Making Waves On The South Coast - Meet Mitch Walkerden (Dimosons, Port Kembla)

Come with us to the new Port Kembla, a trendy new NSW regional hotspot, and meet it's award winning agent, Mitch Walkerden,  doing things differently, in his own authentic, fun and charming way.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

What does it really take to stand out in a market defined by lifestyle, fast growth, and constant change? Welcome to Meet the Agent Podcast. I'm Wendy Claire.

unknown 0:17

Bring the color.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Meet Mitch Walker Day. Agent is making ways. Hi, Mitch. Thank you so much for joining us.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

No worries, Wendy. Thank you very much for having me.

SPEAKER_00 0:31

All the way from the South Coast. So let's dive in. I've literally just got to say hello and see you on Instagram in the last few days, and I loved what I saw. So I don't know much about you beyond that. Tell me a little bit about what you love doing when you're not doing real estate.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

I'm a father of two, and I've got my lovely wife Lauren. I other than being then spending as much time as I possibly can with them.

SPEAKER_00 1:05

What kind of music star or song then do you think most fits Mitch?

SPEAKER_01 1:14

Um, I think it probably is a couple. Like the I've I had a bit of a think about this in my um I like Frank Sinatra's My Way. Meet the agent. Mr. Face of the Firm. From Open Play. Not in a like it's my way or the highway kind of thing. It's more of a I like to do things in a certain way. And I feel like that song is that kind of appeals to me and says something about me. Um I I try to hustle as much as I possibly can. And in real estate isn't such a a item to all the code stuff. Um sometimes you question yourself, so like don't stop believing. Um is another one. Um you have the same sort of questions when you're parenting, oh am I doing the right thing with these people it's driving me driving me nuts, but um there's probably a couple of songs that I think are relevant to me in my life.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

So they're kind of anthems in a sense for your attitude, really, rather than necessarily your personality. Could be both, but they're really almost like mottos that really drive you.

SPEAKER_01 2:42

Yeah, and in terms of personality, I'm I mean, I'm not a Canadian, and my my friends wouldn't get me to crazy if I said that I was, but I like I I think I have the ability to be funny from time to time. Um and my wife quite like my sensitivity, like anything you might kind of weird out, like an itch.

SPEAKER_00 3:03

Oh yeah. I must say you did win me over with the video that I saw where you you were really like, oh my god, how do we do this, you know, new agent video thing? And look, a lot of agents sort of tried that sort of skip, but it just seemed very genuine and it was it was very funny, it was very likable, and I felt a little like I genuinely got to know you. And I think I mean that's partly why I sort of yeah, called you up for this because I thought so many agents must really relate to that. Like I I I don't like putting my face you know out there on social media. I don't know if I need to, but it's tough. And you really, you know, came across with I suppose, yeah, your heart in your sleeve now you say it rather than a poker face. And yeah, it was very funny.

SPEAKER_01 3:55

So thank you. Um it's a it's a fine line, right? I don't want to I guess a vendor is never gonna sell with with someone that's a clown. But you also want to show your personality, and if you're if you are a bit of a comedian, then try to show and show that, but not go to that next little step that is being a clown.

SPEAKER_00 4:19

Right.

SPEAKER_01 4:20

That's a fine line to tread. So I've I'm I'm I'm actively. Yeah, they want to know, right?

SPEAKER_00 4:27

You're serious about their property, about the deal. You're not gonna come around on the deal.

SPEAKER_01 4:35

Yeah, but I mean you're a vendor is also never gonna sell you if they don't like you. So if I'm able to put it out there, hey, this is me, like this is my authentic self. I like to have a laugh, I like to, I like to have fun. Like selling a house or buying a house is stressful enough. Like, let's try and have some fun while doing it. I'm obviously gonna be as like serious and professional as I possibly can be, but let's have some fun with it in the process.

SPEAKER_00 5:03

Like so you you were writing to me as well, something that kind of piqued my interest. You're a selling agent, but you were writing to me very much about your attitude and thinking about buyers. And at first, when I read your messages, I thought, oh, okay, he's a buyer's agent. And then I realized, no, you're definitely representing the seller's interests, but you had a very interesting attitude to me about your approach to bias. Do you want to, you know, tell us a little bit about that? I'm not an agent, so it's all new to me. But yeah, I'm I'm I'm also interested in in that because you're a new agent. So perhaps you can tell us what it's like being a new agent and how you're approaching sales.

