Hello and welcome to a special episode of The Property Roundup on My Property Radio with myself, Carol Talon with special thanks to show sponsor daf.ie, Ireland's most visited property website. Today, we're coming to you from the beautiful town of Bandon in West Cork and joining us to talk about the local property market is auctioneer, Magella Galvin of DG, Michael Galvin. Magella, you're very welcome and returning guests to the show, but this is the first time we've been able to record in person in your office. So thank you so much for welcoming us today and you're very welcome on to the show. Thank you, Carol and it's great to have you here in Bandon. Any excuse to come to Bandon, any excuse to come to court and indeed to West Cork? It is the gateway to West Cork. And before we even start chatting about all things property, let's talk about all things Bandon. There's huge changes underway, pedestrian areas and seeing some shops that look like they might have been vacant for a while, getting fresh coat of paint. What's happening in the local area in terms of particularly kind of some of the initiatives that we can visibly see underway in Bandon? Well, Bandon, I think Bandon has a very positive and growth ahead of us, I think in the next five years and the town will be flying basically and it really is the next Balenkalig in my opinion case, or Carol. And I suppose there's lots of pedestrian eyes and lots of lovely street fronts. And we did a new playground down the Glaston Road with the Bandon Athletic Club putting up a new track. We've got lots going on in Bandon and it's doing great for another bit of time. It will be fantastic. Are you born and bred in Bandon? Born and bred in Bandon, between Bandon and Nishan and we were actually the last house in the Bandon Parish. Really? Yeah. And so in Nishan and is the gateway to West Cork, so is Bandon? No, Bandon is the gateway to West Cork. So in Nishan and technically is in West Cork, is it? Well, would you believe? And it's interesting because I did a reel on TikTok on this. And when I looked it up and good, let's say West Cork starts in Bishop Town, which I don't know where this came from, but they do say it starts in Nishan. So I suppose really, we all want the name West Cork. So people started adding it everywhere. Yeah, very good. Well, I always used to think of Nishan and somebody once corrected me and said, well, technically, no, Nishan is a gateway, but technically Bandon is the first Bandon of the Rinnam Gate. And the thing is West Cork has really has never lost its charm in terms of even driving into Bandon and say the first thing I was greeted with before we even got really just on the outskirts of town, the beautiful wildflower meadows either side of the town. It is so perfect in keeping with the tone of the place, as opposed to very, I suppose, manicured or artificially green. It's so beautiful, natural and just essentially accentuation, what is naturally beautiful about the area. It is and Cork County Council did do great work fair at the entrance in to Bandon and because like Bandon has originally a very good agricultural town as well, that's the other side of us. Have you ever been tempted to live or work elsewhere? Well, I did live in Dublin for about six to eight years and Carol. So and I loved it up there for a while in my younger days, but I was used to look forward to come home the weekend to Bandon, the West Cork. I suppose what I love about Bandon is it's so close to Cork City. It's so close to the beaches. I can sit in my current 10 to 15 minutes I'm at a beach, you know, equally in 20 minutes I'm into Cork City. So it's very convenient and it's a lovely kind of community to live in. When you were living in Dublin, were you working on property? Yes. So did you tell me about your start into property? Because obviously I remember I've been in this industry almost quarter of a century, which just feels so old. But I remember dealing with your father about 16, 17 years ago when we had clients looking for properties in West Cork and West Cork has always been top of the affordability or sorry, the top of the pricing. So all those challenges in terms of affordability, even well, before the crash, even during the crash, it's always been difficult to find a bargain in West Cork. But tell me a little about your introduction as property as you remember it. I suppose, Karl, I was a very young age and in that when I was six, seven, eight years old, I used to look forward every Saturday to go and view was only holding a camera or a notebook, what I felt, I felt important. And what I loved about it was obviously seeing the different properties, the interiors, I would come home into my room and trying to implement what I saw during the day. And so that was my introduction to it. Obviously was a very young age, but as I grew older, I suppose I got more involved in it. And I loved it. And I always say it's not a job, but really is my passion. And so I remember doing my leaving cert, I had like, I was going to do a constantly. And that was one of my my subjects. I really excelled it. But I didn't get the girl for it. Like I had in property. And there was no question for me. I was going to do engineering. And as a child, when you did a company, your father, what did you think his job was? What did you think? You know, sometimes when you watch people doing their job, you don't really understand what the business is. So, you know, as a child, when you were a company and your father and these views, so you would have heard them talking to both buyers and sellers potentially or success of sellers in the same property or success of buyers, sorry, walking through the same property. What did you think he was doing? What did you think the business of a