US auctioneers visit Westmeath to get insight into Irish property world

When the top man at IPAV (the Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers), Pat Davitt, needed to give a group of visiting property professionals from the US an insight into how the business in this country works, he chose to make Westmeath one of the big stops on their tour.

“The guys were over from Chicago in America, and they are from a grouping called Mainstreet, an organisation like IPAV, that has about 20,000 members,” Castlepollard native Pat told The Westmeath Examiner this week.

The group comprised four individuals who have their own property businesses in the US, and two staff from Main Street, including the president of Mainstreet, John Le Tourneau.

“They were over here because IPAV and themselves have set up an exchange programme for students, so this was the first exchange group over from America to Ireland,” says Pat.

“On Saturday I brought them down to see the west of Ireland, but on the way down I brought them to see Kilbeggan Distillery and Tyrrellspass Castle, and they were delighted with themselves.

“Kilbeggan auctioneer Paddy Dunican, who set it up for us in the distillery, he spoke to them about being a single operator doing business without the backup of a franchise or anything while David McDonnell, of Property Partners James B McDonnell in Mullingar spoke to them about being part of a franchise and how that affected business.”

The visitors also had the workings of the Irish political system set out for them courtesy of Senator Aidan Davitt, who is an auctioneer with Sherry FitzGerald Davitt and Davitt.