The YSH Team
Our dynamic, fun and fast-paced team work together to ensure that our strategic direction and daily challenges are met with enthusiasm and a ‘can do’ attitude. Our supportive team has a commitment to home owners and investors as well as our valued stakeholders, to ensure we continuously strive to deliver quality residential products.
Property Development
Dean Parker
Owner / Managing Director
Dean is Managing Director of YSH, a licensed Real Estate Agent and responsible for the strategic and operational direction of the business. He has been a full-time property investor since 2004 with involvement in over 450 property transactions totalling over $160 million in value, including renovations, new property developments, a portfolio of investment properties, and rental property management.
From country Victoria, Dean was brought up under the golden rule of respect for others, a belief in hard work and a firm conviction to ‘do the right thing’. After completing a double degree at Deakin University – a Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Accounting and Management and a Bachelor of Science majoring in Information Systems – Dean had something of a bumpy start along what he thought would be a smooth IT career path. Over a period of just a few years he had a succession of job changes and experienced the highs and lows of progressing quickly through the ranks at IBM (from programmer to systems analyst), being headhunted, relocating to Melbourne, being retrenched and enduring an 8-month period of job seeking. He was left with an unacceptable taste of precariousness and disenchantment to which he responded by determining to take control of his future.
Dean began educating himself about property by reading books and attending seminars, with a view to using the proceeds of property investments to replace his salary. Inspired by the success of Steve McKnight, Dean, with life partner Elise, attended a one-day training event of Steve’s that became a turning point in their lives. Highly motivated, Dean and Elise took leave from their jobs to apply their newly acquired skills to renovating and developing property for profit. Their systems approach and diligence led to success and enabled Dean to transition from being an employee to launching their full-time property business in 2005. Elise soon followed, and they engaged their first employee in 2007.
Today, Dean is a testament to the execution of his successful property investment strategies and his astute management skills. He and his team of six employees renovate and develop both residential and commercial property, and operate a comprehensive property management business to ensure ongoing high performance of clients’ assets. Dean is passionate about helping people achieve their own financial freedom by sharing his extensive practical experience and knowledge through property seminars and workshops for purchasers. His greatest sense of satisfaction comes from seeing his clients – home buyers and investors – achieve their personal and lifestyle goals through property by making informed choices.
Your Style Homes lives by its mission, ‘Satisfaction Beyond the Keys’, with the objective of maximising clients’ capital growth and rental return prospects by creating beautiful, functional, healthy and wellmanaged homes, and ensuring client satisfaction throughout the process and beyond settlement.
Dean now lives in Brisbane where he and Elise raise their young daughter, grow their own organic food and keep chickens. In his spare time, Dean keeps fit, indulges his passions for football and tennis, and loves relaying the tale of how he came to spend a private half hour with the inspirational Roger Federer, a man whose talents, qualities and values encapsulate all he admires in a person.
- Email: [email protected]
- Phone: 1300 368 658
- Mobile: 0438 255 739
Elise Parker
Owner / Healthy Homes Specialist
Elise’s professional background led to a senior consultant role in the IT and accounting industry. Working her way up the corporate ladder she established a leadership position customizing accounting and finance systems for a variety of corporations. Elise has had in-depth experience establishing and integrating systems and procedures to ensure the most streamlined approach to financial and administration elements of the business.Driven by a recent personal experience, Elise’s passion is also to ensure that the health and wellbeing of our residents is central to the company’s ethos and has now taken on the role of YSH’s Healthy Homes Specialist.
Elise’s role is to ensure each YSH property is guided by natural-based design principles and utilizes the healthiest home building products suitable, thus ensuring all future occupants well-being has been thoroughly considered.
- Email: [email protected]
- Phone: 1300 368 658
Jodi Ott
Finance Manager
Jodi is YSH’s Finance Manager and a registered Certified Practising Accountant. She also manages YSH’s corporate services, including legal and human resources, and oversees the corporate governance structure.