state agency was? Well, I think my view changed as I got older. But I thought it was my first impression was we were going looking at property. You know, that was that was the first thing. Then we were kind of we were probably going, he was selling property. Then I would see him with buyers another day. And my father was very good in that he always worked for both the buyer and the seller. Obviously, the seller is his client. But his philosophy was always in order to have a sale you need a buyer and a seller, which is something I really stick to nowadays. And what I really noticed I suppose was when he would go out to do sales appraisal or, you know, take on an instruction on a property, he got to know the property, the area, and he really listened to the people and got them to tell the story about the property. Because after all, nobody knows a home like donors. And I think it was I might that's where my perception started changing that the role of an agent is actually helping people listening to what they wanted, whether it was the case they wanted to move to another property. They wanted to relocate of the country. His job was to help them with their goal rather than actually selling a property, even though that was the ultimate goal. But you know, it's it's just thinking of the client's needs. So how did that shape or change then when you went to take on formal study to become an auctioneer? So after my leaving cert, I studied auctioneering in Cork for three years. So it was the whole academic side of it. Now, to be honest, I had worked in the office for years during my holidays and things and I found that having that practical experience really stood to me in the academic side of it. And so what I did and because at the time there was no degree for a state agency in Ireland. So after that, I went to the University of Reading and I got my degree there. What I suppose what you learn is a lot in colleges, the academic side, whereas what I felt was missing was this whole interpersonal side, the whole journey. Like you're at a very emotional time, an exciting time for people. So you really need to walk in their shoes with them. And I'm really curious about the people who chose to move forward to get degrees in a state agency when there wasn't a degree in Ireland at the time, because it was seen as something that wasn't necessary to do the job in Ireland. So I'm always curious for people who wanted to do the job in Ireland. This wasn't necessary, but yet they took a year or two years out of their life, moved abroad to be able to do it. What drove you? What made you think having watched your father having worked summers here, what made you think that this was an important step to building a career? I suppose I always wanted to be a step ahead in that, how can I provide a better service to my clients? And I felt that, you know, if it wasn't in Ireland and it wasn't another country, maybe that's something I could learn from. And so, you know, that was something that I obviously ventured for. And I learned, as well, you have a different system in the UK as well. We're in a state agent, didn't value property, so you, the whole registered value or side of it. So it was learning the different aspects, what it's, I just felt that the more education I had, the more expertise I had, that would translate into providing a better service to sellers here in Ireland. And how is that maybe different? And I suppose I'm thinking back to then when you came back to Bandon and came back to the penalty of business, were there changes that you wanted to implement maybe that were more at home in Dublin than they might have been in West Cork? Yeah, I suppose like in Dublin, you always had a very busy market. And even I remember during the recession times I worked there and when there was nothing happening in West Cork or very little, you would have 30, 40 people queuing outside a house to view in Dublin. So whereas in West Cork, I think, you know, Dublin was, I suppose, not so much now, but back then, there was a big gap between Dublin and West Cork in terms of innovation and things. And I would have always wanted to embrace that innovative site to West Cork. So whether it's via social media, whether it was how we did things, it was bringing that back to a rural area, to a family business and providing that for people. And in terms of innovation, I feel very comfortable talking to you about this because you just won an award at the property awards for being an outstanding leader in property. How did that feel to know that you had the recognition of your peers, of the industry, that actually when you're innovating, sometimes these innovations can be small things, sometimes they're big things. And the nature of innovation is that you have to be willing to try things and have some of them not work and some of them work. So in terms of being, you know, you have, you've absolutely that ethos of trying to be one step ahead and offer that little bit extra to both buyers and sellers. That's very obvious in everything that you do. But in terms of embracing innovation, nobody knows what's going to work all the time. So to be recognized in that way, how did that feel? It was a huge privilege, Carol. I suppose I didn't expect it because I'm always in the middle of trying different things. And so it was a timeless force when I did stand back for a while anyway, when I say while an hour or two and say, well done, Medellah, but then I'm on to my next one again. And that's just the way I am. I know, but so an hour or two is all you gave an hour or two and then I'm on to, well, what do I want to do? What's what's next on the agenda? That's just the way I am. And I don't believe in in staffing, you know, I always believe there's always