A doyen of Dunedin’s real estate scene for many years, Liz Nidd was reflecting on her 35-year career in the real estate industry having been named one of the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand’s four new life members.
It was somewhat of an accidental career; she originally trained in radiography before heading to England where her mother’s family lived as she had a thirst for travel.
Returning to New Zealand after having an "amazing time", she discovered there had been over-training of radiographers and she could not get a job so she did "all sorts of things" from working in a cake shop to working for a radiographer in Melbourne.
Back in Dunedin, she landed a job as a drug rep for pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and it was there that she discovered she was good at selling. It also helped she had some credibility in the Dunedin market given she had trained in the city, she said.
After meeting the love of her life, her lawyer husband, Michael, who proposed after six weeks — "I said, ‘what took you so long?"’ — the subsequent arrivals of the couple’s three children resulted in her becoming a stay-at-home mother for 12 years. She felt very privileged to have that time caring for her children but once the youngest was at school, she discovered she was lonely.
Mr Nidd, who had done plenty of property work, suggested she would be good at real estate and teed up a job with real estate agent Bev Holdsworth. Within about a week, Mrs Nidd was at a desk.
She decided if she could make enough money between then and Christmas to pay for childcare, then she would be happy. She always said she would not work unless someone could pick the children up after school and supervise them until either she or her husband got home. She made $14,500 and quickly decided it was the life for her.
"I just loved it. I love people. People say, ‘I want to go into real estate because I love houses ... you’ve got to have a love of people to be successful. You’re dealing with people in a very stressful stage of life. You have to love it more than love houses.
"I had to learn there was a buyer for every property. Every property would be someone’s little piece of heaven," she said.
Mrs Nidd felt very fortunate to start with Ms Holdsworth who was a great mentor and who was possibly the first woman to open a real estate office in the city. She later worked for Martin Cooper and, as well as completing her branch manager’s ticket, she also completed her licence to own an agency.
In early 1997, Ms Nidd opened Elizabeth Nidd Real Estate in the terraces in Stuart St. Shortly after, she was approached to take a national franchise which she had for 10 years.
She later went out independently as Nidd Realty and, when her youngest son Joe was 21 and had just finished a degree in computer science, he told her he would like to sell real estate.
He worked his way into a management role — "no-one should be in management unless they’ve worked at the coalface" — and he later decided he wanted to buy the business. He was now doing an "incredible job", his proud mother said.
Mrs Nidd said her REINZ life membership reflected her wider industry involvement which began as a local committee member in 1994. She was later president of the Otago branch, spokeswoman for real estate in the region and spent six years on the REINZ board.
Chairwoman of the board at that time, Dame Rosanne Meo, then mentioned the Real Estate Authority — the regulator for the industry — was looking for a director and Mrs Nidd has been on that board for the past eight years. She had always wanted to give back to the industry and she also had a "real passion" for education and professionalism in the real estate industry.
Several years ago, Mr and Mrs Nidd went to Wanaka for the Christmas holiday and "kind of forgot to go home", she said, laughing. She remained compliance officer for Nidd Realty and attended monthly meetings in Wellington for the REA.
While she had not sold a property for quite some time, Mrs Nidd said she spoke last week to someone who bought a property from her at least 15 years ago and who wanted to know what the market was doing. "I’m referred to in the family as the gift that keeps giving," she said, laughing.
She felt privileged to have sold so many beautiful homes in Dunedin and to have met so many fabulous people, not just clients but also the team members she had worked with.
"I’m a very happy camper. I honestly do not have a regret in the world," she said.
Ian Keightley, of Queenstown, was also named a life member, while Gus Johnston joined the board as the regional director for Otago, Southland and Central Otago Lake after Gail Hudson completed the maximum term as a director.
Born and raised in Southland, Mr Johnston joined the real estate industry in 1988. He was a co-founder of Southland Real Estate, where he worked for 29 years and still works at the company, which now trades as Bayleys SRE, on a semi-retired basis.
