David Ding has shelves full of real estate awards. He’s the top salesperson at Harcourts’s Glenfield branch, has been among the top 20 Harcourts sales people nationwide every year for the past five years, and was previously one of the agency’s top six salespeople in the world. That’s not bad for someone who spoke only a few words of English and had no career plans when he arrived in the country 20 years ago from China as an 18-year-old.
What brought you to New Zealand?
I came here to a language school. A lot of parents were sending their children overseas and my father, a businessman, thought it would be good for me to come here. I didn’t know anybody. When I arrived, I expected to be picked up and taken to a home stay.
But I was told it was all full, and they put me in a hotel with no windows. It was very different here. I hadn’t really thought what I was getting into. But I was young, I found everything interesting. I got used to the food, the transportation, the language.
Start your property search
What was the hardest thing to get used to?
The prices. Everything was very expensive, five times what it was in China. That’s why I ate a lot of McDonalds, it was the same price. But I felt very lucky to be here. It is safe, there is clean water and good food and nice people. It is a lovely country and my gut told me I had come to the right place.
What did you do after the language school course?
I did an Auckland University foundation course then a Bachelor of Commerce degree at the uni, studying marketing and international business. I don’t really know why I did it, I didn’t have a plan. When I look back, it was the right decision. I can apply the marketing stuff I learned to my job now. Sometimes when you look back you see things happen for a reason, even if you don’t know it at the time.
I had a part-time job at Smith & Caughey’s [department store], selling kitchenware. That is where I learned about customer service, they have top customer service there.
Next I worked for Telecom for two years selling mobile phones and then I worked for a shipping line in freight forwarding for two or three years.
How did you get into real estate?
I didn’t like working for the shipping line. I thought it would be cool but it was boring. So I quit, with no job to go to and no thoughts about what job I wanted. I stayed home for about half a year, thinking about what to do. I had a friend doing real estate and she was driving a nice car and earning good money, and I thought, Hmmm, I can do better. Straight away my gut told me that this was the right job for me. I went click, this is what I want.
Ding loves to play basketball and does his best thinking when he's out walking the dog. Photo / Fiona Goodall
The first property I sold, after everyone else’s fees were deducted, what I was left with was still more than I got for working months at the shipping line. That was the moment I made up my mind, this is my career.
At the shipping line, if you work harder you don’t earn any more. In real estate, the harder you work, the more comes in. I have always been a hard worker. I knew if I performed to 110 per cent I could do well.
Other than working hard, what is the secret of your success?
Consistency. Being authentic. Being a good person. Auckland is too small – you never know who knows who.
But with real estate, a lot of success is about the market. I am just a messenger of the market. I do keep achieving top dollar but I think 20 per cent is me and 80 per cent is the market.
I have also been very lucky to have Martin Cooper, from Harcourts Cooper & Co, as my boss and my mentor. He is a lovely man who has showed me a lot of life’s lessons. He gives so much good advice. It was Martin who told me, "pick your battles".
He shows how to lead by example and I try to do that with the team I have. I have a team of six people and we are all multi-cultural – immigrants from India, China, Iraq, Philippines, the UK. We are all grateful to be here and we all work hard.
Do you rely on instinct a lot?
All the time. I trust my gut. With my job, with being in this country, with finding the right wife. I met my wife, Claire, through our parents. My mum [who moved to New Zealand with my dad after I came here] knows Claire’s parents. My mother came around one night and showed me Claire’s picture. I thought, Oh no, not again. She was always trying to get me to meet someone. I thought I will meet Claire, to make my mother happy. Then when we met, I just had a gut feeling. I knew Claire was the right one. We got married a year and a month after we met and now our baby is coming in March. I am very happy my gut told me to do it! I believe that if your gut tells you to do something, you should listen to it. Do what feels right.
Do you get much time for hobbies?
I like to walk with my dog, Hunter, delivering flyers. It’s a four-in-one – drop flyers, walk dog, listen to music and get some exercise. Also I use it as time to think. I do my most creative thinking when I am walking or in the shower.
I also like to play basketball with my friends on a Saturday. I used to swim a couple of times a week but I had to stop that because of Covid. I should start again.
Are there any moments in your career that really stand out?
Every transaction is important. But I learned a big lesson this year. I was selling a house for a lady called Carol. It was a tender process. We had two top offers, one higher one from an investor and one lower one from first-home buyers, local people. They kept missing out on buying a house, they had tried five or six times. Carol picked their offer, even though it was $20,000 less than the other one.
She taught me a lesson, that it is not always about the money, it is about doing the right thing.
I used to care a lot about my ranking, my commission, how many properties I had sold. Now for me it is about quality not quantity. It is important to be a good person.