something more you can do. Part of innovation, though, is being willing to fail as well. Not just accepting that it's likely to happen. How comfortable are you with failure? Like, can you point to any failures in your career that, you know, really, maybe, maybe kind of challenged how you approach your work? Well, I think, you know, even calling it a failure as well as, will we call it a learning point? Is my new definition for it? And I think it happens us all every day. And it's how we look at it, really. You know, there was years when I had health issues and, at the time, maybe I thought it was a failure that I could take time out of work. Whereas actually, no, I learned during those years, I went and did marketing courses, which lays your stuff to me. So I think that everything we do is more of a learning point. We were trying different things. We tried with property clinics. We took different angles. And I suppose until we got something that worked for the people, you know, they might have been successes to us. But if they didn't work for the people, you know, we kept trying to make it work for the people. And I think, actually, some of those initiatives that you referred to there were difficult to talk a little more about them. There may be how you and I got to be in regular context because we love innovative marketing. We love people really trying stuff on social media and keep trying. And, you know, essentially, what we've learned is that different platforms work for different types of properties, work for different profiles of potential buyers. And in fact, there's no one way to really point towards a pipeline, say, for second-hand homes. You know, that's really difficult to try harness that. So, you know, we're definitely going to have more of a conversation around marketing. But I want to first understand, just so I get an update on the business here, you know, what kind of, I, since we came in today, I've been looking at some of the properties for sale. You, in your office, you still put up brochures, even though I know everything is online and you've a very digital first approach, you still have when people walk into the office, they can walk away with a brochure of a property that they might be interested in. And so, just tell me a little about what kind of properties you have listed at the moment. So, we have a variety of properties, car like we live in apartments in Quark City, you'd have the country home, you'd have the coastal home. And, you know, we really do, I suppose that's a good thing in West Cork in Bandon, because we're near cities, we're near the coast site, we do have a variety. How do you manage that then? Because Quark is such a huge county. So, explain the geographic area that you're working, because it would be almost impossible for a small team to operate across the entire county or on my run. I think you're wrong there, Carole. Well, you know, I suppose, you know, and I do love my job and I do work long hours. And I suppose it's, it's um, it's, we're working from Cork out to West Cork, which is nearly the distance from here to Dublin, Carole. But I'm lucky my sister, Carole, and it's working the business and she loves it as well. And I suppose the hours that we put in really, some people may say you couldn't justify. But again, as I say, it's not a job, it's her life. We grew up in it and we love it. So, D&G Galvin, D&G Michael Galvin, your operation right across Cork City County? Absolutely, yes. Fantastic. D&G have an interesting new group that maybe people aren't familiar with in terms of particularly the country and rural homes. So, you might just tell us a little bit about that. Yes. So, D&G became an affiliate of Hampton's International and Hampton's International have over 1200 offices worldwide. And so, they have 19 in the UK and in Ireland with 80 offices. So, that again, gives the local, national and international reach for our clients properties. And recently, D&G set up a new country homes division. So, that's, it's a big exciting step for D&G and for us, you know, to bring to have that specialized department and to showcase country homes where we're working closely with Hampton's International D&G Head Office. And what it means for seller here is that they can get their home marketed expertly. We have all the expertise and team here and they would get a wider reach basically. And how do you see that translated on the ground? So, in terms of views or potential bidders or potential buyers coming in, have you noticed that? Well, what we're seeing, Carol, is where we have direct links with Hampton's over in the UK. And they have such a large database of high-worked wealth individuals that are looking for the property here in Ireland. And, you know, vice versa. We're really working closely with them. And so, talk to me a little bit about the properties that are currently listed at the moment. Do you have any new homes or is it all second-hand properties? At the moment, we're second-hand properties mainly, yes. And is there much of a pipeline in terms of new homes in the Bandon area? I didn't see much evidence of it now as I was driving in. So, there is a lot of new construction going on in the Bandon area. But I suppose the second-hand market is struggling with supply. I mean, we're down 20% in the past year. At least, that's the figures, whereas I think we're down even more. And I think, you know, we're as first-hand buyers and even investors now are kind of being told to go for the new homes. They have a fixed price and energy rating, the mortgage rates. There's actually a lot of value to be had out in the second-hand market. And because, you know, you people who want the large garden, who want that extra space, even the bedrooms, you know, you get a decent