Still selling houses at 80

Birchwood Rd in Ohai.

‘‘Several I’ve sold two or three times . . . the buyers include Australians and North Islanders,’’ he said.

Payne said 25 to 30 per cent of business done by most real estate companies stemmed from three situations – ‘‘the three Ds, death, divorce and d’bank . . . it’s a fact.’’ Things have changed somewhat since Carl

Payne started in real estate 26 years ago.

Where he used to use radio telephones to communicate with the office, now he uses mobile phones.

At the age of 80, he is one of the oldest selling real estate.

He and colleague Bill Todd, 81, are among five in Otago-Southland, and 51 nationally, who are in the 80 or older age group licensed to sell real estate.

Unlike many New Zealanders, retiring at 65 was not entertained by the pair who enjoy their profession too much to stop.

Payne has noticed in Bill Todd, 81, and Carl Payne,

the past six months more 80, have a combined tally of 89

for sale signs in south years selling real estate in

Southland or Stewart Island.

Invercargill than in north Invercargill.

He said the company he worked for, Todd & Co Reality, had found the buying and selling markets extremely strong in recent months.

The vast reach of the internet had been a huge help to advertise properties and sometimes within several minutes of posting, agents received inquiries.

An interesting statistic in Payne’s 26 years in the industry is the 62-house or section transactions he has finalised on Payne is unsure of how many properties he has sold but says the lowest price negotiated was $4000 for a house in Nightcaps in the 1990s. After 20 years of selling cars, Payne became a real estate agent in 1992. Earlier, he was an Invercargill City Council traffic officer and was deputy chief when he resigned in 1973. Bill Todd, has been involved in real estate for 63 years and negotiated his first sale with the auctioning of a house and two sections on Stewart Island in 1959.

The Todd family’s real estate company has been operating since 1865 and holds a financial interest in Todd Real Estate. The auctioning of goods at the old William Todd & Co Ltd auction rooms drew a large gathering on Fridays.

‘‘It was a drawcard. Some would come along sit in the old couches and see the auction . . . it was better than going to the films [movies],’’ Todd said.