Selling Cork: Adrianna's 20-year journey as an auctioneer

Cork auctioneer Adrianna Hegarty has been in business for 20 years, but she actually cut her teeth and learned her trade as a farmer’s daughter in Monaghan.

“I earned my pocket money ‘capping cattle’ in the fields around the border,” says Adrianna, who is mum to Niamh and Peadar.

“I often accompanied Daddy to the mart on Wednesdays, sitting up behind him, viewing the livestock. My brothers came to trade cattle and looked for a deal on fees! They never got one! I’d note the prices, and I loved the excitement when bidding started.”

What else does she remember?

“Going to the mart was an important social event and I remember my dad shaving himself in the morning and carefully choosing his shirt and tie to wear. He’d go the pub afterwards for a pint and a chat.”

The city lights beckoned though.

“When Gunne Auctioneers opened an office in Ballsbridge, I was off! I had an older sister in Dublin. Gunne Auctioneers was a big company, and I was in a big city.”

There were lots of discoveries to be made.

Adrianna, confident and ambitious, eventually moved on from Gunnes to Sherry Fitzgerald.

She made a bid to get her auctioneering exams.

“I gave up the socialising to study for a couple of years to get my exams,” she says,

Her sacrifice paid off.

“I realised my ambition and ended up a partner in a successful auctioneering business in Merrion Square,” says Adrianna.

She broke the glass ceiling.

“At the time, I was the only woman selling pubs in Dublin,” Adrianna says.

“I enjoyed my world, especially seeing the thrill of selling £1 million pubs, and charming publicans to trade their premises, not realising they were dealing with a woman whose skills were honed over many years of living on the border.”

Then Adrianna met a man from the ‘real capital’. They travelled together.

“Peadar’s career took us to live in Cyprus, where we stayed for two years,” says Adrianna.

“I got a job with the biggest developer on the island, continuing my work.”

The Gulf War broke out.

“We then moved to Los Angeles, the home of the stars, where I studied Californian Real Estate Law. There were many women working in Real Estate in Los Angeles,” Adrianna says.

She had the luck of the Irish.

“I met a lovely Irish lady who owned her own business, and she was good to me. Peadar and I went from LA to Chicago before returning to Dublin in 1993. I was expecting Niamh.”

Raising a young family took priority for Adrianna until 1997, when the family moved to the UK.

“There, I dabbled in buying and selling antique jewellery. I always enjoyed wheeling and dealing!”

Adrianna ‘s new focus was setting up a new home in pastures new.

“Peadar is from east Cork, and he wanted to spend more time with his dad, Paddy, who passed away in 2002. We spent our time and focus setting up a new home.”

Adrianna didn’t take much time to stop and stare at her beautiful Atlantic sea-view surroundings in the shadow of Ballycotton Lighthouse guarding the coast in Ballybrannigan.

“In 2002, I decided to make use of my I.A.V.I qualification,” she says. “It is from the Irish Auctioneers and Valuers Institute, which I had qualified for in 1990.”

She got to work.

“So I set up from home, mainly handling business through referrals. Examples of these were the letting of Xtra Vision on the main street in Midleton, the sale of Elizabeth House in Fermoy, and achieving at the time the highest price for a domestic dwelling in Midleton of over €600,000.”

Adrianna loved wielding the gavel, and she loved the job.

“I brought the hammer down on €1.4m deals,” she says. “I loved the buzz.”

What has she experienced in 20 years in the auctioneering business?

“Over the years, I saw the good and bad of property selling, meeting innumerable great characters and learning many invaluable lessons.

“When I returned to Ireland, I just knew that I could create an auctioneering business that would be that little bit different and would offer something unique to buyers and sellers of property.”

Like what?

“I invested in the best camera and I took good photographs. I was a sole agent doing no inter-agency work.

I ask Adrianna what she credits her success with.

“Part of our success is our determination to stay small and grounded, and to keep our focus on the people buying, selling, and renting, giving the same quality of attention to the person renting out a small flat as we do to someone selling a property worth €1 million.”

Adrianna has vision.

“Walking through a property inch by inch, I can picture what people want. Back in the day, there was no talk of decluttering or ‘staging’ a property for sale. Auctioneers were mostly men who didn’t engage in any of that.”

I ask Adrianna to tell me about one of the properties she has sold that stands out and gave her that extra ‘buzz’?

“In March, 2014, I had the privilege, and pressure, of auctioneering a 140-acre residential seaside farm near my own home in Cloyne,” says Adrianna.

“The farm belonged to my neighbour, who had passed away. In his will, he had requested that the farm be sold by public auction.”

Was that gig nerve-wracking?

“It was definitely nerve-wracking!” says Adrianna laughing.

But here was a lady who had broken the glass ceiling. Remember?

“But the adrenaline that went with it was unbelievable,” says Adrianna.

“We had put so much effort into the auction that, by the time the day of it arrived, all we couldn’t plan for was the reaction of the bidders.”

More than 110 people were present for the auction at Midleton Park Hotel.

If Adrianna had any fears, they were soon allayed as hands flew skyward to place the bids.

Her auctioneering stars were aligning.

“We had people contact us from all over the world,” she says.

“One man contacted us from Alaska. Another from France.”

She sold the farm.

“I had taken pictures of horses running along the beach adjacent to the property earlier in the year when I was out for a walk, and that stirred the attentions of a horse breeder in Normandy. The response to that auction was huge.”

She held all the cards.

“I was the one welding the gavel!”

Adrianna thinks of that sale not once, not twice, but thrice.

“The two lots sold for €1.42 million. The bidding was fierce. The second it was over I still had the gavel in my hand.”

What was she thinking?

“I thought. Ok. Let’s do another one!”

Adrianna knows her stuff.

“I know about farming. I know about the land. I loved the selling of that farm at auction.”

She likes doing her stuff, doing her thing.

“In the run-up to that auction, I walked the land assessing its quality and thinking about issues, such as right-of-way entitlements,” says Adrianna.

“I thoroughly enjoyed showing the land and dealing with all the queries that came with it. It’s such a contrast from showing residential properties. I knew I was the right person for the job.”

Why?

“Not just because of my skills and experience, but because of what I grew up with in Co. Monaghan. All that experience of farming life and land. That’s in my blood.”

Auctioneering is clearly also in Adrianna’s blood. She has made her mark in the world of buying and selling. And then some.

“I have always been part of the community,” says Adrianna.

“I joined the local Toastmasters Club and the Chamber of Commerce in Midleton. (Adrianna is currently the president of Midleton Chamber).

“My daughter Niamh works with me, and we make a great team.”

Will Adrianna still get ‘the buzz’ 20 years from now?

“You know what the real buzz is?” she says.

“Getting the gig in the first place. I love the challenge of selling a property.

“I like that people trust me to do the best for them that I can do. I am really excited about the growth in east Cork,” she says.