bedroom and a second-hand home. And the grants out there now, you know, can really bridge the gap for people. In terms of the second-hand homes that you're listing at the moment, what kind of condition would they be in? I fully appreciate that most would be in need of energy upgrades just given the age of building. But say in terms for home buyers who are walking in, are they walking into properties that need upgrading almost immediately? Or are these properties that are really in quite good shape and presented very well throughout and maybe ones that would be updated over time? So again, we've a variety. But what we do find is the ones that are selling faster and are higher in demand are the turnkey properties. The ones that okay, they might need a little bit of energy upgrading. You can go in, you live there, and you have no work to carry out for a few years. That's the key selling point really in today's market. And your sellers, are they moving into other properties locally or are they leaving the local market or what do they tend to be? We have a variety, again, their cars because it's an interesting market down here. We have, I suppose, sellers, a lot, actually, the number of sales appraisals I'm doing lately, we're seeing more and more downsizers. So people looking to stay in the locality, but to move to a smaller home, be that because maintenance is too high. They just don't have the time and energy. They maybe want to help out a family member get on the property ladder. There are several reasons. But there is, I suppose, they're finding it very difficult to find a property that suits their needs in the area. And that's, you know, I'm in the fortunate position where I get to speak to a state agent up and down the country every day. So many people are telling me that there is a demand for upsizing, downsizing, right sizing, whatever you'd like to call it. But the key criteria is that people want to stay within their own locality. And so invariably, that supply just isn't there. And where is there? One of the interesting things that's coming up is that actually, people are generally surprised that there won't be a huge amount of financial savings involved in downsizing because you're usually downsizing from a home that a prospective buyer might consider in need of work. And you're maybe moving to something that is aerated, particularly if it's new supply, that actually the financial saving isn't as great as people think. So for people, for your sellers who are looking to downsize, and they are fortunate enough to be able to find something, whether they just want physically smaller space, whether they're looking for something a little newer, so they're for less maintenance and more energy efficient, or are they looking to also get closer to town? Like, what are the driving criteria? I think, you know, bungalows is in high demand. They just simply aren't there, and they're not going to be built either. But I think the smaller size, definitely people don't want to maintenance. The other side of it is, they do want energy efficient homes. So they would be the main criteria. And is that supply existing? Is it available for them? It isn't really. You take somebody, like in band, if somebody wants to, we have very little bungalows, so that's kind of non-negotical, really. And we have the energy efficient homes, but again, they're all in estates where you have lots of young families, and if you take somebody who's retired, a lot of them do feel a bit out of touch in the biggest states. So I think we really need to look ahead and see what can we do for our aging population? Yeah, I think there is some work being done in terms of housing options for our aging demographic, particularly in the by approved housing bodies, and in the social housing sector, however, and for private housing, the private sector, we just were really falling short, and there were a number of developers who were focused on this, and they see this as a potential look of opportunity, which it is. But we're just not seeing them filter through into deals or into the marketplace at the moment, but you would imagine that areas that like larger towns and the outskirts of cities, they would be prime areas where people actually want to to write size too, if the demand is available. We're just not seeing it at the moment. Talk to me about your buyers. So I understand now, kind of the cohort of sellers that you're dealing with at the moment, and I would imagine if there was more supply for them to be able to write size into, you would have a greater pipeline of those. But in terms of the buyers, who's buying at the moment? I suppose the big share in the market is definitely first-time buyers, and as I said earlier, in the majority of the cases, they're looking for the new bills to get the grants. For what we are seeing in the last few months is they really are starting to extend and look into the second-hand market. I tend to agree with you in terms of opportunities in the second-hand market, if you're willing to, a little bit of work. And I'm very old-school. I love the idea of adding value. I don't want the value handed to me, and I'm being a premium forward. I like the idea. Also, I think that actually, and joking me wrong, I'm actually very excited about the supply of new homes that we're seeing in areas around the country, and its top-quality properties. And in terms of energy ratings, they just can't be beaten. However, I think it's always good to keep in mind that properties age a little bit like your car requires maintenance. Your house requires maintenance, and actually a new home is only a new home really per a decade max. And then you're into the type of work that you would be into if you'd bought a second-hand property. So