When Shane Cortese's second son was born, his partner took their newborn to Australia for six weeks, and Shane got the house, and the Rugby World Cup, to himself. Except the house went quiet, and Shane, one of New Zealand's most recognised faces from Shortland Street and Outrageous Fortune, tweeted the line that ended up in the Herald: your house is just a house until it's got kids and family around it, then it becomes a home.
In this conversation with host Vanessa Williams, Shane talks through a childhood spent between the UK, Tauranga and Wellington, his last years of school living in a hotel room in Palmerston North, the two very different homes he bought in London in his twenties, and the keypad code that means his teenage sons never need to knock. Thirty years into realestate.co.nz's own story of home, Shane's is a reminder that it’s the people that make a house a home.
Highlights
●\tA childhood on the move. Shane's parents separated early, and he grew up between the UK, Tauranga and Wellington before spending his last years of school living in a hotel room in Palmerston North, where his mother managed the Britannia and his Saturday job was cleaning out the beer tanks for pocket money.
●\tThe tweet that stuck. When his second son was born and the house went quiet for the first time, Shane tweeted that a house is just a house until it's got kids and family around it, then it becomes a home. The New Zealand Herald picked it up.
●\tA code, not a key. His two sons now have the keypad code to his front door, so neither of them ever has to worry about losing a key. Between his place and their mother's, Shane says the boys have two loving homes, and that was always the plan.
●\tHis first home. A three-bedroom semi-detached Victorian in Kingston-upon-Thames, bought for £76,000 in 1996 with a fellow cast member from The Rocky Horror Show in the West End.
●\tHis second home, sight-bought. A renovated 17th-century stable house turned show home in Carshalton, Surrey. Shane fell for it on a drive-by, bought it that same day, furniture and all, and moved in with two bags of clothes.
●\tChasing not mediocre. On stage, at the auction rostrum and on the cricket pitch, Shane traces his drive back to having to prove himself fast as a kid who kept moving, and borrows a line from Ted Lasso to sum it up: don't you ever settle for fine.
Guest bio
Shane leads the Harcourts Auction Division as the National Auction Manager, where he oversees auction operations, provides network wide training on effective auction strategies, and ensures Harcourts auctioneers remain at the forefront of the industry.
As Harcourts' representative in the REINZ Auction Sector Group, Shane works to ensure auction documentation remains current and relevant. His professionalism and calm presence on the auction floor have been pivotal to his success, having called thousands of auctions and achieving over $1 billion in unconditional sales throughout his career, however his best job is father to two boys circumventing their way through teenage years!
Host bio
Vanessa Williams, General Manager -Customer, realestate.co.nz. Vanessa is one of New Zealand's most trusted voices on property, at home unpacking market data for industry audiences and translating it into practical guidance for everyday buyers and sellers. She regularly appears across national television, radio, print and digital media. Her commentary combines the extensive listings, search and market data held by realestate.co.nz.
Links
•\thttps://harcourts.net/nz/office/mitchell-residential/people/shane-cortese
•\thttps://www.instagram.com/shanecortese/?hl=en
•\thttps://www.linkedin.com/in/shanecortese/
•\thttps://www.facebook.com/ShaneCorteseOfficial/
Follow it all starts here wherever you get your podcasts.
","author_name":"realestate.co.nz"}