Born and bred in Brisbane, Jodi has always sought jobs that present challenges and teach her new skills. She started out with the state government while she undertook a Bachelor of Business and postgraduate university studies, progressing into senior management roles within government. Jodi’s strong attention to detail and interest in change management implementation led to Government roles with the Department of Education and Training (Queensland) that saw her introduce processes, procedures and systems as part of the changeover from cash accounting to accrual accounting, and project-manage implementation of the goods and services tax (GST) regime, which included conducting training for all TAFE College finance staff to ensure compliance with legislative changes. She later moved to the role of Financial and Legal Manager for Brisbane’s Southbank Education and Training Precinct during its $250M construction and redevelopment phase, and into its ongoing maintenance and services contracts.
Jodi moved from the public to the private sector when she joined YSH in 2015. Armed with a strong set of transferable skills, she met the challenges of working within a different operating framework with respect to business structuring, corporate and trust tax regimes and corporations law. Her friendly relatable approach means she quickly forms strong relationships with colleagues, clients and stakeholders, and is proud of the relationships she has built with key contacts such as business banking managers and investors through YSH. Jodi’s greatest sense of achievement comes from being involved in the delivery of quality projects to satisfied clients – from her initial input into financial feasibilities to managing cashflows of development projects and residential property portfolios, preparing accounts, liaising with tenants and finalising commercial and residential leasing documentation.
In her spare time, Jodi is a keen sportswoman with a love of running and netball, having played competitive representative netball for many years and now coaching an Under-16s team. She is also passionate about skiing and travel and, with husband Bill, is a super-proud parent of a son and daughter who are both now at university.
- Email: [email protected]
- Phone: 07 3339 1472
Alex Stagg
Assistant Development Manager
Alex is YSH’s Assistant Development Manager and holds an honours degree in construction management (Bachelor of Urban Development) from Queensland University of Technology. His role includes construction project delivery, cost control and budgeting, valuation, and town planning assessments.
Growing up in Noosa in a hospitality business environment, Alex developed an interest in property during his school years. Heeding his parents’ advice that ‘if you want something you should go and get it yourself’, he solicited for his first real estate job at age 21. Alex has worked in residential and commercial sales and leasing from city fringe property to large-scale mixed-use transit oriented developments. In 2007 he was awarded Real Estate Results Network commercial agent of the year for his achievements in the Brisbane market.
Strongly influenced by the turmoil surrounding the GFC, Alex developed a passion for finance and was awarded a study-abroad scholarship in Chicago at Illinios Institute of Technology. Learning about various financial instruments and the cyclical nature of financial products Alex has learnt strategies to mitigate negative financial impacts.
His move into development management drew significantly on his construction management experience, with an understanding of design risk, budgeting, procurement and scheduling paving the way for property feasibility analyses and construction delivery of units and townhouses.
Alex is inspired by the YSH’s level of care shown in all aspects of the business, internally and externally, and formally and informally. Tenacious and with keen attention to detail, he thrives in the tight, convivial team environment with like-minded professionals.
Away from work Alex loves nothing more than cooking a mean meal over a good red, hanging out with family and having a laugh … unless perhaps it’s watching a top game of rugby, where he counts seeing the Wallabies beat the All Blacks as a magic moment!
- Email: [email protected]
- Phone: 0439 891 731
Yvonne Thomas
Marketing & Customer Relations Manager
Yvonne is YSH Property’s Marketing & Events Manager, whilst also fulfilling the roles of Stylist/Designer and Customer Relations Manager. She holds a Diploma of Interior Design and has undertaken courses in business coaching and interiors.
Hailing from the NSW Central Coast, Yvonne grew up ‘all over Australia’, travelling around the country with her parents in a caravan at age nine, and has lived in all of Australia’s states and territories except the NT. Together with being granted this mind-broadening experience at a young age, Yvonne was taught independence, honesty and integrity – and that ‘to choose a job you love is to never have to work a day in your life’. And that love, for Yvonne, has always been property, property, property, and all it entails, from architecture to interior design and detail.
Self-motivated and driven, Yvonne followed her property dreams by reading, studying, renovating and styling (first meeting YSH’s owners, Dean and Elise, at a property event many years ago), whilst working in various businesses and acquiring a broad range of business-related skills.
