Dreaming of huge wins on the roulette tables and life changing poker hands, about 50 UK agents were delegates at the American National Association of Realtors (NAR) annual convention – this year in Las Vegas, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the NAR.
‘Sin City’ and ‘Estate Agents’ don’t make very good bedfellows, but with some 30,000 delegates from all over the World, the NAR has to use towns with gazillions of hotel beds and very large convention centres. Las Vegas fits the bill perfectly. A convention of this size is considered quite small in the US. Welcome to American where bigger very definitely means better (to them anyway).
A day on the plane, 4,500 miles and 8 time zones later, Las Vegas hits you like an over-excited teenager. Everything is in your face – constantly, coaxing you to play 24 hours a day. Sleep seems an irrelevant nuisance.
It’s been 10 years since I last visited, and the City has changed out of all recognition. Not much remains as I remember it. The New York New York hotel which I saw being constructed is billed as being reopened, after remodeling, refitted and updating – in just 10 years. Las Vegas comes to life at night with all the incredible lights and displays of erupting volcanoes, dancing fountains and so on. During the day, it looks tired and a bit miserable, like most of the people walking the streets after a long night getting smashed and losing their shirt on the roulette tables or mesmeric fruit machines.
There was great excitement within hours of arriving. The Stardust hotel was to be blown up that night, (to make way for another new 5,000 room hotel). Not something you see every day, so we struggled through to 2am to see and hear the quite incredibly loud firework display – clearly noise isn’t a problem given that everyone is still awake! – followed by a dramatic countdown and the explosion itself.
The building collapsed like the proverbial pack of cards just 200 metres away from us and we were soon engulfed by the cloud dust that raced towards us rather like the TV footage of 9/11, fortunately without the tragedy.
Gondolas in Vegas!
The Sands convention centre adjoins the Venetian Hotel, which, as the name suggests, take its cue from the watery Italian City. I’ve never seen roulette tables in Venice, but this hotel has genuine Venetian gondolas with real Italian gondoliers who, with a wistful sigh, will sing ‘O sole mio’ or “the Cornetto song” as you might know it!
My hotel is next to the convention centre but it still takes a 15 minute walk to get to the conference. The UK attendees who made the trip this year were given an endless list of lectures and talks to attend. Whilst the American way of selling property differs from ours, there are many common factors.
We speak the same language which helps, and we want to make money too, as well as sharing business tips, leadership skills amongst other matters.
Building international relations
On Tuesday evening, the NAEA, together with our friends from similar associations in New Zealand and Australia, held a drinks party as they had done last year in New Orleans. Last year’s success had clearly filtered back amongst other associations as there were infiltrators from Holland, France, South Africa, Spain and even a chap from Argentina. National flags adorned the walls, with top marks going to Peter Bolton King for noticing that the Union Jack was upside down. He must have paid attention in cub scouts.
Another early start the next morning. My cheap hotel corridor is strewn with hundreds of calling cards offering all manner of pastimes all for the same curious price of sixty nine dollars. The discount beer bar is still doing a roaring trade in the casino, and the tables are full of glazed-eyed punters. It is 7.30am.
One of the great attractions of NAR is the well organised networking opportunities with specific countries. There is particularly good representation from South America and the Caribbean in the International 2nd Home and Resort Pavilion and they are overly keen to do business without realising that the UK market for high rise apartments in the kidnapping quarter of Bogota is limited.
The Expo is vast. Row after row of stands offering everything from cheesy business cards with your photo on to supposedly high-tech ‘for sale’ boards illuminated by a couple of torches.
There are plenty of competitions to enter with prizes including holidays, Cadillac cars and Las Vegas sized piles of cash. Celebrities too. Sugar Ray Leonard, the ex world Champion and Olympic champion boxer made an appearance, although what for, and what the connection was with NAR remains a mystery.
Peter Knight of Phoenix plc has become something of a regular speaker at the NAR conventions, and this year his talk on ‘Profiting from International Sales’ had him on stage belting out an enthralling talk like a well rehearsed Elvis stage show for an hour and a half.
NAEA Chief Executive honoured
Later that day, old timer Bill Cosby took the stage in front of 6,000 delegates to keep us all amused before the International evening black tie dinner. Attended by several hundred, including our President Stewart Lilly and NAEA International chairman Ian Tonge, the highlight of the evening was a special award as an Honorary CIPS Designee presented to Peter Bolton King by the NAR for his fantastic efforts in promoting business links between our associations.
John Mike (a long term friend of the NAEA) who as the NAR’s presidential liaison officer to the UK was similarly recognised. The dancing to a great live band went on late into the night.The next NAR convention is in Orlando in November this year. Details from www.realtor.org Tickets go on sale first week in May.
James Wyatt MNAEA, MARLA, TRC, REALTOR ® is a partner at Barton Wyatt International based in Wentworth, Virginia Water. Tel: 01344 843000
Friday, June 27, 2008
The Diary of a Global Estate Agent - Air travel, guilt free
Chapter 8
Carbon emissions are big news at the moment. There seems to be a story in the papers every other day about some royal flying off here or there to pick up an eco award. Recently there have been threats to increase the tax paid by frequent flyers, as if last years hike in ‘departure’ tax wasn’t bad enough.
It is a growing irritation for the likes of me and thousands of Brits who choose to live or holiday abroad. Now there is no way I will stop flying either on business or for pleasure, so I’m getting into carbon offset payments. It’s guilt money I suppose. I fly, I pay, and someone plants a few
trees or something. So everything’s OK then! The Government approved Pure Trust helps me travel completely guilt free. So off I went to Pisa.
Wednesday
This is a day trip, but with business out of the way, I make time to skip up to the top of the leaning tower. A uniquely disastrous Italian building job. Quite why it hasn’t fallen over is anyone’s guess, but British engineers have in recent years managed to tilt it back a bit, and it supposedly has another 300 years left in it.
There’s not much else in Pisa, so I drive over to nearby Lucca for lunch. It’s a lovely little Roman walled city with lots of oddities such as the 150 foot tall Torre dei Guinigi with fully grown oak trees at the top.
Thursday and Friday
In Brussels for a meeting of Agents selling Pueblo Don Thomas (PDT) in La Gomera, Canary Islands. PDT is headed up by the lovely Brigitte Gypen. Agents from Holland, Belgium, Spain, Germany as well as Dominik Haendly from Chestertons in London (and me!) meet up at the Airport Crown Plaza hotel to collaborate on ideas to boost sales.
La Gomera is a volcanic speck of an island next to Tenerife in the Canary Islands. It is a wonderful scenic place. Small, no traffic, few tourists, a simple way of life. It’s even got a rain forest. Problem is that it takes a while to get there. 4 hour flight, then ferry, then taxi, or flight and private plane hop, or of course private plane all the way! There is also the small issue of price. These properties start at €400,000 and head on up to over €1m.
The resort overlooks a picture postcard pretty golf course sloping down to the cliffs with a view of the ocean from every hole. It is owned by Norwegian shipping tycoon Fred Olsen who has significant shipping interests in the Canary Islands.
Personally, I can rave about La Gomera as an Island – but it gets tainted with the Tenerife ‘fish & chips & 10 pints of lager’ brush. We share ideas with each other and discuss different marketing methods. It is amazingly useful and very interesting to hear of the variety of marketing methods used around Europe (ours are far superior!). Tongues and ideas loosen during lunch as the wine does its trick. All too soon the call of the evening dinner party I have to get to makes me run for the airport.
Monday
The totally awful rain and hurricane type gusting wind on the drive to Gatwick remind me of one of the few perks in the job – it will soon undoubtedly be sunny and warm where I am headed to. Get to Almeria in Spain. Bummer, it’s cloudy and windy.
The lunar landscape of the Parque Natural Cabo de Gata in this area has a stark beauty about it with smooth wavy rock forms have silver green hues and pale copper bands. Good enough for John Wayne to have used it for some of his dreadful cowboy films. In contrast the craggy coastline has a wildness about it that belies the fact that this is a tourist area. Johnny Depp and his Pirates of the Caribbean filmed here.
45 minutes up the coast and I’m at Playa Macenas, a new golf, hotel, beachfront resort near Mojacar. New beachfront golf is unusual which makes this development special. It’s well under way and the first occupiers will be in later next year. There is also a large beachfront hotel being built and a smart Clubhouse. The beach itself is shortly to undergo a bit of Michael Jackson type surgery. The sand is too dark apparently, so the local council is importing white sand from Saudi Arabia! After a stomach churning ride around the hilly building site with Sally Tallant of developer MedGroup, we go back to their beachfront offices and take a look at the DVD of the project and to discuss the exhibition we are holding for them.
Back to my hotel which is a reincarnation of Stalag Luft and appears to have been built in the 1960s. Then I spot the foundation stone: built 2001. Terrifyingly awful all round.
Tuesday
I head off to see Desert Springs golf resort. On the way I pass hundreds of disused cave houses which are part of the scenery in this area from the silver mining days. Staggeringly I also passed a brand new cave house in the middle of construction. Yours, Mr Fred Flintstone for just £60,000. No heating required as your cave will naturally maintain 18 degrees all year round.
Further up the road near Cuevas del Almanzora is a stark reminder of the water issues Spain has. The local dam was finished in 1991 and was the backdrop for the rowing events at the Barcelona Olympics a year later. It is huge – hundreds of metres high. But it is also empty.
Desert Springs is a bit like Disneyland – the buildings don’t quite look real and are painted in incredibly garish colours. Lots of cacti supposedly give the desert feel to this grown-up theme park, and yet the golf course grass is such a vivid colour, they must come out at night to spray it green. With villas in the€500,000 to €1.5m range, this is a resort for the rich. With the airport over an hour away, I’m left wondering about the priceless mantra of ‘location, location, location’.