actually, I always think that that premium should only really be allocated for the first decade maximum. But in terms of, say, mainly first-hand buyers who are coming in at the moment, what good ranges do they have? I mean, they're kind of started at the 300,000 really, majority of them. And I like we're seeing first-hand buyers with 600,000. So there is a big gap there. But to get a property under 300,000 down here is just not to be cut, really. Yeah, I would have thought that. And you mentioned there about the grants. So are you talking about first-hand buyers for new homes, or are you also kind of taking in, say, the vacant and derelict homes grants? Well, also the vacant, like I had sold recently, we've sold two properties in the past few months that benefited from the vacant property grant. And it was lovely last weekend, I would opt to see a family moving into that property. So I would have sold them that property when it needed work. And it was, I suppose, dull and dreary, and to actually go back a few months later and see them inside drinking tea in their living room. You know, it really was lovely. That's amazing. And have they actually successfully gone through the process of drawing down the grant? Because there's only a handful in every county who've done that. So we're actively seeking out people who've been able to go through that process and try to learn and share that learning. And there've been some changes to the scheme that really reduced the period of time that people have to do the work. And you know, it's a pretty onerous grant. It is absolutely. And I think people at the start, you don't realize how much work is involved in it. But I think if you pursue, you know, like we've seen two examples in the past few months where they have got it and where they're living in their homes. And what kind of feedback were they able to give you maybe then you could then share with potential first-time buyers or potential home buyers of any of any type or tenure? Well, number one was time. Give yourself plenty of time. And what they found was, as I say, there was a lot more things to do. And the other thing was patience. It was times when they felt that, " Forget about this, you know, let's go off." Whereas that having that patience that you will get it would keep pursuing. In terms of advice that you can give for people coming in, because, you know, it seems crazier to me that we are in a rural area and a first-time buyer coming into you with 300,000 foot struggle to have anything from which to choose. That's a real challenge. And I know it's more of a, you know, yes, it's an affordability issue, but it's a supply issue that's underpinning that affordability issue. So, I mean, how do you, you know, in the ethos that you talked about of the company here and I suppose in the words of your father that you can't have sale without a buyer, and knowing that today's inquirer is tomorrow's buyer, how are you handling that, how are you navigating that when so little it's within your control? Well, I suppose like one thing I always say to buyers is they might come in and they might say that they have a budget of 300,000 that they want it in about in town, you know, I'd always say, right, make a list of your needs and your wants. Your needs are, you need your three bedrooms, you need your, what, within a certain commute of your job, etc. But your wants might be the big garden, it might be, you know, something extra. So people really need to go tunnel vision, what do I really need? And the other side is extend your search a bit, because by going that few kilometers outside that area, you can get better value for money. Yeah. And we had actually, there was a buyer who connected on us from up the country. And when she started her search with us, she wanted a four to five bedroom property inside in Bandon town, where they could walk to all the different schools and activities. And about 10 months on, she actually purchased a property about 15 minutes drive from Bandon. We had a larger garden, more space, and they felt like that was their home. And so they were willing to take the trade off, knowing that they would be taxi drivers for a couple of years until their children move on. What I should have said there is the important step was she actually moved down to the area. So we secured her rental property, so that she could rent the property for a few months and get to know the area. And when she got to know the area and its surroundings, then they were in a position to make a more informed decision. You know, that is amazing if you can do it. And it's almost an old school approach. That's what people used to do if they were making a change. But because our rental market has been unprecedentedly challenging in the last number of years, it just hasn't been an option. Where as actually, I think for people, particularly who moved during COVID, had the option of renting being available, they would have taken that option. 