Steen Nielsen has a particular set of skills. Skills that made him a nightmare for criminals when he was an undercover police officer in Denmark, but which now, strangely enough, help him sell multi-million-dollar homes in Auckland's Remuera.
Nielsen, 50, moved to New Zealand with his wife and two young daughters in 2005 after a stint as a detective in the Danish police force, taking down gangs, and a job in sports management. He had fallen in love with New Zealand while playing cricket in the country - did we mention that he was also semi-professional cricketer? - and decided that Canterbury was where he wanted live and raise his family.
Despite having never traded in property when he was in Denmark, he embarked on a career as a real estate agent - mostly because he relished the challenge. "When I moved to Christchurch I didn't have a network, so I had to start from scratch," he tells OneRoof.
Nielsen soon found success in his new career, becoming the South Island's leading sales agent, but after the trauma of the Canterbury earthquakes he and his family thought that it would be better to move to Auckland.
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"Christchurch was fantastic. I had a really good business and was number one real estate salesman in the South Island. We absolutely loved Christchurch. We had no intentions of moving but the earthquakes changed everything," he says.
Nielsen viewed the prospect of starting from scratch again in Auckland as a new opportunity to prove himself.
"It was a huge success for all of us from day one, and my business just grew so fast."
Nielsen cites the skills he accumulated as a police officer and as a sports professional as the driving factors in his success in what is arguably New Zealand's most competitive real estate market.
"I try to bring what I've learned in past jobs to what I'm doing now as a real estate agent. I've always been a people person. I like putting smiles on people's faces and doing the right thing. Even as a detective, I felt like I was doing the right thing, even when I was putting people away. You can make big difference to people's lives if you are genuine and you've got the right intentions," he says.
Nielsen says his ability to read people through their body language has helped him put clients at ease and build trust.
"Fifty-eight percent of communication is body language. As a detective, you learn to read people. When I'm in front of clients or potential buyers I can tell if they are feeling uncertain or uncomfortable. That gives me the opportunity to dig deep and find out what it is that's troubling them and build that trust."
"Honesty and transparency are important, especially in stressful situations, like an auction, and it's important that people in those situations feel that they can trust me."