On my way back to the airport, I stop for a bite to eat in a beach town, only to find that it is a large naturist town – the whole lot! A whole town of people walking around starkers, doing their shopping, sitting at the bar, sunning themselves on the beach. This is suddenly an attractive proposition. Maybe a sandwich and a drink next to a blonde page 3 image of heaven only wearing a pair of high-heels?
Sadly not. It’s too cold, and anyway all the locals are knackered old retired Germans who clothes are very much in evidence today. Might have to revisit though…
James Wyatt MNAEA, MARLA, TRC, REALTOR ® is a partner at Barton Wyatt International based in Wentworth, Virginia Water. Tel: 01344 843000
Carbon emissions are big news at the moment. There seems to be a story in the papers every other day about some royal flying off here or there to pick up an eco award. Recently there have been threats to increase the tax paid by frequent flyers, as if last years hike in ‘departure’ tax wasn’t bad enough.
It is a growing irritation for the likes of me and thousands of Brits who choose to live or holiday abroad. Now there is no way I will stop flying either on business or for pleasure, so I’m getting into carbon offset payments. It’s guilt money I suppose. I fly, I pay, and someone plants a few
trees or something. So everything’s OK then! The Government approved Pure Trust helps me travel completely guilt free. So off I went to Pisa.
Wednesday
This is a day trip, but with business out of the way, I make time to skip up to the top of the leaning tower. A uniquely disastrous Italian building job. Quite why it hasn’t fallen over is anyone’s guess, but British engineers have in recent years managed to tilt it back a bit, and it supposedly has another 300 years left in it.
There’s not much else in Pisa, so I drive over to nearby Lucca for lunch. It’s a lovely little Roman walled city with lots of oddities such as the 150 foot tall Torre dei Guinigi with fully grown oak trees at the top.
Thursday and Friday
In Brussels for a meeting of Agents selling Pueblo Don Thomas (PDT) in La Gomera, Canary Islands. PDT is headed up by the lovely Brigitte Gypen. Agents from Holland, Belgium, Spain, Germany as well as Dominik Haendly from Chestertons in London (and me!) meet up at the Airport Crown Plaza hotel to collaborate on ideas to boost sales.
La Gomera is a volcanic speck of an island next to Tenerife in the Canary Islands. It is a wonderful scenic place. Small, no traffic, few tourists, a simple way of life. It’s even got a rain forest. Problem is that it takes a while to get there. 4 hour flight, then ferry, then taxi, or flight and private plane hop, or of course private plane all the way! There is also the small issue of price. These properties start at €400,000 and head on up to over €1m.
The resort overlooks a picture postcard pretty golf course sloping down to the cliffs with a view of the ocean from every hole. It is owned by Norwegian shipping tycoon Fred Olsen who has significant shipping interests in the Canary Islands.
Personally, I can rave about La Gomera as an Island – but it gets tainted with the Tenerife ‘fish & chips & 10 pints of lager’ brush. We share ideas with each other and discuss different marketing methods. It is amazingly useful and very interesting to hear of the variety of marketing methods used around Europe (ours are far superior!). Tongues and ideas loosen during lunch as the wine does its trick. All too soon the call of the evening dinner party I have to get to makes me run for the airport.
Monday
The totally awful rain and hurricane type gusting wind on the drive to Gatwick remind me of one of the few perks in the job – it will soon undoubtedly be sunny and warm where I am headed to. Get to Almeria in Spain. Bummer, it’s cloudy and windy.
The lunar landscape of the Parque Natural Cabo de Gata in this area has a stark beauty about it with smooth wavy rock forms have silver green hues and pale copper bands. Good enough for John Wayne to have used it for some of his dreadful cowboy films. In contrast the craggy coastline has a wildness about it that belies the fact that this is a tourist area. Johnny Depp and his Pirates of the Caribbean filmed here.
45 minutes up the coast and I’m at Playa Macenas, a new golf, hotel, beachfront resort near Mojacar. New beachfront golf is unusual which makes this development special. It’s well under way and the first occupiers will be in later next year. There is also a large beachfront hotel being built and a smart Clubhouse. The beach itself is shortly to undergo a bit of Michael Jackson type surgery. The sand is too dark apparently, so the local council is importing white sand from Saudi Arabia! After a stomach churning ride around the hilly building site with Sally Tallant of developer MedGroup, we go back to their beachfront offices and take a look at the DVD of the project and to discuss the exhibition we are holding for them.
Back to my hotel which is a reincarnation of Stalag Luft and appears to have been built in the 1960s. Then I spot the foundation stone: built 2001. Terrifyingly awful all round.
Tuesday
I head off to see Desert Springs golf resort. On the way I pass hundreds of disused cave houses which are part of the scenery in this area from the silver mining days. Staggeringly I also passed a brand new cave house in the middle of construction. Yours, Mr Fred Flintstone for just £60,000. No heating required as your cave will naturally maintain 18 degrees all year round.
Further up the road near Cuevas del Almanzora is a stark reminder of the water issues Spain has. The local dam was finished in 1991 and was the backdrop for the rowing events at the Barcelona Olympics a year later. It is huge – hundreds of metres high. But it is also empty.
Desert Springs is a bit like Disneyland – the buildings don’t quite look real and are painted in incredibly garish colours. Lots of cacti supposedly give the desert feel to this grown-up theme park, and yet the golf course grass is such a vivid colour, they must come out at night to spray it green. With villas in the€500,000 to €1.5m range, this is a resort for the rich. With the airport over an hour away, I’m left wondering about the priceless mantra of ‘location, location, location’.
On my way back to the airport, I stop for a bite to eat in a beach town, only to find that it is a large naturist town – the whole lot! A whole town of people walking around starkers, doing their shopping, sitting at the bar, sunning themselves on the beach. This is suddenly an attractive proposition. Maybe a sandwich and a drink next to a blonde page 3 image of heaven only wearing a pair of high-heels?
Sadly not. It’s too cold, and anyway all the locals are knackered old retired Germans who clothes are very much in evidence today. Might have to revisit though…
James Wyatt MNAEA, MARLA, TRC, REALTOR ® is a partner at Barton Wyatt International based in Wentworth, Virginia Water. Tel: 01344 843000
Thursday, June 19, 2008
The Diary of a Global Estate Agent (and a brush with the law)
Chapter 7
I’ve had a large number of calls and messages from a number of (clearly bored pre-Christmas) Agents wanting to know if they can have my job. On occasions, you are welcome to my alarm clock at 4am. On the other hand, I don’t fancy swapping a nice Caribbean beach (whilst working
naturally) for Preston or Middlesborough. Even though I’m sure they are jolly nice places! I’ve also been asked countless times where I go on holiday what with spending a fair amount of time traveling. Well, you nosey lot, generally anywhere I haven’t been before. I like visiting European cities for short breaks with lots of culture – particularly the unusual Eastern European destinations. Longer holidays are spent with a good book by a pool, and the children in kids club…
2006 was left behind with a crazy trail of 87 flights and over 100,000 miles of travel. Friends
frequently gasp – “you’ll be able to use all those airmiles to take the kids on holiday”. Sadly not, low cost airlines like to reward your patronage with ever less legroom (or am I still growing?) and ever tighter schedules to stick to. Easy winner of last years travel low point was a Stansted to Birmingham diversion at 1am, with my car not very conveniently still at Stansted.
So, New Years Resolution – travel a bit less. Like most New Years resolutions, I found it hard. I became irritable and developed a nervous twitch. 9 days in, I got on a plane to Portugal.
Monday
I’m staying in the pretty fishing town of Tavira in a carbuncle hotel – modern, functional, 4 stars and mine for a laughable £10.19 a night (and that included the taxes!). Breakfast is included too, so after filling up and taking a few bits and bobs for a lunch on the go, I head off down the Algarve coast. A worrying warning light on my titchy little hire car goes on and off all the way to Vilamoura. I meet up with Alan Ellis who is marketing a fab new apartment complex at the Victoria Clube de Golfe where the Portugal Masters will be held on the Arnold Palmer course for the next three years. Posh flats from 500,000 upwards seem good value. A quick dash half an hour down the motorway, and that pesky warning light is now on all the time. It’s red and exactly like the one in my Mercedes which warns you of the imminent death of the engine. Sod it, it’s a hire car and I have a tight schedule. I arrive at Amendoeira Resort being built by Oceanico to see progress. I hadn’t seen this since last August and the golf courses are formed and
building underway. Not much time, so on to a meeting at Parque de Floresta located towards the Eastern end of the Algarve. This established resort is still building new properties after 10 years of gradual development, and there’s plenty to come. A good meeting with Ewa Petersson from their marketing department.
The red warning light gets to me, so I stop at a garage, open the bonnet and stare incomprehensively into the space in front of me. I check the lawn mower engines oil and water, and look for the inevitably missing manual. All seems fine, but it is quite clear that this car is going to expire. It a long way back to the hotel, so top speed all the way. I stop at the airport to moan to Europcar about my pile of trash and the red ‘death’ light. “That car always does that mate! Don’t worry about it”. Quite bizarrely, the red light disappears soon after and never comes back on…
Tuesday
He shouted something Portuguese at me. Clearly the policeman wanted me to step out of the car for a chat. Then he shouted something at me again. What to say? I only know the Portuguese
for “can I have a beer please” which, in my current predicament, wasn’t likely to go down very well. Mobile phone use in the car is a serious offence in Portugal as I was finding out. After an immense amount of paperwork by three police officers and a trip to the cash machine, I’m set free by Mr Grumpy Cop.
