Speaker 1: 0:28

Hello and welcome Zoe Dicotardi from Sold on Kapiti. Hello Zoe, hi, how are you? I'm wonderful. How are you doing. Good, thank you, it's awesome to have you. This is our first catch up. Yeah, first time meeting, I hope of many. Yeah, of course. A few episodes ago we had Carl in here and he was talking about this little pocket rocket that's me. It was a fire in her belly, so please meet the fire in her belly, pocket rocket. Zoe, I'm here.

Speaker 2: 1:01

Awesome.

Speaker 1: 1:01

Zoe, tell us about your journey in the real estate and what are you up to.

Speaker 2: 1:05

Yeah. So I started real estate straight out of school. I went straight into it, left school early, got my license and, pretty lucky, I come from a family and I'm the third generation to be in real estate Whoa.

Speaker 1: 1:19

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:20

So I grew up around it. It's in your blood. It's in the blood, yeah for sure. And my granddad was a real estate agent in Australia and same with my father. So always as a kid little box dropping, and I knew it's what I wanted to do. So as soon as I left school, got the license and, yeah, first year just completed my first year in real estate, last year selling. I was doing a bit of administration and PA work previously before that. And here we are a year later, starting with Carl at Sold on Carpenter. That's awesome. What made you join Carl? That's awesome. What made you join Carl? Yeah, well, carl and I actually met on TikTok, as you do, I guess, like Matt. We met on TikTok, so many opportunities there. So Carl reached out. We were always messaging and just giving advice. And then I saw his team and he was looking for someone else to come in, someone young, someone also wanting to do social media. So we just kind of thought perfect, fit the two of us, yeah that's a perfect match.

Speaker 2: 2:15

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 2:16

Awesome, that's really cool. So what resonates to you of Sock's values and vision that you can feel that, yeah, that's me?

Speaker 2: 2:27

Yeah, well, carl, he's very people first. He doesn't want to take on. He could expand a huge team and have many agents working for him. I'm sure many people would want to work for him. He's a great guy, he runs a great company, but he just wants to keep it tight. He's people first. He wants to service his vendors. He's not charging the highest fees in towns, he just wants to do the best job possible, keep those connections with people and make the friendships and just use like utilizing sorry, um social media and the new way of doing things in real estate, which is what I want to do as well. Next generation of real estate we are, yeah, and I mean, I've seen some of your social media clips.

Speaker 1: 3:06

Recently with Carl, you guys are advertising the properties you're doing behind the scenes as well, which is really cool. Do you you want to tell me what the new generation of buyers are looking for and why do you think TikTok is the platform, for instance, tiktok or Instagram, whatever it is what drives young people or older people to go there to look for things?

Speaker 2: 3:28

Yeah, to be honest, we're not just seeing young people on these social media platforms looking at properties. Nowadays I feel like even 80 year olds have Facebook. Or my mom she's 60. She uses TikTok. So even yesterday I had a guy. He was probably about 50. I posted just a short snippet of a property and he messaged me he wants to come through First home buyers. I find whenever I post a home that appeals to the first home buyer market, do a short video on TikTok there's always people coming to the property from that TikTok saying I saw the TikTok and it's just what we're looking for, so and it's free marketing as well. Obviously you can pay to boost it and hit target audiences, but with TikTok I think I posted one the other day, just a short video of a property, and it hit like 28,000 views within the first three days.

Speaker 1: 4:13

So whoa yeah that's massive? Yeah, for sure, so is it. Can you see in tiktok the stats about? Is it local people? Is it out of?

Speaker 2: 4:22

town people yeah, mainly wellington region, some auckland and then with tiktok it does go international as well. So if someone else has an interest in real estate overseas they might come up on their for you page as well, but mainly the Wellington region.

Speaker 1: 4:36

And that's how usually properties are sold. Right is the word of mouth. Oh, of course. Yeah, you saw something. You're like hey.

Speaker 2: 4:41

Mum, dad, you might like this property. Well, that's what the guy yesterday, when he messaged me, he said hey, I saw your post.

