\u201cI love being in a small town. I love my team that I work with. I put the fun in dysfunctional,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
By day she\u2019s the principal officer, manager and owner of the Waipukurau branch of Harcourts and in her 32 years in real estate, she\u2019s gained a reputation as a force to be reckoned with. <\/p>\n
But by night, she\u2019s a social media sensation. <\/p>\n
Her first reaction to going viral? Disbelief. Looking at the view count on her phone, she remembers questioning her eyesight and thinking, \u201cWell, that number can\u2019t be right. Oh, bugger, it is\u201d. <\/p>\n
Edwards nearly didn\u2019t post her most popular video, which has amassed 2 million views. When she filmed it, she feared the unscripted video may have been \u201ca bit too casual\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere was nothing scripted, that\u2019s just me being me,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n
But it was that authenticity that audiences connected with. Social media users have called her \u201ca ray of sunshine\u201d, told her \u201cYou are everything\u201d and asked, \u201cDo you do weddings Heatha?\u201d<\/p>\n
And it turns out, yes, she does. <\/p>\n
Because Edwards is a jack of all trades. <\/p>\n
It began when she left home in Wellington at 15. <\/p>\n
She took on work as a cleaner and worked at an eel factory to save for her first home. By 17, she\u2019d scraped together enough money for a deposit, only to discover she was too young to legally buy a house \u2013 she had to be 18. <\/p>\n
Undeterred, she found her way onto the property ladder anyway, nabbing her own home and a whopping 22% interest rate. <\/p>\n
Determined to succeed, she continued to build an eclectic career; working in a shoe shop and at the freezing works before applying to a broadcasting school \u201cfor a laugh\u201d. Out of about 200 applicants, she was one of just 20 selected, and eventually landed the only job on offer. <\/p>\n
She worked in radio, where she became a creative director writing advertising campaigns and jingles \u2013 skills she uses in her online content today.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never had a CV. I still don\u2019t have one. I\u2019ve got no idea what I\u2019m going to do as a grown-up,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just muddling along like the rest of us.\u201d <\/p>\n
Edwards is also mum to three children in their 30s and has three grandchildren. She made her move from radio to real estate shortly after having her kids, after a dispute with a new station owner. <\/p>\n
She applied for a real estate role in the early 1990s, and after some psychological testing (which she says she passed in record time) was offered a position in Waipukurau in 1994, where she still works today. <\/p>\n
\u201cI love helping people. I love making someone\u2019s day. My goal is getting the result for both parties so that both are happy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis week I had very happy new buyers \u2013 first-time buyers \u2013 and they\u2019re thrilled with their new home. I just love seeing that reward on their face.\u201d <\/p>\n
Edwards sees real estate as her calling. According to property website homes.co.nz, over her career, Edwards has more than $128m in confirmed sales. She also won the Rate My Agent awards, voted by buyers and agents, in 2023, 2024 and 2025.<\/p>\n
She works seven days a week, leaving her staff wondering where in her office she keeps her bed. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never stopped being enthusiastic. I don\u2019t ever wake up and think, \u2018Oh no, I\u2019ve got to go to work this morning\u2019. I don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
Edwards believes it\u2019s that enthusiasm that saw her go viral, at a time when so much online content feels \u201cAI and sanitised, scripted and plastic\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cI never stop and think, Is my hair done? No. Did I check my lipstick? Also, no. But that\u2019s okay, because it\u2019s not actually about me, it\u2019s about the property.\u201d <\/p>\n
Being a social media sensation also comes with pitfalls. When her videos first gained attention, trolls made Edwards feel like a \u201clittle fur seal being clubbed to death with a big stick\u201d.<\/p>\n
She quickly realised ignoring the comments wasn\u2019t a tactic she was interested in. Instead, she hit back. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d like to have a few words to them,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201c[If] you want to get up at the crack of lunch in your scruffy pyjamas and your food-stained gumboots, you have at it, love. Hiding behind your fake accounts with your anime picture. My gosh.\u201d<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s also been a great amount of good that\u2019s come from her newfound notoriety; she\u2019s been approached about speaking engagements and a range of new opportunities. <\/p>\n
But she says, \u201cfirst and foremost, my business and my clients are my priority\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut it is nice to think I\u2019ve made someone\u2019s day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Did we mention Edwards is a whiz in the kitchen too? And if New Zealand was looking for the next Jo Seagar, Edwards is up for the job. <\/p>\n
Heatha Edwards has been selling real estate for 32 years. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
Alongside her real estate content, she shares practical recipes and budget-friendly cooking hacks online. Her no-cheese microwave b\u00e9chamel sauce has been a real hit.<\/p>\n
Recently, a \u201cmud-covered man driving a ute\u201d pulled over, wound down his window and told her, \u201cExcuse me, I\u2019ve learned to cook because of you\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat just made my day,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf anyone wants to put me on a cooking show, that would be hilarious fun.\u201d <\/p>\n
But behind the catchphrases, viral videos and social media fame is someone who consciously chooses optimism. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou choose to make your own happiness,\u201d Edwards says. <\/p>\n
\u201cI had a s**t background with a s**t childhood. Now, I could go, \u2018Oh boohoo me\u2019. But lots of other people are in the same boat.\u201d <\/p>\n
Instead, she\u2019s spent years embracing the good things: her family, her town, her work and the chaotic weekly dinner gathering she hosts for her children and grandchildren. <\/p>\n
\u201cEvery week the world stops. We have midweek at Mumsy\u2019s.\u201d <\/p>\n
Edwards says sometimes it\u2019s bedlam, it\u2019s almost always chaos. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that\u2019s just the way I love it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI love being in a small town. I love my team that I work with. I put the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563397,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[6116,28824,1561,4057,156,71,34746,1976,277041,1073,111,10511,139,69,12819,1072,223,8538,5143,2963],"class_list":["post-563396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-agent","tag-arrived","tag-bay","tag-behind","tag-entertainment","tag-from","tag-harcourts","tag-hawkes","tag-heatha","tag-media","tag-new-zealand","tag-newest","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sensation","tag-social","tag-the","tag-videos","tag-viral","tag-zealands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563396","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=563396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}