The delightful Agnieszka Lutz greets me at the Monte Rei resort. She thinks my 120 fine is good value – it can be up to 600. We drive round the emerging resort and look over the fantastic new Clubhouse which opens soon. Lunch is outside near the beach in the sunshine, which is a contrast
to the weather a home. The Missus calls me to say the hurricane type winds have ripped the roof off our new garden shed. Hey ho – what can I do!
Just over the border into Spain is the Fadesa resort of Costa Esuri. I nip into the vast aircraft hanger sized showroom and then take a look over the resort to check on progress. The Spanish really know how to speed build, no doubt about it.
Wednesday
A night at home, before a morning flight to Murcia in Spain. Originally the land of Oranges, lemons, almonds, artichokes, broccoli, and now the land of cranes, new holiday homes and new golf courses. This is Spain’s latest version of the Wild West.
Our client puts us up at a brand new 5 star Intercontinental Hotel. It is a marked improvement on Monday’s hotel! The bathroom goodies are so good, they’re worth pinching to take home.
Thursday
Our driver for the day is Pepe, who treats his great big people wagon like a racing car. We survive 250 km of macho loony driving and squeeze in seeing 5 Polaris resorts. The price point is incredibly attractive at these resorts. 120,000 buys a 2 bedroom apartment within a golf and
leisure community. I didn’t meet any owners who could moan about any aspect of the development.
Then on to La Manga, now owned by the Spanish company Med Group. This former British owned golf resort has been a favourite winter training destination for years with football clubs, tennis players and cricket teams. Now it is having a spruce up. There’s some interesting investment property for about 400,000 which will interest some of our buyers. Half an hour inland, and we are at Hacienda del Alamo, heavily promoted in the press, and a great spot to end a busy day.
Friday
A beautiful cloudless day, but it’s suddenly turned bitterly freezing cold, and we shiver for an hour on a golf buggy seeing over the resort. The distant mountains provide a wonderful backdrop.
Then on to Lorca resort high in the hills near the town of Lorca. I gather Lorca town worth seeing, but as usual we are chasing the clock. The resort has just started construction, and has a couple of interesting oddities including a miniature bullring and an iron ore mine. Somehow, we have a buyer who specifically wants to buy in this very location so our Agency agreement is quickly concluded!
Cutting it fine, we head back to the airport – my New Years Resolution in tatters…
James Wyatt MNAEA, MARLA, TRC, REALTOR ® is a partner at Barton Wyatt International based in Wentworth, Virginia Water. Tel: 01344 843000
I’ve had a large number of calls and messages from a number of (clearly bored pre-Christmas) Agents wanting to know if they can have my job. On occasions, you are welcome to my alarm clock at 4am. On the other hand, I don’t fancy swapping a nice Caribbean beach (whilst working
naturally) for Preston or Middlesborough. Even though I’m sure they are jolly nice places! I’ve also been asked countless times where I go on holiday what with spending a fair amount of time traveling. Well, you nosey lot, generally anywhere I haven’t been before. I like visiting European cities for short breaks with lots of culture – particularly the unusual Eastern European destinations. Longer holidays are spent with a good book by a pool, and the children in kids club…
2006 was left behind with a crazy trail of 87 flights and over 100,000 miles of travel. Friends
frequently gasp – “you’ll be able to use all those airmiles to take the kids on holiday”. Sadly not, low cost airlines like to reward your patronage with ever less legroom (or am I still growing?) and ever tighter schedules to stick to. Easy winner of last years travel low point was a Stansted to Birmingham diversion at 1am, with my car not very conveniently still at Stansted.
So, New Years Resolution – travel a bit less. Like most New Years resolutions, I found it hard. I became irritable and developed a nervous twitch. 9 days in, I got on a plane to Portugal.
Monday
I’m staying in the pretty fishing town of Tavira in a carbuncle hotel – modern, functional, 4 stars and mine for a laughable £10.19 a night (and that included the taxes!). Breakfast is included too, so after filling up and taking a few bits and bobs for a lunch on the go, I head off down the Algarve coast. A worrying warning light on my titchy little hire car goes on and off all the way to Vilamoura. I meet up with Alan Ellis who is marketing a fab new apartment complex at the Victoria Clube de Golfe where the Portugal Masters will be held on the Arnold Palmer course for the next three years. Posh flats from 500,000 upwards seem good value. A quick dash half an hour down the motorway, and that pesky warning light is now on all the time. It’s red and exactly like the one in my Mercedes which warns you of the imminent death of the engine. Sod it, it’s a hire car and I have a tight schedule. I arrive at Amendoeira Resort being built by Oceanico to see progress. I hadn’t seen this since last August and the golf courses are formed and
building underway. Not much time, so on to a meeting at Parque de Floresta located towards the Eastern end of the Algarve. This established resort is still building new properties after 10 years of gradual development, and there’s plenty to come. A good meeting with Ewa Petersson from their marketing department.
The red warning light gets to me, so I stop at a garage, open the bonnet and stare incomprehensively into the space in front of me. I check the lawn mower engines oil and water, and look for the inevitably missing manual. All seems fine, but it is quite clear that this car is going to expire. It a long way back to the hotel, so top speed all the way. I stop at the airport to moan to Europcar about my pile of trash and the red ‘death’ light. “That car always does that mate! Don’t worry about it”. Quite bizarrely, the red light disappears soon after and never comes back on…
Tuesday
He shouted something Portuguese at me. Clearly the policeman wanted me to step out of the car for a chat. Then he shouted something at me again. What to say? I only know the Portuguese
for “can I have a beer please” which, in my current predicament, wasn’t likely to go down very well. Mobile phone use in the car is a serious offence in Portugal as I was finding out. After an immense amount of paperwork by three police officers and a trip to the cash machine, I’m set free by Mr Grumpy Cop.
The delightful Agnieszka Lutz greets me at the Monte Rei resort. She thinks my 120 fine is good value – it can be up to 600. We drive round the emerging resort and look over the fantastic new Clubhouse which opens soon. Lunch is outside near the beach in the sunshine, which is a contrast
to the weather a home. The Missus calls me to say the hurricane type winds have ripped the roof off our new garden shed. Hey ho – what can I do!
Just over the border into Spain is the Fadesa resort of Costa Esuri. I nip into the vast aircraft hanger sized showroom and then take a look over the resort to check on progress. The Spanish really know how to speed build, no doubt about it.
Wednesday
A night at home, before a morning flight to Murcia in Spain. Originally the land of Oranges, lemons, almonds, artichokes, broccoli, and now the land of cranes, new holiday homes and new golf courses. This is Spain’s latest version of the Wild West.
Our client puts us up at a brand new 5 star Intercontinental Hotel. It is a marked improvement on Monday’s hotel! The bathroom goodies are so good, they’re worth pinching to take home.
Thursday
Our driver for the day is Pepe, who treats his great big people wagon like a racing car. We survive 250 km of macho loony driving and squeeze in seeing 5 Polaris resorts. The price point is incredibly attractive at these resorts. 120,000 buys a 2 bedroom apartment within a golf and
leisure community. I didn’t meet any owners who could moan about any aspect of the development.
Then on to La Manga, now owned by the Spanish company Med Group. This former British owned golf resort has been a favourite winter training destination for years with football clubs, tennis players and cricket teams. Now it is having a spruce up. There’s some interesting investment property for about 400,000 which will interest some of our buyers. Half an hour inland, and we are at Hacienda del Alamo, heavily promoted in the press, and a great spot to end a busy day.
Friday
A beautiful cloudless day, but it’s suddenly turned bitterly freezing cold, and we shiver for an hour on a golf buggy seeing over the resort. The distant mountains provide a wonderful backdrop.
Then on to Lorca resort high in the hills near the town of Lorca. I gather Lorca town worth seeing, but as usual we are chasing the clock. The resort has just started construction, and has a couple of interesting oddities including a miniature bullring and an iron ore mine. Somehow, we have a buyer who specifically wants to buy in this very location so our Agency agreement is quickly concluded!
Cutting it fine, we head back to the airport – my New Years Resolution in tatters…
James Wyatt MNAEA, MARLA, TRC, REALTOR ® is a partner at Barton Wyatt International based in Wentworth, Virginia Water. Tel: 01344 843000
The Diary of a Global Estate Agent
Most of you don’t know me from Adam, so I’ll put you in the picture very briefly. I started out as an Estate Agent in 1984 working for Mann & Co. in Walton-on-Thames before a short foray into London with Chestertons (to see how the posh lot sold houses). Joining the family firm in 1987, I thought I would sell houses until the cows came home and ate the grass off my grave. How wrong I was – my brother joined the firm and left no space for me as he was a much better salesman. So I became a lettings ‘lady’ and expanded that side of the business. Always wanting a challenge, I restarted the overseas department we had before the UK property crash of 1990.
Monday
I’m on a Gulf Air plane that I boarded yesterday evening, heading for Muscat in Oman. My eyeballs have trouble focusing at 2.30 GMT when breakfast is served. It is 5.30am Oman time,
and we land 90 minutes later. It is exactly 100 degrees already. A blast of hot air as we get off the plane is rather nice – a real reminder that I am somewhere totally different to the rain and coolish weather I left in London.
I’m picked up by my host for the day and she takes me back to their sumptuous house nearby. They are one of our clients and have impeccable royal connections in Oman. Breakfast is served by a servant and I keep quiet about this being the second breakie of the day….well, there was four hours in between the two!