SPEAKER_01 5:53

So, I mean, first and foremost, I'm always trying to get the highest possible price for my vendor. Like I definitely want to preface by saying that. But I'm of the opinion that just because that's the ultimate goal, you can that you can't do two things at once. I think you definitely can. And those two things at once, achieving the highest possible price for the vendor and helping the buyer. Now, I'm not obviously not helping the buyer purchase the property for less, but anyone that like me who purchased the property before I got into real estate, buying is so daunting. We're as agents and this industry, it's so lingo heavy and the processes behind it so foreign that a lot of buyers are walking into properties going, okay, I like this property. How do I even submit an offer? What do I what do I do? So, one of the things that I get the most gratification from is helping buyers so that they and taking the time so that they understand each process and each step. And a buyer that is understanding of the processes and what to expect next feels more comfortable. And more comfortable means that they're more likely to submit an offer. So I also try and operate with pretty much 100% transparency across the board. All of these things combined means that buyers inherently start to trust me. And by trusting me, they probably might reveal a little bit more than they probably should for the negotiation process. So a lot of that can be I actually know what their maximum budget is, which particularly helps when there's more than one buyer, and I'm trying to leverage the buyers in back, like a back of house auction essentially, and driving the price up for my vendor. But what I've been able to do as a consequence of getting to know a lot of these buyers by helping them is they haven't found something for six months, and I walk into a listing presentation and I walk in and oh my God, this is the property for them. I know that they are gonna buy this. So I have additional confidence that when I say to my vendor, I think I know who is gonna buy this property, or I have multiple buyers that are gonna want to buy this property. Let's do two weeks of off-market, let's bring these buyers through, let's try and get offers from these buyers or get to a point where you're either you're either happy to accept, or if we don't get what you're happy to accept, and we don't think we've met the market, then we can go to market and buyers ask us, has there been any offers? Yes, there has. This is where the offers are, and this is where expectation is. So I essentially get two crop two bites of the cherry. I get to try off market and set a high bar for my vendor and say, if you're gonna take this property off the market, this is the number. Like it needs to be here, and it's right at absolute premium. And I don't I've I don't feel conflicted because I've I know these buyers and I know them well and I know what their budgets are, because they get and they get the house that they want in the location that they want. So I'm able to do two things at once, and that has the added benefit of in the future of these buyers have been so happy with me, they'll tell their friends. And if when they do need to sell or their friends need to sell, they'll recommend me, or they'll never sell for anybody else. So it's also I feel it helps me right now in the immediate, and it'll also help me in the future. So I'm playing the long game as well.

SPEAKER_00 9:28

Yeah, that seems very smart. Right. And I I see what you mean. When when a buyer or I know when I feel comfortable with someone, tend to talk a bit more, and then you reveal a bit more. So getting people talking and feeling comfortable, knowledge is power, right? It's it's actually it's actually very smart. I like that. Yeah. Just one second. I'm just going to um close that door so that she doesn't run out and bark outside. And then we're going to just continue and pivot. This is not normal, but I don't want to have to edit out. Oh dear, I'm pulling out I'm pulling out the backups top of all the tricks tricks for them one at a time.

SPEAKER_01 10:38

So they've got a lot of people I've got a history of editing videos as well, and you've done thankfully that that first part cut off at the end of the after I finished the sentence. And at least this bit here, you've been able to know that when you're searching through, you'll be able to see yourself get up and you're like, oh, I'm using it. Exactly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:58

I know. I learned the other day, it's like if I got them to just sit and wait for each, although this is their huge bag. So I'm hope I'm hopeful that they'll just sit rather than trying to rob me of all the tricks. But I just want to get through this without them barking. So that's okay. We'll try. I think we'll be fine now. All right. So I think, yeah, I'll just run back to where we were. But she's being a little bit difficult. If if I have to, I'm just going to say that word in a moment. And that'll that'll but this might satisfy them enough to go, oh, we got an extra second breakfast today. So we've got to see enough. I've just closed the back um pet door so she can't run outside and because I think she's just a little bit, you know, too much energy today, wanting a walk, and I don't have the energy. What is it, pubs? Okay. So sit, go, go. I'm sorry, this is this is all a little winging it today, but you're doing really well. So yeah, I think that's really clever. And I'm I'm interested to hear a little bit about any particular examples or stories you might have. Like, um, can you tell me about you know one of the situations with your own clients or even one of the more memorable client uh stories from your four years, early career, but going strong in real estate?