Speaker 1: 4:55

This would be the perfect house for my mother. We live just up the road and would be ideal for her nice. Yeah, that's like, if you think about it. You know, 20 years ago it was the newspapers. It was the newspaper. Yeah, it's the printed magazines.

Speaker 2: 5:02

You know, nobody saw this we don't spend any money on print really, unless we were coming up with a development soon and we're going to do every form of marketing and we are trying to reach those downsizes. So we are going to hit the newspaper. But we don't usually tend to spend any money on print. I'm sure Carl told you I think he told you last time no bus backs, no print. We just see the value in social media rather than spending the money elsewhere.

Speaker 1: 5:27

Yeah, no, this is fantastic. I mean, um, I think you guys are onto a whole new level of marketing in your own way, and also then you become your own brand as well. Like some of Carl's TikToks I was watching the other day and it was about cooking a jack potato. It was a lot of passion.

Speaker 2: 5:48

He loves those potatoes.

Speaker 1: 5:49

But you know, like when people watch those videos, they get to know you on a personal level as well. On a personal level, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 5:58

And they meet you and they feel like they already know you. We walked into an appraisal the other day and I'd never met the lady and she goes oh, you must be Zoe. Like I feel like I already know you from Carl's TikTok yeah so do you have your own TikTok? Obviously I do. Yeah. So I have my own, carl has his own, and then we have a joint account, our sold on carpety account and on your TikTok, what have you been posting predominantly?

Speaker 2: 6:14

Yeah, my TikTok's just property. So I started it. I wanted to keep like a video diaries of my journey throughout real estate. So from the first day I started I did a vlog. The day in the life was a 20-something-year-old real estate agent living in New Zealand and at my sixth month I made a little video in my one year, which was the other day just a little video. So you know, in 20 years time I can look back and think, oh, that's where I started. And it's cool now that I have younger people finishing school and they're messaging me saying, hey, I've seen your journey starting real estate, like, what advice would you have for me and what advice would you have for them.

Speaker 2: 6:48

Yeah, I just say keep trying, don't let rejection get to you, keep going. There's going to be times when people say no, or you think your friends and family are going to list with you and they don't. But just keep going.

Speaker 1: 7:00

There's the good days, the bad days, but mostly good days, Because it is a tough industry, especially if you think of a young person coming in with not much real-life experience of rejection. Right, because I mean, everybody gets a medal, everybody gets a certificate. In New Zealand, you know, you go for a run, you get a certificate, and then here you enter a life working force and you will get rejected.

Speaker 2: 7:25

Oh, you do, yeah. And there's days that I my first six months, I came home and I was so upset, you know. But you get through and I feel, each as time goes on you get less and less hurt and even with the you come across clients where their situation's really sad and you let yourself kind of go down the rabbit hole with them but you think, no, I'm here to give them a letter to get out of that situation onto the next chapter of life.

Speaker 2: 7:46

You can't, yeah yeah, so it's amazing for building resilience yeah, but in resilience it's the career for that, yeah, yeah so listeners out there if you would like to build resilience start real estate or go into mortgage advising, because I feel like it's the same here, of course yeah no second day is the same yeah, every day, every day is different.

Speaker 1: 8:08

You're meeting different people, different situations different challenges, as you say, up, up and downs, but that's really cool to hear from someone so young to come out pursue the dream. But I guess because you were growing up in it you could see as well through your parents you know how hard.

Speaker 2: 8:27

Yeah, my dad always said don't do real estate.

Speaker 1: 8:30

But here I am doing it.

Speaker 2: 8:32

I mean, it is hard, especially when you're young and supporting yourself. It's no guaranteed income and it takes a while to build a name and obviously I'm still doing that but like it takes years and years to build a name and a brand for yourself. So, yeah, I always advise anyone when they first start out, maybe start with a part-time job or something like that, rather than just solely relying on commission.

Speaker 1: 8:53

Yeah, cause that would. That was going to be. My next question is it is quite hard because you don't know what you're going to earn.