Combining those business skills with excellent organisational skills, adaptability, a willingness to learn and improve, and a strong customer-service focus, Yvonne, since joining YSH in 2014, has held numerous roles from contracts administrator to office manager, frequently assisting teams with various aspects of property development, marketing and management, as well as events. She is currently responsible for the company’s marketing and events management, and the styling of completed homes.
Results-focused and visually oriented and inspired, Yvonne’s greatest sense of accomplishment and satisfaction comes from organising and managing successful events, and from seeing the ‘befores’ and ‘afters’ of her interior styling projects.
Away from work, when she isn’t keeping up with the latest styling trends and property news, Yvonne keeps fit and loves travelling to new places and spending time with family and friends.
- Email: [email protected]
- Phone: 07 3339 1470
Nickie Gracie
Project & Administration Support
Nickie is YSH’s Administration and Project Support Officer, whose role is monitoring and improving procedures and providing support at all levels. As the company’s original permanent employee, Nickie now holds more than a decade of valuable corporate knowledge of the company’s evolution and past projects. To add to her secretarial and accounting qualifications, she is currently undertaking an Advanced Diploma of Building Biology to investigate the components of a healthy home.
Arriving in Australia from England at age seven and spending her high-school years in Canberra, Nickie went on to develop a strong work and customer-service ethic through administrative roles in various industries including not-for-profit, television and property, the latter including large and small commercial construction, civil construction, real estate and property development.
Moving around a lot – 33 times, at a recent count! – and residing in all of Australia’s eastern states and Territory in both purchased and rented homes, Nickie developed a strong interest in property functionality and livability, leading to her focus on the healthiness of homes. Her belief that ‘without wellness all other achievements are compromised’ guides her current directions.
Nickie thrives on helping others and being part of a passionate and successful team that shares a common goal and operates with honesty and integrity. She loves witnessing the synergies across all arms of the business that result in not just happy clients but many returning customers.
Currently working part time to fulfil a long-held ambition, Nickie is also undertaking a Bachelor of Health Science (Nutritional & Dietetic Medicine). Away from that and her activities towards helping others, which extend well beyond the workplace, it’s all about family, with her ‘most important role’ having been raising her three now-adult sons. With a talent for singing and a love of music, Nickie also enjoys spending relaxing sessions at the Brisbane Jazz Club where she helps out as a volunteer and husband Neil can often be seen ‘tickling the ivories’.
- Email: [email protected]
- Phone: 07 3339 1463
Bernie Kerwick
Finance Officer
Bernie is YSH’s Finance Officer, assisting with all financial aspects of the business.
Brisbane born into a family with a long history as hotel licensees (dating back to the 1870s, with the heritage-listed ‘Normanby Hotel’), Bernie was brought up with a strong work ethic.
Starting out in banking, Bernie focused for a period on child-raising and also took up bookkeeping for her husband’s newly started property development business. She later undertook a long stint in nursing-home administration with a financial component, including payroll and residents’ fund management.
Bernie began her current role in 2012, bringing her financial skills together with a broad knowledge of all aspects of property development – from dealing with construction and trade partnerships through to financial processing and record keeping – gained over more than 30 years of association with her family’s business. She has watched YSH develop into the successful company it is today and is proud to be part of the dynamic team that has progressed that evolution.
Outside of work, Bernie enjoys spending family time with her five children, ten grandchildren and cavoodle Lily, and loves seeing each of her family members achieve their goals.
- Email: [email protected]
- Phone: 1300 368 658
Alan Caughey
Sales Manager
Alan is YSH Property’s Sales Manager, joining the team in mid-2019 and bringing with him a wealth of industry experience and a valuable in-depth knowledge of southeast Queensland’s property market, both past and present.
Born and bred in Queensland, Alan was raised as one of eight children in a dairy farming region in the state’s centre where a strong work ethic together with a strong sense of community and a commitment to helping others were fundamental and ingrained – the backbone of the community. Embodied in that work ethic were his learnings to respect, be genuine and to have faith and trust in himself.
