Check out Canberra’s up and coming real estate agents
Buying, selling or renting a property? We have showcased some of the new top guns in real estate from a former cafe owner to a former semi-professional Aussie rules player.
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They’re the people you trust with the biggest transaction in your life.
Whether it's buying your first home, or selling a beloved piece of land, you need to ensure you have the right agent in your corner.
Some early-career real estate agents have moved on from decades-long careers in other industries.
Other’s have hit the pavement straight out of school, and are already hitting goals
Meet Canberra’s best and brightest ‘real estate rookies’.
Josh Yewdall — Belle Property Canberra
Josh Yewdall has been in the real estate game for two years and has already become a platinum agent at Belle.
Mr Yewdall previously worked in marketing at AllHomes and Domain, but soon saw a career opportunity in real estate.
“I saw potential and good career growth, and passion for property, sales and people,” he said.
Mr Yewdall has lived “basically everywhere” in Canberra, and has spent most of his life in the city.
He said Canberra’s Belconnen region stood out against the rest.
“Belconnen was probably home to me,” he said.
“I think community wise there’s a lot of potential for more progression.
“It's not like quite inner south or inner north where you’re basically in the city — but its not too far behind that.”
Mr Yewdall says he aims to be a reliable person for his clients
“I love being relied on; I love to be the go-to man for clients, vendors, sellers and buyers,” he said.
“I hate to let people down.”
Mr Yewdall said you could not “wing” a career in real estate.
“You’ve got to be well across it — it's not something that you can just walk in and try,” he said.
“It’s something you need to dig your heels into and know that it’s going to take several years to kind of figure it out.”
Alex Smout — Belle Property Canberra
Alex Smout moved to Canberra from Melbourne initially to pursue a career in the AFL, but said he was always intrigued by real estate.
He started working on the reception desk at Belle while playing semi-professional Aussie rules, and began work as an agent after 12 months.
Mr Smout has hung up the footy boots, but says real estate is “almost like playing a sport”.
“You obviously get that rush when you get called into a new house or you sign up a new listing,” he said.
“You get a buzz when you sell something or break a record.”
Mr Smout now focuses on two distinct areas of the city: the well-established leafy suburb of Red Hill in south Canberra and the newly established suburb of Denman Prospect in the Molonglo Valley.
“I live in Red Hill, so I know the area like the back of my hand,” he said.
“You’ve got a lot more conservative buyers, price points are a little bit higher.
“Denman sort of came about by accident — we had a sale there that broke the record.
“We’ve gone from strength to strength.
“It's a new suburb, not a lot of history there in terms of real estate agents.
“We’ve become the go-to agency out there.”
Mr Smout said when starting out in the industry it was important to align yourself with good mentors rather than going it alone.
Sally McCallum — LJ Hooker Tuggeranong
When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, Sally McCallum’s stellar 20-year career in the travel industry disappeared overnight.
Only able to work two days a week in travel during the early stage of the pandemic, Ms McCallum did what she could to keep her family afloat.
She began running her own personal training sessions from her garage and started letterbox dropping for a local real estate agent.
“I was doing 15 personal training sessions a week and walking 130km per week doing the letterbox dropping,” she said.
“After about six months I thought ‘I can’t keep doing this — I need something more stable and more secure’.”
Ms McCallum said she was nervous about starting a new career in real estate and worried about the hours as a single mum.
But, since taking the plunge, Ms McCallum said she had loved every minute of her new career.
Hailing from Adelaide, Ms McCallum has lived in the Tuggeranong region of Canberra since moving 10 years ago.
“I know the area really well and for me it's the nicest area in Canberra,” she said.
“It’s not high density housing, people have bigger blocks, we’ve got lots of mountains, and a couple of lakes.
“I feel comfortable in this region.”
She said the skills she learned in the travel industry equipped her for her new role.
“It’s about relationship building its about customer service, it's about follow up and you also have to win,” she said.
And her efforts have not gone unnoticed, as she won the Rate My Agent Rising Star award.
“I was shaking when I won,” She said.
“I’ve always been a quiet achiever where you just put your head down and do the best you can.”
Sarah Hussey — Purnell Real Estate
Jerrabomberra local Sarah Hussey has become the go-to woman for all things Queanbeyan-Palerang real estate.
Ms Hussey initially started her career in real estate as a property manager but left the industry to open a cafe in Bungendore which hired people with disabilities.
She eventually sold the business to go back into the real estate industry as a leasing consultant, but expanded her role to sales in Queanbeyan, Jerrabomberra, Carwoola, and Bungendore.
Ms Hussey said buyers loved the community spirit of capital region towns.
“It’s that rural lifestyle, it's got that real country community,” she said.
“You know your neighbours and in all these areas you’re getting land that’s a decent size.
