Ladies and gentlemen welcome back to another SLG VDA. I'm super excited to bring you another interesting and successful guest to our SLG VDA. Now for this time we're gonna be flying all the way to Turks and Caicos where we're gonna meet with a very successful real-state broker who is the managing partner at the agency and not only he is a killer when it comes to luxury real estate but he's a former lawyer and also a currently a rugby player. I mean this guy is doing everything very cool guy and he's gonna tell us all about the current market trends in the island when it comes to the real estate all the lifestyle and about some of the things on how to promote such a beautiful destination so stay tuned I hope you enjoy it.
Sean O'Neill what's going on my brother? Good to see you. Hi I'm Gray how are you doing this morning? Cannot complain we're leaving in beautiful destinations.
I'm kind of jealous of what's happening in Turks and Caicos. It's such a unique place so I'm glad that we're doing this today so thank you for joining. That was great to be here you know waking up on a sunny in a nice cool breeze beautiful morning here in the Turks and Caicos. There's a few other places in the world that I choose to be today.
Wow so listen tell us a little bit about yourself because I'm very curious to know that it's a beautiful destination and you are like currently selling some of the most incredible new development and properties in the island and you're just showcasing the life that you know way that I'm sure a lot of people are gonna be so jealous especially as the winter is approaching it's like man these guys leaving the drink over there. So you were actually born. You were born in Turkey. Yeah I am it's a prize of people when I say that to them.
You know I regularly get asked the question how long have you been here? I say it's birth. I mean I do I have fun poking at my business partner Trevor you know because he's found me been here for generations but he was born in Nassau and I say well I was born in Grand Turk. So we have you know very lucky to have born in this beautiful country a very different place when I was born here compared to where we are now we see incredible growth.
My parents are originally Irish came out here off the back of an advertisement in the Irish Times intended this day for three years and never left. So I was born here my two younger brothers were born here as well. I went to secondary school and university in Dublin and I like to say I've done the trifecta 30 jobs. I've worked in politics and law and real estate.
So between the three of those I've had a great experience. Yeah I moved back here in 2011 and kind of transitioned from real estate advisory and a legal capacity into real estate brokerage and a lot of everything. Wow you mentioned right there you've been touching on the different angles on how to become now a very successful real estate broker because you're bringing the knowledge and the experience from all these other things that you've been doing. And listen there's nothing more beautiful than to sell not just the real estate in certain kycles but the lives of the dream of being there because you were born there so you know why it is to be part of that beautiful island.
And tell us a little bit about before we jump into the country itself and some of the things that you're seeing over the years. You are the managing partner with the agency right which is a very well known luxury boutique real estate brokerage internationally and when they open the location of the inters and cake it was like a boom right because it was like opening new opportunities. Absolutely and we were the first franchise of the agency ourselves and Cavis opened around the same time and when we started we had to explain to people what the agency was because it was a predominantly west coast based company in around Los Angeles super high and luxury. The first I heard that was it was all celebrities and athletes and of course when I was my business partner Ian presented me with some of the information about the agency as soon as I went through the deck that he sent me I was like I mean this is amazing.
It was a an ethos I said deliverables I felt we didn't have here and it was just exciting it's you know collaborative you know we work very closely with people in other offices and we're an extension of each other. You know I can call on friends and colleagues in Toronto and New York all over and ask them their opinions how would you handle this how would you address it and then as you kind of alluded to earlier we have a nice little back and forth where when the weather starts to turn out. About yeah I enjoyed doing that you know life is about having a good sense of humor you have to have some fun while you're doing it. I 100% I agree and you're doing it the right way look it shows to be in a perfect destination where as you mentioned it's driving so many people I look initially when I went to a certain case because it was more of a trip with all these other jet setters and it became like a trendy destination.
And as you mentioned with the agency you know a lot of these celebrities athletes they all go on vacation in Turks and Caicos so they mindset of oh I can actually own real estate here I can actually have something because it has been developing over the years tremendously I mean the projects that are happening there are fantastic so tell us a little bit about what you've seen over the years in Turks and Caicos when it comes to the real estate and a destination in general. Yeah look Turks and Caicos is a brand unto itself. There's an arc in one episode of Modern Family where two of the characters their trip is going to Turks and Caicos you can't pay for that level of advertisement. And as we've seen over the years more athletes and celebrities who come down here and obviously with the growth of social media that has continued to enhance Turks and Caicos as a destination and I think you know Sean Combs P Diddy was here for his 51st birthday not long after we reopened after COVID that he had married j blinds and now is a lot of other people who are here with him and that helped really kind of push out tourism product as we came out of that lockdown period.
So I think over the years we've been very lucky because if you look at the island that my now province yal is there was really no development or no significant development here before the 60s there was three small fishing villages. Then the island started to develop to go to Marina was put in place more roads were cut the power plant went in and from that we have had a group of developers who have decided they want to target a niche market. We don't have the economies of scale of the Dominican Republic Cuba, Geneta we can't compete for high volume tourism. So let's go after the high value to us.
Now when it comes to the marketing right because there is a whole finesse on how you promote this type of properties and the destination itself. Is there any specific approach that you are taking on like social media you do a lot of collaborations with other luxury brands and what is some of the strategies that you're currently commenting. Yeah we work with a lot of other agents of other markets I mean our and we're very heavy on digital and social media because that's a great medium to get people's attention. But I think our approach as an office is that first and foremost we want to promote the Turks and Caicos on and we want to get people to come here.
