Mr Horne was presented the award at the Elders Real Estate Awards held at the Riva function centre in St Kilda on Saturday night.
The recognition was one of three awards the 35 year-old received, also earning the Southern Zone Rural Salesperson of the Year as well as being recognised as an Elders Elite Agent.
Mr Horne said that to earn the Elite agent status he had to satisfy the strict criteria required within the Elders network.
‘‘To receive these awards is very humbling, especially in light of the recent dry conditions and lack of water availability.
‘‘I’m very fortunate that I have excellent work colleagues and strong support at a branch level.
‘‘Furthermore, throughout the last 12 months I have had vendors and purchasers who have been outstanding to deal with.
‘‘My wife Lucy is a terrific support, and my three children. I love the community and all that comes with it.
‘‘Without the ongoing support of all our valued clients this wouldn’t have been possible.’’
Mr Horne believes the Riverina is a fantastic place to live, work and raise a family.
Having grown up on the land between Finley, Berrigan and Jerilderie, he is proud to call the Southern Riverina home.
In addition to rural and lifestyle property sales, he specialises in permanent and temporary water trading in the Murray, Murrumbidgee regions and the Victorian zones.
The awards are reflective of his growing business which is seeing another team member and employment opportunity opening up at the Elders Rural Deniliquin Branch.
When asked did he think he was going to win the top salesperson award for Elders, Mr Horne said it was unexpected as Camperdown based agent Rob Rickard had been tipped to take out the award for the eighth consecutive year.
‘‘In reflection, we had a lot of successful sales throughout 2018.
‘‘The first seven to eight months of the year were very strong, particularly with the addition of the successful water auction held in July and the sale of a number of larger properties such as Raheen, Emu Park, Llanreath, Windemere and the Lehman aggregation of farms,’’ Mr Horne said.
He did admit that the spring created some challenges due to the particularly dry season, but fortunately has been able to sell a number of those properties since, which is very pleasing for his clients.
‘‘Overall 2018 was a successful year and we hope to have continued success in 2019.’’
Mr Horne is now in the running for the title of Elders National Salesperson of the year.
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