Vivien Yap's $1bn Perth merger, plus a familiar face is back at Harcourts

In this week’s edition of Movers +Shakers…

Vivien Yap and Hayden Groves merge WA real estate businesses

Vivien Yap and Hayden Groves aren't strangers to WA's top tables – Vivien as the network's biggest Perth owner, Hayden as an award-winning leader in his own right. Now they're combining forces with Breanna Ridge-Singh, who'll co-lead alongside Vivien, folding sales, auctions and property management into one leadership team built for what's next. More here

Tony Sesto appointed CEO of Buxton Real Estate

Buxton's next chapter has a familiar theme running through it – customer experience – just delivered by someone new to real estate. Tony Sesto steps in after two decades building high-performing teams at BMW, Honda and Marshall White, with a brief to guide the group through its next stage of growth while leaning on 165 years of community trust already banked. More here

eRealty names Paul Tyrrell as new chief executive

Paul Tyrrell has spent his career on the commercial and partnership side of property technology, most recently with View Media Group. Now he's taking the top job at eRealty, tasked with bringing the company's various platforms – built by founder Troy Rushton since 2020 – together under one network. More here

Richard Shalhoub to lead new Agency team in Sydney CBD

Richard Shalhoub steps into the top job for The Agency's freshly assembled Sydney CBD operation, bringing a track record CEO Matt Lahood pegs at more than $2 billion in sales. He'll run the five-strong crew – Richard Scholl, Lisa Dwyer, Emma Vadas, Leah Atley and Yianni Pikos – out of Millers Point, Barangaroo and Surry Hills, with a commercial management division reportedly next on the cards. More here

From marine biology to real estate success through community service

Before real estate, Rachel Lawrie was on call around the clock as a marine biology consultant to the fishing and aquaculture industries – a pace that didn't work for a single mother of two. Thirteen years and roughly $750,000 in community contributions later, she's building Stadium Real Estate as what she calls a "petite boutique agency", with her daughters now on board. More here

Rachael Campbell joins FOUNDIT as Noosa partner

Noosa's coastal-to-hinterland market now has a dedicated buyer's advocate under the FOUNDIT banner – Rachael Campbell has joined as Partner. She brings more than two decades buying, renovating and investing in property across Noosa, the USA and Indonesia, working with everyone from owner-occupiers to interstate relocators. She'll run acquisitions end-to-end, from sourcing through to settlement, with access to off-market and pre-market opportunities via her local network. More here

How Leo Edwards built a reach to rival the portals

Twenty listings, one principal, and a database north of 30,000 – that's the model Leo Edwards has built at Inverloch 3996 @realty on Victoria's Bass Coast. The sole agent skipped the shopfront entirely, instead building a standalone website for every listing and a two-week pre-market campaign that adds hundreds of buyer contacts to his list with each new release. More here

Scott Dolce joins Belle Property network as Academy Manager

Scott Dolce's path to this appointment wasn't linear – leasing, property management, BDM work, sales and running his own business all fed into it. That range now underpins his new remit training and coaching agents across Belle Property, Hockingstuart and Acton | Belle Property nationally. More here

Ayesha Shahnawaz returns to Harcourts to launch Harcourts Infinity

Balcatta has a new six-person office, led by a familiar face for Harcourts. Ayesha Shahnawaz started her career with the network as a property manager, then spent years building her own agency, Paradise Pulse Realty, before deciding to return. She's launched Harcourts Infinity, bringing four sales professionals and a virtual assistant to service Perth's northern suburbs from Balcatta Road. More here

LATEST ROLES

Belle Property Mornington and Mount Eliza opens third office in Seaford

Seaford now has a Belle Property office of its own, as principals Brett Trebilcock and Bill Joycey extend their Mornington and Mount Eliza business along Melbourne's Bayside corridor. Joining them as partners are general manager Erin Winch, head of property management Alistair Shearer, and licensed sales agent Billy Dhandwar, rounding out a five-strong leadership team across the three offices. More here

Barry Plant Berwick raises $72,000 for Make-A-Wish

Five agents, one trivia night, and a record for Make-A-Wish Australia: Barry Plant Berwick's sold-out fundraiser at Beaconsfield's Pink Hill Hotel pulled in $72,000, which the charity says is the biggest amount ever raised by a single community event. Director Hayley Taufa said the push was personal, sparked by colleague Candice Hill's nephew Logan and his own wish granted through the charity, and the office already has next year's event on the calendar. More here

Stone Real Estate acquires Central Coast rent roll, relocates Wyong office

Wyong's Stone Real Estate office has moved into bigger premises, a sign of how quickly principal Abdullah Choudhari's Central Coast business is growing. The expansion follows Stone's acquisition of the rent roll from Brand Property The Entrance, built by the Lamont family over years of local service. The combined team now taps Stone's wider network across the region. More here

Harcourts Foundation backs Perth choir and Orange Sky fundraiser

Kobe Rae, Harcourts' Head of Auctions, traded his usual listing day patter for a charity gavel this month, running the auction at Brisbane's Vanloads of Hope event and helping push the night's takings past $53,000 for homelessness charity Orange Sky. It's the kind of volunteer turn the Harcourts Foundation likes to back, alongside a fresh grant for Perth Harmony Chorus, the 40-year-old a cappella group also supported this round. More here

Bec Turner joins First National Cleveland as BDM specialist

Twenty-three years into a property management career, Bec Turner is back where she started, bringing her portfolio-growth expertise home to Redlands. First National Cleveland gains someone as focused on mentoring the next generation of BDMs as she is on the numbers. More here

Northern Beaches trio joins Ray White

Between them, Kylie Segedin, Melissa Pease and Josephine Cowling have spent decades as fixtures of Mona Vale's property scene, guiding generations of local families through sales long before "team culture" became a talking point. They've now brought that history, and associate Luka Valkovic, to Ray White Northern Beaches, where directors Charles Caravousanos and David Walker say the trio's local standing and performance will lift what the office can offer the community. More here

Mark Josem launches new Melbourne agency Storyhouse Real Estate

Six months in, Mark Josem's bet on story-led campaigns is paying off – realestate.com.au has him ranked number one in Hawthorn East for both sales volume and median price, with listings drawing more than double the average enquiry rate. It's a fresh chapter after more than a decade building a top-ranked sales team, and a pre-real estate career leading a 65-person national sales operation. Storyhouse Real Estate now runs from Camberwell Road, Hawthorn East, with English–Mandarin auctions among the tools setting its campaigns apart across Boroondara and Stonnington. More here

Would rather be right than first – BresicWhitney's AI approach

Ninety days of mapping workflows before touching a single tool – that's the pace Will Gosse has set as BresicWhitney partners with AI adoption agency allgenai. The CEO wants property management, sales administration and buyer and seller communication understood first, so any technology serves the people running the business, not the other way around. More here

ALSO, DID YOU MISS…

• New buyer's agency targets renovation and distressed properties
• Justin Nickerson returns for third House For Life auction

And finally…