Italians call it colpo di fulmine, ‘the thunderbolt,’ that stop-you-dead-in-your-tracks feeling when you first lay eyes on someone and fall instantly in love.
And for husband-and-wife team Steve and Nila Koerber of Ray White Remuera it also led to the founding of one of the most successful partnerships in Auckland real estate.
“I certainly wasn’t on the hunt for love,” admits Steve, who, quite fittingly, also pens poetry on the side (a poem hangs in the hallway that he wrote for his bride in 2016). “I had come out of a marriage a couple of years earlier, was quite depressed and just surviving really. I certainly didn’t want to complicate my busy life with a relationship. But then I knocked on the door of my client’s house on Orakei Road and my heart skipped a beat.”
Steve eventually plucked up the courage to ask Nila to lunch (“only by text!”) but she’d already returned to her home in Queensland (the Orakei Road property belonged to her aunt). What followed was a long-distance, two-year relationship-by-correspondence.
“What can I say, I’m a slow mover!” chuckles Steve. “Nila was raising four kids on her own near the beach. She’s a Buddhist, and almost every day she’d send me photos of the sunrise. It was so beautiful, and helped my healing process.”
“And he would recommend books to me,” adds Nila over tea and biscuits in their heritage-listed Remuera home. “Now, we have this wonderful, blended family – along with Steve’s three children – which makes for some great Christmases with around 30 people at the table!”
DOWN TO BUSINESS
“We’ve worked together every day for eight years, rising before the sun does,” reveals Steve. “We’re quite unique in that Remuera is our sole focus – few people offer such a service. We’ve found that by concentrating on just one suburb we don’t get distracted, and our knowledge is so much better.”
The proof is clearly in the pudding – well, sales figures – with the couple selling more than three times more houses than anyone else in the suburb that they love so dearly.
“Ray White Remuera has a 60%-plus market share in the suburb,” says Steve. “And Megan Jaffe, our friend and principal, also runs the top office for Ray White International, so we’re in an amazing place.”
“We’re very visible in the neighbourhood,” says Nila. “We’ll be out walking the dog and always bump into people we know. Much of our recent business has come from meeting people in the street.”
“We work together, we exercise together, we live together,” adds Steve. “One of the reasons we’re so impactful is that we tend to be a bit obsessed with real estate. We’re always thinking about it. Even during our downtime, we’re brainstorming and problem solving. It might not sound too exciting, but it is for us! It gives us great pleasure.”
Steve, a former Naval Officer who helmed warships, is the planner (“my military training involved keeping watch for potential dangers ahead”) while Nila, a former accountant – and, says Steve, an amazing chef – is the problem-solver of the pair. But she derives greatest satisfaction from meeting new clients, who often wind up becoming lifelong friends.
“We’ve met famous artists and people from all backgrounds and ages that we wouldn’t otherwise have encountered,” she beams. “So many people have so many beautiful stories and it’s such a pleasure to hear them, and ultimately, add to them.”
BUILDING DREAMS
The couple’s obsession with real estate stretches well beyond selling it. In 2017 they purchased a plot of land on the slopes of Mount Hobson in order to build their own home.
“We didn’t have the money to splash out on a big, expensive house, so we worked really hard to get the best architect and builders,” says Nila. “It had always been Steve’s dream to have a house on a mountain.”
The pandemic put paid to a smooth project, and though they didn’t quite make it onto the TV show Grand Designs, the home was included in a new book by architectural photographer, Simon Devitt. However, there was something even more exciting over the horizon: their current heritage-listed home, which they moved into in January 2023.
“We used to walk past this iconic place regularly and adored it,” says Steve. “I used to point at it and say to Nila, ‘There’s your house!’ It has such a mystique. We never saw anyone on the porch, and of course, we thought that whoever owned the place would never give it up anyway.”
But they did, and a series of fortunate circumstances meant that the couple were able realise their dream and sign on the dotted line. The previous owner had lived there for 22 years, and before that the house had been in the same family for over a century. It was first built as a cottage for the gardener of Reverend John Kinder (of Woodcroft Estate on Arney Road), and in 1913 renovated and extended for the reverend’s daughter. Adorned with oak panels and hardwood floors that creak with their weight of history, the house offers expansive, uninterrupted views across to Devonport and Rangitoto from its wraparound deck, framed by fragrant rose bushes, 100-year-old trees, and the remnants of an original farm fence.
“It’s such a solid, beautiful house, but the layout isn’t ideal for a modern family,” laments Nila. “The kitchen is at the back, there are four bedrooms, but none of them are particularly well proportioned, and there’s only the original – gorgeous – open fireplaces for heating!”
Next March, with the blessing of Heritage New Zealand, the couple will begin modernising the property’s interiors.
“Our daily dealings with homebuyers suggest that many would shy away from buying a heritage-listed home,” says Steve. “But it would be a different story if people knew that with the help of expert consultants and architects, there is a lot you can do to really bring these places back to life.”
The couple say that since their move, so many people have commented that this is their favourite house in Auckland.
“There aren’t too many places like this left,” says Steve. “Because it’s heritage listed, we privately joke that it’s not actually our house – it belongs to the people of New Zealand. Our vision is to help preserve it for generations to come.”
