Marie Raos, Ray White Howick - Licensee Salesperson REAA 2008

One of the rare few real estate career people actually trained in communication, Marie Raos knows the importance of really listening to her client's needs. Having worked as a speech therapist after gaining her BA in English Education and Psychology, she believes there's an art to asking the right questions and never making assumptions.

With strong communications skills and a great memory for names and faces, Marie has always worked in people focused positions. She switched from speech therapy to roles within Air New Zealand and later joined the family retail furniture business. It was from there she was enticed into real estate by an advertisement specifically seeking teachers with “people skills, who could listen and talk at the same time!!” Marie grew up in Howick and has worked in the Eastern Bays most of her life. Her knowledge of the area is vast. With her confident, fun-loving personality, she is always pleased to help others by sharing her knowledge. Marie was married to Ivan Raos for almost 40 years until he very sadly and suddenly passed away in April 2014, they have two adult children and now a son-in-law and recently a precious first granddaughter! Family and home are important to her. She loves interior design, cooking, entertaining, and walking her precious “Westie” Issy and travel, when there is time!

In her 21 years in real estate with the Ray White Howick office, she has poured 100 percent commitment into the job and built an incredible network of contacts. Her repeat referral business is huge. For many families in the Eastern Bays suburbs Marie Raos would be the first person that comes to mind to sell their home and such loyalty breeds success. Marie is consistently one of the company's top performers and she has gained recognition with many high achiever awards.

While she's a strong individual, Marie enjoys working as part of a “tight” team. “Team Raos” consisting of Rebecca Stanley, Personal Assistant, Jo Morris, Sales Associate, Kim Shen, Sales Associate (Mandarin speaking), Sue Bentley, Administrator and the wider team at Ray White. She has stayed with the Ray White group, as she believes it's an excellent agency with an exceptional standard of ethics. Above all, she is renowned for her absolute integrity. "I'd never want to sell something to someone that I wouldn't be prepared to live in or fix up myself," she says. Ethics is so important in this business, I want to be able to walk down the street and look people in the eye. I always like to think I have done my very best for people and achieved the best result possible. Her passion is marketing for she believes all properties benefit from a high profile. Yet she's careful where she spends her clients' money. Whatever she lists, from small units to multi-million dollar executive properties, she acknowledges that it is usually the client's biggest asset, so she gives it her all.