pressure at all,” Liang told OneRoof this week.
Liang has worked for Rawson for nine years, and has even filled in for Rawson at Ray White Manukau, so was the natural choice for the listing.
Liang’s co-listing agent was a real estate newbie but even so, he had been making a name for himself fast. “Raj has definitely done more deals than any other rookie agent has ever done in his first seven months,” Liang told OneRoof.
Ray White agents Steven Liang and Raj Sharma. They got a “pat on the back” from the boss after they delivered an astounding result. Photo / Supplied
They sold the family home for $2.68m - well above CV. Photo / Supplied
Liang knew Rawson’s home well and believed he could do way better on sale price than the $1.9 million some other agents had appraised the property at. “With Tom’s place, I’ve been there 10, 15 times. I know the property really well. I think some agents saw the CV of $2.1m and thought, ‘Oh it’s probably around 10% below the CV’. I’m not bagging them, but they didn’t know what he’d done to the property.”
The renovation that Rawson and wife Anna, an architect, undertook brought the mid-century family home up to modern standards.
Liang said the Rawsons had created the quintessential Kiwi dream. But in the end, it was Liang’s database that brought in a buyer ahead of schedule.
“I ended up calling one of my contacts from my Chinese database. He came through on the second weekend of open homes, came back the next day with his family members, and made the offer.”
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The initial offer was lower than expected, but Liang worked with the buyer and upped the sale price to $2.68m, not far short of the $2.8m the Rawsons were looking for. “It was the cleanest offer that you’ll ever see,” said Liang. “Cash unconditional. Everyone else required 15 working days finance, or selling their house, or this and that.”
The Rawsons moved back into the home in the last week of November and will stay there until they settle in March. To celebrate, the family has bought a new dog, a red Doberman.
The Rawson children Jagger and Freddie, named after musicians Mick Jagger and Freddie Mercury, have named the new puppy Ringo, after Ringo Starr.
Rawson was chuffed that Liang’s database came through with a buyer. He added it was that same database that resulted in a buyer for celebrity chef Tony Astle’s Auckland home earlier this year.
Ray White Manukau co-owner Tom Rawson: “Some people will go for a higher price, subject to a house sale or whatever, and then be biting their fingernails for three months.” Photo / Fiona Goodall
He never doubted Liang and Sharma would get a deal over the line. “Steven started with me a long time ago. And Raj lives [locally] and has sold a few properties in the area already. So, it was a natural pick,” Rawson told OneRoof.
Even so, Rawson felt the same as any vendor would when under pressure to sell. “I’ve been involved in 10,000 real estate transactions, but it’s always different when it’s your own home. There were some sleepless nights,” he said.
Rawson said the winning offer had a lot going for it. “Initially I thought, ‘well, it’s not necessarily what I’m asking for in terms of price, but it’s clean, it’s cash and cements our move down the road’.
“For me, it was more than just a dollar value. Some people will go for a higher price, subject to a house sale or whatever, and then be biting their fingernails for three months. I just didn’t have the luxury of doing that.
“Now I’ve got a date to look forward to that I can move to the new property. The certainty outweighed the price.
“Liang and Sharma got a pat on the back in the end. It did feel like a massive weight off my shoulders.”
The Rawsons’ new home is another renovation project. “I can utilise my wife’s talents. I’ll probably just continue to pay the bills and reap the reward,” he said.
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