Ben Ryken was just 19 when he decided to give real estate a go. Still sporting braces when he tried to land his first listing, he didn’t get off to the easiest of starts. But with 11 years in the industry under his belt now, combined with a strong work ethic, he’s now one of Ray White’s top agents in Remuera, selling 30-plus properties a year.
Q: Was real estate always the plan?
No, not at all. When I was at school, I was told, based on my interests, to do sports science or something similar because I was quite sporty. But sport was a hobby, and I didn’t want it to be what brought home the bacon.
I did sign up for the police, but I failed the swimming test because of an old shoulder injury. I think that turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
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I ended up getting a job with a logistics company straight out of school, so I could support my wife Miky (we got married at 18) through uni. We decided she would go down the academic route, and I wouldn’t.
So I was working at this job, putting in a lot of extra effort, going in early, leaving late, going the extra mile for the clients. After a year, I went for my first salary negotiation and basically got nothing – a small percentage increase. I thought, “Am I really going to wait another year for another tiny tidbit? Or am I going to find a job that rewards extra effort and long hours?”
I jumped on Google, did a search, and one of the things that came up was real estate. I liked that you got rewarded for the effort you put in.
Q: Was it tough starting in the industry at 19?
As a young person with a very fresh face – I think I still had braces when I started – it’s hard to get people to trust you with their biggest asset. I did what you shouldn’t do and jumped right into being my own agent with no experience, no job as a personal assistant or associate first. The wise thing for a young person is to join a team that does a lot of business.
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For a lot of older people getting into real estate, it’s their second career, and they’ve got networks, people who trust them because they were good at their previous job. When you’re 19, you don’t have friends who are selling their houses or a network of people who know you. I had to knock on doors and say, “Can I sell your house?” I got a lot of “No thank you” and some swearing and doors slammed.
I didn’t let it put me off. I still do some door-knocking today. If I’m listing a home, I might spend a couple of hours going around the neighbourhood letting people know we’ve got open homes coming up. From that, I’m always getting listings and new opportunities. I enjoy the challenge of being able to front up to someone and, in a few seconds, have them decide if they want to hear you out or not.
Q: Can you remember your first sale?
It was 15 Wimbledon Way in Remuera. I’ve now sold over 10 houses in that street. I was very grateful to those first clients who trusted me with the sale of their home – I probably wouldn’t have put my trust in me! They were also quite young and in sales, and I think they’d had their time of being inexperienced and needing someone to back them. So they gave me a chance. The house sold in a few weeks, and I’ve since sold four homes for them.
Ryken says he’s grateful for the trust his first clients put in him. Photo / Fiona Goodall
Q: Did things take off after that?
No. I wish they had. I still had to fight tooth and nail for quite a few years. I had lots of ups and downs, and I only really kicked into gear and started selling 20-plus properties a year in 2020 when my oldest daughter Rosie was born. It was the year of Covid, my wife was on maternity leave, and I had to look in the mirror and decide if I was taking this seriously or not. When you have a baby depending on you, you do get a bit of fire and want to work hard. You realise you have to plant roots, think about schooling, about building a community around your family.
When Rosie was a month old, we went into lockdown and the couple of listings I had got taken down. I thought I would be earning no money for months. But thankfully, the market turned, things took off, and I’ve gone up year on year after that, particularly in the last couple of years. I have a team member who has joined me, so I’ve been able to expand and offer a better service to clients.
Q: Have there been any particularly memorable sales?
There have been a lot, and it’s mostly because of the people. One in particular was in 2021, in Logan Terrace, Parnell. I was referred to the owner by another client of mine, but there were lots of other agents going for the listing; all the big guns around Parnell who’d been selling there for 25, 30 years. I don’t think I’d sold a house in Parnell before.
The vendor was a woman on her own, and all the other agents were female. I knew I could do a good job, so before she decided who got the listing, I called her and said, “Can I come and see you one more time? I want to show you how I would show people through your house.”
Ryken does quite a bit of running and achieved his goal of running a marathon in under three hours last year. Photo / Fiona Goodall
I went over and said, “Pretend you’re a buyer coming through for a private viewing”, and I took her on a tour. After about 10 minutes, she said, “Ben, I want you to sell my house”.
I’m so glad I had the balls to do that, although it could have all gone wrong! I just wanted to show her that I had listened to what she said about the house. It turned out to be a great auction, and it sold for a lot more than she wanted and has led to lots more opportunities around there for me.
Q: What do you love about your job?
I love that every day is different. You don’t go into an office, turn on your computer at 8.30am, spend the day sitting in front of it before turning it off at 5.30pm and going home. I could be doing a deal at 10pm, I could be carrying on that deal the next morning at 5.30am. They can be long days, but they’re really rewarding.
I’ve met a lot of cool people in this job, and I love hearing the stories behind them and their homes. I’ve sold houses for people who’ve lived there for 50 years, and that’s always a great privilege – that’s longer than I’ve been alive.
The other great thing about real estate is that you have to be self-motivated. If you don’t show up and put in the work, you don’t get the listings, you don’t sell houses, and you don’t get paid. I like the fact that I need to show up for myself to continue to do well in this business.
Q: What do you do when you are not selling houses?
I spend time with my wife and my girls, Rosie and Penny. They’re 6 and 3 now and getting into sports. They play a little bit of tennis and football, so we do what they do.
I do a bit of running. Last year, I set myself the goal of running a sub-three-hour marathon. I had run three Auckland marathons and my wife had run a really fast marathon in Brisbane for her first ever marathon and that inspired me. I stuck to a comprehensive training plan, didn’t drink for five months, and got up at 4.30am every Saturday for a long run. I did the Auckland marathon in November in two hours 58 minutes. I was very pleased with that.
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