“You can have that backyard like you did as a kid for your children without being crammed into a unit.
“But to drive to say Kingston for work, it’s a maximum 20-25 minutes and you’re in a city.”
While she has only recently dipped her toes into the sales side of real estate, Ms Hussey has already sold a property in the Carwoola area that hit above the million dollar mark.
“To achieve that in my first financial year of sales … I was thrilled,” she said.
“And it’s rolled on from there.”
Ms Hussey said she aimed to bring something different to clients.
“I’m down to earth, I’m super friendly with clients and I want the best outcome for them,” she said.
“And of course it's about getting top dollar for the clients.
“But I’ve also had clients that want somebody to look after their property as well.
“They’re moving on for different reasons but then moving on and wanting someone to appreciate what they’ve had in their property”
Sam Werry — Purnell Real Estate
Sam Werry hails from Jervis Bay on the NSW south coast and fell in love with Canberra after a brief visit.
“About a year ago my partner and I came to Canberra for the weekend,” he said
“It rained the whole weekend – the weather was horrible – but we fell in love with Canberra.
“About a month later we packed up and moved here.”
While he’s far from the coast, Mr Werry said Canberra “just makes sense”.
“It's a really well oiled machine … there's always something going on,” he said.
“It's a very productive city, it has a different feel.
“It does get shunned a little bit for being ‘boring’, but but I think Canberrans keep it like that because it's a really well kept secret.”
Mr Werry has more than four years of experience in the industry and works with Nick Purnell focusing mainly on the south Canberra region.
He said he joined the agency after he walked past its Kingston office, and found the family run business shared his values.
“While it’s in a big suburb that’s a lot more built up than what I'm used to, it holds the same values as I had down the coast,” he said.
“Family values, respect, treating clients like family.
“I’ve seen people walk into the office with hugs, there’s tears when landlords sell their houses, it’s different to anywhere I’ve ever worked.”
Austin Tetteh — LJ Hooker Weston/Woden
Austin Tetteh already has a year of experience as a sales associate under his belt at the tender age of 19.
The young gun isn’t resting on his laurels, and instead remains humble and focused on providing the best service for his clients.
“People get surprised about how young I am, and the maturity and work ethic I have,” he said.
“That in itself gives me a sense of achievement.
“I've gotten quite a bit of respect because of my commitment and consistency.
“I feel like I have to be more on point with business because I probably have bit more to prove.”
Mr Tetteh was a former rugby player and track athlete, and said he had reapplied his athletic discipline to real estate.
“Having that routine and something to work towards, competing for business each day is pretty much what drives me,” he said.
“It gives me that adrenaline.”
Mr Tetteh said he felt a sense of achievement having helped people along their real estate journey.
“It sounds like a cliche, but honestly if you are in a service-based industry you have to have an interest in people and helping them in their current situation,” he said.
“I get a lot of satisfaction in helping someone get to their next destination or helping them solve a problem within their current situation.”
Emma Robertson — LJ Hooker Weston/Woden
After a strong career in customer service and management, Emma Robertson made the switch to real estate three years ago.
“You’re helping people with the biggest transaction of their life,” she said
“I also wanted to challenge myself with something where everything you put into it you get directly back out of it.
“It does hold such a strong career path (it was) a pretty natural move for myself and I think it's the best (career move) I’ve ever made.”
She was mentored by franchise owner and veteran real estate agent Jane Macken before she stepped out as an independent agent after 12 months.
She returned to work with Ms Macken shortly afterwards.
“It’s great to be working with such a successful person in the business, not to mention a successful woman in the business,” she said.
“It’s a great learning experience.”
Ms Robertson said she loved meeting new people and hearing their stories.
“There’s so many different situations when people need to buy or sell property,” she said
“Most of them are very happy or exciting, some are based on stressful or unfortunate circumstances.
“But either way it's nice to build different relationships with people and go above and beyond, really tailoring the experience to every person depending on their needs.”
She said in the industry it was important to put yourself out there and not be shy.
“It’s a people-based industry, so you really need to make the opportunity happen for yourself and just make phone calls,” she said.
“Don’t be afraid to hit the phone or hit the pavement.”
Bianca Way – Home.byHolly
Bianca Way joined the Home.byHolly team in February 2020 as a newcomer to the industry.
Ms Way has sold more than 80 homes as lead agent and has broken several real estate record sales.
She has called more 47 auctions for Home.byHolly in the past 18 months with phenomenal clearance rates throughout the Inner North suburbs.
Bianca won the Real Estate Institute of the ACT 2021 Achievement Award and the 2022 Real Estate Institute of Australia’s Achievement Award at the National Awards for Excellence.
She competed in and won the REIACT 2022 Novice Auctioneer competition and contributed to Home.byHolly winning the REIACT 2022 Auctioneer Franchise of the year award.
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