Patrick McAteer and Suzanne Browne have both had successful careers in real estate, but since becoming a couple and then deciding a little over a year ago to work together at New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty, business has really boomed. They’ve sold nearly $100 million worth of properties in that time, including some of the most expensive homes in the blue-chip Auckland suburb of Herne Bay.
Q: What did you do before real estate?
Patrick: A lot! I started in graphic art, then was told by a mentor – my father – that I was more likely to make money with my mouth open than shut. So I switched to sales. I was a wine sales rep, then I was in marketing and advertising. I ended up in management. I’ve worked in music TV, I’ve owned a restaurant, I was a helicopter guide in Wanaka. I’ve always been drawn to things I’m passionate about. Right before I got into real estate, I was making commercials and documentaries.
Q: Why did you make the move to real estate?
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Patrick: Having a background in sales, I was looking for a role that would provide flexibility and allow me to work on my own terms, and I thought the real estate industry would do that. That was five years ago.
It was a bit scary going into a commission-based job, but you’ve got to back yourself. It’s tough when you’re starting out because you don’t have any experience, but having been an executive producer, I had lots of systems and processes in place. In real estate, there are no shortcuts; you have to apply yourself.
McAteer's nickname is Reacher "because he has this ability to reach so many people", while Browne’s nickname is Defib, because "she can bring buyers back from the dead". Photo / Fiona Goodall
Q: Suzanne, how did you get started?
Suzanne: I also started in sales, working in retail. When I was 20, I left New Zealand with a backpack and no plan. I just decided to go where the wind took me. I didn’t have a tertiary education; I treated my overseas adventures as a kind of degree. I started in Los Angeles and went to San Diego, working when the America’s Cup was there. I ended up going Florida to see if I could work on superyachts, thinking I’d go straight into a job as a stewardess, but you needed a reference. So I did some terrible jobs. One of them was almost torture – I had to scrape barnacles off a dinghy in 35 degree heat. I got a really good reference from that.
I got work on the yachts and that was great. You got a really good paycheck at the end of the month. I came back to New Zealand at 25 and I did a year of university but decided it wasn’t for me. I got back into sales for a bit with a lighting company and someone said I should try real estate. I got my licence and a job in a little agency, and I door-knocked like there was no tomorrow. I had a lot of tenacity and grit from travelling overseas.
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But I was quite young still, and I thought, "This is actually a grown-up job. I’m not sure I’m ready for this." So I got lured back into working on superyachts for another 18 months. When I came back, I went to work for Kellands, and I thought, "Yes, this is me." I worked there for nine years. In that time, I got married and had children. I ended up on my own with my kids, and I think they have been my biggest achievement.
Q: How did the two of you get together?
Suzanne: It never should have happened really; it was a fluke. We were both in real estate, and our kids went to the same school, but we didn’t know each other. Then one day I was looking at Facebook and I saw a friend request from Patrick - actually, one of those suggestions of people who could be a friend. I have to personally know everyone who is my friend on Facebook, so when I realised I didn’t actually know him, I deleted it.
But something played on my mind, and I thought maybe I had met him through real estate or our kids. So I reached out to him and said, “Do we know each other? I’ve just rejected you.” I felt guilty.
One of the two neighbouring Herne Bay villas that McAteer and Browne sold for a total of $26m. Photo / Supplied
Patrick: I got this message from her about rejecting me that was a bit strange. I didn’t request to be her friend. But we just started talking and joking. I was single, but I wasn’t looking for a date. She asked me about a sale, and I couldn’t talk about it - I was under an NDA - but I suggested we could catch up when I could talk about it. So we did ...
Suzanne: And the rest is history
Q: Why did you decide to work together?
Patrick: We were talking a lot about work and coming up with ideas and problem-solving for each other ...
Suzanne: And I said, “Could you imagine what it would be like if we worked together? That would be incredible.” It was a pretty tough year last year, and we were both doing OK, but it wasn’t fabulous. We thought we could really complement each other.
We do have our differences. Patrick likes working with other people - it’s what he’s done his whole life - whereas I have always been a lone wolf.
Patrick: I like the connectivity with people and the community, getting to know people and helping them to navigate through getting their property sold.
Suzanne: His nickname is Reacher, because he has this ability to reach so many people. He’s great at making connections.
The couple met by accident. "It never should have happened really," says Browne. "We were both in real estate, and our kids went to the same school, but we didn’t know each other." Photo / Fiona Goodall
Patrick: Suzanne’s nickname is Defib, as in defibrillator. She can bring buyers back from the dead. They’ll say, ‘No, we’re out’, but she’s got that tenacity that she got from scraping barnacles off a boat, and she’ll keep them engaged and they’ll end up coming to the auction.
Suzanne: I love bringing a complicated sale together. There is nothing better than seeing a deal land and a vendor happy. Having happy clients makes me sleep really well at night.
Q: Can it be tricky working and living together?
Patrick: We don’t always see eye-to-eye on everything, but if there’s something we don’t agree on, we work through it to find a smoother path. Sometimes seeing things differently is a good thing.
Suzanne: I feel really lucky that we get to work together. This job can be really lonely on your own.
Q: Why do you think you’ve done so well?
Suzanne: We work hard. In real estate, you have to put in the hours. We do a lot of hours.
Patrick: We try not to let real estate take over our lives, but we deal a lot with international buyers, so that means making ourselves available at 11 o’clock at night to take calls. But we genuinely love what we do, and I think our clients see that.
Suzanne: We pride ourselves on integrity and doing the right thing. Having empathy is important, too. People buy and sell property for a lot of different reasons, and you have to understand that. We care about what people are going through.
Patrick: Everything we do is based on a foundation of three pillars – communication, promotion and negotiation. We take a lot of pride in doing each of them really well, and working hard for the best possible outcome.
Q: You deal with a lot of high-net-worth people. Do you have to do things differently when you are selling multi-million-dollar homes?
Patrick: The upper end of the market does seem to gravitate towards us because of the area we work in, where there are some very high-end homes. We feel very fortunate to be selling a range of houses, and most of them are family homes, so it doesn’t matter whether they are $2m or $20m, they are still the family home and important to people. Our processes and systems are still the same, and everybody gets treated the same, regardless of the price of their house.
It would be easy to get swept away with the whole luxury side of what we do, but we stay pretty grounded.
Q: What’s the most expensive home you’ve ever sold?
Suzanne: We had two properties side-by-side that sold to the same buyer for $26m.
Q: What do you do when you are not selling real estate?
Patrick: Being active is a big part of our lives, we go to the gym, we do a lot of walks and run together when we can. I like mountain biking. I go to Woodhill Forest when I can and I do a 50km race every year from Wanaka to Arrowtown.
Suzanne: I’m into Pilates and yoga, but most of my downtime at the moment is spent renovating an Airbnb I have bought in Cambridge. I’ve got a real passion for renovating.
We’ve also got a bach in Whangamata, where we love to go with the family – we have four children between us. So we do work hard, but we do make sure we smell the roses.
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