BK: Absolutely. And they’re not making more of these beautiful old houses.
BB: No. There’s very few of them. And some places, I’m horrified. I go in and they say, ‘Look what I’ve done,’ and it’s enough to give you a migraine. It’s awful, you know. But I love selling that sort of house and I love selling country houses. The National Trust houses.
I’ve sold Bronte House four times – the lease of it – Matt Handbury lives there now. I sold it to Carol Muller. I sold it to Leo Schofield. I sold it to Peter Symes. I’ve sold Glen Rock three times, the wonderful old national Hume House[Cooma Cottage, aka Hamilton Hume's House, a National Trust Historic House].Minimbah House, I’ve sold that, and I’m just now signing up another four or five beautiful houses. And then I get called – I’ve just sold one at Berry. So, I get called everywhere.
BK: So, are you selling property all over Sydney?
BB: Yeah. A lot of other agents from the country phone me up and the vendors want a city agent as well. I’m one of the few blokes that they do … That’s the old SCEGGS School that I’m selling.
BK: Right.
BB: The reason people get me there is because I know all the people with the money. And the money is in the city. No-one from the country is going to buy that. I’ve got to nag someone into buying it from here.
BK: So, tell me. I love your comment about energy. A lot of people think of real estate or other professional jobs as not very physically intense, but it has been my observation that it takes a huge amount of energy to do this sort of work.
BB: Yes.
BK: To make a phone call. To take a phone call and go and see the property, trace it down.
BB: And you can’t take your eye off the ball. These people are smart. I mean, you’re playing first grade when you put the jacket on here. They’re on the ball.
BK: So who are the smart ones? Who, across fifty years, are the smartest people that you’ve dealt with?
BB: Oh, mate, I’ve had them all. There are lots of people that are terribly clever.
BK: So give us an example of something that you’ve seen done in property that you think is innovative or different. Obviously buying a whole street of rent-controlled houses is different. But since then, what have you seen that you’ve thought, that’s smart–
BB: Well, I have seen some things that I didn’t think were so clever.
BK: I was going to ask you that. Maybe you can start with them?
BB: Yes, well, when they sold Paradis Sur Mer. I wasn’t the agent. A friend of mine was the agent and I used to have a go at him. You know, I’d say, ‘How are you going here? They’re thick on the ground here, I’ve got a buyer at $15 million.’ I was having a shot, you know, and he’d say, ‘They’re thick on the ground here at $20 million,’ and this was the old Radford place where Susan Renouf lived, you know, and the guy that bought it so cheaply did some things I told him not to and then he got annoyed with me and gave it to someone else. That was alright, the other bloke was a good salesman. So anyway, that ended up selling for $12million, there was only one buyer on the night, there were the agents, the bank, and one Chinese fellow and I thought, ‘You’re going to own this tonight’. So I said,‘What happened to the thick on the ground at twenty?’ Plenty of those stories, you know …
BK: you see a lot of that?
BB: Yeah.
BK: What’s something smart you’ve seen, or something very clever?
BB: Obviously, the place Mark Bouris bought at Watson’s Bay was a very clever move. He ended up nicking that–
BK: It’s a lovely spot, isn’t it?
BB: Yeah, a lot of space. Beautiful.
‘I walk down the street and know everyone, from the paper boy to whatever, and it’s “G’day Bill!” – no one calls me Mr Bridges. I like being liked and I don’t mind those who dislike me. I couldn’t care less and you know, I’m not here for any other reason than to make money, that’s the bottom line with me …’
BK: Beautiful and closer to the city than it was. So, in conclusion, when you sit there and you look at your time spent in real estate, what is it that you think of? you know, you’re eighty-plus years old, you’re still working, is it the passion– you obviously love it? What do you think it is that makes the difference?
BB: Well, you wouldn’t do it unless you loved it. And I obviously like it and I love the challenge of it. And I’ve learned a lot of lessons from watching other people stop work. It’s not a nice sight and while you can keep your brain functioning, if you want to work, I think you should work. In fairness to yourself and to everyone else around you or you become like the blokes that retire and drink too much. I’m not knocking a drink, I love a drink, but you know you’ve got to …
BK: … to do something.
BB: You know, I keep fit to work. I get enjoyment out of work and I meet some great people. And, you know, I walk down the street and know everyone from the paperboy to whoever, and it’s, ‘G’day, Bill!’ – no-one calls me Mr Bridges.I like being liked and I don’t mind those who dislike me. I couldn’t care less. I’m not here for any other reason than to make money, that’s the bottom line with me … as long as I don’t hurt anybody. That’s the important thing.
BK: And tell me, how do you find working in an environment with younger people–
BB: I love young people around me. And the old birds with purple hair–
BK: Keep you moving?
BB: I want young people around me … they keep me young. My youngest daughter is nineteen and my next one is twenty-one. Their sister is sixty and my adopted son is sixty-two. Because I was married when I was twenty and then there is Noeli, he is fifty-eight and from my previous marriage … then my second wife and I have the two girls that have just finished school up here at Ascham, not Cabramatta Public … they’re both at uni. And I’ve got twenty-two grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
BK: Alright!
BB: You’d think I was a Catholic, but I’m not … most of my friends are.
BK: OK (laughs). So now, tell me, there are obviously benefits to an Ascham education, but if you look at your path, there are obviously benefits from Cabramatta Public as well–
BB: The only thing they don’t have in school today and should have is a very, very strict class on being streetwise. My daughters are pretty streetwise because they’ve got me as a father and of course I’m at them all the time; you can’t buy that.
BK: That’s true.
BB: