It’s taken him from pizzas to delivery driver to an appliance store retail manager, all while investing in property.
Then, at 23, he took his biggest gamble yet – selling three rentals to raise the cash for a 50-50 share in Mitre 10 Pahiatua.
Two years on under his co-leadership, the store has doubled its turnover, grown from 14 staff to 30, and won Mitre 10’s Trade Business of the Year.
Cooke-Tait, now 25, likes to “move fast”, but admits it’s been a whirlwind through uncharted territory.
“It’s a bit like reading the how-to-fly manual as you’re taking off.”
Jacob Cooke-Tait, now 25, was the youngest Mitre 10 owner in NZ at age 23 after buying a 50-50 share in the Pahiatua store.
He’s quick to say his story is not just one of raw personal drive – it’s equally about the people you meet along the way and the help waiting behind doors, if you just knock.
It’s also a testament to New Zealand’s regional towns and cities and the chances on offer to those who stay.
‘Knock on doors and they’ll open’
At 16, Cooke-Tait set himself a deadline: own a house by age 18.
No one in his family had experience investing in property, so he knocked on his first door.
He cold emailed a property-finding company.
“I’m watching heaps of YouTube, reading heaps of books. I want to try and buy my first house at 18,” he announced.
Against that clock, he also decided school was a bad trade.
He estimated his teachers earned about $55,000 – and that 70 hours a week at the pizza restaurant where he worked after school would bring in more.
“These are the guys teaching me how to live my life. I think I can go figure it out and earn just as much as them,” he said.
Dropping out of school with $30,000 saved from his pizza work, he had a 10-month “sprint” to find the rest of the deposit.
A young Jacob Cooke-Tait chasing body goals.
Meanwhile, his email worked.
The online company connected him with two Masterton investors who were doing up houses.
“They got me working on their property deals [and renovation projects] as a labourer,” he said.
“That got me in the door, learning from people doing stuff.”
The pizza-shop hours did the rest.
“I was happy to scrub floors or do whatever to save money,” he told the Herald back in 2019. “Working hard has always been important to me.”
When he was ready to buy, the investors found a deal – a five-bedroom Masterton do-up at $400,000.
They offered to split it. His share came to $50,000 – $40,000 of deposit and $10,000 toward renovations.
They had plans to convert the house to seven bedrooms and share about $600 a week in rent.
For Cooke-Tait, it was goal achieved: a property owner at 18.
‘I like moving fast’
It hasn’t all been smooth sailing: Jacob Cooke-Tait after he caused a fire using a heat gun – an event that drew the fire brigade and earned a front-page spot in the local newspaper.
Within a year, he was looking for his next move and sold his share in the property to the couple he invested with.
“I just wanted to go faster,” he said, explaining he had really enjoyed the experience and what he learned from them, but they weren’t in a position to borrow more as quickly as he wanted.
“For me to grow, I had to leave them.”
It was the same process, or itch, he said he’d always had.
“Once you start on a path and you look over the hill a little bit, you’re like, ‘Oh, there’s actually a better thing to be chasing over here’. But you don’t know that until you start trying to climb the hill.”
The same year, Covid ended the pizza chapter. He quit and took a job at a local home appliance store, delivering and installing fridges, washing machines, TVs and beds.
The money from his first house went straight into his first solo one – and this time there was no one else on the title.
From here he spent four years trying to climb the ladder, not always successfully.
That first solo rental – a $295,000 home in Whanganui – he kept and rented out.
It gave him the equity to buy his second – a Masterton house he lived in with his partner and flatmates who helped cover the mortgage.
The Masterton home on Coradine St that Jacob Cooke-Tait lived in and which was among three he sold in 2024 to buy a share in a Mitre 10.
His next purchase was what really taught him about limits.
He bought a fire-damaged do-up in Hāwera just down the road from a gang pad.
Sleeping in the charred remains of the house one night and realising he didn’t know how to fix it up, he reflected and resolved to sell it, ultimately banking just an $11,000 profit.
“A real good lesson in doing good due diligence … figuring out your costs before you take the punt,” he said.
The next was a keeper – a $390,000 pair of Carterton flats returning 12.6% yield from the rental income.
By 22 he had three rentals.
From property to Mitre 10
Cooke-Tait had originally aimed to get to 10 rentals and earn enough to quit working.
But the rentals, it turned out, were just the runway.
His delivery driver job had put him on the inside with Wairarapa local appliance store royalty – the Heginbotham family.
The family had sold furniture and appliances in the region for decades – Mark Heginbotham, a second-generation retailer, ran the Masterton appliance store where Cooke-Tait worked.
After nine months driving, he talked his way on to the sales floor.
Jacob Cooke-Tait accepting the Trade Business of the Year at Mitre 10’s 2026 awards.
“I just tried to prove my worth,” he said – cooking up VIP sales nights and marketing campaigns that packed a month’s trade into an evening.
Four years later, he was running the floor – and he and his boss were looking for opportunities.
When the Mitre 10 in nearby Pahiatua – a small town of 2000 people – was listed for sale in 2024 by the owners whose family had run it for 40 years, Cooke-Tait and Heginbotham thought they’d “have a crack”.
‘Naivety is a good thing sometimes’
Heginbotham took one half of the new business.
To fund his half, Cooke-Tait sold his three rentals – pulling in $365,000 for the Whanganui house, $500,000 for the Carterton flats, and $470,000 for his Masterton property – some of which was split with his partner.
“It got me what I needed to get into Mitre 10.”
The hardware chain welcomed him with his own section in an internal newsletter.
“Youngest member principal at Mitre 10,” the newsletter headline said about the then 23-year-old.
“Jacob has what it takes to do really well,” Heginbotham is quoted as saying in the same article.
Then reality set in. Cooke-Tait had never run a business this size.
The new Mitre 10 carried 16,000 products whereas the appliance shop had stocked about 500.
“I think naivety is a good thing sometimes.”
Despite that, he and Heginbotham began putting money back into the business, some of which had aged a bit along with its previous owners.
Jacob Cooke-Tait and Mark Heginbotham.
The sellers were lovely people, but after four decades in one family, “you get a little bit stuck in the way of how to do things”, he said about the changes they brought in.
That, and a focus on the local tradies and farmers, led to business growth that earned the store its recent Trade Business of the Year award.
‘Back yourself’
He and Heginbotham have since opened another appliance store in Pahiatua, while Cooke-Tait’s 23-year-old brother has also joined him at Mitre 10.
Having his brother alongside is especially rewarding: growing up, he had no one to show him these kinds of opportunities existed.
“You watch movies, and you look on Instagram, and everyone’s overseas in America doing crazy things, and it’s easy to think that’s where the opportunity is,” he said.
“But if you really drill down to it, in every community, even provincial New Zealand … if you look hard enough, there’s opportunity everywhere.”