Real estate may not have been his first choice of career, but Christchurch’s Cameron Bailey has no regrets about the path he ended up following. Today the sales consultant and business owner at Harcourts Gold real estate in Papanui is a superstar in the industry. He was recently named REINZ’s overall residential sales consultant of the year, for the third year in a row. In his 18 years in the business, he’s been Harcourt’s number one international salesperson six times and this year he became the first person in the company’s history to reach $1.4 billion in settled career sales.
Q: Did you always want to be in real estate?
No, I wanted to be a doctor from the age of about eight. So I did health sciences and a pre-med course but my grades weren’t good enough to get me into medical school. I started a science degree but lost my passion for it and didn’t finish. It was clearly the right decision because I think I’m a better real estate agent than I would have been a doctor.
I’d always worked in hospitality because my dad is a chef and my parents owned cafes and restaurants. I went to London when I was 20 and ended up working as a concierge at one of the top hotels in London, the Radisson Marlborough, in Tottenham Court Road. I was booking theatre tickets, parking cars, carrying bags … all sorts of customer service jobs. It was a great experience. I met a lot of diverse people from different cultures and socio-economic backgrounds. It helped me to learn how to handle people and how to get the best results for them. Hotels are about client experience and our real estate business is based around that as well.
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Q: How did you end up in real estate?
I came back to New Zealand after six years and didn’t really know what I was going to do. My auntie and uncle, Dianne and Errol Hussey, were ex-Harcourts agents and business owners and they kind of pushed me towards it. They introduced me to John and Lynette McFadden at Harcourts Gold in Papanui and we got on well. I could see a future in it.
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The thing that appealed to me was that it was really about people, rather than houses, and I knew I could deal with people well. It helped having come from the job in London, where I had to have a lot of people skills. Often in this job you end up becoming a confidante to people because you get to know a lot about their lives, which you do need to know about because it helps you to do your job better. We can be dealing with people in highly tuned situations, especially if they’re selling because they’re going through a separation or having to sell under pressure. Real estate is about moving them from one chapter to the next.
Q: Did you get off to a flying start, or did it take a while?
I was lucky to be able to work with Mark O’Loughlin, one of the top agents in Canterbury at the time. I spent four years shadowing him, which I guess was an apprenticeship. Suddenly I was going to all these important meetings with people with very expensive houses and that helped to upskill me very quickly. I think I would still have got to the same point, but it fast-forwarded me a year because the volume of work was so big.
I sold my first place after a few weeks. It was a house in St Albans, a little three-bedroom place that was in a multi-offer and I was lucky enough to sell it.
One of the things I quickly realised is that selling real estate is not flashy – it’s hard work and long hours and it takes years to get the credibility to be selling the expensive houses that I get to sell now. But I don’t just sell the $7m and $10m houses, I sell $300,000 and $400,000 units and lifestyle properties all across Canterbury.
Q: Have you had any particularly memorable sales?
I tend to remember the people rather than the houses, and there have been a lot of memorable people. There was one couple who weren’t high-flying businesspeople, just normal hard-working people who had built up a really substantial property portfolio over the years. It showed me what two people with normal jobs who were reasonably smart with their investments could do over the course of 30 or 40 years. You don’t have to be a rock star or incredibly wealthy to build wealth. You’ve just got to get out there and buy the right properties.
Bailey: "You don’t have to be a rockstar or incredibly wealthy to build wealth. You’ve just got to get out there and buy the right properties." Photo / George Heard
That’s one of the things I love about real estate – I’ve been lucky enough to rub shoulders with so many great people in Canterbury and I’ve learned a lot from them.
Q: Other than the people you get to meet, what’s the most enjoyable part of your job?
I love the negotiation side of it, bringing the buyer and seller together. I love this market at the moment because you’ve got to be better at what you are doing. A while ago a lot of houses were selling themselves but now you are having to negotiate, and that’s real real estate.
Q: What’s the secret of your success?
I work really hard, seven days a week. And I’ve got a great team of elite, hard-working people around me who are a well-oiled machine and do a world-class job.
Two things I do is to always try to achieve the best possible price in the market for the vendors, and give people the best possible experience. It’s all about the experience – it should be comfortable and stress-free. Because I have been doing this for so long I can give them really good advice and guide them through stormy waters. I’ve been through the sort of market we’re experiencing at the moment three or four times before so I know what to expect. And when it comes to giving advice on things like whether people should be buying or selling investment properties, I can help because I’m in the game myself. I own residential and commercial investment properties.
Q: When you’ve been consistently at the top of your industry like you have, is there a lot of pressure to stay there?
The only pressure is the pressure you put on yourself. I’ve never chased being number one, it’s not part of my dreams and goals, just something that’s happened. I probably felt some pressure a few years ago, and worried about what was happening behind me, but I just play my own game now.
Q: Are you very disciplined?
I would say I’m very structured. I’m very calendar-based and I rely on my PAs to put structure and routine around me. I get up at the same time every morning and go to bed at the same time every night. I’m an early riser, I’m up at 5.30am. I do breathe work and meditation, and I go to the gym every day. I also love ice baths which not only have a lot of physical health benefits but also mental ones. I think it’s really important to work on your mind because it controls everything. I’ve spent a lot of time in the last few years learning how to control it – it makes for better business, and better everything really.
Q: What do you do when you’re not selling real estate?
I’ve got twin girls who are 12, and I love spending time with them. I really love travel, I love having the different experiences and think it’s one of the best things you can invest your time and money in. I especially love South America.
I also love cars. I’ve got a few. One of my favourites is a 1966 Mustang fastback. It’s beautiful to drive. One of my stress releases is going for a drive for half an hour.
I do a couple of podcasts. One is about real estate, with Lynette McFadden, called Wisdoms. The other one, Get Real, is with a business coach and mentor of mine, Sridhar Krishnamurti, and that’s more of a holistic thing about life and mind. He has really changed the way I look at life. A lot of the time we’re stuck in a world where all we do is work, and then you get to the end of your life and regret what you haven’t done. I used to think if I was successful and wealthy I would be happy, then I got successful and wealthy and I wasn’t happy. I realised I was chasing the wrong thing.
I guess I’m a bit of an executive hippy. I carry crystals and I like stuff like that. When I went to London when I was 20 my dad gave me a citrine crystal, which I still carry around with me. Citrine is the rock of abundance, and it’s for abundance of whatever you really want in life, not just money. I’ve given one to all of my team. The other crystal I always have in my pocket is rose quartz, which is the love stone. I always carry that because everyone needs some love in their life.
Power rankings: The OneRoof Stats
No.1: Cameron Bailey
Agency: Harcourts Gold, Christchurch
No. of listings: 250
Total value of listings: $303,355,987
Average value of listings: $1,213,424
* Data covers 12 months from August 2022 and based on listings on OneRoof for that period. Value of listings based on search price
