From The Land Now Selling The Land

By John Freer

He grew up on a family farm at Waitakaruru on the Hauraki Plains, went and got a degree that had little relevance to any job he wanted to do, and so he did his OE.

It was then after getting into technology and teaching in Microsoft systems, that sparked the parallel with sales. This piqued selling real estate supported by something his father had said about farmers.

Karl Davis of Bayleys Waikato was recently named New Zealand’s top rural real estate person for the third year in succession by the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand.

Now the best in selling rural real estate, had its origins in 2005 – a year when he earned $7000. This year he went through the $900 million worth of property sales mark and when we interviewed Karl, he was looking towards hitting that $1 billion figure.

Going back to the advice his dad Mike had offered – he said the skill set of farmers was unbelievable in that they had to be everything from a part vet to a public relations expert, engineer, market gardener and civil engineer – being a farmer built ultimate common sense.

Karl listened, now saying he was lucky to grow up in that environment.

In our interview with Karl, he talks about the complexity of rural property and against residential property, the challenges of fluctuating interest rates on the rural sector and the opportunities for young people wanting to purchase a farm.

Two big changes for Karl in the 20 years he has been in the game, the first being how farm prices have moved from the value of the land, instead to now the focus is the farm infrastructure.

Second point, the shift away from family succession ownership of farms.

Open the link below to hear our interview with Karl Davis of Bayleys Waikato.