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Matt and Amy Young
Amy Young, a seasoned real estate expert with 22 years of experience, offers tailored benefits to clients seeking a seamless and successful property journey. Alongside her husband Matthew, Amy forms a dynamic husband-and-wife team that consistently exceeds expectations. Their combined expertise, including Matthew’s skill in coordinating trades and maintenance to prepare properties for sale and Amy’s strategic marketing and presentation, ensures your property is showcased beautifully and sold efficiently.
Amy’s commitment to clients is reflected in her attentive service and communication, treating each client as she would her own family.
Amy is also dedicated to community initiatives, exemplified by her work with ‘The Studio’ at Careel Bay Marina, demonstrating her broader commitment to positive impact.
Amy and Matthew Young have supported local artists and local causes through art exhibitions since early 2021.
The Studio is a community-focused hybrid creative space at Careel Bay Marina, an initiative of Laing+Simmons Young Property Avalon Beach.
To date, the not-for-profit community initiative has raised thousands for local causes and groups including Living Ocean, Dreams2Live4, Sea Shepherd Australia, the Avalon Beach Historical Society, the Seabin Project and the BeCentre.
On Friday December 6 they launch the opening of Lisa Wilkes Hunter's exhibition, with Living Ocean her chosen local organisation.
Residing locally with Matthew, their children and two Cavoodles, Amy’s approach combines professionalism with a personal touch. Choosing Amy means benefiting from a trusted partner who ensures your real estate experience is smooth, stress-free, and successful.
This week a few insights from the one of the co-Principals of Laing+Simmons Young Property, Amy Young.
How long have you worked in Real Estate Amy?
My whole career, over 22 years.
Why did you want to go into this field?
I was searching for stability; by the time I was 20 I’d moved house more than 20 times after growing up with a single mum in Western Sydney, I thought I could work out how to buy a house if I worked in Real Estate. I guess I’d become an expert at moving, I knew how o do it, and thought perhaps I could instil that skill set into what I could do in Real Estate.
Your Laing and Simmons Young Property Avalon office is in the Careel Bay Marina on the water at Careel Bay, out of the main shopping centres, and where people may look in Real Estate windows – why did you want to be located there?
People look for Real Estate on their mobile phone today; things have changed. They look at what’s available on Realestate.com and Domain. So the shopfront window doesn’t have the impact it did 20 years ago. My firm belief is that the village thrives with boutique retail offerings and owner-operated cafes and restaurants. A real estate office in the village just didn’t align with our values. A thriving retail village is actually good for the values of everybody’s home around that and adding a sixth retail Real estate agency to the village is probably not gong to add to that benefit.
Your husband Matt also does Boat Brokerage out of the Young Laing and Simmons Avalon office at Careel Bay?
That came after we opened the office here. We originally took a smaller office for just our real estate business, always with the intention that we would have a hybrid workspace and have the community come and exhibit and have the community come and be a part of our events. Following on from that the Boat Brokerage developed as well.
Does it help being immersed in this lovely waterside location for your work?
Absolutely – we both have a love of and passion for the water and the Pittwater estuary in particular. Matt grew up in Avalon and has been sailing at Avalon Sailing Club since he was 6 years old. Our son is now sailing at Avalon Sailing Club, the boys were down there on Sunday this week.
The crossover is very beneficial for the real estate business as we service all our waterfronts by boat. We also service all of the offshore properties and we bring buyers down to the marina and take them to all of our waterfront properties from the water; so they get to immediately experience how unique and beautiful this place is. There is no better way to show them.
The local community has raved about the treatment and results they have had through Laing and Simmons Young Property Avalon; what is it that a woman brings to the field of real estate that is unique?
I firmly believe that being a woman in real estate is actually a superpower and have spoken about this at industry events. The reason behind this is that household decision making has changed in the last 20 years. Quite often women are more involved now in financial decisions – and in 20 years of working in real estate I’ve never sold a house to a woman who doesn’t love that home.
Often you will find that the ladies know what will work for their families or households; how the kitchen should function, the internal and external layout as children grow into young adults, how to make sure there is some space for her partner to have a place to potter (a men’s shed or the like). The partnership works because both may know what to look for and how to prioritise what’s on their needs list. However, it is often the lady who knows what will work best for everyone.
Your office is also the home for 'The Studio' where you showcase Artists who donate a percentage of sales into the community itself, each nominating a chosen charity or community organisation. Why did you want to do that?
We wanted to immediately give back to our community, the minute we opened the doors. It aligns with our values to be a business with purpose; we serve the community in various different aspects to meet that purpose. To us it’s very important to be giving back, not just when the business has momentum and is successful, but right from the very start.
Laing and Simmons Young Property Avalon pay the annual fees for the annual rent of Avalon Beach Historical Society’s meeting place, so it’s not just The Studio and promoting local Artists.
