Hard work pays off for realtor

Rachel Grindle of Ray White and Sarah Ross.

GIRLBOSS
Working in real estate offered Rachel Grindle a great work-family balance

Name: Rachel Grindle
Job title: Director and licensed salesperson
Company: Ray White Tauranga
How long worked here: 10 years in Tauranga

What does your job involve?
I list and sell residential property in Tauranga and administer the trust accounting for the company.

What's the state of the real estate market in Tauranga?
The market remains quite steady with a shortage of supply in certain suburbs and stock levels building in others. First-home buyers have more opportunity.

Where are you based and what do you like about the area?
I live with my husband Ian in Tauranga central. We built a new home in 2006 after shifting a house off an inner city site. I love the convenience of being able to walk to town for dinner or a movie and regularly walk our dogs around the CBD.

What project are you working on at the moment?
I have been selling the Latitude Residences apartment complex on the corner of Cliff Rd and Park St. There hasn't been a new apartment development in the CBD for over a decade so it has been really well received.

Why did you get into this profession?
Ian had already been in real estate for a considerable amount of time when we married 22 years ago. With young children at the time, real estate offered me a career with good work and family balance. Now our girls are in Auckland continuing their education, I have more time to commit to our business.

What do you like about your job the most?
The variety. I enjoy marketing property across all sectors of the residential housing market. Meeting a lot of people and being chosen to represent a client is personally rewarding.

What's the most challenging aspect of your role?
Sometimes the sale of a property is based around unfortunate circumstances and in this business you must have empathy with people.

Your proudest work moment?
We have sold 21 out of 28 apartments at Latitude Residences and this is the largest singular project we have worked on.

What's the best piece of career advice you've received?
Let it go!

What's the most important thing your role has taught you?
Hard work pays off.

- Girlboss stories also appear on NZME's career hub, www.yudu.co.nz, where you will find more career inspiration, news, advice and more.