SPEAKER_01 12:30

Well, and a direct example of kind of what I just talked about was a property in Paul Cambler just before Christmas. My vendor, it was funny, there's a there's a shop down the road from our office, and the chef in there I've got to know quite well, and I know that he was a tenant in Pork Environment, and he told me that his vendor was gonna not really knew his lease and was gonna sell it. Pork Emblem being my the the subject that I focus on the most. I was like, all right, Sally, have you got his number? And he's like, I don't, I don't. And he's like, but I know he's gonna start doing work to the property. So I was casing that place, just waiting for a car to like door knocking either side of the street and just hoping that when I came back around, there was a car in the driveway. Eventually turned, eventually saw there was a car in the driveway, knocked on the door, and had a had a chat with him and mentioned that I know knew Charlie. It was very skeptical. I know Charlie.

SPEAKER_00 13:31

Go on.

SPEAKER_01 13:32

Yeah, yeah. Very hesitant and skeptical. I showed him a few a few things, and I was like, look, I'm I feel like I'm more than qualified to give you an accurate guide of the property for you. I'm I'm already here. What's the worst that like what's the worst that can happen? And he was like, okay, fine, fine, fine. Takes me, takes me in, and I could feel that I was never gonna get a listening. I could just feel it. Like he was just losing that was just coming off, that was just coming off him. And after going through the the house with him, I knew I had two buyers. I knew I had two buyers. And I pretty much told him as much. And I was like, what what do you think this pro what do you think it's worth? And he told me 1.3 1.35 to 1.4, but he was going to do a little bit of work for the property. And then if he was did that work 1.4 to 1.45, which I thought was pretty bang on the money. And I knew these other two buyers had budgets at 1.4. And I said, look, how if you give me give me a week, just give me a week, I'll go to these two buyers. If we don't get the number that you're happy with, then we'll work do the work over the Christmas period, then we go to and then we go to market next year. And he was on the Ari, I was like, look, I'm that confident. Give me an agency agreement of a week, just a week. That's all. And he was like, and I'm like, what do you got to lose? Not gonna cost you, not gonna cost you any money, you're gonna sell it anyway, go get the contract. He's like, okay. And agreed to it. Within six days, I had broke brought both of those buyers uh to one, three nine five and one point four. And one of the buy and the buyer that got it, I can say that I'm I know I'm gonna be friends with these this couple in the future. And they've got their dream house. They're so, so happy. And the vendor was ecstatic. Not only did he not have to do the work to the property, he got the absolute premium for the house in its in its condition. So that's probably like a recent example.

SPEAKER_00 15:39

That's a great example, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:42

At the other end of the year.

SPEAKER_00 15:43

And you weren't just taking away the stress for the buyers as well, but also for the seller. I mean, that ability to have a quick, kind of trouble-free sale must be uh a very good draw for someone, I can imagine.

SPEAKER_01 15:57

Yeah, because that's as any agent will tell you, uh, that's not always the case. There are lots that uh go well and truly the other way. I had one a little two-bedroom brick old house old housing commission house in in Berkeley, and there was a lot of stuff there. The owner had passed away, and the kids were selling it. He had a lot of stuff in the house, a lot of stuff in the garage, and there was a small space underneath the house on the subfloor that had some stuff there. And we got it quoted. I think it was, I think it was four and a half grand to remove everything, which I thought was pretty reasonable. I arranged this for them because they were all based into state. And the removalist called me later in the week and he said, Remember that stuff underneath the house? And I was like, Yep. He's like, There's more. And like, how much more? He goes, we don't know. We just keep pulling stuff out and it just keeps going. And turns out what had happened is the guy had filled the subfloor of the house from dirt to floorboards, and then once it was full, it had bricked it in. And we were stuck because there were there was nobody living in the house. Our buyer that we had wanted a really quick settlement and could do it in pay in cash. And we were like, right, we've got to do uh settlements only in like a few days. We thought we had way more time than this, and it was just anyone and like buyer was underneath the house pouring stuff out, like me, because I'm like, this probably isn't gonna settle in time if we don't get this sorted. And what was what was under there?

SPEAKER_00 17:25

Like it was filled just with rubble, or are you talking about a massive horde of stuff being used for storage?

SPEAKER_01 17:33

53 car tires, two car engines, three motorbikes, like a whole manner of building materials. Like you picked something and it was under there.

