For the last 20 years, Glenn Collins and his partner Sonia Christison have been Lodge Real Estate’s number one sales agents. They have a strong support team working with them, for which they are grateful.
Q: Why real estate?
Sonia: We were working in health management and looking for a new challenge.
Glenn: We both had a passion for property, and we wanted to test ourselves to see what we could achieve working for ourselves. That was 20 years ago.
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Real estate’s been really good to us – it’s enjoyable and you just meet such a wide variety of different people, which is really cool.
Sonia: I love seeing how excited people are when they achieve their dreams.
Q: What’s the secret of your success?
Glenn: We tell people how it is and then we back that up with facts, like what’s been going on, what’s sold lately and what you would be up against in the market at the moment. You need to know your stuff, be genuine and give people the right info, then from there it snowballs.
Q: So you’re always playing the long game?
Glenn: Definitely, always have done right from the get-go. We’ve got pretty good relationships with other agents and other companies because in Hamilton you can sell each other’s properties. So we’ve always been really accommodating – we look at them as our clients as well. It’s not a short-game business.
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Sonia: Our clients know we will give them the best advice. We also have a great team and excellent support from Lodge, which means we can look after everyone. We all have different skills and enjoy working in a fun environment where we all help each other.
Q: How do you manage the volume of listings that you take on?
Glenn: We’re pretty smart operators. We’re probably like any other business: you start off and you’ve got X amount on the go, and you cope with that and then go to the next level and the next. However, if we were starting from scratch today and given 50 listings, we’d implode. You develop systems to make it all work, and that involves being really effective with your time.
Sonia: Our clients know we will give them the best advice and get the right strategies in place to help them. We also have a great team and excellent support from Lodge which ensures we can look after everyone. We all have different skills and enjoy working in a fun environment where we all help each other.
Christison and Collins dominate the real estate market in Hamilton. Photo / Alan Gibson
Q: Do any listings stick out?
Glenn: There have been a few. I think someone worked out that we had sold about 4000 houses, so that’s a lot of memorable moments.
Buying a home is a big deal and it can be life-changing. In the auction room or missing out on a multi-offer, it’s a fork in the road. We do remind ourselves that that is what it’s about. It’s looking after that person and helping them onto the next stage in their life.
Sonia: Buyers securing their first home and clients who over-achieve with a sales result and tell us that it has changed their life – those are special moments.
Q: What advice would you give to newbie agents?
Glenn: If I was starting out today, I’d get alongside a really good agent and offer to help them out and learn everything I could from them. Be prepared to take the knocks because they are going to happen.
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Power rankings: The OneRoof Stats
No.8: Glenn Collins
Agency: Lodge, Hamilton
No. of listings: 198
Total value of listings: $172,782,900
Average value of listings: $881,545
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No.13: Sonia Christison
Agency: Lodge, Hamilton
No. of listings: 157
Total value of listings: $142,397,000
Average value of listings: $904,247
* Data covers 12 months from August 2022 and based on listings on OneRoof for that period. Value of listings based on search price