I am in Oman for the day to get a brief overview of the increasingly busy International sales market which is hotting up and likely to boom any minute. Some would say it already is. A business meeting with local experts is followed by several hours touring the amazingly beautiful craggy coastline to see future developments sites in and around Muscat. Then it’s back to the
airport for the quick hop to Dubai where I find my luggage has been lost……
Tuesday
Having driven an hour across the desert to the Sultanate of Ras Al Khaimah last night, I then had to go shopping for a change of clothes for tomorrow and toiletries. I now realise that I should have tried the shirt on. It doesn’t fit and I resemble the Michelin man. Good news is that my bag has been found. First I have a meeting at Al Hamra Village which we are marketing. It is impressive and several showhouses are already completed on the 600 acre resort. The 18 hole golf course is taking shape and the first green shoots of grass are appearing – and this is the desert! After looking over the properties we stop off at the development’s 5* hotel for a drink and giggle at the strangely coloured holiday makers sitting in 110 degree of sun.
Back across the desert and pick up luggage from the airport before dashing to the other site of Dubai for a meeting with Nakheel – you might not know the name but you’ve probably seen The Palm development which they are building.
The site visit was an interesting experience in how to remain looking interested when looking at several miles of sand and nothing else. A painful two hour car trip back to the airport (the traffic in Dubai is dreadful) and a flight on to Bahrain.
Wednesday
I’m staying with friends here and having not seen them for a year, we have a lot of catching up to do. Inevitably, property comes into the conversation. Bahrain, like the rest of the Middle East is going through a manic building race, with it’s eye on the Financial Services Office market. After going through the 200 emails I have, it’s off to the Property Arabia Exhibition. The stands are impressive and I chat to existing clients about their products and reassure them of BW International’s efforts. Bahrain is not a major market for UK buyers and I have to be in my best ‘schmoozing’ mode. It’s not a big exhibition, so I’m finished by mid afternoon and go for a swim. At 5pm we go to a local hotel for a property wine and cheese reception which goes on all evening. Interesting to see that those from other nearby countries where alcohol is banned, seem to be getting a bit giggly!
Thursday
Oh dear, I shouldn’t have had those last 4 glasses. The searing heat makes the situation twice as bad. I travel down to see Riffa Views Golf Resort. This is an unusual development as there is an existing golf course and the development is being built around that. In their wisdom, the planners are actually rebuilding half of the golf course which has hugely upset existing members. Then on to a huge 20 square km land reclamation development called Durrat Al Bahrain which has 12 Islands and 12 miles of beaches. Formula 1 whiz Jenson Button has bought a home there.
Hopefully BW International can work with the developer.
Friday
Spend the day on the plane back to London writing reports and planning next weeks work schedule. I catch a movie and a few zzzz’s. My wife is at Heathrow which is lovely, and we get home half an hour before our four weekend guests arrive. Thank goodness there is a bank holiday on Monday!
James Wyatt MNAEA, MARLA, TRC, REALTOR ® is a partner at Barton Wyatt International based in Wentworth, Virginia Water. Tel: 01344 843000
Monday
I’m on a Gulf Air plane that I boarded yesterday evening, heading for Muscat in Oman. My eyeballs have trouble focusing at 2.30 GMT when breakfast is served. It is 5.30am Oman time,
and we land 90 minutes later. It is exactly 100 degrees already. A blast of hot air as we get off the plane is rather nice – a real reminder that I am somewhere totally different to the rain and coolish weather I left in London.
I’m picked up by my host for the day and she takes me back to their sumptuous house nearby. They are one of our clients and have impeccable royal connections in Oman. Breakfast is served by a servant and I keep quiet about this being the second breakie of the day….well, there was four hours in between the two!
I am in Oman for the day to get a brief overview of the increasingly busy International sales market which is hotting up and likely to boom any minute. Some would say it already is. A business meeting with local experts is followed by several hours touring the amazingly beautiful craggy coastline to see future developments sites in and around Muscat. Then it’s back to the
airport for the quick hop to Dubai where I find my luggage has been lost……
Tuesday
Having driven an hour across the desert to the Sultanate of Ras Al Khaimah last night, I then had to go shopping for a change of clothes for tomorrow and toiletries. I now realise that I should have tried the shirt on. It doesn’t fit and I resemble the Michelin man. Good news is that my bag has been found. First I have a meeting at Al Hamra Village which we are marketing. It is impressive and several showhouses are already completed on the 600 acre resort. The 18 hole golf course is taking shape and the first green shoots of grass are appearing – and this is the desert! After looking over the properties we stop off at the development’s 5* hotel for a drink and giggle at the strangely coloured holiday makers sitting in 110 degree of sun.
Back across the desert and pick up luggage from the airport before dashing to the other site of Dubai for a meeting with Nakheel – you might not know the name but you’ve probably seen The Palm development which they are building.
The site visit was an interesting experience in how to remain looking interested when looking at several miles of sand and nothing else. A painful two hour car trip back to the airport (the traffic in Dubai is dreadful) and a flight on to Bahrain.
Wednesday
I’m staying with friends here and having not seen them for a year, we have a lot of catching up to do. Inevitably, property comes into the conversation. Bahrain, like the rest of the Middle East is going through a manic building race, with it’s eye on the Financial Services Office market. After going through the 200 emails I have, it’s off to the Property Arabia Exhibition. The stands are impressive and I chat to existing clients about their products and reassure them of BW International’s efforts. Bahrain is not a major market for UK buyers and I have to be in my best ‘schmoozing’ mode. It’s not a big exhibition, so I’m finished by mid afternoon and go for a swim. At 5pm we go to a local hotel for a property wine and cheese reception which goes on all evening. Interesting to see that those from other nearby countries where alcohol is banned, seem to be getting a bit giggly!
Thursday
Oh dear, I shouldn’t have had those last 4 glasses. The searing heat makes the situation twice as bad. I travel down to see Riffa Views Golf Resort. This is an unusual development as there is an existing golf course and the development is being built around that. In their wisdom, the planners are actually rebuilding half of the golf course which has hugely upset existing members. Then on to a huge 20 square km land reclamation development called Durrat Al Bahrain which has 12 Islands and 12 miles of beaches. Formula 1 whiz Jenson Button has bought a home there.
Hopefully BW International can work with the developer.
Friday
Spend the day on the plane back to London writing reports and planning next weeks work schedule. I catch a movie and a few zzzz’s. My wife is at Heathrow which is lovely, and we get home half an hour before our four weekend guests arrive. Thank goodness there is a bank holiday on Monday!
James Wyatt MNAEA, MARLA, TRC, REALTOR ® is a partner at Barton Wyatt International based in Wentworth, Virginia Water. Tel: 01344 843000
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
The Diary of a Global Estate Agent - Florida
Chapter 6
To take the wife, or not. Take her, or not. Take, not, take, not. It’s a tricky one when you’re going on a business trip which on the face of it looks an attractive proposition to the missus.
I’m off to Florida on the grandly titled ‘NAEA Trade Mission’ which will take us away for a week meeting American Real Estate Agents and developers. Problem is that I’ve never taken the missus away on business. I mean, you don’t take your partner to the office – for a bit of comfort
or whatever – do you? On the other hand the benefits seem attractive. There’s a bird in your bed. The hotel room might stay tidy for once, and I’m unlikely to remain stuck in the bar until they throw me out at 2am.
Downsides are that I won’t be allowed to enjoy myself in the bar until 2am and there’ll certainly be no TV channel flicking fest every morning and evening. Bird in bed and clean hotel room win the day and she comes with me – for a week away from the kids, a week to shop, swim and sunbathe.
Wednesday
Mr Virgin transports us to Orlando during the day and before long we’re at the Hilton Garden Inn. It’s being renovated, so no swimming as the pool’s closed. Sorry love – still, there’s shopping to do. Our (very pleasant) room overlooks something resembling a nuclear research plant – no windows, and all a bit spooky. In the distance, a ride at SeaWorld soars upwards like a modern day church spire – willing us to prayer, except this one just wants you to pay.
The other delegates arrive during the day – our Commander in Chief, Chris Hall, via Amsterdam and somewhere in the North of the US. We all meet up with John Mike who is the NAR’s Presidential Liaison to the UK, who will marshal us around with great authority for the week. The overview of the week ahead doesn’t really take account of wives who might not have come along to work – they’ve got to join in – by order. Sorry love, no shopping either.
Thursday
Early bus to a resort by Pulte Homes. Bucks Fizz welcome – nice touch, before a lengthy talk by the developer. I sell homes on golf resorts, and this isn’t one of those, so I take only a vague interest in the apartments and townhouses. They provide a great lunch though. Then off to picturesque and historic Winter Park, North of Orlando. It must be one of the oldest parts of Florida dating back over a 100 years (gasp). Huge multi million dollar winter holiday homes overlook a number of connected lakes. After bumping into Jim Atkins (ex President of the NAEA) we take a boat ride around a couple of lakes. It rains hard for a while and in the absence of any roof, we all hold aloft a blue plastic sheet to cover us.
Time to speed on, and next stop is the Orlando Regional Realtors Association for a reception. This local Association has more members than the NAEA! Another wonderful spread of nosh and wine. 7 or 8 different nationalities explain how they celebrate Christmas – the Panamanians go totally over the top with ‘courting dancers’ (who looked as though they had just divorced) in traditional costume and a TV crew filming them. For the Brits, Laura Dickinson from UK company Moneycorp (who generously sponsored our coach) handed out mince pies and party
crackers. Cue, for everyone to put a silly hat on for the rest of the proceedings. We finished with
the first of many networking events.
Friday
Boarded coach and were whisked off to a very strange development near Disneyland. So strange that I kept no details for fear of catching something. The polystyrene ceiling tiles were a bad sign – the developer was from Slough, which probably had something to do with it. The cast of salesmen, advisors etc obviously had second jobs with The Addams Family across the road. A very odd bunch. Not interested, Bye-bye.