After a decade with Qld Rail, Alan began his real estate career in Caloundra, training under one of the Sunshine Coast’s most respected agents – Brian Molloy from Professionals Caloundra. Later, from 1998, Alan moved into apartment/unit sales in the Brisbane CBD, where he witnessed first-hand the apartment development boom through the early 2000s. In his roles , he co-ordinated sales throughout most of the high-profile apartment developments in the CBD. He also trained under some of the state’s top auctioneers to become proficient in the auction process, leading to multiple awards and industry recognition.
Alan is driven and inspired by his passions for property and for working with clients to achieve their dreams and goals through property – whether they be first home buyers, first-time investors or experienced buyers adding to their portfolios. And to his many career successes and the achievement of his own professional goals, he credits not only his strong commitment to his clients but his attention to detail, his effective listening skills, and his ability to empathise with people in everyday situations. He is proud to be part of the YSH Property team for both its positive team culture and its direct alignment with his own values of commitment to the client – ‘from start to infinity!!’ He is also immensely proud of the quality of the product designed and developed by YSH, so is wholeheartedly passionate about what he sells.
Away from work, Alan enjoys family time with his wife and two adult sons, especially when it involves taking in an AFL game or spending a fun-filled afternoon at the ‘ponies’. Bushwalking, pottering in the garden and time with Rios, his American Staffy, are also much-loved leisure activities.
- Email: [email protected]
- Phone: (07) 3339 1467
- Mobile: 0402 255 281
Property Management
Dean Parker
Managing Director / Licensee
Dean is Managing Director of YSH, a licensed Real Estate Agent and responsible for the strategic and operational direction of the business. He has been a full-time property investor since 2004 with involvement in over 450 property transactions totalling over $160 million in value, including renovations, new property developments, a portfolio of investment properties, and rental property management.
From country Victoria, Dean was brought up under the golden rule of respect for others, a belief in hard work and a firm conviction to ‘do the right thing’. After completing a double degree at Deakin University – a Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Accounting and Management and a Bachelor of Science majoring in Information Systems – Dean had something of a bumpy start along what he thought would be a smooth IT career path. Over a period of just a few years he had a succession of job changes and experienced the highs and lows of progressing quickly through the ranks at IBM (from programmer to systems analyst), being headhunted, relocating to Melbourne, being retrenched and enduring an 8-month period of job seeking. He was left with an unacceptable taste of precariousness and disenchantment to which he responded by determining to take control of his future.
Dean began educating himself about property by reading books and attending seminars, with a view to using the proceeds of property investments to replace his salary. Inspired by the success of Steve McKnight, Dean, with life partner Elise, attended a one-day training event of Steve’s that became a turning point in their lives. Highly motivated, Dean and Elise took leave from their jobs to apply their newly acquired skills to renovating and developing property for profit. Their systems approach and diligence led to success and enabled Dean to transition from being an employee to launching their full-time property business in 2005. Elise soon followed, and they engaged their first employee in 2007.
Today, Dean is a testament to the execution of his successful property investment strategies and his astute management skills. He and his team of six employees renovate and develop both residential and commercial property, and operate a comprehensive property management business to ensure ongoing high performance of clients’ assets. Dean is passionate about helping people achieve their own financial freedom by sharing his extensive practical experience and knowledge through property seminars and workshops for purchasers. His greatest sense of satisfaction comes from seeing his clients – home buyers and investors – achieve their personal and lifestyle goals through property by making informed choices.
Your Style Homes lives by its mission, ‘Satisfaction Beyond the Keys’, with the objective of maximising clients’ capital growth and rental return prospects by creating beautiful, functional, healthy and wellmanaged homes, and ensuring client satisfaction throughout the process and beyond settlement.
Dean now lives in Brisbane where he and Elise raise their young daughter, grow their own organic food and keep chickens. In his spare time, Dean keeps fit, indulges his passions for football and tennis, and loves relaying the tale of how he came to spend a private half hour with the inspirational Roger Federer, a man whose talents, qualities and values encapsulate all he admires in a person.
