Before James had even officially moved into the office, he was already off to a good start with the new space after hosting a successful auction there that secured him a surprising and major win.
"It stirred up a fair bit of eyebrow-raising, in the industry and in the community," says James.
That property is 220 Racecourse Rd – an estate sale listing boasting almost 3ha of land and a large, four-bedroom house that is zoned rurally but is smack bang in the middle of town.
The sale didn't come without its challenges, though.
Estate sales are hard enough as it is, let alone during a global pandemic.
Just two days after running the first open home, the country went into another alert level 4 lockdown when a case of the Delta variant of the coronavirus was found in the community.
"We literally just got started and then the rug was pulled out from under us," says James.
When the time finally came, though, the auction room was filled to capacity and the opening bid started at $1.3 million, the winning bid came in at $1.95 million.
"It did exceed my vendor's expectations quite substantially. They were very happy," says James.
And for James the win means a lot more.
"If nothing else, it justified the company's confidence in me," says James.
"It's a good feeling when someone puts their trust into you and you return that. For us it's a very strong result publicly, auctions are a great public forum."
Following that success James says they have received a lot more interest in what he and PGG Wrightson Real Estate can offer.
"We have a very strong auction team and we are capable of very good results if given the opportunity," says James.
