Fellow ‘surprised, honoured'

Fellow of the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand Mike Elford in his Dunedin office.  Photo by...
Fellow of the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand Mike Elford in his Dunedin office. Photo by Craig Baxter.
Mike Elford has become a fellow, and may shortly become the chairman of the board.

Mr Elford (47), the principal of Dunedin real estate firm Edinburgh Realty, and vice-president of the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand, has become a fellow of the institute. He is the 104th person selected to be a fellow.

Mr Elford is likely to become the president of the institute later this year, taking over from Waikato real estate agent Murray Cleland.

He will hear whether he will be president at the organisation's annual meeting in September. Mr Elford, who has sold commercial property for 20 years, said it was an honour, and a surprise, to be made a fellow.

To become a fellow, a person had to be a member of the institute for more than 10 years and shown outstanding service to the institute.

He had served on more than five subcommittees of the institute, been a director of two institute organisations, and sat on business broker interest groups.

He was president of the Otago branch from 2002 to 2004, and elected national vice-president in 2006.

Born in Invercargill, Mr Elford first worked for the Dairy Board and travelled around New Zealand and overseas.

But in 1988, looking for a career change, he moved from Wellington to Dunedin, starting work for Robertson First National, selling commercial real estate.

The residential market had come back in past months, ‘‘which it always would'', while the Dunedin commercial market was in good shape and did not have the same roller-coaster cycles of other centres.

Mr Elford said he still enjoyed the challenges in real estate, the thrill of the chase, and solving problems.

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