Former All Blacks Andy Dalton, Wyatt Crockett, Wayne Graham and Casey Laulala are also in the industry.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the first big-name All Black to begin selling homes was Kel Tremain, the world-class loose forward of the 1960s.<\/p>\n
Tremain, who died in 1992, established his own company in Hawke\u2019s Bay \u2013 a brand that is still going strong and which now boasts Harris and his wife Nat as agents.<\/p>\n
Tohu and Nat Harris of Tremains Real Estate in Hawke’s Bay.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the reason why we chose Tremains to begin with, because of that, parallels from sport to real estate and the family aspect of it as well. Kel started it, Simon Tremain, Chris Tremain, Will Tremain, they\u2019re all a part of the business still,\u201d says Harris, almost six months into his new career.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat sort of resonated with us and we\u2019ve enjoyed being a part of it, enjoyed this new career, and hopefully we can make something of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fame: help or hindrance?<\/p>\n
Having been the face of the Warriors for so long, Harris says he is trying to \u201cbuild trust\u201d with his new role and identity in his home province of Hawke\u2019s Bay.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople will beep their horns and yell out \u2018Up the Wahs\u2019 and things like that. That gives us a bit of joy in itself because we loved our time at the Warriors, and we loved that club and the people there,\u201d says Harris.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess that\u2019s part of the challenge, really, trying to build that trust that we\u2019re in real estate now and that we know what we\u2019re talking about. Whether I was in footy or not, I think, building that trust with people, you\u2019ve got to do regardless.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former Warriors captain Tohu Harris braces for impact with Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles prop Josh Aloiai in 2024. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n
As the tooting horns attest, Harris is a famous sportsman \u2013 not that he\u2019s comfortable with that label.<\/p>\n
But does fame help in getting a listing?<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be honest, bugger all,\u201d says One Roof editor Owen Vaughan.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of it, if a famous person rocks up and can\u2019t do the job, you\u2019re not going to give them the commission, you\u2019re not going to give them the job.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Harris duo are off to a great start, and Tohu says they\u2019ve had several memorable moments already.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe managed to get a sale, where they had a previous campaign that struggled to sell it and whatnot, and we helped them get it over the line and they were able to move into retirement, which was really cool to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
Transferrable skills<\/p>\n
Harris is quick to point to his wife Nat\u2019s role in their professional partnership \u2013 she\u2019s spent time with New Zealand Rugby, Melbourne Rebels, One NZ Warriors and New Zealand Rugby League.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s incredible. She\u2019s had 20 years of elite sports admin. She\u2019s got massive amounts of experience, and she\u2019s taken to real estate \u2013 especially the admin side, but also the people side as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
NZ Warriors captain Tohu Harris negotiating on field. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n
The people aspect, according to Harris, is one of the biggest parallels between real estate and professional sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most successful teams, in our experience, they\u2019ve had a good connection with each other. They get along, they enjoy each other\u2019s company and things like that, and it\u2019s the same in real estate too. To build that trust with people wanting to sell or people wanting to buy, you can\u2019t just be transaction-focused.\u201d<\/p>\n
Given the parallels, has Harris been recruiting any of his former teammates?<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know how serious it was, but I was having those sorts of conversations with Dylan Walker [now with Parramatta Eels], trying to convince him that he\u2019ll do really well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harris says top sportspeople have an \u201cattention to detail\u201d that many people don\u2019t fully appreciate, and both he and One Roof\u2019s Owen Vaughan believe that skill is highly transferable.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this is why you see a lot of sports people go into real estate; there\u2019s a certain amount of discipline that they have,\u201d says Vaughan.<\/p>\n
One Roof editor Owen Vaughan.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery real estate agent is essentially their own small business; they may be part of bigger agencies, and there\u2019s benefits to that, but essentially, they\u2019re individual contractors. If they don\u2019t make the sale, they don\u2019t get the commission; they\u2019re relying on their own skills because no one else will do it for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shane Cortese<\/p>\n
Whilst Tohu and Nat Harris are in the early stages of their new career, Shane Cortese made the switch from acting to auctioning about seven years ago.<\/p>\n
After successful roles on Shortland Street (as Dominic Thompson), Outrageous Fortune (Hayden \u201cBloody\u201d Peters), Westside (Danny Peters), The Almighty Johnsons (Colin Gunderson), Nothing Trivial (Mac Delany) and The Brokenwood Mysteries (Dennis Buchanan) \u2013 the buzz was wearing off.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t enjoying it as much as what I thought I would be. I was a very lucky actor. I got some great roles, and when I was getting the roles later in my career, they weren\u2019t giving me the same kick that I got earlier in my career,\u201d says Cortese.<\/p>\n
