FROM CATTLE YARD TO ESPLANADE

With experience spanning the spectrum of sales, Geoff Cayzer quickly learned that nothing is more important than knowing your product.

It is a career path that sets him apart from the competition. Geoff Cayzer honed his craft in saleyards, selling everything from livestock to tallow, and wool to horses.

From this experience he took skill and learnings that he has employed at every property auction.

“You can sell anything if you know your product,” Geoff says.

With 30-plus years as the expert in the property markets of Albert Park, Middle Park, South Melbourne, Port Melbourne and St Kilda West, he would know.

Geoff describes selling at the Newmarket Saleyards as “an education”.

“I used to have 20 seconds to sell a pen of lambs,” Geoff explains. “If you had 100 pens, you only had 30 minutes. There was no mucking around.

“It was one minute 30 seconds to sell a pen of cattle. You might have four or five different sales in that pen. You were being clocked by the City Council. They’d ring the bell and the next agent would start if you hadn’t finished the pen.

“I was used to selling and calculating figures quickly. It was a wonderful fast experience.”

Keen to build on his skills, after three years at Newmarket, Geoff asked for a transfer.

“I got a call the next morning to go into the Victorian manager’s office,” Geoff remembers. “I thought I’d blown it. That I was going to get the sack because I was too demanding. But my manager said: ‘I want you to go to Hamilton by the end of the week’.”

Geoff then spent six years working in Hamilton.

“I was the country auctioneer,” he says. “I loved it. I travelled all around the state.”

But doing 1000 miles a week took its toll and Geoff noticed a trend of city slickers wanting to buy their own patch of land in the country.

“People were moving out of Melbourne and wanted ‘hobby farms’,” Geoff explains.

“There were many rural properties that were struggling a bit – and farmers were keen to sell a few acres off the back. So I started doing a bit of Real Estate.”

It was then a logical step to move into Real Estate in the city.

“For three years, I sold stock during the day, and went to Prahran College at night,” Geoff says.

“I could have waited a year and been given a Real Estate license (after 14 years as a sub agent you immediately qualified) but I thought I should learn about houses.”

Becoming an expert in property was invaluable. But despite his experience and education, his first house auction still took Geoff by surprise.

“At my first house sale I couldn’t understand why it took so long. I went from going against the clock making a sale in under a minute, to having 20 minutes a house sale.

Auctions never frightened me. I was used to doing it. The main difference is I never got a complaint from any of the cattle I sold!”

Fortunately for Geoff, having time to explain the many virtues of property in the Bayside area has never been a problem.

As the local agent, he knows the benefits of his patch, the perks of his product and the best way to pitch.