SPEAKER_00 17:42

Oh no.

SPEAKER_01 17:42

It was unbelievable. And the the total cost of removing everything balloons from four and a half grand to 18 grand.

SPEAKER_00 17:49

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 17:51

Yeah. And we're really, really thankful that we're able to. I was able because my vendors didn't have the money for it. So I was able to negotiate the release of the deposit in order to pay to get it done. So that was that was wild. There's a two that jumped to my mind like immediately. There are definitely others, but yeah, those two.

SPEAKER_00 18:15

Wow. Gosh, yeah, I'm I'm starting to see a pattern here that yes, storage and people kind of leaving things and hoarding things a bit is a bit of a bit of an issue that comes up. I I I ran into someone I know here in the Central Coast and mentioned, you know, something about you know doing yeah, real estate podcasts and things. And he told me that he, when he moved in to their place, found all this police sort of tape in the taped around the bottom of the basement. And they were really worried there'd been like a, you know, a body or something. Yeah. So they, I mean, they have they had a a friend or someone they knew in the police force. So they had this extensive sort of little bit of what do you call it, back channel investigating to just make sure there was no very irky situation that they had just moved into. But yeah, it must have been a little bit creepy.

SPEAKER_01 19:14

I can imagine. There's there's one story that I've heard from it's not, it's it was through another through another person that I know in real estate. They had the pre-settlement inspection, or it was like, say, on a Wednesday, and the house had a play, like a kid's play equipment concreted into the backyard. Pre-settlement was on the Wednesday, property settled on the Friday. People went and picked up the keys to go into the property. And in the two days since the pre-settlement inspection, the old the owners had gone back to the property, dug out the kids' play equipment, and taken it with them. And the people were the people like basically the buyers basically sued them and they they won.

SPEAKER_00 19:57

And it has been concreted in, so they were really concreted into the ground. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 20:04

Concreted into the ground. I think I would have preferred to pay for a new one than remove a play treatment that was concreted into the ground.

SPEAKER_00 20:12

I'm imagining a six-year-old having a tantrum that no, I must have that rocking chair. Yeah, like that's that and nothing else, mommy. Gosh, wow, interesting. Well, I'm glad you didn't have that situation as well.

SPEAKER_01 20:27

So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:31

Being in in Port Kembler, what what kind of market do you have there? I mean, is it mainly families? I mean, what what is really interesting and unique and and special about Port Kembler for those of us like me who had to, I confess, just check where it was on the map because it sounded familiar.

SPEAKER_01 20:55

No, you wouldn't be the only one. But I mean, for people that like listening, Port Kember's located about sort of an hour and 45 minutes, two hours from south of Sydney on the coast just south of Wollongong. Um we it's a more complex answer, your question, because we're very much a suburb that's in transition. Historically, we were Pork Ember was settled by uh people from the northern Mediterranean, so like large like lots of ethnic of ethnic families that settled here and got jobs at the Steelworks, which is based in Porkember. And it was predominantly like Macedonians, Italians, Serbians, Croatians, all kind of in this this pocket here. And once Pork Kember sort of fell into a state of it wasn't the it wasn't the uh an area that people particularly wanted to live in. People weren't jumping at the bit to buy and live in Pork Ember and had a quite a poor reputation and stigma to it, plus there was pollution associated with the steel. Works and the copper smelter that was here.

SPEAKER_00 22:02

Right. That'll do it.

SPEAKER_01 22:04

So 10 years ago, the smelter came down, and there were reparations that needed to be paid to people, and the smelting company needed to basically rectify some of the pollution that was in left in the area. And then the real catalyst was COVID, where people decided, okay, I don't need to, I can work from home, I want to get out of Sydney. Where's affordable?

SPEAKER_00 22:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:31

And on the and on the coast. Now, northern suburbs are Woolgone, southern suburbs of Woolgone, there's a big disparity in price. And so people were kind of going, I want to be as north as possible and close to Sydney as possible, but buy as cheap as I can. And Paul Kembler was at the crossroads of those, of those two. And from then on, it's been families and the affordability in this suburb has been the catalyst for a lot of new families and gentrification that's starting that's starting to happen as these older generation of families either pass away or they move into care, things like that. Uh and within the last three years, there's been a huge change in Pork Emblem. There, we're now eight years into a 25-year rejuvenation plan with Wollongong Council. And we've got like I now I don't know if I'm biased, but I think pork and I've traveled the entire country. You're allowed to be by the whole country.

