Ray White Oakleigh's star Penny Costa

There’s a lid for every pot – and once that match is made, look out.

For Penny Costa, now BDM and Associate Director of Ray White Oakleigh in its rental division, it took more than two years of searching to find where she was destined to shine.

It was during that period, immediately after finishing school that Ms Costa attended 74 job interviews.

“After a while of people saying 'you’re a no hoper, and will not accomplish much in life, you start to believe it', " Ms Costa said today.

However, she was made of stronger stuff and 24 years ago her real estate career kicked off in a sea of coffee making, letter box drops and dry cleaning pickups.

“My gross pay was $17,000,” she recalled.

After a year, she knew it was time to get deeper into the business, which was when an advertisement in The Saturday Age caught her eye; it was for an assistant property manager.

Despite not knowing what that entailed she made her very first trip to Ray White Oakleigh, made her case, was told she would be notified in a couple of days and left feeling pretty happy.

Six weeks later, no telephone call, and the ad was still running in The Age.

She called again, interviewed again, and was told again they’d be in touch shortly.

Still nothing, but this did not dissuade Ms Costa who fronted up one more time – and got the job.

The pot had found its lid.

Within a month she had signed a further 18 listings – bringing the agency total to 130.

“I had a gift I wasn’t aware of; I connect with people, all sorts of people. And with real estate it’s not about homes, it’s about people’s emotions. Real estate,” Ms Costa said with added emphasis “real estate IS people.”

She recalls at the time her only advantage, beyond her people skills, was her ability to speak Greek in a community that appreciated the skill.

At the same time her supervisor begrudged being asked to help the aspiring manager and left her pretty much swaying in the real estate breeze.

As soon as she could Ms Costa decided it was up to her to improve her position, and started what has been an ongoing and dedicated program of self-learning.

“I attended every conference and course I could, I have invested heavily in my own development,” said Ms Costa. Driven not just by her desire to improve on her own merits, but also to provide the best service for her clients.

“I’m very passionate about human beings,” she says. “I didn’t want to stuff it up.”

However, she is keen to not give the impression that this has been an unhappy journey, far from it.

Her career with Ray White has been stellar, with award upon award bestowed upon her including being honoured with the 2019 REB Women in Real Estate Awards BDM of the Year – Property Management last week.

And while that is gratefully accepted, Ms Costa is measuring success in other ways – such as her long and organically grown, register of managements.

“We had 500 listings to manage in (my first) six years. Going from 500 to 1,000 is just a blur. I remember 1500 really well and reaching 2000? That was a milestone. I was ecstatic.”

But through it all Ms Costa has stayed true to many business fundamentals. One of the most useful is her time management skill.

“I’m usually in here by 7am. It’s more than wanting to be in front of the others, it’s just that a lot of my clients are tradies, and I have a good chance of catching them at that hour. By 7.40am I’ve made eight phone calls and done 30 emails. Rather than stress out about it, I work on my time management. I don’t stress.”

Seven years ago, she invested in the Ray White Oakleigh property management department, but that has not changed her passion or dedication. Rather, she has committed more time to studying staff retention, building culture and staff training.

“We have 28 or 30 in the team at the moment. I believe we are still the biggest rentals department which has been organically grown, in Ray White Victoria, if not Australia,” adds the award winner.

The obvious final question is, how long can she keep it up? Does she, at just 44 years of age, even consider what slowing down might look like?

“How long will I be doing it?”

The question hangs there for a few seconds, as though the thought is entirely foreign.

“I don’t know. I might, eventually, take off one day or maybe two days off through the week.

But I don’t know…” she says letting the concept trail off, returning instead to what drives this talented business woman.

“When we hit 2,500 residential listings, that will be pretty amazing.”

And at this rate, that outstanding milestone will be passed in less than four months.