Stephanie Farah grew up in a family of real estate agents and wanted nothing to do with it. She studied event management, spent her mid-twenties selling corporate hospitality for the NRL, and only gave real estate a go when her mum told her to stop resisting it. She planned to give it three months. Twelve years on, she's a partner in the family business.
In this episode of the P.O.W.E.R. Podcast, Steph and Melissa Ashcroft compare notes on building a career inside a multi-generational family business - including fathers who made them earn it rather than handing anything over, and why becoming partner earlier this year was a real decision rather than a formality. Steph is clear-eyed about what she actually wants from the business, and why running the whole thing isn't it.
They also get into what's happening in the market right now. Steph is candid about an investor market that has dried up, the brief surge of activity before the SMSF changes took effect in August, and why a downturn is usually six to eight weeks old before the media catches up. She explains why she's wary of auction clearance rates as a measure of value, how she arms vendors with every possible scenario rather than telling them what to do, and why she's seeing people buy before selling when she'd rather they didn't.
It isn't all doom and gloom. Steph talks through the emotionally driven sales still happening, including a one-bedroom apartment that sold for half a million above the previous record for its type, and what it takes to get the right buyers competing in a room.
The conversation closes on leadership, being one of relatively few women in the industry, and why Steph treats that as an advantage rather than an obstacle. She shares the routine she relies on to start the day in the right frame of mind, and the principle underneath it: she can't control the market, what's listed down the road, or what the media says about any of it - so she focuses on what she can.
A conversation about backing yourself, knowing what you're good at, and staying steady when conditions turn.
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