Tim Heavyside: The Bendigo boy who made the career move from travel to real estate

Tim Heavyside, 47, is a director and auctioneer in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs. The Bendigo boy with eclectic taste in music made a career move from travel to real estate when Ansett Airlines folded almost 20 years ago.

Heavyside is a memorable surname. What do you know about it’s history?

It’s a very old Anglo-Saxon name, we believe. There have been Heavysides who were well known scientists and mathematicians.

Were you good at maths?

I was reasonable!

You work in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs – are you from there?

No, I was born in Bendigo. All of my family is still there and I love going back. I had some schooling in Kyneton and, when I finished at Kyneton, I moved to Melbourne at 21.

What did you hope Melbourne would offer?

I had a goal to become a travel agent, and that’s what I was for many years. That’s where a lot of my sales techniques that I use now came from. I was blessed to get a lot of good mentoring in my early career.

Are travel and real estate quite different industries?

Not at all. They’re both helping to facilitate dreams. With travel, people say, “I’d love to go business class but can’t quite afford it”, and with real estate people are after the four-bedroom house but can afford the three. They’re not dissimilar at all.

Why did you leave the travel industry?

When Ansett went down in 2001, I lost my job straight away. I worked for Traveland, which was owned by Ansett. I immediately went into real estate. I had been thinking of getting into real estate because there were better opportunities there for me and my family.

Were your expectations of real estate realised?

I thought it was all about knowing all the streets and the variety of houses. What it is about is how you communicate with people – vendors, purchasers and colleagues.

You enjoy music – is there a soundtrack to your life?

My daughter is 15 and we have a game we play together in the car – you have to come up with music the other person likes and, if they do, it goes into our father-daughter playlist. It’s harder than it sounds. We do find them, though; we’ve got Evermore’s Light Surrounding You, Amazing by Seal, Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, Calvin Harris’ Pray To God and Rebel Yell by Billy Idol.

You’re roughly halfway through your life – what do you understand now that you didn’t always?

One thing I’ve come to understand as a parent – half of the time you are a product of your environment and half of it you are hardwired. Some things you are just born with and some of it you can influence.

Do you still enjoy travel?

I haven’t been to Europe since 1998 and I have a goal to get there with my wife and two children. In April, our family are all going to Fiji. There will be 10 of us all together – that’ll be a lot of fun.

Your home patch is Boroondara; do you live there?

Yes, I live in Boroondara, close to work. I walk in the parks near here; Highfield Park mostly, with Tiko. He’s a four-year-old cavoodle and he’s like our third child.