Waikato Business News July/August 2017

WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS July/August 2017
35
Cathy’s success down to
her ‘passion for learning’
Cathy O'Shea left Ireland 33 years ago. She
is a trained historian, with a background in
British and Irish History, was a lecturer for
fourteen years at Waikato University and is a
published author on the history of Hamilton.
With these varied roles, it is obvious that
Cathy wears many hats.
By ANTHEA BATCHELOR
People have described
Cathy as “community
minded” and she says “I
do love people, I am always
happy to help”. ’This passion
extends to supporting Women’s
Refuge Waikato, Habitat
for Humanity, Dress for Success,
24-7 Youthwork, CAP-
NZ, Blind Foundation and
True Colours.
If she has a comment to
make about herself, it is that
she has a passion for learning:
it's clear she models this
in her own life. Her extreme
thirst for knowledge has led
her to acquire a comprehensive
set of skills which are hard to
match. Cathy strongly believes
that women of all ages can be
successful and she advocates
to every woman, “Be real, be
who you are!”
Cathy, when asked, what
she does? simply says, “I am
just a “person” in real estate.”
In the industry, however, everybody
knows who Cathy
O'Shea is.
"I have known Cathy
O'Shea for several years both
professionally and personally.
Cathy is a very ethical individual
and brings integrity,
charm and humour to all her
interactions. l Her ability to
work across all ethnicities is an
attribute that is highly valued”.
- Margaret Comer, former
corporate servicese executive
at Gallagher Group Ltd
The essence of what she
believes is to love what you
do, and do it well with the
right motives. Good relationships
seem to be the key to
every door in life, and every
house on the street, and every
community in the town. Everyone
is welcome in Cathy’s
world, as Illustrated below,
- ‘Millions come and go,
but happiness has nothing
to do with them. The most
important thing is family’ -
Dominic Toretto
It was family that set Cathy
on the ‘yellow brick road’ to
real estate. Eoin O’Shea, her
brother asked her to sell his
own residential investments.
He soon realised she had
an amazing ability to create
wealth in the real estate vertical
and with his persistent
requests to pursue this career,
Cathy finally gave in and
began her new adventure in
2004.
Selling residential homes
is only part of what Cathy
does, Cathy is a buying agent
for subdivisable land. she
works with developers with
the end vision in mind from
the ground up. She markets
and sells these housing developments,
a challenge that is
enjoyed by both the agent and
the developers. This process
is a multi faceted, end to end
progression, underpinned by
lateral thinking across all of
the tiers. Solid relationships
are made and perpetuated,
during this journey; in a sense
the participants become a part
of Cathy's family.
She is a professional with
strong human values who sees
how hard the struggle is to be
housed because of the current
market shortage. There is a
genuine desire to help people
and she believes that her
pragmatic approach can help
bring this to fruition. Leon
Da-Silva and Cathy O’Shea
work closely together on their
projects to fill the residential
housing gap all over the city.
‘They consistently look to
learn from each other everyday’
says Cathy. Leon utilises
Cathy as his sole seller;
together they exemplify the
meeting of equal minds and
have built a solid and superior
relationship. This in turn creates
a Gold Standard for the
end user.
Cathy explains that experience
is the most useful quality
an agent can have, it means
being well connected to industry
related people, such
as bank managers, lawyers,
builders, mortgage brokers,
accountants and even school
principals. ‘When you call the
right person, you can quickly
elicit the right response,
and this is often what sells a
house for more’. Being experienced
means having a track
record of hard graft. ‘It takes
a ton of work to sell a house
properly’; ‘extra phone calls
and meetings, extra number
crunching and hand holding,
starting a bit earlier and staying
a little longer’. ‘Experience
means knowing how to
remove barriers that stop a
buyer from purchasing, there
are many’ says Cathy.
Everyday is a celebration
to Cathy. Today enthusiasm
spills from the meeting room
while we sit and chat about
her most recent accomplishment.
She has again been honoured
as a TOP AGENT at
the Lodge Quarterly Awards
recently. When it comes to
sales statistics, the figures
stack up. Cathy has sold \
77,421 square metres of residential
development land in
the last two years, with another
45,611 currently under
offer. This is not counting her
residential and lifestyle sales.
Selling residential land is not
for every agent, sometimes
you don’t get paid for 18
months or a couple of years,
but I enjoy the challenge of
playing ‘the long game’.
Cathy’s latest projects
reads below
New street of architecturally
designed duplexes offers
new way of living in Rototuna
Hamilton’s newest and
most innovative street –
Springside Court in Rototuna
– will be officially opened by
the city’s mayor at the end of
July, marking a new way of
living in the northern suburbs.
On Sunday July 30 at 2pm
Hamilton mayor Andrew King
will open the cul-de-sac street
of 14 architecturally designed
duplex townhouses. This is
a new concept for Hamilton;
duplex, or semi-detached,
houses each on their own title.
The public is invited to the
event, which will also include
a sausage sizzle, and can walk
through the modern townhouses,
which are priced from
$650,000.
I sell a lot of homes
“If you want something done, give it to a busy person” is a saying most of us know to be true. It certainly
applies to real estate. If you want your house sold for a good price, get a busy real estate agent to sell it
for you. A busy agent is an experienced agent; they’ve seen it all before and have worked around every
snag & road block. They also have a tremendous work ethic and drive that gets things done.
My name is CATHY O’SHEA and I’m busy enough to sell your home!
Call 0800Cathyknows
EMAIL: CathyO@lodge.co.nz