Sibings Chloe and Scott Wither came to careers in real estate at different times and from very different backgrounds. But together the Ray White agents are a force to be reckoned with, selling just over $100m worth of property in the last two years, mostly in and around Ponsonby, where they grew up.
Q: Who got into real estate first?
Chloe: That would be me, 10 years ago. Our family background is in property. Our dad, Barry, is a commercial property developer who still runs his business in his 70s. However, I got a Bachelor of Health Sciences and worked as a physiotherapist in public and private practice, here, in Australia and the UK. After about 10 years I got to the stage where I either did my postgraduate degree and specialised, or stepped out and did something completely different.
Scott: Dad had always suggested that real estate was something Chloe would be good at, so she took the plunge.
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Q: Why go into real estate rather than property development?
Chloe: One of the reasons I love residential real estate is that you get to part of someone’s journey. My strength is dealing with people and I knew I would prefer to be involved with someone going through the experience of buying or selling a home, which is a lot more emotional. Commercial property is very much a numbers game, a business transaction, whereas residential real estate involves having empathy and care, and I knew I would enjoy that more.
Q: Can you remember the first property you sold?
Scott: The first place Chloe sold was actually a bungalow I owned in Westmere. It went incredibly well – it cracked a million dollars, which was a big deal for Westmere back in the day.
Chloe: I think it was the first house in the street to do that. It wasn’t bad considering I was the new kid on the block. Looking back, it was a textbook campaign and one of those momentum auctions you always strive for but that don’t always happen. They say don’t sell for family or friends but I’m glad I did.
Q: What was it like switching to a completely different career?
Chloe: There was a lot to learn, but I enjoyed that. I found that a lot of my skills from being a physiotherapist were transferrable – physio is very much about putting people first and real estate is the same. What was interesting was that I was in my late 20s, or just 30, when I started, which was young – the average age of real estate agents at the time was 55. Things have changed since then – more young people are getting into it.
Q: When did you make the move into real estate, Scott?
Scott: Six years ago. I had been thinking about it for a while and the plan was to ultimately join Chloe in a business partnership but I needed to wait until my daughter Paris was about 13 or 14. I’ve been a solo dad since she was two, and I knew real estate was a 24/7, 365 days a year job so it had to wait until Paris could be more independent.
Q: What did you do beforehand?
Scott: I did some DJing back in the day and worked in record stores, then when I was 23 I went to work for Westpac Rescue Helicopter. I was there for 15 years, doing everything that wasn’t medical-based or involved flying the helicopter. So sponsorship, fundraising, event management… I got used to doing everything on the smell of an oily rag and creating something out of nothing, and also working hard to achieve my sales goals in terms of donations etc. Those skills transferred really well to real estate.
Q: What was it like, working together?
Scott: It took a bit of bedding in as it does with any business. There was a bit of a power dynamic struggle for the first 12 months.
Chloe: Scott is older than me by a couple of years, so he came in as the new boy and all of a sudden he had to listen to his younger sister. It took a little while to figure out our roles, and once we did that and navigated how to put it all together, we went from strength to strength.
Chloe Wither started life as a physiotherapist, Scott as a DJ. Photo / Fiona Goodall
Scott: After the first year it became clear which sections of the business were the right fit for us. I am the big picture guy and she is the details.
Chloe: We both have the ability to do everything in this job but we’ve definitely got different strengths, which means we make a really good team.
Q: Are you a particularly close family?
Scott: We have a very strong bond. When I was 30 I got sick with cancer and Chloe came back from overseas to help me look after my daughter. It was pretty special that she did that. In our family, blood is thicker than water.
Chloe: We’re a very tight unit. Scott got married in January but for a long time it was the five of us – Dad, our mum Leigh, Scott, Paris and me. We all live really close to each other. Mum and Dad are in Herne Bay, and until recently I lived around the corner from Scott in Freemans Bay. I’ve only moved to the next suburb over, Grey Lynn.
Scott: This area is our stomping ground, we are a third generation Ponsonby family. We know the area really well, and the value of living here, because we have had the experience ourselves.
Q: What is the secret of your success?
Chloe: To be honest, I never thought I would be a good fit for the industry because sales was not my thing. I don’t approach real estate as a sales transaction but I think that is what has worked for me. It sounds like a cliché but I think we’ve done well because we care immensely about the people who employ us. We see working for them as a privilege, and we promise them that we will live and breathe the journey with them. It may be bumpy but we will be there for them. We throw 150% at everything.
Scott: That’s why I have grey hair and bags under my eyes.
Chloe: We don’t quite look as fresh as we used to! But that’s because we put so much into it. We know if something doesn’t quite sit right we need to address it.
Scott: It’s not a responsibility we take lightly. We are completely open from start to finish and that engenders trust. It’s a team effort, us and the vendors, and we know what a big deal it is for people, buying and selling a home.
Also, I think playing to our different strengths and coming at it from different angles works for us, and like anything, communication is key. There’s always a way to resolve an issue if you can have an open and honest conversation about it.
Q: What do you enjoy about your job?
Chloe: It’s exciting, it’s fast-paced, every day is different. We get to meet great people, and deal with a variety of situations. It keeps us on our toes.
Scott: It’s very rewarding, especially when you can help someone who is in a situation that is not great. We’ve had a few people dealing with difficult circumstances in recent months and when you can get their house sold and get them out the other side, that’s great. We get well paid for what we do, but we put the hours in.
Q: What do you do outside of work?
Scott: The biggest interest for both of us is travel. Our parents have always travelled, our mother in particular, so we are well-travelled.
Chloe: But not big, flashy, resort-style travel, we like going off the beaten track and seeing parts of the world that are forgotten. We like experiencing different cultures and throwing ourselves in the deep end.
Scott: We don’t travel together, one of us needs to be here on the ground. But Chloe has often taken my daughter away on girls’ trips.
Chloe: Paris, Mum and I have been on some pretty cool adventures to places like South Africa, Turkey and Vietnam. We love South East Asia, and Istanbul is also amazing. We’re looking forward to being able to do that again.