Speaker 2: 8:58

Yeah, my expectations coming to real estate were very high and I didn't quite make as much as I hoped, but they were very unrealistic. So, expectation and reality, oh, 100%. And I think I thought people were just going to start calling me. I thought as soon as I post on Facebook, everyone's going to call me and want me to sell their house. But that's not how it works. You've got to hustle and you've got to prove to people, especially when you're young, because they're like oh, why do you think you can sell my house when I have a six-year-old guy that's been doing it for 40 years? Yeah, because again.

Speaker 1: 9:27

That was going to be my next question. How are you Someone appraised their house as a 60-year-old that's been around in the industry for five cycles?

Speaker 2: 9:35

That's lots of people around the area.

Speaker 1: 9:38

Yeah, and then it's you, you know who's? Young. Yes, you've got the energy, you've got the ambition, but you may lack some of the knowledge that this guy may have. Yeah, so what's your?

Speaker 2: 9:46

selling point. Yeah, I just say, obviously, young, energetic, we work hard. I don't have the commitments of children. I commitments of children, I put my everything into it. Yeah, I have the drive and the motivation to want to work hard and to prove myself and just go above and beyond for the clients. It is hard, obviously, when you don't have, especially getting the first few listings, like you have nothing to back yourself. I'm just really lucky that I had people that put faith in me to sell their house and we got them good results and that has led to other listings. That has led to other listings.

Speaker 1: 10:18

But it's not an easy start yeah, so have you obviously sold some properties now?

Speaker 2: 10:23

yeah, I think, um, my first 10 months or so I sold about like 13 or 14 houses. That's amazing. Yeah, I was very lucky and blessed to have good contacts with developers and a few investors. How do you build those contacts? Word of mouth, it's not what you know, it's who you know. So I have a friend that's a developer, he knows investors, he knows a property manager. So I had a really good connection with a property management company and most of my listings in my first year were from that property management company. Obviously gave him a bit of a referral fee um for the listings as well, but it worked out well. And then those investors referred me to their other investor friends and just snowball it goes, snowball effect yeah, that's awesome, that's so cool.

Speaker 1: 11:05

That just shows again that pure determination, hard work, good ethics yeah, you just go out there, put yourself out there and you know you come out with something. So tell me a little bit more about the development that you've got coming up yeah, so we have a development.

Speaker 2: 11:20

I actually sold the one of the last townhouses oh sorry, apartments you know McLean street, 55 McLean Street, the new apartments there so I sold. I had the last four and sold, yeah, the last one there to a lovely couple. They love the area. So one of the guys there now is working for my friend that's also a developer and I sold him land on Ocean Road a few months ago and that land he's now going to start developing into 12 new townhouses that will be coming next week. Whoa, yeah. So another development down the beach, which is exciting because there's lots of developments going on around town at the moment. But this one's going to be high quality. It's going to be near the beach, which people love being near the beach and the shops, yeah, yeah, we've got a lovely area, I think, in Kapiti with the shop and the.

Speaker 1: 12:07

yeah, yeah, we've got a lovely area, I think, in Kapiti, with the shop and the beach and, yeah, good lifestyle. Yeah, the best of both worlds, because we're not that far from Wellington.

Speaker 2: 12:13

Oh, it's so close, especially now with transmission, gully and public transport everywhere.

Speaker 1: 12:18

Oh cool. So what's your view on properties? Do you have a house already?

Speaker 2: 12:23

No, not yet, but my goal is to to buy my first house. It was to buy it last year, um, but I decided to travel. I went to Canada on a working holiday for a little while before I kick-started my career in selling um, but it's the goal for the next couple years. I want to buy an investment property and, um, maybe do a do-it-your-own-property.

Speaker 1: 12:45

Do you have DIY skills?

Speaker 2: 12:47

No, but I would like to learn.

Speaker 1: 12:49

Hey, and what a better way to learn on your own property.

Speaker 2: 12:53

Oh, 100%. Yeah, maybe not anyone else's, but learn on my own, and I have friends that have done it as well. I'm only young and none of my friends have properties either, so I want to be one of the first and then help my friends get there as well.

