Local property business challenges the traditional real estate playbook

A locally founded property business is taking a distinctly commercial approach to real estate, with Pilot Hill applying lessons from strategy, marketing and service businesses to the way property is sold and managed across the region.

Founder Kristy McGrath came to property from a commercial business background rather than a traditional real estate career. What began with a single holiday property under management has swiftly grown into a respected full service real estate agency spanning residential sales, long-term and holiday property management.

“When I came into property, I wasn’t particularly interested in how things had always been done,” McGrath said. “I was interested in what owners actually wanted to achieve and what we could control that would give their property a stronger opportunity to perform.”

That thinking has shaped a business model built around property performance rather than standard agency processes.

In sales, it means developing campaigns around the individual property, likely buyers and owner objectives rather than applying the same marketing package each time. In property management, it means looking beyond administration to the performance and long-term care of the asset. In holiday management, the same thinking extends across pricing, presentation, marketing, guest experience and operations.

“Property performance is the result of a lot of decisions made well. How you position something, who you market it to, what the numbers are telling you, what customers are saying and whether you’re prepared to adjust when something isn’t working.” says Kristy.

The approach is already producing strong runs on the board across Pilot Hill’s sales, leasing and holiday management divisions, while the business continues to grow its team and local footprint.

But McGrath says commercial discipline is only half of the model.

“We’re ambitious for our clients and we care enormously about results. But we also want to be the kind of people clients genuinely want beside them when they’re making an important property decision.”

“Strong performance and strong relationships should go together. Give good advice, do the work properly and deliver for people consistently, and you earn the opportunity to work with them again.”

It is an approach that has helped shape Pilot Hill into something deliberately different from the conventional agency model. “We take the property and the result very seriously,” McGrath said.

“We probably take being ‘real estate agents’ a little less seriously.”