We escaped and drove to our first star resort of the trip, Reunion, being developed by Ginn who are a huge NYSE 100 company. We were due to see a number of their golf resorts during the week. After a slick introduction, a delicious lunch was served in their clubhouse and we then toured the impressive facility. Beautiful manicured golf course, and a smart selection of homes in all shapes and sizes.
And then on to Bella Collina – a Tuscan inspired development. Another Ginn resort where our home grown Nick Faldo is the course designer. The resort is very much in its infancy – the roads are in and woodland is being cleared, and that’s about it. Apart from a row of eight multi-million dollar showhomes – “Street of Dreams”, all of about 10,000 square feet, overlooking a lake. We are treated to a ‘reception’ (aka – flowing drinks and great nosh) in two of the houses, and carefully watch a large alligator crawling around the rear lawn!
Saturday
Up at 5.30am for our 6.20am coach to get us up to Flagler Beach airport. Ginn are flying us to their Ginn sur Mer resort in Grand Bahama. Their private terminal wouldn’t be out of place of a large house in Golders Green – fireplace and all!
A hop down to West Palm Beach to pick up some others and then just 20 minutes to the development’s private airstrip where they have their own customs house. This multibillion dollar resort is just underway and early investors should make a killing. For now, the deserted beaches covered in conch shells are dreamy. After lunch we all wander down to a nearby beach where a reggae band is playing which gets to the Commander, and he takes off his trousers for a paddle in the sea.
Sunday
Goodbye Orlando. We head South past endless orange groves towards The Palm Beaches and stop off at another Ginn resort – Tesoro, where we meet up with NAEA CEO Peter Bolton-King and his wife Laura. After last night, the ‘welcome’ drink of a Bloody Mary is, well… welcome. More golf to see, more lunch, more houses. It’s a big resort, so they have a helicopter (naturellement) to hand so we can see it more clearly from the air. Our pilot takes us for a spin down to the coast for a bit of dolphin chasing.
After arriving at our Marriot hotel, we are welcomed formally by John Mike and others from the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches, as well as meeting a nice little old lady who turns out to be the local Mayor. Then a networking event where we are outnumbered about 5 to 1. The pace of the ‘networking’ is bewildering – ‘Hi, my name is Randy Yank, here’s my card, can I have yours. Good to meet you. Goodbye’ …Next! A delicious gala dinner follows.
Monday
The Missus is ‘worn out’ and skives off for the day to do some shopping at the giant City Place centre next to the hotel. We’re not seeing any golfing resorts today so I drift along accepting the hospitality and making corny Agent comments –‘very spacious’ and ‘nice high ceilings’ etc etc.
Mid afternoon we stop at the offices of the Realtors Association of the Palm Beach for an excellent lecture on the American multiple listing system, and then move on for the essential late afternoon cocktail party at the Casa Bella development in Boca Raton. Four months ago these 4,500 sq ft houses were selling for $1.2m, but the US market has recently suffered a horrendous crash (they like to say ‘correction’). Some developers are desperate for cash, and we were offered the same house for $750,000 – about £380,000. Five beds, five baths, swimming
pool – amazing value. Fortified by a couple of gin and tonics, our CEO started rounding us up suggesting we all put £25,000 in each to buy one. The cocktails had done their job, and it seemed a jolly good idea. Fortunately, we were herded on to the coach before contracts were agreed.
Tuesday
Big slap-up breakfast at Emerald Dunes where we get transported from one apartment block to another by buggy – it is all of 100 metres. Two hours later at Toll Brothers offices, a huge lunch is on offer….Toll Brothers are a huge US builder and they have some products I could be interested in.
The girls then get their dearest wish, and are granted 2 hours shopping time, whilst the rest of us get to play a bit of golf at the fantastically swish Old Palm Golf Club. Their multi-video computerized training bay shows us all just how bad we really are. The pro spends his time with a look of complete bewilderment on his face. After a quick look at an $8m home (his and hers loos in the ensuite!), we meet up with the shoppers at the clubhouse for a very smart champagne and canapés party.
Back to the hotel before dressing up for the farewell dinner at the Governor’s Club in West Palm Beach. Speeches from both sides and lots of laughter and a great meal.
Wednesday
Time to go home. Spend the morning trying to pack. We’ve picked up an unbelievable amount of gifts, brochures – you name it. Books, dressing gowns, bottle openers, frisbees, pens and pads by the ton. After chucking out what I don’t need, there’s still the small issue of an extra 50kg of luggage…
We have lunch at the incredibly swish Breakers Hotel with Laura from Moneycorp and her boyfriend. Fish and chips and a coke for $50 a head! Over the three hour drive back to Orlando we agree that the trip has been an enormous success. It has been a very full programme, brilliant organised, and we’ve had a lot of fun too. The serious side of the trip is that we have to convert our visit into earning commissions. The hard work will start when we get home.
And I’m pleased I took the Missus. She enjoyed the ‘work’ side of the trip and got to go shopping…
James Wyatt MNAEA, MARLA, TRC, REALTOR ® is a partner at Barton Wyatt International based in Wentworth, Virginia Water. Tel: 01344 843000
To take the wife, or not. Take her, or not. Take, not, take, not. It’s a tricky one when you’re going on a business trip which on the face of it looks an attractive proposition to the missus.
I’m off to Florida on the grandly titled ‘NAEA Trade Mission’ which will take us away for a week meeting American Real Estate Agents and developers. Problem is that I’ve never taken the missus away on business. I mean, you don’t take your partner to the office – for a bit of comfort
or whatever – do you? On the other hand the benefits seem attractive. There’s a bird in your bed. The hotel room might stay tidy for once, and I’m unlikely to remain stuck in the bar until they throw me out at 2am.
Downsides are that I won’t be allowed to enjoy myself in the bar until 2am and there’ll certainly be no TV channel flicking fest every morning and evening. Bird in bed and clean hotel room win the day and she comes with me – for a week away from the kids, a week to shop, swim and sunbathe.
Wednesday
Mr Virgin transports us to Orlando during the day and before long we’re at the Hilton Garden Inn. It’s being renovated, so no swimming as the pool’s closed. Sorry love – still, there’s shopping to do. Our (very pleasant) room overlooks something resembling a nuclear research plant – no windows, and all a bit spooky. In the distance, a ride at SeaWorld soars upwards like a modern day church spire – willing us to prayer, except this one just wants you to pay.
The other delegates arrive during the day – our Commander in Chief, Chris Hall, via Amsterdam and somewhere in the North of the US. We all meet up with John Mike who is the NAR’s Presidential Liaison to the UK, who will marshal us around with great authority for the week. The overview of the week ahead doesn’t really take account of wives who might not have come along to work – they’ve got to join in – by order. Sorry love, no shopping either.
Thursday
Early bus to a resort by Pulte Homes. Bucks Fizz welcome – nice touch, before a lengthy talk by the developer. I sell homes on golf resorts, and this isn’t one of those, so I take only a vague interest in the apartments and townhouses. They provide a great lunch though. Then off to picturesque and historic Winter Park, North of Orlando. It must be one of the oldest parts of Florida dating back over a 100 years (gasp). Huge multi million dollar winter holiday homes overlook a number of connected lakes. After bumping into Jim Atkins (ex President of the NAEA) we take a boat ride around a couple of lakes. It rains hard for a while and in the absence of any roof, we all hold aloft a blue plastic sheet to cover us.
Time to speed on, and next stop is the Orlando Regional Realtors Association for a reception. This local Association has more members than the NAEA! Another wonderful spread of nosh and wine. 7 or 8 different nationalities explain how they celebrate Christmas – the Panamanians go totally over the top with ‘courting dancers’ (who looked as though they had just divorced) in traditional costume and a TV crew filming them. For the Brits, Laura Dickinson from UK company Moneycorp (who generously sponsored our coach) handed out mince pies and party
crackers. Cue, for everyone to put a silly hat on for the rest of the proceedings. We finished with
the first of many networking events.
Friday
Boarded coach and were whisked off to a very strange development near Disneyland. So strange that I kept no details for fear of catching something. The polystyrene ceiling tiles were a bad sign – the developer was from Slough, which probably had something to do with it. The cast of salesmen, advisors etc obviously had second jobs with The Addams Family across the road. A very odd bunch. Not interested, Bye-bye.
We escaped and drove to our first star resort of the trip, Reunion, being developed by Ginn who are a huge NYSE 100 company. We were due to see a number of their golf resorts during the week. After a slick introduction, a delicious lunch was served in their clubhouse and we then toured the impressive facility. Beautiful manicured golf course, and a smart selection of homes in all shapes and sizes.
And then on to Bella Collina – a Tuscan inspired development. Another Ginn resort where our home grown Nick Faldo is the course designer. The resort is very much in its infancy – the roads are in and woodland is being cleared, and that’s about it. Apart from a row of eight multi-million dollar showhomes – “Street of Dreams”, all of about 10,000 square feet, overlooking a lake. We are treated to a ‘reception’ (aka – flowing drinks and great nosh) in two of the houses, and carefully watch a large alligator crawling around the rear lawn!
Saturday
Up at 5.30am for our 6.20am coach to get us up to Flagler Beach airport. Ginn are flying us to their Ginn sur Mer resort in Grand Bahama. Their private terminal wouldn’t be out of place of a large house in Golders Green – fireplace and all!
A hop down to West Palm Beach to pick up some others and then just 20 minutes to the development’s private airstrip where they have their own customs house. This multibillion dollar resort is just underway and early investors should make a killing. For now, the deserted beaches covered in conch shells are dreamy. After lunch we all wander down to a nearby beach where a reggae band is playing which gets to the Commander, and he takes off his trousers for a paddle in the sea.
