‘Giving back is key to being good at real estate’

Wisdom from a humble realtor who's seen it all

Age is merely a number when it comes to Allan’s expertise and skill in the real estate profession. Having recently turned 90, Allan has experienced 35 eventful years in real estate. His ultimate purpose is to serve as someone people can trust, and he has attained a passion of giving back and sharing his knowledge with others.

Before real estate, Allan was an engineer deeply involved in the motor industry right up until his mid-50s. It was at this time a friend of his asked if he had ever considered working in real estate. Having bought and sold houses in the past and enjoying it, Allan spent some time considering a potential new career on an extended trip overseas with his wife. By the time the plane hit the tarmac back home, he knew his answer.

A change of scene

Embarking on a new career at 55 shows it’s never too late to start something new. A bold move, but something Allan felt was his true calling. His only regret was not being introduced to the profession earlier. Taking up his first position as a licensee in Waikanae, it is fair to say that Allan is in it for all the right reasons — he is passionate about meeting people and building trust.

“The moment you know you are winning at your job, is when people call you up and want to deal with you,” he says.

When looking back at his career, Allan says his proudest moment was being the first person in Australasia in the LJ Hooker group to be awarded Life Membership of the Captain’s Club — and it wasn’t an easy feat. The criteria for Life Membership was ten consecutive years in the top 5% high-performing salespeople of the company in Australasia — and if you missed one year, you had to start again.

The makings of a great real estate professional

Despite his love for the industry, it hasn’t all been joyous. One year into his real estate career, the stock market crashed, and Allan found himself dealing with people who had invested all their money into shares to be left with nothing.

“It was a sobering experience to see people in that state in my short time working as a licensee,” Allan says.

These experiences influenced his opinion of what makes a good real estate professional, and that is those who give back. Allan’s mantra throughout his work is ‘you only make in life what you give’ — life cannot be all about taking.

“You have to be helpful to not only your clients and customers, but to your fellow staff members as well. There are too many people in this world who take. If you want to be good at real estate, you have to give,” Allan adds.

Allan stayed true to this and later in his career took an assessor’s role at LJ Hooker, where he marked over 3,000 papers. He never failed anyone. If someone needed help passing their studies, he would ring, email, or talk to them and guide them through the paper as he knew how much these people wanted their real estate license. Allan then decided to sit his papers for an Agent’s Licence and soon after became an Associate Member of REINZ (AREINZ).

35 years — more to give

Still working as a Supervisory/Compliance Executive at Lakeland Realty to this day, his knowledge about the industry isn’t all that easy to come by, which is why he aspires to share it with anyone wanting to listen.

“I don’t want to just shut the door to real estate as I feel all that knowledge would be wasted. If I could share it with someone or groups of people, I would hope it would be beneficial to them,” Allan concludes.

Allan Hodges