100%. But it wasn't. And do you deal with much rental now? Yeah, we deal with a lot of rentals. And I suppose it's a system now where we don't advertise the rentals, Carol, because there's no need for the whole database of tenants there. So, Caroline, in our office, looks after the rentals and the management. Actually, most of the agents I've spoken to over the last year or year and a half have all described that system of essentially off-market rentals. And I call it off-market. They call it relationship-based that you get to know the people who are looking for to rent. And so, as you build a relationship, you already have their references, their credit checks, whatever documentation that you need, that essentially they are seen as maybe a known entity. Absolutely. And is that the only way to get a rental? I think it is, really. You know, Carol, like if you were, they're not being advertised. So, if you're not, if you haven't got your details with your local estate agent, you know, you won't know about them, basically. And does that happen on the sales market much? Not as often, but it does. And this year, we have so far had two off-market sales. Why would a seller opt, knowing that the market is so hot right now, why would a seller opt for an off-market sale in this marketplace? Well, let me explain the situation in one of the sales was an elderly couple. And they were redocationing to a town. And they already had a property in the town, so they were lucky. And they didn't want to go through the whole lenti hassle of, you know, months and months. They wanted something done at a faster pace. They also wanted to secure a good price. So I suppose it's finding that middle ground. What we did is we came in, we valued the property, and we have an internal marketing system where, you know, we have our database of buyers, that we will say we have a property in the area, and if you're interested, contact us. And we actually secured a price much over, and then the guy price far that property. So the option was, do they take a price that they're very happy with, or do they go down the market road? And they, in that case, they wanted to go off-market, get the deal done quickly, and achieve a great price. When you talk about your database of buyers, would that be for D&G, Mark Galvin, or is that D&G? It's both. Okay. And so is that an extra kind of tool in the armor that you have? It is. It is because, look, we've over 80 offices in Ireland, so there's a lot of buyers registered there. Our head office in Dublin actually have a client department where they focus solely on registering buyers and connecting them. So it is a big tool we do have. Well, look, speaking of tools and technologies, one of the things that you and I want the interest that we have in common is absolutely technology, marketing, innovative ways to reach people. So tell me about some of the... Well, first of all, technology. What kind of technology have you deployed across the Atlas? Very, Karl, is the answer. And I suppose it's like, it's everything we've learned. Some haven't worked. We've learned and we've changed. And I would always say I'm open to change every day of the week. If somebody comes in with something better than I have, yeah, absolutely. Let's try it. Well, are you willing to share maybe some of the tools? You don't have to name the tool, but some of the tools that are doing, sorry, doing work that maybe didn't do the job you expected it to do. Just for people in the role practices. We had different CRNs. And I think it's a big thing for estate agents because the CRM really runs the office. And we had different ones over the years. And you'd be settled into it, but then you'd find that there's something missing and you can't do that. And it's frustrating. And so there's this changing and chaffing and things like that. We found a very, very good theorem and all the offices in D&G nationwide have it. It's called REPAGE. So it's the UK based system, but it manages a role office. And in terms of online bidding, have you started facilitating that? We have that. And D&G have implemented that. And so it's an option we give sellers if they want to have the online bidding for their property and that service is available to them. Do they tend to opt first? Because you know, very much, I found that sellers, if they, you know, it's a bit of an adage, but confused people don't buy. And sometimes sellers, if it's their first introduction to it, they're not comfortable with it. And so in terms of the sellers, where you've actually given them this option, have many opt to go down that route. You know, we haven't, it's all as close how you educate them about it. And that's something we take a lot of time to do, educate them in the benefits of this, and maybe some of the areas that they're not happy about it. And I always say, it's really their decision. I do see in the future, more and more will be going it, because that's the root buyers want. They want transparency. And so while we obviously gave the option to the seller, we're also giving them feedback on what buyers are looking for out there. And I love, I love lots of marketing initiatives that you do. I think you're definitely one of the agents who's really trying new things and responding and engaging with people on social media. And so trying to really understand what their needs are and satisfy them. So but one of the common themes I've seen across your marketing is education. You're always trying to tell people what's going on, what the situation is, whether it's local, how a process works. So education seems to be, is that fair to say that education is probably the team of your marketing? Absolutely, because I fully believe in it, because I see it out there. Like when you're buying or selling a house, it's a complex process. You only do it a few times in your life if you're lucky. So I mean, it's not something that you're used to do. And even we were having a conversation there before we started, Carla, about sale agreed and deposits. While they may be common terms to us, there's a lot of people out there who don't know what they are. So I think that adds to the stress and the frustration in the sales process. So I suppose my philosophy is the more educated you are about something, you know, you know what to do, you know what to expect, and you can be proactive and plan. Well, it would take us through some of this. So one of the initiatives you've done are the property clinics. Yes. Amazing idea. And you, did you start doing these online? Yes. So we started doing the