Hear from our Network - Christie Smith
Christie Smith opened her Yarrabilba office in South East Queensland before the suburb barely existed.
It was 2014 and the early maps showed plans for roads that hadn’t been built yet. Blocks were marked out on land that still looked like a construction site. She and her co-director sat in a half-fitted space with 10 listings and a community that didn’t exist beyond the masterplan.
“When I started the office, we started from nothing. The suburb was literally dirt. It was a really amazing growth area, but it posed its challenges around being able to create something when there was nothing there.”
Even simple planning required trying to imagine the suburb that would eventually grow around them. Christie describes that period as a stretch of constant questions, and a willingness to ask for help.
“This was about building from the ground up. It really posed a challenge around, how do we set targets? How do we look at what we do? How do we do business a little bit differently, but still align with what’s expected of us?” she says.
“We had to shift how we did everything. Nothing followed a pattern, so being able to utilise the network was great. That allowed us to be able to grow and create something that was a little bit out of the ordinary.”
Christie entered real estate at 24 after leaving the agricultural industry and pivoting into her new career without any prior experience, relying on the people around her to learn the work.
“I had no idea what I was doing and I fell into it by accident. I wanted to get out of what I was doing and somebody said, why not try real estate? So I did and went into an office on the northern Gold Coast, helping and supporting people in the office,” she says.
“As I grew and started to do well and build a network and get in amongst the other agents and business owners in the Gold Coast area, it allowed me to be able to feel like I was part of the team.”
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