SPEAKER_00 23:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:29

I'll pick pork and bar at the top of the list for the best beaches around Australia. It is fantastic. It is it is nice, it is flat. There is a big headland that protects um people from the nor'easterly wind if it gets up during the summer. There's a pool there that's free for kids. Like there's it's never it's also free for adults, I should say, as well. It's never that busy. You can always park within a couple hundred meters of the beach, like try and park within a couple hundred beaches at Crenulla or something like that during the summer period. And you've got better life parking at Woolware or Carringbar. Down like down here, it's it's still quiet. And what we're saying, this is uh such an intricate area with property. There was a property listed for $12 million in probably the premiere position in Pork Emblemer. It didn't sell. That was that was very optimistic. But they had offers of $9 million, and I've heard whispers there was offers above 10. By comparison, you can also buy roughly $750,000 in Pork Emblem as well. And that's for a three, like a three-bedroom house.

SPEAKER_00 24:36

So there's huge freestanding house, not a freestanding house, you know, a villa or wow.

SPEAKER_01 24:42

Yeah, there is a huge gap between the top and the bottom of the market in Pork Emblem. So there's the majority of who's buying here are first-time buyers or people that are upsizing from their first home. They're the two main buyers. A lot of those buyers are coming from Woolandon or Sydney, and specifically Sydney's inner west. And why is Sydney's Inner West? If you drive down the main street of Pork and West Street, it's having lived in Newtown and like art in Sydney, it feels like you're in Sydney's inner west. There is a coffee culture, there is an art scene, there is a music scene. There are there's top tier, there's a top tier cocktail bar and restaurant in a little tiny little suburb by the beach called the Iron Yampi. They do like I'm ex hospitality.

SPEAKER_00 25:30

But it's a little bit hip.

SPEAKER_01 25:32

Yeah, it is great.

SPEAKER_00 25:34

So it's a bit hip.

SPEAKER_01 25:37

Yeah, very much so. And like people and bands come from a long way away to like play here and listen to music here. I mean, to give you an example, you don't a suburb that isn't gentrifying doesn't have thread of Pilates studios in the one street. And the Yeah, and the coffee culture here is also great. So being from and having lived in cities in the West on the bona fide coffee snob, and the coffee's great. Yeah. So I'm very, very happy about that. But uh what it's got here as well is a lot of Pork Ember, as it's quite hilly, large portions of the suburb have either ocean views or views over Lake Gilowara. So those the like a view like that in Sydney is unbelievably expensive. Here it's still relatively affordable. But all of these things have led to three weeks ago, Pork Hembler was announced by realastate.com as being the most in-demand regional suburban New South Wales. We've seen our properties online have a significant boost in the number of inquiries as a consequence of that. And then the preceding days after that was announced by uh REAC influencers or like investors online have been talking about pork Ember and then particularly the north end of Lake Ilawara, so which I would say is my core suburbs. And those properties are now going bananas as well. There is a definite sorry, the affordability for those areas compared to pork ember is much better. You still your bank for your buck is definitely better too. And these suburbs are also in stages of gentrification, and they're probably between five and ten years sort of behind pork and blur in terms of the cycle that these these properties are going through or these areas. So like it's great. I'm acutely aware of how lucky I am to be working in an area that is such in demand.

SPEAKER_00 27:45

Yeah, look, I'm a I've I've been for some years now, since COVID, I moved to the coast, a pretty committed coasty, but I have to say it doesn't have a hip vibe up here. It is, as people say, a little bit sleepy. It's a little like mostly the kind of fish and chip shop sort of vibe in in your minor ed alongs getting a little, you know, a little bit more interesting and and a little bit more gentrified and cool, but that you know, it's happening, but that does interest me a lot what you're talking about. You've actually got me tempted, because I as I said to uh Jackson in our previous episode about the Central Coast, and people up here will admit you do get both types. You get a very super friendly kind of you know, country hospitality friendliness. And then there's a very rough edge up here in some pockets too, which unfortunately I've experienced. In fact, I've I've been off the podcast last week because I've had to get an apprehended violence auto in court about a neighbor, as well as being under the weather, etc., probably because of that. So, Paul Kembler, what you're talking about right now, I'm thinking, you know, I might come down next weekend. That that kind of new town feel is very appealing to a younger generation. Are you are you seeing that kind of rougher crowd moving on or still there? Does that kind of ringing a bell for you or different scenes?