Shane Cortese made the switch from acting to real estate about seven years ago.<\/p>\n
When Cortese began in real estate, his employer suggested a career in auctions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it can\u2019t be that hard. I\u2019ve done a few charity auctions as an actor before. I didn\u2019t realise it was quite so difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n
Encouraged to compete at the New Zealand auctioneering championships \u2013 an event he wasn\u2019t even aware of \u2013 he soon fell in love with the role. Watching the elite auctioneers, he thought they were \u201cthe coolest guys I\u2019ve ever seen\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI threw myself into it 100%, made sure that everything I did was based around auctioning, and I went to see as many auctions as I could.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe very following year, I competed in the finals again in that elite division, so it was a pretty quick trajectory once I decided that that was what I wanted to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shane Cortese playing Danny Peters in Westside, the father of his original Outrageous Fortune character, Hayden. Photo \/ South Pacific Pictures <\/p>\n
Superpowers<\/p>\n
As an accomplished actor, Cortese is clearly comfortable in front of a crowd \u2013 but he says the performance aspect of the auction is not important at all.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy superpower probably comes from my old job, making people feel comfortable very quickly in a very stressful situation. It\u2019s not acting at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
He says forging on-screen relationships with other actors was good practice.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re thrown together. You\u2019re told that you\u2019re in love with this woman, and you\u2019ve only just met her, and you\u2019ve been married for 20 years, and you\u2019ve got to fall into that relationship really quickly,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo, you\u2019ve got to find those little idiosyncrasies, the ability to build a rapport with someone really quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since the early part of the century, Cortese has had a very public profile \u2013 one that he can\u2019t just switch off. So has his fame helped or hindered in real estate?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt works both ways. Although it helped me probably get my foot in the door, it also worked against me. \u2018Okay, well, this guy\u2019s been in my lounge for the last 10 years or whatever, why is he going to sell my home? Where, where\u2019s his headspace at? Is he acting or is he real estate?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Shane Cortese transitioned from acting to real estate for family time, finds joy in wearing suits daily, and values building relationships in sales.<\/p>\n
Lights, camera, auction <\/p>\n
Cortese realised early that he couldn\u2019t be both. <\/p>\n
\u201cI felt that once I moved away from acting altogether and focused totally on [real estate], it went better for me. You can\u2019t be dabbling on the other side and selling … somebody\u2019s 1.5 million-dollar property.\u201d <\/p>\n
Now Cortese is the national auction manager for Harcourts.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve probably got the best job in auctioneering in New Zealand. But there\u2019s a lot of work that\u2019s gone into that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cortese is regularly asked about the industry by other public figures \u2013 canvassing him about their own suitability. He doesn\u2019t sugar-coat anything.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is money to be made in this industry, but like there are All Blacks, and then there are Super Rugby players and NPC players, and then there are club rugby players \u2013 there\u2019s a majority of real estate agents that are in the club rugby or NPC level. It\u2019s only the All Blacks that you see or hear about. So, generally, it\u2019s a grind to earn an income, so you\u2019ve got to be prepared to get out there and graft and grind,\u201d says Cortese.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s adamant that the hard work is worth it. Cortese loves his job.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt gives me a massive amount of joy. Seeing an agent sell their first home by auction, seeing people crying because they bought a home. That\u2019s the greatest feeling I\u2019ve had.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mike Thorpe is a senior journalist for the Herald, based in Christchurch. He has been a broadcast journalist across television and radio for 20 years and joined the Herald in August 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former All Blacks Andy Dalton, Wyatt Crockett, Wayne Graham and Casey Laulala are also in the industry. Perhaps…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352814,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6946,17901,95,74186,8834,41216,430,3623,156,638,2740,19066,6800,78,2454,130,21409,117,111,139,69,6115,13311,48613,76350,213,5436,131,1361,61,45329,810,3006,80],"class_list":["post-352813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-actors","tag-agents","tag-and","tag-attracting","tag-big","tag-bigger","tag-celebrities","tag-celebrity","tag-entertainment","tag-estate","tag-former","tag-harris","tag-homes","tag-in","tag-industry","tag-more","tag-names","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-real","tag-sell","tag-signing","tag-skipper","tag-sports","tag-stars","tag-than","tag-that","tag-to","tag-tohu","tag-up","tag-warriors","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}