An REINSW member since 1966, Tim’s list of achievements is extensive. Beyond his active involvement at both Chapter and Division level, he was a member of the REINSW Board from 1994 to 2000. He was bestowed with the Woodrow Weight Award – REINSW’s highest honour for a lifetime of outstanding service to real estate practice – in 1999 and was awarded a Life Fellowship in 2008. You’ll go a long way to find someone held in higher regard across the industry.
With more than 50 years’ experience, his extraordinary depth of knowledge and understanding when it comes to property management has led him to represent REINSW in various capacities including the Residential Tenancies Consultative Committee, the Residential Tenancies Operational Committee and as Liaison to the Chair of the Residential Tenancies Tribunal. And despite his retirement, he’s currently REINSW’s representative on the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal Committee and continues to sit as a member of the REINSW Property Management Chapter Committee.
Starting out
Tim began his working life as a trainee accountant before being given an opportunity to work at real estate agency Craig and Littley.
“It was Bill Wiseman at Spit Junction, a friend of my mother’s, who gave me a job as a trainee property manager,” Tim said. “I owe him my career in property management.
“I worked on the agency’s rental role and worked out the calculations for protected tenants to see if we could get rental increases.”
After 10 months, it was time to move on and he was offered the chance to work with Alan Grace of Alan Grace Pty Ltd as a junior sales manager at the Forestville office. Tim was quickly offered a stake in the business.
“Not long after I married my wife Vivienne, Alan Grace died. I’d only been there for a short time, and was very young and fairly inexperienced,” Tim said.
With the death of Alan Grace and Tim taking the controlling share, he changed the business name to RT Anderson Real Estate and his involvement in REINSW intensified. He quickly came to love the real estate profession.
“The nice thing about real estate has been that I’ve dealt with very interesting people. The crooks might get on the front page of the paper, but the vast majority of agents work very hard and do a very good job,” Tim emphasised.
Having joined REINSW’s Property Management Chapter in the early stages of his career, Tim later became a Board Director. Along the way, he also took the reins as Chair of REINSW’s New England Division.
“The Institute would fly me up to Tamworth for the meetings and the members would tell me what they were doing. The headquarters were in Tamworth and the centre of that Division was Gunnedah, Glenn Innes and Armidale. I got to meet a lot of great country agents,” Tim said.
In 2001, Tim amalgamated the RT Anderson real estate business with Weight & Company, the Principal of which was REINSW Past President Robert Weight, son of industry legend Woodrow Weight.
“It was a bit like coming home,” Tim explained. “Woodrow was a tremendous help to me when Alan Grace died. He invited me to come and see him any time I was having trouble. Looking back, it meant that Robert’s business was a good place to retire from.”
Passion for training
Tim has long been passionate about real estate training and the development of professional standards.
A keen supporter of the changes currently being proposed to the education and training framework for agents in NSW, he vividly remembers how different it was when he first started out.
“When I qualified, we had to complete a three year, part-time course. And to obtain my qualification, I needed a letter from my employer saying I’d worked in all parts of the agency and had also handled the trust account side of things.
“I then had to attend an interview in front of a panel of three people, which took around two hours. It was a much more arduous process than it is today.”
Sense of community
Tim is well-known for his overwhelming sense of community – something that’s seen him a three-time president of the Rotary Club of Brookvale. A member since 1974, he frequently welcomes Rotary International Exchange Students into his home and is an organiser of its Pub2Pub Charity Fun Run & Festival.
Quite the sportsman, he’s taken part in the Jack Cox long distance swimming races at the Balmoral Beach Club since he was nine years old and will celebrate his 67th race this year shortly after his 75th birthday in March. He’s also played Father Christmas at the club and local schools for the past 15 years, is a ‘fair weather’ golfer and has a part share in a winery in the Hunter Valley.
A keen supporter of his wife Vivienne’s activities, Tim is known for making 7,500 jars of marmalade with the proceeds of in excess of $35,000 going to Cord Blood Research, a cause championed by the charity Inner Wheel Australia.
An unassuming man, Tim describes the Order of Australia accolade as “mind blowing”.
“It has been very exciting,” he said. “And it amazes me the number of people who have acknowledged it and sent me text messages, emails and cards. It’s a wonderful honour and I look forward to receiving the badge in May at an official ceremony at Government House in Sydney.”