I think we feel like we have a responsibility you know we're all from here we have a love of the country if we can help bring tourists here they're going to spend more money and that's going to support the economy in general. If they happen to buy property that amazing they happen to use us to buy it that's even better. But I'm a big believer you know as you mentioned I represent some country in rugby and in beach soccer and I'm a passionate advocate for the country in general so I think that that's as a as someone who's involved in marketing properties that happened to be in the Turks and Caicos we need to promote the country first. And then after that we obviously do a lot of collaboration whether it's within the agency network so we're looking at having events in New York and January next year.
And then also work with other real estate groups involved in like realm who's who have lunch in real estate so that we're not just containing it to people who are within our existing ecosystem but we're going to agents who are members of Compass, and then we're going to be talking about the country. And then we're going to be talking about the country first of all these companies called well thank her. Keller Williams because all of these agents have clients who come to the Turks and Caicos they might not know it, but we want I want them to be triggered. Someone said we don't care where you go.
They go to Turks and Caicos. Oh I know Sean you should reach out to him. And then you just have to figure out how you're going to identify the right people and once they're in the Turks and Caicos this is a very small place our populations less than 45,000 people. We haven't had a lot of development in comparison to the rest of the Caribbean.
So there's a lot of opportunity for people who are coming down to buy and find properties that suit what they need. And that for me is the biggest thing is that we look at ourselves as real estate advisors not as sales people and you have to guide people to find something that really suits what it is they're looking for and matches their needs. So tell me what will be like some of the top three benefits of investing in the Turks and Caicos. I mean we're very lucky because we're a British overseas territory who uses the United States dollar, which means that there's no restriction on money coming in or out.
We have a very easy to understand registered land system so when you have your title that's it. And that's guaranteed by the crown. We have no income tax we have no annual property tax with no corporation tax with no heritage tax or capital gains tax. I like to joke that we have one of the best taxes in the world because most of our revenue comes from tourists, but people have other destinations that are paying that tax for us.
But also as well, you can ownership of a property here qualifies you to apply for annual residence and then you can come and go as free as you like. And a lot of those I think each of the individuals assist us in getting people through some of the hurdles of understanding how the process works. You don't have a complicated route of title system where you have to go back through hundreds of years of documents to figure out who really owns plot. I think particularly when you're advising people on a farm purchase simplicity is really important.
And I think we do a really good job of making the process easy. And again, that's something that has come to pass over 30 or 40 years and having had the benefits of being a smaller country that can see what has worked in other places and what hasn't. Well, no, these are great points and it could seem okay because I have a great incentives for somebody to go and invest over that. I'm even like starting to think it's like, I thought to why but now having the Caribbean much easier.
No, but listen, I think those are great points and people need to know more about these benefits because it's not just about a beautiful destination that you can have a beautiful home to decay whenever you need it. But you can actually do so much more with it. But I got to ask this question right because everything sounds very nice but what has been some of the most difficulties that you've been facing being a real estate broker in the Turkish. I mean, I think that you obviously have to you have to guide people through all these questions I think there's there's usually a million reasons why someone won't buy a property down here.
You need to be patient and you need to have time. You know for any any agent to come anyone who comes to me says they want to become an agent. I'm very frank about how long it often takes to sell a property here and that you have to be in it for the long haul and you have to have a passion for what you do. I love going to work every day, not every day is perfect.
But if you come in if you if you approach it from the perspective of a passion for your job you're going to see success Caribbean time will slower than the rest of the world I think sometimes sometimes people who come from North America in particular have to adjust a little bit to that. But it's also part of the reason you're buying the characters right you could you could buy parts of North America and you might get things a bit swifter, but it means that when you get there you're probably not going to have the same way back in life that you would when you're down here. We live in a part of the world where we have to keep an eye on hurricane season every year. But again we can't or some of these challenges by the modern homes are all being built or solid block concrete rebar with hurricane ready windows and doors.
So there are lots of challenges that we face that we've already figured out how to overcome. And so that's one of the things every day we come in and we try to be very innovative about what we do from our perspective in the same way that people were building here trying to be innovative about how they create a product that's going to be able to withstand any of the challenges that we face. So, this is Sean. Thank you so much.
I mean, I just wanted to ask you the last question. We always ask this to all of our guests and I'm very curious you'll be there. Why is really the definition of luxury to you. The definition of luxury to me is time.
It's being able it's being having the opportunity to do the things that you want your life life is short. And I think that if you don't if you have the opportunity which a lot of people don't to be able to do the things that you want to do that definition of luxury. I couldn't agree more with you. It's been a great conversation.
Now for anybody that is interested on learning more about real estate in terms and cases, where can they find you. You can find on Instagram at Sean or Neil re and the same on YouTube. You can find us at the agency re.tc or send me an email to Sean.oniel at the agency. r e.tc.
I'd be happy to answer any questions that they have on the process. Listen, anybody that is going to be turning into these later on, I will recommend 100% to follow you because it's a lot of fun and it's a lot of inspiring content to see these beautiful homes in such a beautiful island. I believe yourself, you know, like talking about a vision board, like you just start thinking, wow, this is something that I kind of aspire to go towards. So I really like this conversation, Sean.
I appreciate your time. Definitely we have to organize a trip, whether you is coming here to Miami or we're going there to see you and it's so fun doing it as you mentioned. 100%. Now it's something great.
We enjoy it now. It's a beautiful place to talk about and thank God I get to do it every day. Well, keep living the dream, my friend. I got to see you play some rugby as well.
And thanks again for everybody tuning in today. We hope you enjoyed it. And remember, embrace it's beautiful, success in life. My name is Alvaro and I'll see you next time.