This community focus has also received industry recognitions as well; your own industry accolades include:
- 2024 Winner, Most Innovative Person in Real Estate, Real Estate Business Awards Australia
- 2024 Winner, Innovator of the Year, Laing+Simmons
- 2023 Winner, Fastest Growing Office in Laing+Simmons
- 2023 Front Cover Feature, Real Estate Journal
- 2023 Finalist, Community Service Award, Real Estate Institute of Australia
- 2022 Winner, Community Service Award, Real Estate Institute of NSW
- 2022 Winner, Community Service Award, Laing+Simmons
This year your business has won the ‘Most Innovative Person in Real Estate, Real Estate Business Awards Australia’ - what is that, what does it mean?
REB is the Real Estate Business Awards and this is run through a very reputable industry publication, the REB Magazine. I was very fortunate to be nominated for the community work that we do and the innovative thinking behind it. With over 100 thousand real estate agents in Australia, I’m very humbled to have received that award.
2024 Innovator of the Year by REB, Amy Young
Atop the focus on giving back to community you have also undertaken mentoring other women – you started with helping 1 and now it’s almost 20? What is involved in that Amy, and how did that begin?
Yes I do – I was originally asked to be part of a mentoring program that Laing and Simmons offers and up and coming agents are partnered with an established agent from different offices and separate franchises. The initiative was created by Jacqui Barnes who is head of People and Culture. I’ve been part of that program for a couple of years now. Our CEO Leanne Pilkington could see benefits in the girls I’ve been mentoring – I’ve always been partnered with a female – asked me if I could mentor a second person then a third person, and being a busy mum and a career woman, I couldn’t say no, so we consolidated all of the participants into one meeting. Off the back of that there have been several others who have joined in and we now do a Zoom meeting once a week at 7am on a Tuesday morning. Everybody who is a part of that meeting gets to go through their highs and lows of the week and we have very open conversations to support each other’s careers.
It is also brings up part of the reason we chose Laing and Simmons; the culture in the business is positive, progressive, supportive. Our CEO is the head of the Real Estate Institute, which is championing for change and better practices throughout the whole industry. It is reflective of the real friendship and mateship between business owners that is part of Laing and Simmons.
This has also led to you undertaking a few Speakers engagements?
Yes; I was asked to present at the Women in Real Estate Conference in 2023. This was held at Star City in their auditorium and there was around a thousand people present. It was wonderful to talk about my career and the work that we do within the community.
What’s coming up for Laing and Simmons Young Property Avalon this summer; what will you be focused on?
We will have the launch of Lisa Wilkes Hunter’s exhibition on Friday December 6. We support a local artist and then the artist has an opportunity to support a local charity and that charity or organisation the has an opportunity to speak at the launch event. These events attract between 70 and 100 people each time. Myself and Matt put on drinks and live music. We open the event to our network and invite list.
The charities have benefited not only from the donations that come s part of the sales but also they sell their merchandise on the spot. So those who may not want to buy an artwork at that stage can still support the charity on the opening night. The charity has outreach; they speak about the work that they’re doing and that helps them in connecting with the community and in attracting new volunteers. It’ also wonderful to hear about the opportunities and benefits these charities are creating for the community. When we had Northern Beaches Womens Shelter partner with us, one of their Directors, Narelle, spoke about them being able to help around 50 women a year; she also explained they have to turn away around 25 a month, which is horrendous.
They then picked up the nursing home at Narrabeen from Moran that’s not being used at present and that enabled NBWS to help more women.
We do come across people in very tough situations and are able to connect them with services in a better way. Our capacity and our ability to service our community has actually evolved and grown from the work that we do with the charities as well. It has just had this ripple effect that has carried right through.
Obviously you are one of the up before dawn and working way after dark crew; a successful real estate business, helping those in your own industry, helping those in the community factored in – how do you do it, how do you maintain that dynamic approach?
I’m one of the Bill’s Pilates mob in Avalon, I’m part of the 5am crew (laughs) – we absolutely love where we live, it’s paradise found, we have two cavoodles so we’re out walking the dogs, then taking short orders to get 3 different breakfasts, just like any other family – I race around and put the slow cooker on and then the dishwasher is on, the vacuum cleaner and the washing machine so you come back to a home that’s simply taking the next steps forward; so, very much part of the 5am crew; that’s what works for me.
So, how do you ‘clock off’?
We love to spend time at The Basin, we love to spend time at Currawong, and love spending time out on Pittwater. We love going offshore. We have family living locally, so my family and Matt’s family get together for Christmas lunch, we had 25 of us last year; my grandfather who is 96 is still around, so a multigenerational celebration with everyone included. Our families have become so close doing this – my sister-in-law put on such a beautiful spread at Davidson last year that everyone has talked about it the whole year. This year we’ll have Christmas lunch at Matt’s family home at Bilgola Beach and we’re all very much looking forward to that.
What is your ‘motto for life’ or a favourite phrase that you try to live by – and could we have two answers; one for your approach to your career in real estate, and one in your approach to how you have chosen to live your life?
There are so many that come to mind; I’m always listening to audio books on professional development books at present.
There’s one favourite of Michelle Obama’s that was a segue for me that helped me make a very good and conscious decision 9 years ago, and that is ;
What good are wings without the courage to fly?
about Art for Oceans
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