Sunday
Goodbye Orlando. We head South past endless orange groves towards The Palm Beaches and stop off at another Ginn resort – Tesoro, where we meet up with NAEA CEO Peter Bolton-King and his wife Laura. After last night, the ‘welcome’ drink of a Bloody Mary is, well… welcome. More golf to see, more lunch, more houses. It’s a big resort, so they have a helicopter (naturellement) to hand so we can see it more clearly from the air. Our pilot takes us for a spin down to the coast for a bit of dolphin chasing.
After arriving at our Marriot hotel, we are welcomed formally by John Mike and others from the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches, as well as meeting a nice little old lady who turns out to be the local Mayor. Then a networking event where we are outnumbered about 5 to 1. The pace of the ‘networking’ is bewildering – ‘Hi, my name is Randy Yank, here’s my card, can I have yours. Good to meet you. Goodbye’ …Next! A delicious gala dinner follows.
Monday
The Missus is ‘worn out’ and skives off for the day to do some shopping at the giant City Place centre next to the hotel. We’re not seeing any golfing resorts today so I drift along accepting the hospitality and making corny Agent comments –‘very spacious’ and ‘nice high ceilings’ etc etc.
Mid afternoon we stop at the offices of the Realtors Association of the Palm Beach for an excellent lecture on the American multiple listing system, and then move on for the essential late afternoon cocktail party at the Casa Bella development in Boca Raton. Four months ago these 4,500 sq ft houses were selling for $1.2m, but the US market has recently suffered a horrendous crash (they like to say ‘correction’). Some developers are desperate for cash, and we were offered the same house for $750,000 – about £380,000. Five beds, five baths, swimming
pool – amazing value. Fortified by a couple of gin and tonics, our CEO started rounding us up suggesting we all put £25,000 in each to buy one. The cocktails had done their job, and it seemed a jolly good idea. Fortunately, we were herded on to the coach before contracts were agreed.
Tuesday
Big slap-up breakfast at Emerald Dunes where we get transported from one apartment block to another by buggy – it is all of 100 metres. Two hours later at Toll Brothers offices, a huge lunch is on offer….Toll Brothers are a huge US builder and they have some products I could be interested in.
The girls then get their dearest wish, and are granted 2 hours shopping time, whilst the rest of us get to play a bit of golf at the fantastically swish Old Palm Golf Club. Their multi-video computerized training bay shows us all just how bad we really are. The pro spends his time with a look of complete bewilderment on his face. After a quick look at an $8m home (his and hers loos in the ensuite!), we meet up with the shoppers at the clubhouse for a very smart champagne and canapés party.
Back to the hotel before dressing up for the farewell dinner at the Governor’s Club in West Palm Beach. Speeches from both sides and lots of laughter and a great meal.
Wednesday
Time to go home. Spend the morning trying to pack. We’ve picked up an unbelievable amount of gifts, brochures – you name it. Books, dressing gowns, bottle openers, frisbees, pens and pads by the ton. After chucking out what I don’t need, there’s still the small issue of an extra 50kg of luggage…
We have lunch at the incredibly swish Breakers Hotel with Laura from Moneycorp and her boyfriend. Fish and chips and a coke for $50 a head! Over the three hour drive back to Orlando we agree that the trip has been an enormous success. It has been a very full programme, brilliant organised, and we’ve had a lot of fun too. The serious side of the trip is that we have to convert our visit into earning commissions. The hard work will start when we get home.
And I’m pleased I took the Missus. She enjoyed the ‘work’ side of the trip and got to go shopping…
James Wyatt MNAEA, MARLA, TRC, REALTOR ® is a partner at Barton Wyatt International based in Wentworth, Virginia Water. Tel: 01344 843000
The Diary of a Global Estate Agent - New Orleans
Chapter 5
James Wyatt hits New Orleans – joining 30,000 realtors for NARdi Gras!
There are three gatherings during the year that are well worth attending if you are (or are looking to be) in the overseas sales market. SIMA in Madrid is the world’s biggest property
exhibition covering an area 50% bigger than London’s ExCel Halls. With 800 exhibitors and 160,000 visitors from 60 countries, it is busy! Hugely worth visiting to see the staggering size and variety of stands which are quite often on two levels (display downstairs, bar upstairs), and usually built specifically for the show and then demolished! I’ve heard of developers spending €500,000 on a stand.
OPPLive! held it’s first B2B show last December and it is being repeated next month at Alexandra Palace on a grander scale. This was a brilliantly run two day event giving developers, agents, foreign exchange specialists etc the opportunity to network without the ‘complication’ of
‘Joe public’.
Lastly, The National Association of Realtors (NAR) in America hold their annual convention each year in a different city. This year, nearly 30,000 of us headed out to New Orleans – devastated in August 2005 by Hurricane Katrina and flooding – and NARdi Gras.
Thursday
Not a good start at Gatwick. I’ve got an iPod earbud firmly wedged in my ear, and a supervisor thinks I should go to hospital – “the ambulance will get you there in no time”. Slight panic on my part as the plane leaves in 40 minutes. Fortunately, common sense prevails. A paramedic turns up and extracts the offending thing with a pop.
Someone kindly takes pity on me and my pathetic earbud story, and moves me up to a giant seat at the front of the plane for the day trip to Philadelphia and then on to New Orleans.
Friday
Wide awake at 4am. I eventually decide to head into town on the tram for an early breakfast. First sign of Hurricane Katrina – there are no trams as the power lines were blown away.
Eventually find the Ernest Morial Convention Center which is a colossal 3 million square foot building beside the River Mississippi (and they’re about to add another 500,000 sq ft). One
end to the other is nearly three quarters of a mile long. That’s fine, but most of the meetings/lectures I have are at one end of the building, and the exhibition stands and food court are at the other end. Note for tomorrow – bring more comfortable shoes!
The day is spent at various meetings with gripping titles including “Top money making strategies in Online Marketing”, “Increase your Profits with Global Referrals!” and “Partnering
with Developers in the Second Homes Market”.
Later in the day, the exhibition is ‘officially’ opened by Tom Stevens, President of the NAR with lots of American hoo-ha. 800 exhibitors enthusiastically hand out thimble full sized drinks – not enough for any effect whatsoever. Fortunately the NAEA cocktail reception at the Sheraton lures us for proper sized drinks. Joint hosts are the Real Estate Institutes of New Zealand and Australia. Big-wigs from the UK include NAEA Chief Executive Peter Bolton King, President Charles Smailes and NAEA International supremo Ian Tonge. Other notables included Aussie
Marketing guru Ian Grace who talked at the NAEA Congress in London last year as well as brilliant motivational speaker Julie Ryan who I hope the NAEA will get over to the UK soon.
Saturday
Another lovely sunny day – absolutely perfect for being couped up in windowless meeting rooms. Today is mainly spent at the International Networking Center discussing opportunities with developers from Brazil, Mexico, Portugal, Spain, Bahamas, Panama, USA and Nicaragua
for some reason (apparently it’s really safe there now...). I bump into an old friend Kirkor Ajderhanyan who runs a hugely successful agency on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice. Being
from France he embraces me and plants a kiss on each cheek, which freaks out the Americans standing around us. Immediate discussion about “my wife and kids at home…” to ensure they
knew what was what.
Peter Knight who runs Phoenix plc (PR firm for the NAEA) is one of the speakers at a session entitled “Innovative Marketing Strategies from around the World”. His 25 minutes go down very well, and part of his presentation mentions me. He also points me out to the other delegates. At the end of the session there is a long queue (I’m not joking!) of people want to meet me. 45 minutes later, I have a load of cards, of which two or three may well be profitable. Thank-you Peter!
Later, 6000 of us jam into a hall with a massive stage for various award ceremonies, followed by a talk by ex-Presidents Bush and Clinton about their Bush/Clinton Katrina Fund which has raised $130m to ease the suffering of those caught by the devastating hurricane and flooding. George Bush was very funny (“let me tell you about the time I threw-up on the President of
Japan” etc), whilst Clinton played the straight man.
The evening is spent in Bourbon Street in the NAR ‘NARdi Gras’ parade passing by all the pubs, bars, music halls, strip joints etc. This attractive part of town has buildings in the French Colonial style – decorative wrought ironwork supporting balconies from which hundreds of ‘merry’ well-wishers hurl string beads at us. Ouch.
Sunday
Business starts a bit later today, so I head off for a walk into town. The old town was built above sea level and whilst Katrina did a lot of damage – windows blown in, trees blown away – it missed out on the flooding. This tourist area is largely back to normal. But I didn’t have to go far to find shopping Malls where half the shops were still empty, collecting dust. The Malls’ food hall had three of 15 counters open. Once you get into the badly flooded areas, it becomes a lot, lot worse. Street after street virtually abandoned. House after house still uninhabitable. This was a city of over 800,000 people before the August 2005 storm, and 15 months later, less than 200,000 are living here full time. It is a city which is slowly dragging itself off it’s knees, but these are still early days.
30,000 Estate Agents will have dropped $40m into the local economy over a few days – it is the biggest convention since Katrina. We followed the 2006 Librarians convention, which one shopkeeper described to me as being ‘a little quiet’!! Everywhere you went, bar tenders, shopkeepers, restaurateurs, bell-boys – everyone thanked us for coming to New Orleans.
Back to work and the rest of the day spent talking to exhibitors and developers. Anyone know of anyone interested in investing in El Salvador?! The convention was rounded off by a wonderful concert by Harry Connick JR, who is a New Orleans boy – remember his music from “When Harry met Sally”?
Monday
Time to head home. Bump into NAEA President Charles Smailes in the bar at the airport and we chat about the last few days. 44 Brits made it to New Orleans. 250 South Africans came, a similar number from Australia and 150 from New Zealand. Lets have more Brits in Las Vegas
next year! There are a huge number of opportunities and ideas to be had from the NAR convention. I’ve brought back plenty to keep me busy for some time and eventually good fees will pay back the cost of the trip many times over.
