Aaron Davis is Harcourts’ national auction manager, and also New Zealand’s top auctioneer, last year winning the REINZ’s National Real Estate Auctioneering Championships. Before that, he was one of Harcourts’ top agents, selling more than $100m worth of property. But for Aaron, who was raised in Blenheim and now resides in Auckland, the real estate industry wasn’t always on the cards.
Isn’t real estate in your blood?
My dad, John Davis, was one of the first Harcourts franchisees in New Zealand but growing up I thought, I don’t want to do what my dad does. Swimming was my passion.
I was a competitive swimmer for about 10 years and my goal was to represent New Zealand at the Commonwealth Games in Auckland in 1990. Three months out from the qualifying trials I was the top guy, and then along came this pasty little no-name 14-year-old kid out of lane eight called Danyon Loader, and he gave me an absolute toweling.
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That was the end of my swimming career and I went home to Blenheim with my tail between my legs going, Right, I’m a failure. At 18, it felt like my world had imploded.
Can you now see the lessons that experience taught you?
Yes, it was a lesson in not having too much invested in an outcome. Swimming also taught me a lot about discipline. I trained for four and a half hours, six days a week, for many years in an outdoor pool in Blenheim freezing my behind off. Our swimming coach, Mr Humphreys, had muscular dystrophy and was in a wheelchair but he’d be there yelling at us every day, and you did what he said.
After my failure to qualify for the Commonwealth Games I became a swimming instructor myself. That taught me a lot about emotional intelligence – you’re dealing with a lot of kids from all walks of life, and also with their parents. Some of the kids had behavioural problems; some of the parents had pretty high expectations of their kids.
How long did you last as a swimming instructor?
I spent the next eight years doing that, and I also got funding through Trade Enterprise New Zealand to franchise swimming schools with my good friend Mathew Tolhurst and sell them to councils throughout the country. I had no idea what I was doing but I learned a lot about business, including that no decision is still a decision, and it is a good idea to go into business with people who are smarter than you. Mathew was the brains.
I worked hard on the business but not hard enough on my relationship with my beautiful first wife Sarah and after that went pear-shaped and she traded me in, we sold the business.
I’d been in Auckland and again I went back with my tail between my legs to Blenheim, where I ended up working in real estate with my father.
Davis didn't plan on a career in real estate. As a teen he worked hard to become a champion swimmer. Photo / Fiona Goodall, Getty Images
Was real estate always your plan B?
No, I just kind of fell into it. I had these grandiose ideas that I was going to be the man and my dad said, “No mate, you’re starting from the trenches.” He was known as the Colonel - he was a hard taskmaster. He had a strong work ethic and he never tolerated any of my excuses. He taught me about being dollar-productive and how best to spend my time. I had worked way too hard on the swimming school business and burned the candle at both ends. I learned to work smarter.
You did well in real estate – why did you then move into auctioneering?
It looked like a lot of fun. I met an auctioneer called Phil McGoldrick, who became a mentor, and I thought, “I want to do that.” The only problem was, I was a lousy public speaker. I didn’t have any confidence. So I went to Toastmasters, and that really helped. I started taking part in auctioneering competitions and was blown away by just how hard thinking on your feet is. It was a good thing that I was used to disappointment because I didn’t win, but I just kept on going.
Then along came my second mentor, the very well-known auctioneer Mark Sumich, and he said to me, “Are you curious or are you committed?”
That was like a red rag to a bull. I still had a rather large chip on my shoulder, feeling like I was a failure because I hadn’t achieved what I wanted to in swimming and relationships, so I decided to accept the challenge to become a full-time auctioneer and move to Auckland. I sold my share of the real estate business, which in hindsight is not the smartest financial decision I have ever made because I would have made more money sticking with real estate, but I wanted to follow my passion.
What do you love about being an auctioneer?
Every auction is a challenge – you don’t know how things are going to go and you have to be adaptable. You are always on edge and you do get a real adrenaline hit out of it.
You can have one auction and the house sells for more than they were expecting and you feel like Santa Claus. Then you go to the next one and they can’t get the money they paid for the house and spent on renovating it, and you feel like the Grim Reaper. So there are highs and lows, but it is never boring.
It’s one of those industries where you are learning all the time, and I love that.
What makes a good auctioneer?
You’ve got to be able to read a situation and know when to push and when to hold back. It’s when someone says no, they’re not bidding anymore, that your work really begins.
It also helps if you understand people – emotional intelligence comes into play. If you’ve been through divorce or financial pressures or job changes it helps you to have empathy for what others are going through, and to be able to close the deal.
You also need to be good with numbers, and confidence helps too.
How does it feel to finally be national auctioneering champion?
Great. The cards finally fell in my favour. I was a finalist for seven years – it took me that long to become an overnight success! I wish I had more talent but hard work and persistence paid off for me. I built up a fair amount of resilience and determination along the way. When you have to work hard for something it is more rewarding than if it comes too easy.
Do you think having to do things differently because of the Covid-19 pandemic will have long-term effects on your line of work?
The industry is always evolving and I think that moving forward, we will have the best of what has worked in the past along with what we need to do in the future to help people buy and sell houses. That could mean more virtual auctions, which I think were coming anyway.
I think we’ll end up combining options. There’s nothing like standing on a front lawn with a group of bidders who all want the house for their family but we will have to do whatever people feel most comfortable with and there will be those who will be happier doing things online. It’s a new world and we will have to adapt.
Auctioneering has changed a lot over the years anyway. It used to be pointing your finger at people and yelling but it is much more of a conversation with bidders now.
And auctions are always going to be important in real estate because they show people where the market is going at any given point in time.
In normal times, what do you do when you’re not working?
I spend time with family, friends and my lovely long-suffering wife, Fiona. I try to exercise as much as I can. I still swim, and I bike. I have to do about an hour and a half of cardio every day, now that I’ve got more years behind me than I have ahead of me and because I love to eat and drink.
I also love anything to do with numbers, whether it is Sudoku or number riddles or maths problems. A lot of auctioneers are like that – if you want to know how good they are, give them a maths problem to work out. Lots of us also love to play card games like Euchre and Five Hundred, and gambling. Any sport that involves competing and taking money off my friends is enjoyable!
