The Croll Real Estate story began in 1904 when an 18 year old Andrew Raleigh Croll opened an office in Neutral Bay with the occasional help of his father Andrew Usher Croll.

Setting up business was a simple matter. Just like public accountants, pharmacists and the local dentist, Painless Perkins, real estate agents were not required to sit exams or hold a qualification. There were no phones or electricity to worry about and with few cars on the road, life operated at a far slower pace.

Much of the land in the area was vacant and Andrew would spend his days taking buyers for inspections in his sulky, drawn by a horse named Dolly Daydreams. Renowned for her narcoleptic tendencies, Dolly would regularly need to be prodded awake before moving on to the next property.

The sleepy suburb of Neutral Bay was however set for rapid change. The years between the wars saw an unparalleled surge of development, with a swiftly expanding North Shore population and very few planning controls to hold back the building boom. In 1932 the Harbour Bridge was opened, instantly making the North Shore a far more accessible and desirable location for home buyers.