James Wyatt MNAEA, MARLA, TRC, REALTOR ® is a partner at Barton Wyatt International based in Wentworth, Virginia Water. Tel: 01344 843000
James Wyatt hits New Orleans – joining 30,000 realtors for NARdi Gras!
There are three gatherings during the year that are well worth attending if you are (or are looking to be) in the overseas sales market. SIMA in Madrid is the world’s biggest property
exhibition covering an area 50% bigger than London’s ExCel Halls. With 800 exhibitors and 160,000 visitors from 60 countries, it is busy! Hugely worth visiting to see the staggering size and variety of stands which are quite often on two levels (display downstairs, bar upstairs), and usually built specifically for the show and then demolished! I’ve heard of developers spending €500,000 on a stand.
OPPLive! held it’s first B2B show last December and it is being repeated next month at Alexandra Palace on a grander scale. This was a brilliantly run two day event giving developers, agents, foreign exchange specialists etc the opportunity to network without the ‘complication’ of
‘Joe public’.
Lastly, The National Association of Realtors (NAR) in America hold their annual convention each year in a different city. This year, nearly 30,000 of us headed out to New Orleans – devastated in August 2005 by Hurricane Katrina and flooding – and NARdi Gras.
Thursday
Not a good start at Gatwick. I’ve got an iPod earbud firmly wedged in my ear, and a supervisor thinks I should go to hospital – “the ambulance will get you there in no time”. Slight panic on my part as the plane leaves in 40 minutes. Fortunately, common sense prevails. A paramedic turns up and extracts the offending thing with a pop.
Someone kindly takes pity on me and my pathetic earbud story, and moves me up to a giant seat at the front of the plane for the day trip to Philadelphia and then on to New Orleans.
Friday
Wide awake at 4am. I eventually decide to head into town on the tram for an early breakfast. First sign of Hurricane Katrina – there are no trams as the power lines were blown away.
Eventually find the Ernest Morial Convention Center which is a colossal 3 million square foot building beside the River Mississippi (and they’re about to add another 500,000 sq ft). One
end to the other is nearly three quarters of a mile long. That’s fine, but most of the meetings/lectures I have are at one end of the building, and the exhibition stands and food court are at the other end. Note for tomorrow – bring more comfortable shoes!
The day is spent at various meetings with gripping titles including “Top money making strategies in Online Marketing”, “Increase your Profits with Global Referrals!” and “Partnering
with Developers in the Second Homes Market”.
Later in the day, the exhibition is ‘officially’ opened by Tom Stevens, President of the NAR with lots of American hoo-ha. 800 exhibitors enthusiastically hand out thimble full sized drinks – not enough for any effect whatsoever. Fortunately the NAEA cocktail reception at the Sheraton lures us for proper sized drinks. Joint hosts are the Real Estate Institutes of New Zealand and Australia. Big-wigs from the UK include NAEA Chief Executive Peter Bolton King, President Charles Smailes and NAEA International supremo Ian Tonge. Other notables included Aussie
Marketing guru Ian Grace who talked at the NAEA Congress in London last year as well as brilliant motivational speaker Julie Ryan who I hope the NAEA will get over to the UK soon.
Saturday
Another lovely sunny day – absolutely perfect for being couped up in windowless meeting rooms. Today is mainly spent at the International Networking Center discussing opportunities with developers from Brazil, Mexico, Portugal, Spain, Bahamas, Panama, USA and Nicaragua
for some reason (apparently it’s really safe there now...). I bump into an old friend Kirkor Ajderhanyan who runs a hugely successful agency on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice. Being
from France he embraces me and plants a kiss on each cheek, which freaks out the Americans standing around us. Immediate discussion about “my wife and kids at home…” to ensure they
knew what was what.
Peter Knight who runs Phoenix plc (PR firm for the NAEA) is one of the speakers at a session entitled “Innovative Marketing Strategies from around the World”. His 25 minutes go down very well, and part of his presentation mentions me. He also points me out to the other delegates. At the end of the session there is a long queue (I’m not joking!) of people want to meet me. 45 minutes later, I have a load of cards, of which two or three may well be profitable. Thank-you Peter!
Later, 6000 of us jam into a hall with a massive stage for various award ceremonies, followed by a talk by ex-Presidents Bush and Clinton about their Bush/Clinton Katrina Fund which has raised $130m to ease the suffering of those caught by the devastating hurricane and flooding. George Bush was very funny (“let me tell you about the time I threw-up on the President of
Japan” etc), whilst Clinton played the straight man.
The evening is spent in Bourbon Street in the NAR ‘NARdi Gras’ parade passing by all the pubs, bars, music halls, strip joints etc. This attractive part of town has buildings in the French Colonial style – decorative wrought ironwork supporting balconies from which hundreds of ‘merry’ well-wishers hurl string beads at us. Ouch.
Sunday
Business starts a bit later today, so I head off for a walk into town. The old town was built above sea level and whilst Katrina did a lot of damage – windows blown in, trees blown away – it missed out on the flooding. This tourist area is largely back to normal. But I didn’t have to go far to find shopping Malls where half the shops were still empty, collecting dust. The Malls’ food hall had three of 15 counters open. Once you get into the badly flooded areas, it becomes a lot, lot worse. Street after street virtually abandoned. House after house still uninhabitable. This was a city of over 800,000 people before the August 2005 storm, and 15 months later, less than 200,000 are living here full time. It is a city which is slowly dragging itself off it’s knees, but these are still early days.
30,000 Estate Agents will have dropped $40m into the local economy over a few days – it is the biggest convention since Katrina. We followed the 2006 Librarians convention, which one shopkeeper described to me as being ‘a little quiet’!! Everywhere you went, bar tenders, shopkeepers, restaurateurs, bell-boys – everyone thanked us for coming to New Orleans.
Back to work and the rest of the day spent talking to exhibitors and developers. Anyone know of anyone interested in investing in El Salvador?! The convention was rounded off by a wonderful concert by Harry Connick JR, who is a New Orleans boy – remember his music from “When Harry met Sally”?
Monday
Time to head home. Bump into NAEA President Charles Smailes in the bar at the airport and we chat about the last few days. 44 Brits made it to New Orleans. 250 South Africans came, a similar number from Australia and 150 from New Zealand. Lets have more Brits in Las Vegas
next year! There are a huge number of opportunities and ideas to be had from the NAR convention. I’ve brought back plenty to keep me busy for some time and eventually good fees will pay back the cost of the trip many times over.
James Wyatt MNAEA, MARLA, TRC, REALTOR ® is a partner at Barton Wyatt International based in Wentworth, Virginia Water. Tel: 01344 843000
Thursday, June 12, 2008
The Diary of a Global Estate Agent - Ireland
Chapter 4
It’s all very well swanning around the world on business, but there always comes a point when you have to get your hands dirty and get on the with grubby business of selling overseas property.
With the summer holidays over, it’s exhibition time. I’ve had a new stand produced by our new best friends Nimlok who have a vast production facility somewhere up in darkest Cambridgeshire. They have come up with a versatile and visually stunning stand. It’s small and cute, like a puppy and it will hopefully grow larger in the coming years. Irritatingly, also like a puppy, it has a ferocious bite. Putting the frame thing together is a full on war zone job. During the first erection, I was wearing a suit. Bad mistake – said suit was left in a right mess and needed dry cleaning.
We had a dry run at a property show in Dublin last week which was disastrous in terms of
numbers of punters through the door, but reasonably high on quality of leads. The organizers held a drinks party for stand holders – presumably to apologize for the lack of visitors - but that was a disaster too with the bar running dry after 15 minutes.
On to ExCel where the turnout of over 14,000 produces good business.
Monday
Anyway it's a long drive from Surrey in my wife’s Estate car loaded to the hilt with our stand, brochures and so on, to Fishgard in South Wales. The ferry to Rosslare is a leisurely 3 hours and then a wonderfully scenic drive through the countryside to Kilkenny. 11 hours door to door – thank goodness for mobiles and blackberry to keep in touch with business.
Tuesday
Having arrived in the dark yesterday, I’m pleasantly surprised that my outlook is over the River Nore with the beautiful Kilkenny Castle opposite. Full cholesterol breakfast and we’re off to set up our stand at the World Ploughing Championships. Hmmm, you read it correctly – this is the Irish farmers’ idea of heaven. They, and most of Ireland it seems, pop this date into
their diary at least a year in advance. In their eyes, the excitement factor is tractor droppingly
high. This is the country’s’ biggest event – four days, 50,000 visitors a day. A total of 260 acres of which the exhibitors have a mere 60 acres (the rest is, of course, for ploughing). It’s massive, and so are the queues and traffic jams.
And this is set-up day! I notice that wellies are de rigueur.
Kilkenny is as close to a film set town as you can get. The River wanders through it with the medieval Castle on one side, crossed by an ancient stone bridge with my pleasant but out of place, modern hotel on the other side. This was once the capital of Ireland, and Parliament Street
has a row of traditional painted shops. I counted five butchers (as well as three churches and one
cathedral) – and not a single supermarket or McDonalds – all in a place with 5000 people. How refreshing is that. Of particular note was the local Estate Agent whose window card details are still hand written – he was closed at 4pm!
Wednesday
Someone said “Whatever you do, don’t leave your wellies behind” – well, I’m glad I took heed. The sky resembles a miserable grey school blazer, the rain is horizontal due to the 75 mph gale. The locals seem unperturbed as they are perfectly dressed. Yours sincerely has a lightweight beige summer suit, nice Jermyn St shirt, silk tie etc. I do have the required boots though. I’m told that with 200,000 visitors, mud will literally flow down the streets at some point.
