A career in real estate was never the plan for Kylie Johnston, but after a life-changing event, Johnston started her career with LJ Hooker in Queensland. Now she’s back home in New Zealand she has returned to LJ Hooker to continue building on her success.
Despite taking a break and working with another real estate brand in Hamilton, Johnston was impressed by the team at LJ Hooker Te Awamutu and seized the opportunity to join the network where her real estate career started.
“With LJ Hooker being known for its reputable brand and the opportunities for professional growth, my sales partner Brooke Cooper and I were both happy to join LJ Hooker Te Awamutu, giving us a strong platform to advance our careers,” Johnston said.
Despite her ability to collaborate with any brand, Johnston's return to LJ Hooker, as noted by Campbell Dunoon, LJ Hooker Group’s Head of Network New Zealand, reflects her appreciation of the company's strengths.
“Kylie and her sales partner Brooke are a welcomed addition to the team at LJ Hooker Te Awamutu, and it is great to see how the entire team is already working together to support each other,” Dunoon said.
“LJ Hooker offers many growth opportunities and motivated salespeople like Kylie and Brooke will get to leverage all our tools and training opportunities to grow their business in the Waikato. I look forward to seeing their success.”
Long before Johnston knew she would launch into a career as a successful real estate agent, her life revolved around fitness and she was a personal trainer. Those dreams came to an end in 2008 when she was involved in a car crash and consequently couldn’t lift weights like she used to. However, she later realised real estate was where she would find success.
“My grandfather had investment properties in Devonport, and my dad built our family home, so real estate has always been in my life,” Johnston said.
She got her foot in the door when she started a personal assistant business and worked directly with sales agents.
In October 2017 she moved to Queensland. A few years later she joined the team at LJ Hooker Helensvale where she spent a year working as an administrator before moving to sales.
“I was lucky enough to team up with another sales agent not long after joining the team, and we soon became business partners. We hit the ground running, maintaining strong client relationships and continuously growing our business through referral and networking,” Johnston said.
Johnston got referral after referral and managed to quickly grow her business and worked with investors selling townhouses and apartments. She built up a strong name for herself in Queensland and when she decided to move home to New Zealand she had to start from scratch.
Having been raised in Auckland, Johnston and her partner decided to move to the Waikato since her family had left the supercity to live there. She joined Harcourts Hamilton and had to figure out how to grow her business again.
“Coming home was probably one of the hardest times I’ve had in sales. I didn’t know anyone and it was a completely new area, it was very stressful getting started. But I have a mindset that I’m not going to fail at what I want to do, so I worked hard, secured my first listing and built up a good client base in 15 months,” Johnston said.
To get her name out there, initially Johnston didn’t get caught up in prospecting for new listings, instead she focused on being a buyer’s agent, working with competing brands to help her clients get successful contracts.
She met LJ Hooker Te Awamutu salesperson Braden Chick in July 2023 when she took one of her buyers to his property, and Chick encouraged her to join LJ Hooker Te Awamutu to grow her career. However, while working at Harcourts she started working with Cooper, building her up to be a successful salesperson after a career as a nurse. Johnston didn’t want to change brands if Cooper wasn’t going to join her.
“She brings a different perspective to real estate, coming from nursing she has an empathetic way she works with buyers as well as a different outlook on how she can get things done. We trust each other which is why we make a great team,” Johnston said.
Johnston is looking forward to bringing her innovative thinking and marketing strategy to LJ Hooker Te Awamutu and is excited about how she can work with the entire team to not only grow her own business with LJ Hooker but grow LJ Hooker in Te Awamutu and surrounding areas.
“Braden is currently ranked number one by Rate My Agent in Te Awamutu, and I want to challenge him for the top spot. We will all work together, but he must know he won’t always be number one, but the three of us, Braden, Brooke and myself, will always strive to be at the top,” she said.
A point of difference Johnston has is her car, a 2010 Volkswagen Scirocco with the number plate ‘ONMRKT’, which draws a lot of attention.
“People list with me because of my car. They know it helps draw attention and helps sell properties.”
The attention of her car goes far and wide, with one of her videos gaining more than one million views.
LJ Hooker Group’s General Manager Network Steve Mutton is thrilled to have Johnston back as part of LJ Hooker after getting to witness her personal growth and development firsthand in Queensland.
“It is great to see Kylie back at LJ Hooker. I have followed her successful career since Kylie started at LJ Hooker Helensvale in 2020. At LJ Hooker one of our key philosophies is the power of connections. Having stayed in contact with Kylie since she moved back to New Zealand, it is exciting and rewarding to have her rejoin LJ Hooker and become part of our team in Te Awamutu,” Mutton said.
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