property clinics online, where we would, I suppose I would, you know, have a conversation with some industry experts, be it a VR assessor or a solicitor. And we would talk about like if it was a solicitor, we spoke about what the seller needs to do to get their property ready, all the legal documents. And I suppose that's really kind of like a foreign language to sellers. And they think the legal room, they see a dark picture. Whereas what we want to do is make it clear, have their lists, they know what to do, they know what to expect, they can be prepared and prevent delays down the line. How have they been received? Have you done some in-person as well? Yes. So we've done the online ones and we do two or three in-person a year. So we had one in-person there in March and we actually daffed down to visit us. And and it was very, very well received. We had a full office and which is unusual because nowadays people aren't, we thought people wouldn't be so much going into venues, they'd be far online. But the amount of people that came into our office that evening and we had a team from the bank, we had solicitors and daffed were here properly updates and we had mortgage brokers and people were able to sit in a relaxed environment, ask the questions they wanted to and have that casual conversation. And did they properly engage and ask questions? Because it's a bit of an Irish thing to set an audience with questions that keep your mouth shut and then come home and ask the question or Google it. So I would think they're not great enough to hand and ask questions. Did they engage? I suppose that's where we kind of wanted to differentiate in that we limited numbers. So they would be no more than 30 people at a property clinic at a time. That gives, and it's all the environment you create. We all sat around and we put chairs around the office here, circular chairs. We went to the middle, you know, chatted, we had our food and drink and things. It's the atmosphere there and people relaxed and there was lots of questions asked and answered. Were there any questions that surprised you? Yeah, you know, I suppose in the foot of an estate agent every day, going back to terms that we would think, you know, are common place. Like we buyers asking us, "What is sale agreed?" And we had people asking, "Can I get a refund on the deposit?" There are things we would take automatically, you know, there's an answer, but there's a lot of unknown situations out there and they cause fear for buyers and sellers. Yeah, it's interesting. One of the big things, I suppose, one of my big buyers, and I give out about all the time in the show here, but during, in the days after the crash, that was the time to reform some of the things that really don't work. So for example, the booking deposit versus the legal deposit. You know, we could have taken steps to make the industry better, more streamlined and make it work for people. And sometimes I think that if we were designing how you would bring a property to market, introduce it to a prospective buyer, and then let them buy it throughout, I don't think we would design the process the way it is today. I agree with each other apparently. Yes, absolutely. I would agree with you there. There's no doubt about it. And there's a lot of inefficiencies, you say, and it does need a more streamline process, and for some, while there is a lot of work being done, you know, we've yet to see that. But how we as a state agents can take the step there is by educating our clients and letting them know what to expect so that they can be prepared. And I think the property clinics is a great example of that. And before we finish up today, just because every time I go online, I'm seeing a new marketing initiative. So tell me what marketing initiatives do you have on the go at the moment and what's working? I suppose I always put my foot into everything and try everything. That's something I believe in. And we've learned a lot like in the past few years with social media and is a great tool now. And again, it's where the people are currently, you know, we do keep up our traditional marketing newspapers or whatever, but it's where we're seeing the feedback from the inquiries from like Facebook has been fantastic. And we've a strong presence on Facebook. And we notice we're getting a lot of sellers from Facebook. And Instagram now we're getting more buyers. So it just shows that kind of a age group difference. And okay, we are on TikTok as well. And I think that's more for the brand awareness side of us. And although we have got a foreign seller who contacted us through Facebook last week, the property to sell in Ireland. So you never know really, it's hard to say, but in the majority of cases, I think we are probably getting contact with potential sellers through Facebook. Then again, you have your linked inside of it where we connect with a lot of professionals and we get a lot of reference through that as well. That's interesting. I'm really glad that you've broken down that each of the social media, the platforms, they actually do a slightly different job. I'm really excited to hear you talk about finding a seller on TikTok because actually very few of the agents I speak to who have been brave enough to embrace TikTok and have reported actually making contact with sellers. So we've definitely had people get house appraisals, which hopefully will turn into sales, but they haven't to date. Where it's actually where most people are seeing TikTok is for rental and to find buyers. And I think the age demographics of all the different platforms, it's very consistent that more sellers around Facebook, more buyers on Instagram. And I think it has yet to be determined where TikTok is really going to be useful as