In the afternoon I get a call from Tony Smurfit (from the ultra rich Smurfit family who own the
K club which hosted the golfing Ryder Cup). We share a mutual friend, and he kindly sets up a
meeting for me at the K Club to discuss some new homes being built there.Unsurprisingly,
we are inundated with people in the property exhibition. None remotely interested in property
- they all want to get out of the rain! Still a good handful of A grade leads by the end of the day.
Thursday
The traffic to get to the World Championship is unreal – an hour and a quarter from just down
the road. We’re still looking for the needle in the haystack as far folk walking past our stand. I
take a break to look around the other exhibitors.
Listening to the PA system, it persuades me to visit a local school’s stand to buy a charity ticket.
The winning prize is a pair of “good quality heifers”. Elsewhere, macho men chop huge logs against the clock with axes, saws and chainsaws – and I find it curiously good fun. Sky Sports are
recording it. This is followed by an Austrian troupe in leiderhosen, dancing and smacking
their thighs. They finish with a cow bell rendition of something from “the sound of music”.
The local farmers are great fun, a joy to chat with if you can understand them – and that is the
main problem here. We cannot understand a word of what most of them are saying. I saw two
chaps trying to have a chat, and they couldn’t understand one another. Lord help us.
Friday
Pretty good weather today and I venture an hour north to the glitzy K Club where the Ryder Cup is still very much in evidence. An unbelievable number of corporate marquees and spectator stands remain. So many that it will be December before they all go. The limited number of houses and apartments built here back on to the golf course and range from €1.2m up to €3.5m. A clear sign that the Irish market has been in overdrive. So far they’ve been bought by Irish and Americans – not a single Brit. My job is to change that statistic.
Back to the ploughing and I’ve joined the locals at last – Laura from my office has bought me a cattle prodder. A long wooden stick rather like a driver (as in golf) without the head. Just about everyone here has one, and despite my out-of-place summer suit, I feel more a part of the locals. I could now prod if need be. Mind you, most of the locals use the prodders to remain upstanding after a touch too much time in the Guinness temples – most of which are busy from 9am.
The farming stands are varied – all the political parties are here and the Irish Taoiseach Bertie
Ahern and President Mary McAleese visit causing almost no interest from the locals. They are
more interested in deep fried beefburgers, the local radio station tent, slurry agitators, tractors
and the EU subsidies, (The EU has the biggest marquee of the lot – appearing to shout “free something for you all!”).
Saturday
The last day and I venture out to see more ploughing action. Ireland, England, New Zealand, Spain – the whole lot are here. More than 50 countries in total, and all to prove to us viewing public that they are the best plougher in the world. It’s riveting – can Italy get over a little wobble half way down their ploughing thingy (what do you call it?!). I’m getting a bit keener
on this and notice with a certain knowledgeable frown that the Lithuanian had clearly been on
the vodka, as his ploughing line was all over the place. Apparently the Austrian wins. Good on
you mate!
The property exhibition has gone well. It’s been hard finding the real buyers amongst such a
vast crowd. But many have sought us out and to our surprise, most enquiries are for South Africa and Portugal with a good average budget of 350,000 euros.
After three weeks working without a break, I’m off to Spain for a brief holiday. 1p each way
courtesy of Mr Ryanair. Back to the sun, but still dreaming of ploughing.
James Wyatt is a partner at Barton Wyatt International based in Wentworth, Virginia Water.
Tel: 01344 843000
It’s all very well swanning around the world on business, but there always comes a point when you have to get your hands dirty and get on the with grubby business of selling overseas property.
With the summer holidays over, it’s exhibition time. I’ve had a new stand produced by our new best friends Nimlok who have a vast production facility somewhere up in darkest Cambridgeshire. They have come up with a versatile and visually stunning stand. It’s small and cute, like a puppy and it will hopefully grow larger in the coming years. Irritatingly, also like a puppy, it has a ferocious bite. Putting the frame thing together is a full on war zone job. During the first erection, I was wearing a suit. Bad mistake – said suit was left in a right mess and needed dry cleaning.
We had a dry run at a property show in Dublin last week which was disastrous in terms of
numbers of punters through the door, but reasonably high on quality of leads. The organizers held a drinks party for stand holders – presumably to apologize for the lack of visitors - but that was a disaster too with the bar running dry after 15 minutes.
On to ExCel where the turnout of over 14,000 produces good business.
Monday
Anyway it's a long drive from Surrey in my wife’s Estate car loaded to the hilt with our stand, brochures and so on, to Fishgard in South Wales. The ferry to Rosslare is a leisurely 3 hours and then a wonderfully scenic drive through the countryside to Kilkenny. 11 hours door to door – thank goodness for mobiles and blackberry to keep in touch with business.
Tuesday
Having arrived in the dark yesterday, I’m pleasantly surprised that my outlook is over the River Nore with the beautiful Kilkenny Castle opposite. Full cholesterol breakfast and we’re off to set up our stand at the World Ploughing Championships. Hmmm, you read it correctly – this is the Irish farmers’ idea of heaven. They, and most of Ireland it seems, pop this date into
their diary at least a year in advance. In their eyes, the excitement factor is tractor droppingly
high. This is the country’s’ biggest event – four days, 50,000 visitors a day. A total of 260 acres of which the exhibitors have a mere 60 acres (the rest is, of course, for ploughing). It’s massive, and so are the queues and traffic jams.
And this is set-up day! I notice that wellies are de rigueur.
Kilkenny is as close to a film set town as you can get. The River wanders through it with the medieval Castle on one side, crossed by an ancient stone bridge with my pleasant but out of place, modern hotel on the other side. This was once the capital of Ireland, and Parliament Street
has a row of traditional painted shops. I counted five butchers (as well as three churches and one
cathedral) – and not a single supermarket or McDonalds – all in a place with 5000 people. How refreshing is that. Of particular note was the local Estate Agent whose window card details are still hand written – he was closed at 4pm!
Wednesday
Someone said “Whatever you do, don’t leave your wellies behind” – well, I’m glad I took heed. The sky resembles a miserable grey school blazer, the rain is horizontal due to the 75 mph gale. The locals seem unperturbed as they are perfectly dressed. Yours sincerely has a lightweight beige summer suit, nice Jermyn St shirt, silk tie etc. I do have the required boots though. I’m told that with 200,000 visitors, mud will literally flow down the streets at some point.
In the afternoon I get a call from Tony Smurfit (from the ultra rich Smurfit family who own the
K club which hosted the golfing Ryder Cup). We share a mutual friend, and he kindly sets up a
meeting for me at the K Club to discuss some new homes being built there.Unsurprisingly,
we are inundated with people in the property exhibition. None remotely interested in property
- they all want to get out of the rain! Still a good handful of A grade leads by the end of the day.
Thursday
The traffic to get to the World Championship is unreal – an hour and a quarter from just down
the road. We’re still looking for the needle in the haystack as far folk walking past our stand. I
take a break to look around the other exhibitors.
Listening to the PA system, it persuades me to visit a local school’s stand to buy a charity ticket.
The winning prize is a pair of “good quality heifers”. Elsewhere, macho men chop huge logs against the clock with axes, saws and chainsaws – and I find it curiously good fun. Sky Sports are
recording it. This is followed by an Austrian troupe in leiderhosen, dancing and smacking
their thighs. They finish with a cow bell rendition of something from “the sound of music”.
The local farmers are great fun, a joy to chat with if you can understand them – and that is the
main problem here. We cannot understand a word of what most of them are saying. I saw two
chaps trying to have a chat, and they couldn’t understand one another. Lord help us.
Friday
Pretty good weather today and I venture an hour north to the glitzy K Club where the Ryder Cup is still very much in evidence. An unbelievable number of corporate marquees and spectator stands remain. So many that it will be December before they all go. The limited number of houses and apartments built here back on to the golf course and range from €1.2m up to €3.5m. A clear sign that the Irish market has been in overdrive. So far they’ve been bought by Irish and Americans – not a single Brit. My job is to change that statistic.
Back to the ploughing and I’ve joined the locals at last – Laura from my office has bought me a cattle prodder. A long wooden stick rather like a driver (as in golf) without the head. Just about everyone here has one, and despite my out-of-place summer suit, I feel more a part of the locals. I could now prod if need be. Mind you, most of the locals use the prodders to remain upstanding after a touch too much time in the Guinness temples – most of which are busy from 9am.
The farming stands are varied – all the political parties are here and the Irish Taoiseach Bertie
Ahern and President Mary McAleese visit causing almost no interest from the locals. They are
more interested in deep fried beefburgers, the local radio station tent, slurry agitators, tractors
and the EU subsidies, (The EU has the biggest marquee of the lot – appearing to shout “free something for you all!”).
Saturday
The last day and I venture out to see more ploughing action. Ireland, England, New Zealand, Spain – the whole lot are here. More than 50 countries in total, and all to prove to us viewing public that they are the best plougher in the world. It’s riveting – can Italy get over a little wobble half way down their ploughing thingy (what do you call it?!). I’m getting a bit keener
on this and notice with a certain knowledgeable frown that the Lithuanian had clearly been on
the vodka, as his ploughing line was all over the place. Apparently the Austrian wins. Good on
you mate!
The property exhibition has gone well. It’s been hard finding the real buyers amongst such a
vast crowd. But many have sought us out and to our surprise, most enquiries are for South Africa and Portugal with a good average budget of 350,000 euros.
After three weeks working without a break, I’m off to Spain for a brief holiday. 1p each way
courtesy of Mr Ryanair. Back to the sun, but still dreaming of ploughing.
James Wyatt is a partner at Barton Wyatt International based in Wentworth, Virginia Water.
Tel: 01344 843000
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