Catherine Kaye, Neil Webster, and Darnell Haselau from Stone Illawarra, have all been nominated as finalists for the REINSW Awards for Excellence for 2020.
In such a challenging year, we congratulate these three amazing individuals, and for being recognised for their efforts, dedication and results.
We sat down this week to talk with them about all things real estate, how they feel to be nominated, and some of the challenges they have faced during the world health pandemic. We loved what they had to say.
Catherine Kaye – Nominated for Residential Property Manager
What inspired you to take a career path down real estate?
My interest and passion for property, architecture & styling lead me into real estate. I love that property management is multi-dimensional.
What does it mean to you to be named a finalist in your category?
I have been in property management for almost 2 decades now, and REI has always been the cornerstone for real estate in Australia, especially NSW. To be recognised as a finalist for Property Manager of the year against such a high calibre of finalists in the industry, is definitely the highlight of my career.
With the recent health pandemic, the real estate market has faced quite a few additional challenges, how have you adapted to these challenges?
All staff members in our department are members of REINSW. We were all kept up to date with information released through REI and daily videos by Leanne Pilkington and Tim McKibbin keeping us on top of the constant changes and recommendations. By following these recommendations we found that we adapted easily in the pandemic.
What do you love about your job?
I absolutely love that no two days are the same and that I learn something new every day. I work with an amazing bunch of inspired, passionate people and it is a joy to come to work every day.
Darnell Haselau- Nominated for Business Development Manager
What inspired you to take a career path down real estate?
Like most great things, I found myself working in real estate by accident. After initially aspiring and working towards a career within the finance industry, I found myself studying Property Services and working as a leasing consultant. Following achieving notable results in this role, I was quickly promoted to a Residential Property Manager role which then lead to leading Commercial Management and Business Development. To-date I have been lucky enough to work in many different fields and I am enjoying being at the forefront of growing our property management departments.
What does it mean to you to be named a finalist in your category?
My role is fundamentally selling the services of my team. Fortunately for me, I am selling a service which is unparalleled within our industry and within our local marketplace. So being recognised at this level, which is the most tightly held awards, is testament to my awesome property management team and all of our hard work throughout the last number of years! Being named a finalist simply confirms that our approach towards business and clients is different, and re-iterates my consistent commitment to helping people simply get more out of their property and to achieve the best possible results.
With the recent health pandemic the real estate market has faced challenges, how have you adapted to these challenges?
It is with no doubt that Covid-19 has brought forward a number challenges within our roles in real estate. However, as we have always seen throughout history, challenges tend to bring out the best in people and society. During these trying times we are seeing people being more respectful and conscious of others and their surroundings and we have been seeing great new innovations through technology. In our industry we have adapted virtual viewings, virtual inspections and the use of remote meetings which we typically would have never considered. Although this has been quite a large adjustment – I think we will begin to see these business operations become more of the norm. I am looking forward to seeing new innovations come to face throughout the coming months!
What do you love about your job?
I love helping people simply achieve more with their properties. It was becoming far too common for people to settle for less when it comes to property management; so being able to offer and pioneer a service that is unparalleled in efficiency, personal in nature and truly results driven has been incredible. Buying, selling, leasing and managing property should be a rewarding experience and I truly believe Stone Real Estate has the infrastructure, support and means to follow through on this. Being able to provide my services to our community and in turn seeing clients truly benefit from them is rewarding beyond any words!
Neil Webster Nominated for Community Service
What inspired you to take a career path down real estate?
I believe all of my previous roles have culminated in my real estate career. Everything I did prior to real estate involved communication, negotiation, customer service, marketing & strategy, so it seemed a natural course to take this path – and I’ve loved every minute of it so far.
What does it mean to you to be named a finalist in your category?
I’m very honoured to be named as a finalist in the John Greig OAM Community Service Award. Throughout my life I’ve always been driven towards helping others and this has been evident from the many charities I have been and continue to be involved with. Coming into real estate, I was determined to continue helping the larger community in general and I’ve been lucky to work with a great team at Stone Illawarra who share my vision and are willing to support my endeavours whilst I find new ways to engage through real estate also.
With the recent health pandemic the real estate market has faced challenges, how have you adapted to these challenges?
I think the world has appreciated a return to do good old fashioned values – such as customer service and care – along with the change in technology required to facilitate the changes in the new world.
Combining the personal touch with new methods for interacting has been a focus for me to overcome the recent challenges and the constant communication that has resulted is helping me to continue to adapt to the new world.
What do you love about your job?
The results we get from constantly helping people. Selling and buying property is an emotional process for people for many different reasons. Being there to guide them, help them and ultimately see them move into the next stage of their life is the most rewarding feeling and gives me enormous personal satisfaction. Using the flexibility of the role to further help the wider community with fundraising & charity events, is the extra cream on top of this! It also helps to be part of a pretty awesome team too.
So incredibly inspiring! We wish you all the best!