a pipeline too. Yes. And I think again, it's, you know, it's it's experimenting Carla's, you know, and something which I've seen a big trend in is the amount of agricultural and farmers on TikTok. You know, so like it's it's it's learning every day at a time really. Well, to be fair, I think in my experience, when I speak to people about TikTok, they're so surprised they really don't understand the stats. So actually, I I we've gone through looking at the Irish stats and the international stats, but actually we've gone a step further and we've taken the eye property radio stats. And we are consistently finding it is one of the more balanced in terms of genders, then maybe Instagram is predominantly females. You know, we find LinkedIn, predominantly male, Twitter, predominantly males, you know, so so there's a difference in terms of the demographics. But people are always surprised to know that there were so many TikTok users aged 35 and over. And I think it's because they are only watching the content creators. So they don't see who's consuming all of that content and who is consuming that content is absolutely the age profile and demographic of sellers and fires and the professionals that you talk about there. So I think maybe there's an education process that TikTok has to do, but we maybe haven't seen enough of a jump where people can directly link again to what they're doing on TikTok to their pipeline. Whereas you can see it more directly if a Facebook message comes in and asks you to value the whole thing. And I think as well, like what we find as a Facebook, you know, you have more of an instant response, whereas in TikTok, that particular seller had been following us for a year before they made contact with us. So, you know, you have, I suppose you have generally, I would have said, a younger demographic, but that's changing now in TikTok as well. Yeah, it absolutely is. And before we finish up today, and thank you so much for letting us enter your lovely offices and letting us disrupt your offices and West Cork, the sun is shining today. And I just would expect nothing less from bad. So yeah, weather is always perfect. I have problems that now, Carol. But, you know, it's the very best to showcase. So I suppose for anybody, maybe who like me, hasn't spent time in Vanden in 20 years, so actually to be able to, you know, accept driving through it, maybe as the gateway to West Cork. So for buyers who maybe have been looking more at Cork City, or maybe some of the towns around the Northern periphery, what do you tell them about Vanden to maybe encourage them to take a look? Well, I think the main thing, as I said before, about Vanden is its location, its proximity to Cork, its proximity to the beaches. But Vanden is also has great schools, and it's well known for that. There's a lovely big library after opening next door, and that has, you know, open library. So people can go in and out, there's all activities. So, you know, there's a lot of sports clubs as well here for kids. It's a great family town. We have a brilliant golf club for those. And, you know, we have an awful lot in Vanden, and I think it's going to be a town that's going to grow and grow. And as I say, I see it as the next valent call I can use to come. Majella, I think you're pushing an open door. So final question, just in terms of development land and pipeline of new homes. Are there any reasons to be positive? Can we point to a pipeline of new homes over the next two years in Vanden? I mean, Vanden has seen quite a substantial number of new homes. They're all located north of the town. And so, like, I think it's, as I say, Vanden is struggling in the second hand market purely, because it's not planned for the older generation. Younger people are going for the new homes, but not everybody wants to be inside and in that state. Yeah, absolute final question, one of the most important of the interview. Where's the best coffee in Vanden? Depends on the mood, Carol. We have some lovely coffee shops, and we have this Warren Allen down at the end, which is quite popular. And we have Hayden's Cakes, which I believe you might have tried. We may have, but I'm willing to try some more. We have the Bay leaf across the way. And, you know, throughout, there's plenty. It's all in. What's the mood? You'll get a great coffee. So, I need to take my time and explore. Absolutely. Take one step at a time, Carol. Magella, it was so lovely. Thank you so much for inviting to you and the team for inviting us in and letting us take over your office today. Your office is beautiful. We'll make sure that we share some details. So for anybody who's listening in and not watching on TikTok, so you don't get to see the office, go on to YouTube or TikTok, and we'll make sure that we have a video of the interiors. Because today, we'd love to see each other's offices. Absolutely. We learned from each other. Yeah. That's a big thing. Well, I love the map that you have right across your world. So, we'll definitely be showcasing that. So that anybody coming in can be in no doubt as to where they are and where they ought to be looking. And so, thank you so much. Thank you, Carol. It's an absolute pleasure to talk to you today. That's all we've time for today. My thanks to Magella Galvin and the team here at D&G, Michael Galvin. And to all of the hospitality we've been shown and banded so far. Also, thanks to our social sponsor, dafda.ie, our and its most visited property website. And my thanks as always to producer Katie Talen, who is behind the scenes here of our pop-up studio and to the production team at Hear Me Roar Media, who will hopefully work magic on the audio. We'll catch you on the next episode of the property roundup here on I Property Radio. [Music]
