Many Aucklanders have recently discovered the delights of the Matakana/Warkworth region but Jeneen Binsted has been in on the secret for over 40 years. And for the past two decades, she’s been one of Harcourt’s top salespeople in the area, helping others to live the dream.
Q; Are you from Matakana originally?
I was actually born into a South Island dairy farming family, so I have always had a great love of the land. I trained as a nurse then did my OE, working in intensive care and theatre nursing. I married Colin, a Kiwi I met overseas, and we came back to live in Auckland, where I was nursing and he was a lawyer. My husband’s parents retired up here in 1979 and we used to come up for weekends. We loved it so much we would leave it later and later to go back, returning in the early hours of Monday morning. We’d go over the Waiwera hill as the sun was coming up and look at each other and go, “Why are we returning to the city? Why don’t we live up north?” So in 1980 we became lifestyle pioneers. We bought five acres at Tomorata [halfway between Matakana and Mangawhai], with a derelict heart kauri villa, which we gradually restored. Our friends thought we were nuts; we had this tumbledown villa, five acres of land we didn’t know what to do with, and two baby goats. But we have never regretted it.
Q: What do you love about the area?
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It’s just so beautiful, and there is so much diversity within a small area on the Matakana coast. I encourage people to drive around to the various beaches and inlets to see where they feel comfortable. And it is so close to Auckland, and the new motorway makes it even quicker to get there if you need to.
Plus there are wonderful country communities. Our son and daughter grew up going to the local country primary school, which was amazing.
After 15 years in Tomorata we moved to Matakana in 1995. My father-in-law fortuitously bought two 10-acre blocks on the edge of Sandspit Harbour and we inherited one. We built our family home, and it was wonderful for my children, having their grandparents living on the same property. They would get off the school bus and go and have afternoon tea with Nana and Pa.
I appreciate the fact that our property is designated rural so we can’t subdivide. I am passionate about the unitary plan maintaining its green space focus. I hope expansion on the margins of Warkworth is limited so there will always be that green space in the area.
Q: Has it changed a lot since you first moved there?
It certainly has, especially Matakana village. When we came in 1995 the Market Square was the timber merchant’s and the Rusty Pelican [restaurant and bar] was a mechanic’s. There has been so much development – we just need to make sure the infrastructure keeps up.
Q: Why did you move into real estate?
I had been nursing part-time at the weekends but I was too far away from the mainstream hospitals. I wanted to do something that worked with having children. I did briefly work in the travel industry; I had a friend who owned a travel agency in Wellsford and I did two or three days a week there from 9am to 3pm. I put together itineraries and I took groups of local people, mostly farmers, on trips overseas. I took trips to the UK, Australia and Alaska, which I loved. I did my IATA (International Air Transport Association) exam and taught IATA at the New Zealand Travel School for a while.
Binsted says she had a good network of people who knew and trusted her when she first started out in real estate. Photo / Fiona Goodall
I had thought I would make travel my career and I did get the opportunity to buy the travel agency but decided against it. People were starting to book their own travel on the internet and commissions from airlines were going down. I thought, “In a small country town, I’m going to be working so hard just to stand still.” One day I spoke to a lady I did a lot of travel for who worked for Harcourts, and I asked what it was like selling real estate. It sounded like it would be very flexible. Within an hour her boss was standing in front of my desk, saying, “Come and work for us, we will train you.”
Q: Was it as flexible as you hoped?
It was. For the most part, I made it work around the kids, although there have been times when I have had to compromise family life. I was eternally late picking my daughter up from things but I managed to never miss one of her netball games. Sometimes I would have to race from the Northcote netball courts back up to Matakana to do open homes. Now I do one day a week looking after my 14-month-old grand-daughter and that’s a juggling act but we get there.
Q: Did skills from your previous jobs help with real estate?
Absolutely. With nursing, you learn to understand people’s mental and emotional needs and that helps in real estate. Selling a home can be a very emotional experience, especially if the vendors are older and leaving a family home to go into the scary new world of a retirement home. I can help ease that transition. And working in the travel industry, it was all about customer service, and so is real estate. So those skills were very transferable.
Q: Can you remember your first sale?
It was Easter 2002, a small cottage in my street. I still remember the absolute thrill of putting the sold sticker on the sign. That was when I realised how much I loved real estate and that it was going to be my chosen pathway. I still get the same kick out of it today, 20 years later. It was hard going into a commission-based job but it helped that I was well-known in the community through being involved in things like the school committee and Plunket and kindergarten. I had a good network of people who knew me and trusted me to sell their homes for them.
Q: Has the industry changed a lot since you started?
Oh, definitely. Things were very different then. Things happened like bidders being planted at auctions, which you were actually allowed to do, but I thought it was a dreadful practice. When I found out about that it made me question whether I wanted to be in real estate. I was very pleased when shortly afterwards it was no longer allowed, and that there is now much greater accountability in the industry and the requirement for agents to be professional and educated.
Q: Have you had any particularly memorable sales?
There have been a lot but one recent one was a house in Sandspit owned by an elderly lady who named a price that seemed unobtainable, even in a very good market. It had wonderful views but we just didn’t have buyers at the required amount. I got in touch with someone from my database who I thought it would be great for, and sent him all the information, but he didn’t make it up to see the house. Then, about three-quarters of an hour before the auction, he bounded up the driveway, took one look and decided on the spot to buy it, for the price the vendor wanted. Everybody was happy. The vendor was able to buy a penthouse apartment and still give her children a significant amount of money, and the buyer ended up with a wonderful home. There was magic to that sale.
Q: Why do you think you have been so successful?
The feedback I get is that I help to make the whole process so much easier. I think communication is important. Keeping clients updated is non-negotiable as far as I am concerned. I meet-face-to-face with them once a week throughout the campaign and they tell me they really appreciate that. I can’t always give them positive news, but I always stay in constant communication.
I am a very practical and organised person, but I am also able to be reactive. It’s a very spontaneous industry, you have to be prepared to respond quickly to a situation to do what’s best for your clients. My motto is: Leave no stone unturned.
Q: What do you love about the job?
The people. I get to meet amazing people. A spiritualist once said to me, “You’re like a sprinkling of stardust – you are part of people’s journey to get to the next stage in their life. You don’t stay there forever, but you are privileged to be part of their journey.” I have always remembered that, and it really does feel like a privilege, being able to help people.
Q: What do you do outside of real estate?
Normally, I love travelling but we haven’t been able to do much of that lately. I have a son and three beautiful grandchildren in Australia so we love seeing them. My daughter lives in Auckland and I love the time I get to spend with my grand-daughter each week.
The other thing I love doing is my daily exercise. I get up at 6am and walk on Omaha Beach at least five or six days a week, pretty much rain or shine. That’s my time for creative thinking and meditation; I will write my marketing and advertising scripts in my mind as I go – the headlines and captions just pop into my head. I really value that time.
