Page 42 - Tropic Magazine Issue 19

TROPIC • PROFILE

Property expertise

AGENCY PROFILE
Teamwork makes the dream work
at First National Cairns Central and
Cairns Beaches.

David and Carole Forrest, the owners of First National
Cairns Central and Cairns Beaches, look back with
some amazement at the very first Christmas team
photo they sent to Cairns clients back in 2012. It was
just a few months after their relocation to Cairns
and the launch of their agency, the culmination of
more than 30 years in the industry. David and Carole
featured alongside 7 staff in the cover photo of that
card, a solid starting line-up of 9 for an agency that
had only just begun in the city.
Fast forward to Christmas 2018, and the First National The First National Cairns Central and Cairns Beaches team
Cairns Central and Cairns Beaches Christmas photo
features a team of 25 staff. That growth in what has
been a tough local market is testament to David and Individual team members bring a
Carole’s approach to real estate. Their passion for the variety of skills and experience to
industry is about more than just “helping people”, We love our team the table, allowing the agency to
as David explains. “I hear people answer this all the and we have been deliver a full range of services. “We
time with ‘I love this industry because I like helping through so much have a great breadth of knowledge,
people’,” he tells Tropic. “It is such a cliché. Almost all so we don’t market ourselves
industries are about helping people so it’s not a real with them over the as specialists,” David explains.
estate specialty. It goes without saying that helping past seven years. “Instead, we offer the full range of
people is a huge part of it because if you’re not helping services and have specialists within
people with their problems and issues you don’t have the group. If we have achieved
a service to sell. But I think it is more than that. I love success by any measure it has been
the industry because you can grow to the amount you through the combined efforts of
put into your career. There are no boundaries. I love our team.”
it because of its flexibility. And I love it because of the
fantastic people in the industry.” FROM THE CENTRAL DESERT TO
THE TROPICS
A COMFORTABLE CULTURE David and Carole first made their
Another central tenet of the success of First National mark in real estate in Melbourne
Cairns Central and Cairns Beaches is the focus on in the 1980s, but it was their
staff well-being and team culture. As Richard Branson experience running their own First
famously put it, “Clients do not come first. Employees National agency in Alice Springs
come first. If you take care of your employees, they that would set them up for a new
will take care of the clients.” era in Cairns. It was a nervous time
David and Carole pay credit to their team for the to branch out with a new agency in
agency’s growth and reputation over the past seven a new city.
years. David and Carole Forrest “We moved to Cairns because
“We love our team and we have been through so much it was time for a change but
with them over the past seven years, and I’m not just most importantly, we became
talking about work,” David says. “We spend about 8 grandparents and we wanted to be
hours a day with each other and we have each other’s active grandparents rather than
wellbeing in mind. We have a good culture at work, doing it from 1500 km away in the
and we try to have a comfortable office environment. Alice,” David says. “We had visited
I can honestly say they are some of the best real estate Cairns many times before and I
practitioners I have had the pleasure of working think we were always destined
with.” to live here. Whilst on some

42 • Tropic • Issue 19