Christchurch real estate agent Cameron Bailey has been named the inaugural winner of the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand\u2019s Supreme Sales Performance of the Year Award.<\/p>\n
Despite the numbers, Bailey said the most rewarding part of the job was seeing clients return years later \u2014 and, increasingly, working with the next generation of the same families.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of my business comes from repeat and referral business; probably a good 80% of it comes from repeat business or word of mouth business,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I actually don\u2019t advertise a lot anymore. It\u2019s all just internal business through people that I know.\u201d<\/p>\n
In one case, Bailey worked with a couple before later selling properties for each of their three daughters.<\/p>\n
While technology and social media had changed the tools available to agents during his career, Bailey believed the fundamentals of selling property had changed little.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s more things that you can do as an agent, but I don\u2019t think the basics have changed,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s one of my strengths is that I still stick to the basics and I still do an older-style belly-to-belly real estate.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of the agents are hiding behind emails and hiding behind the internet. I still like traditional forms of print marketing and one-on-one negotiations face to face.<\/p>\n
Bailey said a long career in real estate also meant becoming involved in some of the most consequential moments in clients\u2019 lives.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a privilege to be involved in people\u2019s, in the highs and lows of their lives,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cReal estate moves people from chapter to chapter.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe experienced agents become almost like a psychologist as well because when you\u2019ve worked in so many times in those situations, you can offer a lot of advice, not just about sometimes selling the house, but a bit of life advice as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bailey attributed much of his success to the small team working alongside him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s strength in numbers, and to be able to service people really well and selling the house and helping them find a new one, you need a team around you,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t do it by yourself these days.\u201d<\/p>\n
REINZ chief executive Lizzy Ryley said Bailey\u2019s \u201cprofessionalism, consistency and client-first approach\u201d reflected what the organisation sought to recognise through the award.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis award celebrates the public value created by real estate professionals who combine outstanding results with trusted advice, integrity and service,\u201d Ryley said. <\/p>\n
\u201cOn behalf of REINZ, I congratulate Cameron Bailey and his team at Harcourts Gold on this significant achievement and their continued contribution to excellence in New Zealand real estate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bailey said his team\u2019s structure allowed each member to specialise.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone\u2019s an expert at their role in the team – expert PAs that are world-class, expert sales consultants that work with me – that\u2019s why we\u2019re probably so strong.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ben Tomsett is a journalist based in Dunedin. He joined the Herald in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Christchurch real estate agent Cameron Bailey has been named the inaugural winner of the Real Estate Institute of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602811,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[74,6116,2346,83056,1558,8613,138,53314,4487,9060,638,76912,2454,14995,130,10136,111,139,69,6777,814,6115,25594,667,30246,131,3010,10508,6202,379,2963],"class_list":["post-602810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-after","tag-agent","tag-award","tag-bailey","tag-been","tag-billion","tag-business","tag-cameron","tag-christchurch","tag-decades","tag-estate","tag-inaugural","tag-industry","tag-institute","tag-more","tag-named","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-performance","tag-property","tag-real","tag-reinz","tag-sales","tag-supreme","tag-than","tag-top","tag-winner","tag-wins","tag-year","tag-zealands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602810","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=602810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}