- Email: [email protected]
- Phone: 1300 368 658
- Mobile: 0438 255 739
Judi Resor
Senior Portfolio Manager
Judi is YSH Property’s Senior Portfolio Manager who is responsible for managing all aspects of investor and company property assets, from advertising and securing new tenancies, to their management and maintenance. It also involves overseeing the integration and systemisation of rent rolls as well as building and maintaining strong relationships with clients.
Growing up on a pineapple farm outside Bundaberg where she was the eldest of four children and an active participant in daily farm activities, Judi learned to seek out potential opportunities, strive for excellence, and ‘make hay while the sun shines’.
These core learnings, together with strong ambition, relevant training and innovative thinking, propelled her straight up a career ladder that began with mortgage broking and then saw her establish and grow her own boutique property management agency, the first in the region. Hard work was rewarded with outstanding success and, with a great sense of achievement from being a change-maker in the industry, Judi then brought her talents to Brisbane. Her knowledge, experience and outstanding customer service, together with a knack for systemisation, opened doors to other property management roles and progression into a corporate role that saw her overseeing a team of senior property managers and an extensive portfolio.
Driven by a desire to be her best and to be a positive influence on others, Judi brings to YSH Property her wealth of industry experience, her strengths in relationship-building, and a structured yet flexible approach. Importantly, she also brings astute understandings of both property potential and value optimisation, and clients’ needs, having herself been a tenant, a landlord and a successful property investor.
Away from work, Judi loves to recharge in the great outdoors and, as a licensed Zumba fitness instructor, to encourage others to be more active.
- Email: [email protected]
- Phone: 07 3339 1462
- Mobile: 0424 238 886
John Resor
Portfolio Manager
John is YSH Property’s Portfolio Manager and is responsible for managing all aspects of investors’ property assets, from advertising and securing new tenancies, to their management and maintenance. Joining the team in early 2019, he is inspired by the commitment of his fellow team members and the positive workplace culture fostered at YSH.
Born in Canberra and moving around as the child of a naval family, John spent many of his early years in Perth where discipline, respect and honesty were instilled as key values. Beginning his career with several years in business development roles, he then moved into property management, obtaining his real estate agent licence in Bundaberg, Qld.
With a strong belief in ‘measuring twice, cutting once’, John brings his attention to detail to the role and is passionate about sharing his knowledge and experience of property to empower clients to make informed and successful decisions.
Away from work, John is keen on fitness training and travel.
- Email: [email protected]
- Phone: 07 3339 1464
- Mobile: 0497 497 499
Kayla Gurnick
Portfolio Manager
Kayla is YSH Property’s Portfolio Manager, joining the team in mid-2019, and is responsible for managing all aspects of investors’ property assets.
Born and bred in Auckland, New Zealand, into a large family where honesty was a deeply instilled value and independence was strongly encouraged, Kayla moved to Australia as a young adult, later taking time out for a two-year working holiday in the UK.
Gaining experience across various industries – including banking, finance, hospitality and retail – Kayla then discovered her real passion was property. And since then she has never looked back.
After completing a salesperson certificate at Unitec (Institute of Technology) in Auckland, her first property sale was a $1.1M deal on behalf of her parents – a slightly stressful but highly rewarding experience. Drawn to the industry by its variety where no two days are the same, Kayla loves the development and management side of property.
Being a self-described ‘people person’ and good communicator, she is driven by seeing the customer satisfaction that comes with knowing she has provided outstanding customer service – whether it be meeting the needs of tenants or assisting owners/landlords to achieve their goals through property management.
Inspired by the YSH team culture, the quality of the product the team develops, sells and manages, and the value placed on customer service excellence, Kayla brings a strong work ethic and an enthusiasm to contribute towards meeting the company’s business goals.
Away from work, Kayla other passion is travel and, being a bit of a foodie, she and her partner love to combine the two, trialling new places to eat, enjoying long brunches, visiting wineries and taking every opportunity to see and enjoy more of the world.
- Email: [email protected]
- Phone: 07 3339 1463
- Mobile: 0497 019 777