London Calling
Born in Sussex England, Melanie came to Australia at age 4 months. The family settled in Brisbane where she grew up, went to school, started working, married, then…. At the age of 29 together with her husband felt the urge to go back to the UK, experience life there and connect with relatives and travel.
‘The plan was to go to London and base ourselves there for 2 years - we stayed 16’.
‘London was where I first began my career in real estate. I started looking for a job when we got over there. I saw the Foxtons branding everywhere and as I always had an interest in property I thought why not and applied for a role with them. At 29, I was the oldest inductee in the place by a long shot.
Very different to real estate here
‘For a start the hours of work were 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday and 8am to 5pm every Saturday for the first 6 months before you even got to have alternative Saturdays off. You had to have a passion for it. Burn out was high and there was big staff churn as you could imagine which was why there were so many younger people in roles. In the first week of training, they looked at personality to see where you best fitted. Sales generally were slow massaged outcomes whereas Leasing tended to be quicker turn around, high energy transactions where you needed to be organised and have a strong knowledge of your product. Leasing was my strength.’
My first boss was maybe 22 years old
‘Extremely young by Australian standards but he was smart, and I learned quickly with him. After 3 months I was sent to head up the Wimbledon office which was a really big deal. To this day I believe that is still the fastest anybody has progressed at Foxtons and I was determined to be successful. The next 16 years were so rewarding, especially as I was given the opportunity to work with some of the largest residential brands across London but eventually it was time to head home.’
Sick of the cold and missing family
‘Back in warm, sunny Brisbane it was time for the next challenge. Together with one of my oldest friends Chris McLeod we created the Commercial Group, trading as Your Commercial, about 2 years before covid hit thankfully which gave us some time to establish. Chris had already worked in commercial real estate in Brisbane city fringe by then and had a wealth of experience and contacts, my experience in the UK in particular was in residential leasing. Together we focussed on and specialised in city fringe leasing, sales and property management. ‘
‘Determined to do things in a positive and sustainable way that benefits everyone in the business. We set about creating teams that are focussed on their specialty, listing stock, leasing, sales and property management, that all shared equally in the success of the business. In doing so we’ve created an environment that provides value in working together which has our teams referring business within the company.’
‘In the future we want to be a one stop shop for all things property, residential, finance, conveyancing, buyers agent and so forth. We have a vision for growth with a strategy that involves surrounding ourselves with people smarter than ourselves that have passion for what they do. They must have a team outlook, be solution based and dare to be different. We aim to provide career paths that leads to management or managing an office and reward performance with share options and profit share over time. Ultimately, we are looking to build the business and develop our people, to the point of eventually becoming partners in the business.
And then….
‘Travel is still high on my agenda and getting time for other interests that I’m passionate about, like enabling young disadvantaged youth get a start in the workforce are important to me. With so much of my working life being overseas I don’t have the benefit of decades contributing to super so I need to find a way to catch up in this space. Thankfully we have Mel Brett from REI Super presenting to the team next week on ways to get ahead and make the most of their super – I’m very much looking forward to that.’
....................................................................................................................
This information has been prepared and published by REI Superannuation Fund Pty Ltd ABN 68 056 044 770 RSE L0000314 AFSL. 240569. REI Super ABN 76 641 658 449 and RSE R1000412 MySuper unique identifier 76641658449129 for the general information of members of REI Super. It does not take into account any member’s individual financial objectives, financial situation or needs.
We recommend that you seek help from a licensed financial adviser before acting on any information contained in this newsletter. Although REI Super makes every reasonable effort to maintain current and accurate information, you should be aware that there is still the possibility of inadvertent errors and technical inaccuracies.
The REI Super Helpline and the REI Super website are provided by Mercer Outsourcing (Australia) Pty Ltd ABN 83 068 908 912 and Mercer Financial Advice (Australia) Pty Ltd (MFA) ABN 76 153 168 293, Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL) #411766. October 2022.