When Richard Impiombato and his wife, Allison Collis, moved back to Melbourne at the start of the year, they looked back at the depth of their property experience, and felt they had the foundation to start their own business. And with partner Roland Rentz, that's exactly what they've done.

Impiombato has spent 20 years in real estate, with experience in leasing, corporate sales, and auctioneering.

"I’ve been in commercial real estate now for 20 years. I started straight out of school on the basic corporate scene in Brisbane. From there I worked for another corporate firm, and then for the last several years I’ve been with Ray White. But I’ve also had the auctioneering business, in partnership, which is called Apollo Auctions. I used to call from 400 to 600 auctions every year. My last role was at Ray White Commercial, where most recently my role was growing auctions and commercial sales," explained Impiombato.

Foxtons Estate Agency began by taking on leasing. They also offer residential real estate services, but most of their business is commercial property.

Impiombato says some sectors of the commercial property market are strong. "There’s a lot of nervousness at the moment in terms of where it’s going to lead, but having said that, the investment sales market is particularly strong," he said. "Smaller stock is moving very readily," he said, "but the larger stock, there is oversupply and it can be quite challenging."

"Each market has its own characteristics," said Impiombato. "Where we are in Balwyn, if it’s a small shop or a small office, it’ll lease within two or four weeks, it’s go very very quickly, and in the last few months there’s been a lot of leasing in the smaller areas. But a lot of the larger office or retail areas are really hanging around."

The bulk of Foxtons business is 10-20 kilometres east and north of Melbourne. "Units in the middle-ring suburbs are actually going quite well," said Impiombato.

"We also promote ourselves as auctioneers for residential," said Impiombato. "We’re starting to call auctions for other agencies, and what we’re finding there is when you’re getting into the middle ring suburbs the market really quite fluid, and quite strong."

He said he'd recently auctioned a 30-year-old house in Wantana South, 26km east of Melbourne, and it sold for more than a million dollars. Impiombato is also continuing to call auctions in Brisbane.

Impiombato is enjoying his return to Melbourne. He has family there, and is working hard to grow the business. "I’m enjoying it," he said. "We opened the doors on the 11th of April. It’s been challenging, but we had a very strong month in July, and the challenge now is for us to keep that growth. We’re already in the process of hiring a second staff member."

Impiombato says building relationships is his key goal. "From my own experience and from other very good salespeople, it’s the building of relationships over a time period [that is important]. You’ve got to play the long game. And when you do play that long game, when you do keep in contact, it doesn’t have to be a big database, you generally will get work unchallenged. Then you are perceived as being a little like the family lawyer, doctor, or accountant."

"You’ve got to play the long game," said Impiombato. "That can be hard at the start," he said, "but that’s the mentality that any new salesperson has got to take into this business."

"And you’ve got to be persistent. You’re going to get a lot of knocks in this business, but you’ve just got to keep going."

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