Ray White's Geoff Smith and Richard Harding: On record-setting sales and their enduring friendship

Their stomping ground on the glitzy north shore is a world away from where they grew up yet Geoff Smith and Richard Harding have retained their down-to-earth approach.

The principals at Ray White Lower North Shore Group work together, play together and even live on the same street.

You’re fixtures on the lower north shore today, but tell us about where you grew up.

Richard: My parents ran a holiday resort in Coffs Harbour and I lived on-site until I started boarding at the Kings School at Parramatta at 12. A lot of my friends used to love coming home with me on holidays.

Geoff: I grew up in Wellington, near Dubbo. My family farmed grain, sheep and cattle. It was a great place to grow up, with a really strong community. It was a big change going from a small country town to boarding in the city. I started at Shore in year 7.

Did you take your mates back to visit the farm?

G: Every holidays. I sold it to them on the basis that we’d go water-skiing in the big dam. What I didn’t tell them was that Dad would have a day’s land-marking or rock-picking planned before they could go water-skiing.

Did you both enter real estate straight after school?

R: I worked as a bank teller for about nine months. I decided I didn’t like it, so I got a job at Ray White Coffs Harbour. It’s funny the way the wheel has turned. After 20 years at LJ Hooker, I’m back at Ray White now.

G: We didn’t want to be tied to a desk. We’re not office people. We enjoy meeting different types of people.

How did you meet?

R: We had the same friends and were both working on the lower north shore selling houses in the 1990s. We bought into LJ Hooker in 1998.

What makes you a good team?

R: I think our values and goals are very much aligned. We value integrity. We’re trying to do the right thing by people long-term. Now, we’re looking at how we can nurture younger careers and what we need to do to look after talent today.

Tell us about your family life.

R: We live three houses apart on the same street in Mosman. I moved there first, 13 years ago.

G: I actually sold it to him. I moved in about seven years ago. We both have three children.

Let me guess – you go for beers on a Friday night too?

R: Sometimes. We holiday together. We’ve been heli-skiing in northern Canada and on surfing trips. We play a lot of golf too.

What’s your handicap?

G: Golf.

R: C’mon Geoff, what’s your handicap?

G: 21 or 22.

R: I hit 10 last week.

What was your most memorable sale?

G: We have the two highest sales ever achieved on the lower north shore – Burran Avenue in Mosman and Hopetoun Avenue, also in Mosman, for $25 million.

At that end of the market, it’s a sophisticated negotiation process, with more one-on-one interaction. The vendors and buyers were people we’ve had long-term relationships with. Everyone talks about dedication and trust, but that’s what our business has been built around.

We’re just a simple story. We sort of fly under the radar.