Two family real estate businesses have come together, First National McGregor and 4one4 Real Estate. (L-R) John McGregor, Paul Berry (standing), Patrick and Abbey Berry, Julie and Chris McGregor. Picture: LUKE BOWDEN
PATRICK Berry and John McGregor have known each other since kindergarten, went through school together and after school started working for their family businesses.
And now, that friendship has helped bring them back together with the two companies McGregor First National and 4one4 Real Estate becoming one.
John’s father Chris, an industry leader with decades of property market and Real Estate Institute experience, said the wheels started turning on joining the companies about a year ago.
He said the businesses were similar in many ways, dedicated to personalised service and each has a good culture.
Patrick said that they shared similar family-run values such as going that extra mile for a vendor.
“Last week, one of my sales consultants painted a door to make sure a house settled,” he said.
“John has swept water off a vendor’s balcony at 2am after a storm.”
With family, you have to drop everything from time to time, John said, and that way of thinking is ingrained in the culture of our business.
Two Hobart family businesses have joined forces, First National McGregor and 4one4 Real Estate. Picture: LUKE BOWDEN
While each company has different approaches to doing the same job – 4one4 is known as a tech-savvy company, McGregor has the breadth of experience – they complement each other.
“The knowledge, history, their approach on how to get things done has been a great addition to the business already,” Patrick said.
John said that the business had a wealth of experience ranging from 17-year-olds just starting out, to Paul Berry and Chris with their decades-long depth of knowledge, which can only be good news for their clients. “I feel like the most exciting bit is being able to use our resources and experiences to adapt to what out clients need and to create an agency that is ‘of today’,” he said.
“From a client perspective, it will be business as usual.”
A point of difference for 4one4 is the goal of providing a one-stop shop.
It has a strata arm, sales, rentals and marketing that is all in house.
The guys also have a podcast together, for fun, and to educate people on the local market.
The Property Pod. Picture: ROGER LOVELL
COVID has left its mark on every aspect of society and business decisions are not exempt from its influence.
For Patrick and Paul, they took the long view of what would be possible by pushing ahead with the merger.
“There was probably a bit of nervous energy about doing it, but because of the team we were working with, ultimately we were not worried,” Patrick said.
“If we didn’t know the McGregor family as well as we do it might have been different, but for us it was a great opportunity and we wanted to go for it.”
Regardless of the climate, John said, it was still a “solid plan”.
“COVID has effected the greater market, and yet we have still been able to do go numbers, which is a reflection of the hard work we all put it,” he said.
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