Real estate a family affair for Property Exchange director Niki Peinke

“At the time I had the Hard Rock Cafe in Subiaco but that sold,” she said.

“So I had no job, my marriage had broken up and I had just had Chelsea; I didn’t know what I was going to do.

“I’d done the real estate course on a whim while I was pregnant so thought I’d pursue that.”

As a result her daughter Chelsea grew up around real estate but Niki didn’t expect her to also join the industry.

“This was the last direction I thought she’d go in; I’d have understood if there was some resentment about real estate,” she said.

Chelsea said it did upset her when she was young.

“Mum was always on the phone talking property and she couldn’t come to assemblies or work in the canteen and was late picking us up from school,” she said.

“We’d spend weekends in the back of the car while she showed people property.

“Now I understand the demands of the job.”

Niki recalled doing a deal in her jeep one night when Chelsea was about three or four.

“I’d shown a client a house in Bagot Road and he wanted to make an offer,” she said.

“We couldn’t do it in the house as I had Chelsea and my son Reyne in the car, but it was dark and pouring with rain, so we wrote the offer up in the car using the interior light.

“Then the owners came out to the car to accept the offer. There was a lot of juggling in those days.”

Chelsea excelled in school and went on to university, earning a Bachelor of Arts in communications studies and a Bachelor of commerce with management and marketing majors.

Her role in the business happened gradually.

“I worked Saturdays on reception while I was at uni and when I came to the end of my degree I looked at advertising and marketing firms, but nothing was that appealing,” she said.

“The business was at the stage where they needed someone to look after the marketing and I love the company, loved the environment and loved the people, so I put my hand up to be the marketing |co-ordinator, which I did for five years.”

Sales was another natural progression.

“It got to the stage where I was ready to try something new,” she said.

“Again, I looked at other options, other companies, but I liked the environment here and a position opened up working next to mum.”

Niki, understandably, is proud of her daughter’s success.

“It took me 20 years to get a real estate hat trick – selling three properties on the same day – but it only took Chelsea six weeks,” she said.

“That morning I commented that she had some tough listings.

“I think that only made her more determined and by 8pm that night they were all under offer.”

While Chelsea grew up around real estate and had the chance to work with her mother, not everyone looking at a career in property will have the same opportunity.

“Real estate is much harder to break into now,” Niki said.

“My advice would be to ally yourself with someone who has done the 20-30 years of getting known and learn from them.” n