Her towns, her story – Arizto Southland’s Leigh Jackson

There are not too many times a year that Leigh Jackson will leave her beloved home of Riversdale and her working town of Gore – usually it’s to go accept real estate awards.

It would be a safe bet Arizto’s newest salesperson for Southland could well be in that conversation again come November after the born-and-bred local has experienced great success in her first months with New Zealand’s fastest growing agency.

Already she has seven sales in Gore and Riversdale, plus five more under contract out of her 20 current listings in those towns, as well as representing properties in the nearby small settlements of Dipton, Waikaia, Balfour, Mossburn and West Otago’s Tapanui.

These are townships of less than 1000 people – Riversdale an intimate community of just over 400 – while as the main gateway to-and-from the south up to the adventure playgrounds of Queenstown and Milford Sound, as well as Haast for entry onto the West Coast, Gore has an urban population of less than 9000.

“We are a rural service town,” Jackson says of home base for a business where she jumps in the car to head 30-50 minutes in all directions to see potential listings.

“Everyone smiling at each other, you’ll know someone who knows someone.

“I don’t leave all eggs in one basket – I service a lot of areas. I can’t say no to people.”

And they ask for her. A lot.?

Consider the Gore District saw 13 sales for July 2024 at a Median Price of $490,000, which was a big 12.6 per cent increase on the month before (with 15 sales), and then factor in that Jackson would have had a say in lot of those transactions.

She is the prototypical fit for that farm-working, horse-riding, country music-singing and rugby-loving culture where everyone just pitches in and helps.

Indeed, while Arizto allows their salespeople increased mobility to perform their roles compared to traditional real estate agencies, due to cutting edge digital technology through the interactive dashboard and mobile app, Jackson has set herself up with office space in downtown Gore.

Ironically, her neighbours in the office are a local mortgage broker, insurance broker and a property manager – virtually a one-stop shop where co-operation allows for the free flow of advice.

“It’s quite a good business space.”

Raised by her farm worker parents in the settlement of Waikaia, north of Gore, Jackson learned from an early age how to communicate with people in her community, often speaking on behalf of her mother who is deaf.

Continuing an education at Gore High School, now Māruawai College, Jackson entered the workforce at 16 to become an office junior – and progressed up to management level in several accounting and rural firms over the next two decades.

Having initially had a desire to become a nurse while at school, Jackson serves as a St Johns volunteer in Riversdale, one of a team of six first- responders who are on-call for their community – Jackson covering 7pm-7am during the week.

“That was a way I can do the ‘blood and guts’ stuff, that I love, without having too long a time off paid work to study.”

Very well versed in the running of a business - understanding covering overheads, wages and supply orders, Jackson worked well in her community while raising three children – her two eldest daughters aged 21 and 18 now studying and working, while her 14-year-old son does his study and loves his sports.

In fact, between the various school and community committees she served while her children were younger, coupled with the St Johns work, granted Jackson a well-established reputation that now serves her well in real estate, having felt like a change for office work just over three years ago.

“It’s gave me a clientele without really knowing [they would be].

“It’s just the familiar face. It’s where I get a lot of my work.

“[Office] was just the same routine, and I was getting tired of that.

“[The kids becoming independent meant], I could just get up and leave the house at any time, so it was really good timing.”

Priorities were also changing for Jackson – come 2021 as the Covid-scare lessened, her wider family went through some hardships as her brother suffered a broken neck in a car accident, while her sister was diagnosed with cancer.

Her lifestyle block was sold to ease financial pressures, Jackson and family moving into the Riversdale township, while she made plans to enter real estate.

Joining First National, following a tough first six months of translating her community reputation into listings and driving a lot of kilometres – Jackson began to get real traction.

She won Rookie of the year for the entire agency? in 2022, then last year was recognised as their No1 salesperson in the South Island and No4 nationally.

The Rate My Agent website acknowledged her as the highest regarded salesperson amongst all agencies in her patch.

But through it all, the constant driving to get paper contracts signed and re-signed, it was only natural such a community-focused person like Jackson would wonder if there was a better way to deliver her services.

?“[Paper was] all I knew and that’s all we did – it worked well for those years.

?“You don’t realise at the time, because that’s the normal, but there was a lot of wasted time.”

Having also experienced the tough times of selling her own lifestyle block, Jackson felt a little perturbed when she was doing the same for some clients, but could not ease their burden by offering them a fairer level of commission.

Being in demand from several other agencies, it was only when Arizto’s business development manager Kimberley Rosenbrock got in touch that Jackson felt she had found the company that matched her vision.?

“I’m really competitive, it doesn’t matter what I’m doing.

“They were the only ones that offered something different for my clients.

“Now I’m in the business, I can see the systems are so much better for me and the clients.

“There is no way I could have coped with this many listings with another agency.”

Whether from her personal office or on the road, Jackson can complete important documents in a fraction of the time, while offering her clients a streamlined process and commission fees which reflect that process and less overheads.

Her sale signs dotted around the townships make for great advertising – most buyers in her area preferring to roll up to her Open Homes to see what it’s all about.

“If it appeals, they make a second viewing. I think they find it less intimidating if they turn up to an open home with lots of others and just slide under the radar.”

Her true Southlander story fits in perfectly with Arizto’s mantra of being ‘Local As’ – why would buyers or sellers want to deal with anyone else than “our Leigh”?

Is it finally time to make the switch? Contact Arizto today to discuss joining New Zealand’s expanding and exciting team!