How a house purchase at 18 set Canberra agent Amy Wilson on the path to real-estate success

When most young people her age were partying, travelling and spending money on clothes, 18-year-old Amy Wilson was buying her first house.

When she turned 21, she bought her second.

Little wonder, then, that she later turned to real estate as a career; it had been in her blood from the start.

“I was quite nerdy as a child,” says Wilson, today an agent at The Property Collective in the Canberra suburb of Kingston.

“I was raised by two very smart parents who set a very good example in terms of saving money and investing in property to get ahead, and I watched and learnt.

“I started saving at 16 and became a really good saver, so I managed to buy that first place – a six-year-old, two-bedroom townhouse in the Belconnen suburb where I grew up – for $80,000.

“My friends were out partying and spending money on alcohol and travel but I just didn’t know any different. I have no regrets at all –  that decision set me up for life.”

It also set her on a handsome buying trajectory. Wilson always loved real estate and going to open homes with her parents, and finding out about what they sought in an investment. So, three years later, she bought another townhouse in Belconnen to rent out.

At that point, life intervened and she married her boyfriend. At 23, she sold her two properties, he sold his, and they pooled their resources to buy a block of land on which to build their dream house.

“It was a big, beautiful home with five bedrooms so I was getting so much experience with different properties.”

But that was just a hobby, as Wilson was serious about the career she’d started out in: graphic design. Working for the CSIRO, she loved using her design skills to illustrate their work. But after 12 years, she started looking for a change, and real estate beckoned.

She wasn’t yet finished with her personal adventures in the property space, however, and she put the house on the market.

The agent she hired to sell it for her was so impressed with her styling that he offered her a job with his team.

“He said he liked the way I’d presented the house for sale,”Wilson says. “He also thought I would be good with clients and could help them get their houses ready. It was a change that gave me a new purpose and new confidence.”

Meanwhile, Wilson moved her family into a 55-year-old mid-century home in Aranda, designed by architect Ernest Munns for his family and sitting on steel stilts among the treetops.

“That was another beautiful house,” Wilson says of the five-bedroom home at 24 Araba Place. “I loved it and started a hobby of renovating mid-century furniture for the house, but I sold it last year. It required lots of maintenance and it was a real money pit. Now we have a brand-new, low-maintenance house which is very easy!”

Wilson, now 44, has been in real estate for nine years and she loves it – in particular, running open homes.

“I do thrive off it,” she says. “I love meeting people and helping them present their houses and I get a real buzz out of that. I absolutely love the industry.

“My design background helps too, especially when I’m putting brochures together, selecting photos and helping with the marketing. I think I also have an advantage with the social media side of things; I like taking photos and making it all look pretty – I have a lot of fun with that.”

Wilson has achieved multiple suburb records across Canberra – including one of $2.15 million in Aranda – as well as Elite Performer awards. Her highest recorded sale price with The Property Collective, where she’s been since mid-2024, was $1.64 million for 53 Cargelligo Street,  Duffy.

In her spare time, Wilson loves being creative. She makes pottery, paints and takes photographs, while also spending plenty of time with her children, now aged 20, 18, 16 and nine.

Her eldest is considering a career in real estate, while his brother, at 18, is showing interest too.

Wilson says life in real estate is never dull. She recalls the time she received a call from a lawyer to let her know one of her vendors, fresh from exchanging contracts, was in jail. Another time, she caught a rival real estate agent stealing all her magazines and advertising material from outside a local shop.

“It’s a great industry, and I absolutely love it,” Wilson says.