SPEAKER_01 29:19

Yeah, so there you I mean that sort of speaks true to down here as well, in that there is elements of that still around.

SPEAKER_00 29:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:28

But it is less, I mean, less and less like the like instant, like instant. I mean, any any area is gonna have some form of crime, right?

SPEAKER_00 29:38

Um but the and the comparable price value range of the the Sydney's West, not talking the inner west, definitely has a reputation for the rough crowd too. So it shouldn't necessarily put you off, but to be aware, because sometimes people can sing the praises of regional and absolutely but I try to be real as you do.

SPEAKER_01 29:58

But yeah, it's it's definitely on on the move, it sounds like I think there is still that stigma to there is uh sort of in and surrounding Paul Gembler, and in some cases, rightly so. But it's there are the housing commission that is particularly dotted around, say, like suburb like Berkeley, what seems to be the government's policy at the moment is that once the principal tenant either passes away or moves into care, then that property is being sold. So it dominoes each one of those that is sold privately and to a young family then coming in and renovating, it's just that suburb is starting to go. So the way I describe the north end of the lake, and it's nowhere near as bad as this example, but for you people from Sydney, imagine what Redburn was 15, 20 years ago. You it wasn't a place you particularly wanted to walk down during the day, let alone at night. And now it is an incredibly expensive part of Sydney. For your Sydney people again, the closest geographical comparison that I can make for what is the north end of Lake Ilawara is Narrabine and Eleanor Heights. That is what it is like. The north end of the lake is up ice and high, has views across, has views across the lake, like Eleanor Heights has views across to Narrabine and to the to the ocean. That's what it's like here. And that ocean part there is what is Porcember is like. It is very, very similar geographically.

SPEAKER_00 31:24

Yeah. And for our new US listeners who are now starting to tune in, hooray, thinking of a bit more like you know, the Queens of New York or Soho used to be, you know, a bit of a seedy place, and now certainly it's one of the coolest. How how a place can really change is is very interesting and can happen quite quickly, can't it?

SPEAKER_01 31:45

Yeah, absolutely. Like this, particularly Paul Gambler. In the last three years, that change has been drastic. It's been driven by multiple people that have got kind of aligned goals in turning this suburb back into a desirable place to live and a great place to raise your family. And it is well and truly on its way.

SPEAKER_00 32:11

I'm just thinking aloud too. It's interesting up in the this north of Sydney area, we do have, and it's been going on for ages, this idea of the fast train to Newcastle happening. And that in some ways absolutely can be a plus for the region, but you can also see the potential that in the near future it's going to get busy and be just like an outer suburb of Sydney and almost lose that kind of coastal charm if it becomes a I mean, you know, a Sydney communa area. So you're not dealing with that whole fast train issue, which is going to give it a little bit of a different dynamic, isn't it? It perhaps keeps it a little bit more coastal and and and perhaps protects it a little more. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:00

I mean, if the if there is gonna be a fast train.

SPEAKER_00 33:04

One second. Coco, haircut. That did it. Jeez. Go on.

SPEAKER_01 33:11

Um if there is gonna be a fast train to Newcastle, there would be I'm almost certain there'll be thoughts about a fast train to Wollendell. Okay, because we we are similarly place either side of Sydney and major, like kind of major regional towns. I wouldn't be surprised if Newcastle was to get one that Wollendell was to get one too. However, the cost associated with it, you're right, in that it would make both areas busier because the trip to Sydney would be significantly shorter in terms of time. But that is, I imagine building something like that that's a decade plus in the future. So and I think they've been talking about doing something like that for 50 years. That might be an exaggeration, but it's been a long time.

SPEAKER_00 34:00

That's what I've been hearing. It's almost like a kind of myth that's become up that people like Jackson kind of laugh and go, oh yes, oh yes, the you know, like the the the suburban myth of the the train, the fast train.

SPEAKER_01 34:14

But yeah, yeah, right right up there with the right up there with the the Panther that is in living in the Blue Mountains. And they got less by the less by your US listeners when they were over here during World War II.

SPEAKER_00 34:26

Yeah, and when I grew up doing trips from from Canberra, where I I went to school to Sydney, I always you know thought there was a lot miss monster in Lake Burley Griffin. And I was told that. And I was on the bus to Sydney once and a Scottishman behind me said, Oh, las, I hope you don't mind, I tell you. There's there's no there's no there's no water in or something like Burley Griffin. It was it was kind of a funny moment, but yeah. Anyways, do you think you're still going to be in real estate in 10 years?

