​​​​​​​Labour of love

Krissy Marsh

A mum of three, Marsh travels between Sydney and China, where her husband is based.

A real estate valuer and founder of industrial and commercial agency Billicorp (sold to LJ Hooker in 2013), Krissy has been working in the property industry for three decades.

Perhaps that’s why one of her fondest property memories stretches back to the beginning of her career.

"My first purchase was a house in Brisbane with my three sisters when I was 17,” Marsh says. “This was purely for investment, and it doubled in value very quickly. I couldn’t afford to buy a property on my own, so purchasing together enabled us all to afford the deposit.”

Her favourite property purchase, however, was much closer to home. It was an apartment on Manion Avenue in Rose Bay, Sydney, which she lived in first with her sister and then with flatmates. Marsh paid $230,000 for the two-bedder, which she sold some years later for $790,000.

“That capital gain enabled my husband and I to purchase another home in Rose Bay. We renovated this home and then purchased a larger home, which we completely renovated, upgrading homes with each sale,” she says.

“I loved living there – it was light-filled and spacious. I renovated the kitchen and the bathrooms, removing the old flooring with a kitchen spatula before the new floor could be laid. It was a labour of love, which paid off!”