Within 90 minutes of opening the doors of their First National real estate business, Brendan McConnell and Steve Kerwin had sold their first property.
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Brendan explained it was more through good luck than good management that the $77,000 Brand St home in Stanhope was sold way back in 2001.
The initial partnership lasted nine years and this year the business is celebrating turning 20.
“People had actually looked at that home 10 days before we took over the business, but it was a nice way to start,” Brendan said.
In Tongala the name McConnell is well known, and respected; Brendan’s father, Hec, a long-time businessman with the bus company his mechanically minded brother Garry, eight years his senior, now operates.
Brendan’s gifts came more in the mathematical field, hence his initial move into the banking sector with the State Bank — prior to it being engulfed by the Commonwealth Bank.
“I sat an aptitude test for the bank job,” he said.
“Three of us started at the same time, I was at the Echuca branch.”
As a 21-year-old Brendan tackled night school in Bendigo for his initial real estate qualification before happily departing the banking industry and landing at Ruler and Co three years later.
“I was glad to be out of the bank, they had me on relieving staff running around shutting down branches,” he said.
“I remember the Murchison community being particularly unhappy about losing their State Bank.“
With the backing of Barry Ruler and Doug Crow the talented all-round sportsman spent seven years honing his craft, the last 12 months when he obtained his full real estate licence.
He married long-time sweetheart Justine in 1995 and the couple has three children: 23-year-old Georgie (a nurse at Royal Melbourne Hospital), 21-year-old Sam (who holds a Bachelor of Science degree) and 17-year-old Meg, who has just informed her parents she is going to be a secondary school teacher.
Justine has been in the nursing industry, with Goulburn Valley Health, for 27 years.
Settlers Realty was the business Brendan and Steve Kerwin took over in 2001.
“The owner had died, the business was not doing much, so we really just walked into an existing real estate office,” Brendan said.
“They were clearly the bronze medallists in town, behind Elders and Hinchliffe and Greed, which is where Steve was working.”
With a large network of contacts, the pair had a head start in the industry — the opening of Walker’s Real Estate at a similar time giving them a yardstick to measure their development.
Brendan, an Echuca Technical School graduate, said it hadn’t taken a lot for him to learn the business in the initial stages.
“It was really about the life lessons I’d learned before then: be punctual, be polite and dress professionally,” he said.
Compared to today’s technology, developing photos to attach to cards that were placed in the front window seems archaic, but it laid the foundations for the business Brendan operates today.
“The technology has improved a lot, certainly for the better,” he said.
“But the real estate business will always be about relationships.
“Repeat business is a key for us. I have sold several properties four and five times in 27 years.
“Moving into real estate early in life was a positive for me and I think I’ve got another 10 years at least ahead of me.”
COVID has made Kyabram — all of regional Victoria, for that matter — more attractive to metropolitan buyers.
“Kyabram has a lot to offer,” Brendan said.
“Echuca is so busy, houses are generally between $600,000 and $700,000.
“Then in the other direction, Shepparton has its own concerns.”
Brendan said Kyabram retained a small town feel while providing strong infrastructure, which was capable of providing a quality lifestyle for newcomers to the town.
He said The Edge development, so called because the residential zone ends on its Bolitho Rd boundary, would service the demand of the newcomers to the area, along with current residents.
With more than 210 blocks up for grabs (some already snapped up) it will be by far Kyabram’s biggest real estate development.
Already into stage two, there will be six or seven stages as part of the land release, almost half of the first two stages being sold by McConnell and his right-hand man, Tom Curnow.
They are always on the lookout for opportunities, along with meeting the demands of their growing list of potential buyers.
“People are looking for blocks with enough space for a caravan, a trailer or a boat,” Brendan said.
“Those sorts of places are in great demand at the moment.”
Having started with just two staff, the McConnell team has grown to seven and manages more than 400 properties.
“It’s been a great 20-year ride and there have been a lot of people contribute to the business’s success,” Brendan said
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