Case could be a Melbourne version of Selling Sunset, the top-rating reality show where real estate agents sell tinsel town’s most expensive houses.But dah-ling it’s Melbourne, not Los Angeles and Toorak would never be so blatantly garish.Case has had plenty of offers to appear in reality real estate shows like The Block but prefers counting the coin, of which there is plenty, without the cameras.Hard Case, as she is known around the traps, is a mean negotiator in killer heels.Case sold Melbourne’s highest-priced property last year on exclusive Toorak cul-de-sac Myvore Court for an eye-watering $25 million.Her clients Malcolm Watkins and Peter Kerr decided to relocate from Melbourne to their Queensland yacht during the strict lockdown.But last year’s lockdowns meant the stilettos were collecting dust in the closet. With no house inspections or auctions, Case showed her style making campy cocktails in OTT outfits in online videos for her friends doing it tough.Toorak and East Melbourne rich listers have followed her online cocktail recipes. Page 13’s favourite was the eggnog Case whipped up while wearing her snow bunny outfit.“I bought this cheap and cheerful snow outfit and wore my 90s Dior glasses on my birthday because I should have been in the snow at Whistler,” Case says while sipping a cosmo she has shaken up beside the pool.Case says she was Australia’s first female bobsleighing athlete, but dodgy knees saw her turn back to real estate.“The videos kind of went off from there, bringing people a bit of joy while they were cooped up in lockdown.”Melbourne’s real estate market boomed after the second lockdown, brought on by what the industry calls the Four Ds: death, divorce, debt and downsize.“We came out of lockdown and pent-up people were wanting to upsize, wanting to downsize, wanting to sell. I don’t want to say divorce but we know there were breakups.”RT Edgar, where Case is a director, recorded the highest sales for Toorak, East Melbourne, Malvern, Malvern East, Richmond and Prahran.The trend is continuing, she says. Rich expats are looking to relocate back home from the UK, New York, Singapore and Hong Kong.Case acknowledges the power of the power suit.Her love of fashion, she says all her bling is costume jewellery, comes from her mum who had a clothing boutique in Camperdown and dressed the ladies of the Western District.Case’s high heel has smashed the real-estate glass ceiling and she hopes other young women in the industry will follow.“I’d like to see more female directors with skin in the game. This is what I’ve strived for my whole career.”She will continue making her cocktail videos. “But just for giggles, I work six days a week, around the clock.”Case says her power suit is a suit of armour and “when I put my high heels on, that’s when I’m ready to go.”PRIMARY SCHOOL KID RUNS FOUL OF BAT SANDWICHBat sandwich! That was the answer given by a primary school student during a class discussion at a posh private school on the origins of the coronavirus. He wasn’t being a smart arse but he got it from somewhere. Not the virus but the bat sandwich. His parents were told and the boy reprimanded. No one mentioned the poor pangolin.ART’S GOOD OMENCameron Menzies launched his new art gallery Five Fifty Art Advisory the day before the lockdown. “It was a good omen,” said Cameron, son of top-selling art auctioneer Rod Menzies.Cameron Menzies sold works by Adam Cullen, Ben Quilty, John Olsen and Cressida Campbell alongside the automotive art of Melbourne vascular surgeon Susan Morris. Aston Martins, Ferraris and Jaguars were on display in the Cremorne warehouse doubling as art gallery. Two Adam Cullen paintings sold for $33,000 and $44,000. Cameron Menzies was managing director at Menzies Art Brands before starting his own company.On the other side of the five-day Victorian lockdown, 13 photographs signed by famed snapper Helmut Newton will be on the block at Artvisory in South Yarra on Monday with viewing over the weekend. The German-born Newton lived in Australia before going to London and America where he became famous for his ability to encourage some of the world’s most beautiful woman to take off their clothes, living at the exclusive but spooky Chateau Marmont hotel in Los Angeles where all sort of strange things happened, such as the death of comedian John Belushi from a drug overdose in one of its luxury bungalows. The Blues Brothers and Saturday Night Live star was not the only celebrity to be found corpus delicti at the Chateau Marmont where Newton took many of his erotically-charged pictures. The snapper was killed at the Chateau Marmont when he lost control of his Cadillac and crashed into a wall.RACING TO RADIOMedia mover and shaker David Barham is heading into the radio world with racing station RSN his next bet. The punters’ friendly station has had some issues behind the barriers with its general manger Steven Page being boned. An email circulated by Page said he’d “resigned” because of his “lack of media experience”, code for not having the board’s backing. Barham, the television-sports guru who took the BBL to great heights while at Channel 10, joined the RSN board in December and is tipped to step into the GM role. He is also a current board member at Essendon.
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