Peter Fisher Real Estate in Orange celebrates 50 years

Mr Ridley owns Peter Fisher Real Estate after he bought the business from his father, the late Graham Ridley, back in 2009.

Last week, the team celebrated the business' 50^th birthday, something that still takes a bit of getting used to.

"Fifty years sounds a lot and it's been in the Ridley family for half of that, which sounds weird. To me, it doesn't compute," the owner said.

"It's nice to have an involvement in a business which has been around so long and that has continued to grow and evolve within Orange."

Mr Ridley first began working at Peter Fisher back in 1999 and immediately made his presence felt.

"I didn't like the way the office was set up, so I rearranged everything pretty quickly," he said.

"By the time I was finished, dad didn't have a desk at all. He ended up sharing a desk with a couple of the administration girls."

Michael Wright started working for the business around the same time as Mr Ridley.

A real estate agent, Mr Wright said there was a lot more that goes into the job than meets the eye.

It's not just about saying 'we can sell your house.' It's about being able to tell someone we think they should keep their house for another two years because of the way the market is," he said.

"Treating a property as if it's your own is what we feel is the best way forward."

Having been in business for 50 years now, Mr Wright said having three generations of family come through their doors isn't uncommon.

"We still get a lot of people come in and say the first house they rented was through Graham and that he was such a lovely man," Mr Wright added.

"There's a lot of connection to the community still."

An independent business which was first owned by its namesake, Peter Fisher, much has changed over the course of half-a-century.

Mr Ridley said accessibility has to be up there as one of the biggest changes that he's seen.

"I think everyone would say it's the technology. When I came on board, we were talking about the inter-web and of course dad was pretty sceptical about the technology and I was a bit as well," he said.

"The other side of that technology is that the customers are a lot more up to date with the real estate market, legislation and all that kind of thing.

"It makes it harder to differentiate yourself from the other real estate businesses because everyone has access to the same information and it's easier to get."

And while these types of changes can prove difficult, Mr Ridley believes they have the right team to tackle them.

"We've got a really, really great team and we've always been conscious of who come son board because it makes a big difference if you get the mix wrong," he said.

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