Linda started her real estate career after several years running large corporate sales teams in the telecommunications industry.
“It was a huge change for me when I started in real estate, and I was desperate to get my first listing. It was through my sister in Perth that my first referral came, and it was for a big restaurateur in Adelaide - then I was off and running. I worked for Ray White in Adelaide City for seven years, but they closed the office and concentrated on Semaphore which was a 40 minutes drive away from my home. So the only reason I left was for geographic reasons,” she said.
From there Linda worked for a small boutique real estate business for five years, and then Linda and two of her colleagues decided to open their own business with another franchise.
“We owned that business for nine years, and it was a good experience and we learnt a lot, but we felt we needed help recruiting in South Australia. This was difficult as we had no corporate office in Adelaide, as our head office was in Melbourne,” Linda said.
That’s when she had what was the first of 40 meetings with Ray White Norwood.
"I used to always love meeting Brian White in Adelaide, and he used to tell me, ‘you are my customer’ and I always love that,” she said.
“The White family are so genuine and I always loved my time with Ray White and never had a bad word to say about them. Here at Ray White Norwood, Flavia Ingegneri works full time in recruitment and that was our weak spot. We are lucky to have her expertise and drive.
“I love the culture and the consistency of that culture that Jason Spagnuolo has created. It’s a high quality and high value business that promotes a solid work ethic, co-operation and very little gossip or complaint. This is not easy to do with a big group of people. On top of this, everyone in the Adelaide corporate office is so good at what they do, and such helpful people.”
Linda and her business partner Elesa Wood are now running their business, including their own rent roll, with a total team of six within Norwood.
"Matt Lindblom has been exceptional, and of course we get the best training ever with Mark McLeod. There is nothing about real estate sales and auctions he doesn’t know. Ray White Norwood has excellent marketing and sales support, and everyone couldn’t be more helpful. In a large real estate office to have such a culture of high performance, healthy competition, with no negativity, is rare,” she said.
Linda Baker’s sister Helen Bond has followed a similar path to bring her back to Ray White in Perth’s Inner North.