Speaker 1: 13:12

Yeah, and that's how, again, that's how it snowballs. You start something and then other people just catch on and they want to do the same exactly. Yeah, this is really exciting. So what I, what I'm hearing from you so far, is goal setting is very, very important in your life. Oh, 100%. Yeah, gotta have something to work towards yeah, and do you reward yourself for achieving your goals?

Speaker 2: 13:27

Yeah, I guess. So I like to travel. So you know, I did my first year in real estate and then I went to Thailand recently for two weeks and I think that will be the thing maybe once a year or something, go away for a week or a couple of weeks. Yeah, because, as Riel said, it's really hard to go away and it's never. Yeah, that's the thing. As soon as I went away, I think I had two properties sell and I was like I wish I was there for it. Yeah, but I guess you've got to take a bit of time off as well.

Speaker 1: 13:54

And that was going to be my advice to you is make sure you don't burn out, because in this industry it's really easy to't do this anymore I can't do this anymore. You need to take a break you know, so there's a really good phrase um, if you don't take the breaks that you need, your body will take the breaks, but it won't be pleasant.

Speaker 2: 14:20

Yeah, that's good advice actually, yeah so yeah well, carl and I have this thing where we try and take, if we can, fridays, which we can't today. We have quite a few appraisals, but we always take Saturdays off. That's our non-negotiable day is take Saturdays off, reset day. And what do you usually do? I love to go on walks. I like to walk Queen Elizabeth Park and catch up with friends or go to the market. Yeah, just have a nice chill day and then get ready for big day of open arms on Sunday. Do you have a dog? I don't know. I would love a dog, though, would you like to take mine?

Speaker 2: 14:52

Sure, depending what type of dog. There's a few dogs I'm a bit scared of. No, it's similar to Carl's. It's a Cavoodle. Oh, I love a Cavoodle, yes.

Speaker 1: 15:07

Yeah, perfect, it's all mine. That was easy. Um so, zoe, a couple of questions I want to ask you before we wrap it up.

Speaker 2: 15:10

So, where would people find you on social media? Yeah, so I have tiktok, instagram or facebook and it's zoe degotardi dot properties. Okay, cool, we'll link you up yeah, and also obviously I sold on carpety page as well.

Speaker 1: 15:22

Awesome and um what gets you out of bed.

Speaker 2: 15:27

Motivation goals.

Speaker 1: 15:29

Love it, yeah, okay, and what? Keeps you positive Affirmations. I love it. You're my type of person. I love all that sort of stuff.

Speaker 2: 15:38

That's really cool and what fills your cup, like what makes you happy Family, friends, the sun, good people, happy people, yeah, yeah, positivity yeah gotta surround yourself with the right people.

Speaker 1: 15:51

Yeah, because you find like when you surround yourself with the oh yes, of course, go down that little you go down the yeah spiral with them.

Speaker 2: 16:00

Yeah, you've got to make sure um the five most five people you spend the most amount of time with is what you're going to end up with.

Speaker 1: 16:07

yeah, yeah, exactly so in terms of your life goal. So you said you want to be still here in 20 years' time. Is that what I've heard? I?

Speaker 2: 16:19

don't know. My family is all in Australia, so I'm the only one here at the moment. I would definitely like to have property. I would like to keep selling and do really, really well in real estate, have multiple properties and help friends have properties as well, and renovation projects and travel. Yeah, just be happy.

Speaker 1: 16:40

That's awesome. I love that, Zoe. Thank you so much for coming along.

Speaker 2: 16:43

Yeah, thanks for having me, it was an absolute pleasure getting to know you.

Speaker 1: 16:45

I hope this is not the last one. It's more of a warm-up to Zoe. We'll be back, yeah, and the next time I bring you back I'll be more brutal. I'll be asking you stats, I'll be asking you what you see, what's going on out there in the market, because I guess this is your first cycle and it's really exciting. Yeah, first cycle To see off, you know.