Sheree Williams wasn’t too keen on Invercargill when she studied architecture at the Southern Institute of Technology aged 17, but now she loves the city, so much “you couldn’t pay me all the money in the world to leave”.
Williams has been selling homes there for nearly a decade and has just branched out under her own banner, SW Real Estate, after working for Mike Pero, which was acquired by Raine & Horne last year.
The timing to go out on her own was right with the housing market in New Zealand’s southernmost city starting to heat up, she says, though she points out Southland has always had a strong market.
“We sort of march to the beat of our own drum here. We don’t really follow the trends of what other markets are doing, and we’ve always been very strong.”
Williams sells mostly in the first-home buyer category, saying the average price is around the $460,000 mark – a mere deposit in Auckland and one reason why people from Auckland and elsewhere are moving down country.
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Luxury also exists in the city, with $1.2m to $2m enough to get a large executive home. However, those with budgets of between $500,000 and $600,000 can easily find themselves a solid three or four-bedroom family home with a wood burner and a backyard.
Williams says her move to working under her own name is timely. At the age of 34, she feels it’s time to back herself.
Born and bred in Central Otago, the girl from Alexandra met a boy when studying in Invercargill, fell in love and got married.
The couple moved away for a couple of years but were drawn back and nine years ago, husband Ben encouraged her to get into real estate, which she used to think was for “middle-aged” people, but at 24 she got her ticket and has not looked back.
Williams isn’t afraid to make fun of herself and knows how to go viral. Photo / Instagram
Yes, Invercargill can be cold and drizzly, but at the time of talking it was sunny with blue skies. Williams says the people are fantastic, and she has shifted her mindset.
“For me, Invercargill is like a mini-Christchurch, and Christchurch is like a mini-Auckland. It’s small, but the thing I love about Invercargill – like, the biggest thing – is the people. We are so down to earth.
“You can go to a cafe, and people will drive past and their tractors sort of thing. We’ve got that small town rural city, but then we’ve also got a big, big city stuffed into our little city as well, if that makes sense, because we’ve got all the infrastructure and stuff going on.”
People are coming to Invercargill “in droves” from around the country and even from Australia, she says.
“One thing I’ve noticed is we’re getting a lot of people that, you know, they’re working from home, so they’re from Auckland, they work from home and after a few years they’re still working from home; ‘let’s just relocate, smaller mortgage, but we’ve got the same jobs.’”
Invercargill’s housing market doesn’t “really follow the trends of what other markets are doing, and we’ve always been very strong”, says Williams. Photo / Getty Images
Williams says she operates a bit differently from other agents, such as the time one of her signs was graffitied.
When someone drew a moustache on her photo, she had a bit of fun with it rather than being offended. “I took a photo and on the photo I drew a moustache on myself, sort of ripping on myself.”
She posted the image online, and it went viral, then put moustaches on all her signs for the charity month of Movember.
In a small town, agents get trolled online sometimes, she says, and she pushes back but with fun and is never disrespectful.
Real estate does not have to be old-school, and Williams says she prides herself on adapting to technology and walking her clients, who are often new to real estate, through what can be a stressful time.
“It’s not just a transaction. I want it to actually be a journey for people. It means more work for me, but it’s work I enjoy doing, where I feel a lot of people just feel their agents come in and they get the paperwork signed, and then they don’t communicate, and then they’re on to the next one.
“For me, there’s a whole journey. Buying and selling property is very emotional, and it can be very stressful, so my job is to guide people through the journey with as little stress, and we have fun along the way, and they know they are getting the absolute best service that they can.”
She says she likes to go the extra mile and says her video walk-throughs of properties not only reveal her personality, but she also chooses music that suits her vendor, so the backing might be heavy metal.
“I want people to enjoy watching the videos as opposed to the elevator music, and it is fun.
“One thing I say to people is ‘what you see is what you get’. You’re not going to see my videos online and then meet me in person, and I’m gonna be like not interested and rude and uptight.
“What you see online and how I am in my videos, that is how I am like all the time.”