SPEAKER_01 35:00

I do. I I feel like I've definitely found my found my calling.

SPEAKER_00 35:06

It's nice.

SPEAKER_01 35:06

I got it's it has all the things that I enjoyed about hospitality in a different career, and a career that doesn't mean that I work until 6 a.m., which is nice. And I get to actually see my my family everything, like every single day instead of leaving when they get home. So that's great. And I'm very passionate about making my vendors happy and my and making buyers happy as well. I I love what I do and I love this area. I'm I'm Paul Kentley is stuck with me as an agent for as long as they'll have me. Yeah, like I'm I don't see myself doing anything else now.

SPEAKER_00 35:46

Oh, that's fantastic. So wonderful to hear. Well, this is where I think I'd wrap up. I will probably end the podcast say, well, we've run out of time, so that's a perfect place to say thank you, Mitch. And I hope you join us again another time and we'll hear more on how Port Kembler is transitioning. But I'm I'm keen though first before we do that. So I'll add this in if we want. Is there anything else that you feel you want to add or anything we haven't covered? Do you want to sort of touch on something else before we wrap up?

SPEAKER_01 36:27

Just one thing, like being a relatively new agent myself, and only sort of, I would say, in the last sort of 12 months and having really established myself to any new agents that might be listening, they they talk about getting on the phone as often as you can and making connections. Like that is 100% true. Build and be yourself, be authentic, and build a pipeline that way. And if people like you, they'll sell with you, just be your authentic self. Prospecting is something that I'm not particularly good at, but I'm good at building, I'm good at building relationships, and that is equally as equally, if not more important, because building relationships will sustain you in the future. Well, making phone calls, like you can make an inf infinite number of phone calls, but it's the connection that makes the most difference.

SPEAKER_00 37:22

Yeah, and I'd I'd add to that too, just even in my communications with you, you've been very fast and and very, you know, real. I felt it wasn't a kind of you know, formal approach, but you were just yourself, but very reliable. And I've been stung lately with so many agents so keen, but just you know, letting me down with, oh, I forgot, oh, sorry, I'm just so busy. And you know, as a client side person, I can see where real estate perhaps gets a little bit of a reputation, not just in terms of you know, the underquoting scandal, overquoting, but also I've been told a lot of real estate agents really let people down. They're flaky. And I was really thrilled with that interaction with you, gave me some confidence that you'd be there, you'd show up. And I mean, it it's there's nothing worse to ruin your day, your week, your month, than having you know something you've planned and put a lot of effort to fall through because someone's just busy. And so I think you've got that commitment, and that's also something that agents perhaps don't realize is so important to, you know, the other side, the client, and people like myself is just um showing up when you say you will. Yeah. So thank you for that.

SPEAKER_01 38:44

No worries at all. And like thank you. It's been a um it's been I'll probably be enjoying you, Wendy. Had a great time. And I hope that people that listening had a good time, good time listening to my stories and me waffle on.

SPEAKER_00 38:57

Um, it's good. I think it's been been good. I don't think you've waffled on. I think we've um we we had more interruptions than normal, but thank you for your patience with with that. I won't include all this bit in the podcast whilst I edit that out, but yeah, I appreciate it when someone can just have that sort of flexibility because otherwise, yeah, it's a whole lot of trouble for me trying to find pet sitters and so forth. And I've come to learn from our audience that they actually don't mind. They like that very genuine side. I mean, we're all dealing with um, you know, pets and things in our lives like you do. They actually like it. One of them said, Oh, you know, your dog just wants to have a voice heard. Great. We'll give her a we'll give her our own um Insta account.

SPEAKER_01 39:41

Yeah, so we can be your next guest and you can interview her.

SPEAKER_00 39:46

She's looking at me like, really? No.

SPEAKER_01 39:48

The the stony poker face is not something that I do in regular life.

SPEAKER_00 39:52

Oh, okay. That's that's good to know.

SPEAKER_01 39:54

Meet the agent, Mr.

unknown 39:57

Face of the First.

SPEAKER_00 39:58

Thank you so much for joining us, Mitch.

SPEAKER_01 40:00

From Open Plan.

SPEAKER_00 40:02

And thank you, everyone, for listening in. Join us again too for another.

SPEAKER_01 40:12

I'll tell you my sister. And I've got to stay.