an upbeat, energetic, positive leader.

My experience with James throughout the sale of Macbeth was excellent, right from before we even went to market. One of the most valuable parts of the process was his ability to obtain five or six offers on the property before going to market. That gave us a really good indication of where the property sat and some reassurance around what the market was prepared to pay. It effectively gave us a solid baseline before heading into the auction campaign. The effort James put in throughout the process was also outstanding. He showed a huge number of people through the property and genuinely went above and beyond. One example that sticks with me was him showing a buyer through at seven o’clock at night, with no power or lights on, in the rain, during an All Blacks match, while also having a young family and a pregnant wife at home. Most agents simply wouldn’t do that. Of course, the buyer then turned around and said he wanted to come back and see it again in daylight — but that sort of effort says a lot about James. He genuinely had our best interests at heart and was prepared to do whatever was required to get the best result. His communication leading into the auction was also excellent. Knowing how many people were interested and, importantly, how many were actually registered to bid gave us a very clear picture of the competition going into auction day. To end up with eight registered bidders and ultimately achieve around $33,000 more than our best pre-market offer was an exceptional result. And the fact he bought me a beer afterwards made it even better. I take my hat off to James. He doesn’t need anyone wishing him luck — if he keeps doing what he’s doing, he’ll continue to go bloody well.