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The makings of a world-class estate agent

Gary shared that in his opinion, various things help you become a great estate agent.

Firstly, knowing the market inside out, year in and year out. Being able to understand what’s available in the market, the prices, what stock there is and who are the potential sellers and buyers.

Secondly, is being able to manage a lot of enquiries. How do you decide which to look after, pass on, or ignore? You need to be able to hear a name and know who this person is and whether they are capable of buying, and you must know that almost instinctively.

Agency is a function of knowledge. Knowledge about your buyers, knowledge about the properties, knowledge about the market, prices per square foot and understanding what is doable and what is not.

How the game will change in 10-15 years

With the dollar being strong against the pound, Gary remarks that the industry has a real advantage currently. This is historically one of the best periods for dollar-based buyers to buy property in the UK.

To highlight the first-rate market, Gary shared that he has 4 properties and one just exchanged under offer to dollar-based buyers. Pre-Brexit you were talking $1.80 to the pound. A sale of £ 20 million would have been $36 million. Now a $ 20 million asset is selling for £19 million.

The most complicated deal in Gary Hersham’s history

Avenfield House comprised 128 Park Lane, Avenfield house itself, offices, shops and residential.

Gary paints a picture for us. Imagine a block of flats, with offices squeezed in between two residential buildings, and Gary was asked to sell 128 Park Lane residential building. Surprisingly, when Gary received the copy of the documentation, there is no separate lease for 128 Park Lane and Avenfield House.

Gary had to negotiate with the short leaseholder of 111 Park Lane, Grosvenor Estate and others to simply extract 128 Park Lane, which Gary eventually sold for £3.3 million.

When we get a copy of the documentation, it’s an overall lease, no separate lease for 128 park lane and no separate lease for Avenfield house. And all we wanted to do was buy 128 Park Lane.

The deal itself, and the complexity of it was Gary’s most interesting deal he’s ever done, and that was in the mid-’80s. He disclosed it has stuck in his mind 40 years later.

After working as a Chartered Accountant for more than 15 years within the property industry, Harris was previously Finance Director at Dolphin Living, eventually assuming the role of Chief Executive. With an abundance of industry knowledge and an impressive career, Olivia shares with Nick Dolphin Livings's core mission, what they have planned for their future talent and how they have navigated through these unprecedented times.

Life before Dolphin

Following her Chartered Accountant qualification, Harris worked in a practice for a couple of years, working with real estate clients such as Mapeley and Delancy. She shares that this was a time in her life when she had an accelerated learning curve, however, working full-time became incompatible with her life as a Mum.

With the support of Delancy, she then made the jump to setting herself up as a consultant working part-time, giving her more flexibility whilst enabling her to continue the fascinating work that she always had done, such as working on a German property fund and student accommodation.

After realising she was treading water and not advancing her career at the rate she wanted, Harris applied for a part-time Finance Director role at Dolphin Living, and that’s where her voyage with Dolphin began.

Diving into Dolphin Living

Distraught after not initially getting to the 2nd interview stage, Harris eventually progressed through the stages and met with the board. Subsequently, Harris was offered the job and joined in April 2012, and has now been with them for a solid 10 years.

Harris shares that in the 1960s Westminster City Council bought Dolphin Square. Fast-forward to the 2000s and the council realised that the square wasn’t reaching its full potential. They did something about it, and along with the leaseholders the interest was sold.

The charity was set up to help London workers on modest incomes afford accommodation near their places of work. Harris described Dolphin Living as a ‘small-scale BTR without the bells and whistles, focused on keeping rent low, but the quality of homes high.

The future of talent for Dolphin Living

Harris explains that charities can’t always compete on salary, as we don’t pay significant bonuses, but one of the things they focus on is bringing talent into the organisation and retaining them through training and development opportunities and an excellent working environment.

She shared that when working for smaller organisations, the boundaries of your job are freer, so you get the opportunity to step out of the constraints of the role and get involved with other capacities of the organisation.

Listen now to learn more about Dolphin Living and its mission, and what she thinks the new housing minister’s priorities should be over the next 100

The journey

From meeting at university, Paul, and Alex both set out on separate careers, Paul in professional sports and Alex the luxury events space. After becoming a P.E. teacher, Paul found a mentor in a student’s father who ended up becoming their trusted business partner.

Following this, Paul and Alex began their first endeavour together, setting up an events business for children. After successfully running the fast-paced and reactive business for 4 years, a competitor acquired the company, and the couple were left to consider their next move.

In the process of selling their London home and buying their next in Sussex, they were left unimpressed with the experience they had with the estate agency. From valuation to launching the house on the market, they were left uninspired and felt as if the job was not done to a standard they expected, especially considering it is usually the biggest asset a person can transact on.

Both Paul and Alex saw an opportunity to not only make the experience consumers had with estate agents more enjoyable and fulfilling, but ‘discerningly different’. Taking buying and selling a home to something deeper, creating a story and sense of belonging through every step of the process.

Mr and Mrs Clarke was then born, setting up their estate agency in Warwickshire.

The first phone call

Back to the basics, Mr and Mrs Clarke gained their first client through direct marketing, a handwritten letter delivered by post (yes that still happens) reaching out to residents in Warwickshire. The letter simply introduced themselves as a brand-new agency and ‘if you are thinking of selling your home, let’s meet for a coffee, or even better a G&T’.

From this, Paul and their first client met, and she loved the vision Paul had for selling her beloved home. From creating the story around their home, talking about their local school, taking pictures of her gorgeous dog in the back garden, and styling the house for beautiful pictures, she instantly wanted Mr and Mrs Clarke to sell her home. Since then, she has generated around £3million for the business through referrals of friends and family.

The vision

Mr and Mrs Clarke founded the agency because they held the belief that estate agency could be done better – with the customer at the heart of the process. Paul shared that they started the agency with the desire to do estate agency in their own way, with what people want from an agency at the core – someone to hold their hand through the whole sales process.

Paul states they went from little milestones like selling the first house to building their reputation and realising there is more opportunity out there. Mr and Mrs Clarke’s brand and people are most important to them, leading them to their unique mixture of experience, creativity, and honesty.

After being approached by a fantastic estate agent in London, Paul explained how he came to him wanting to run his own business, but not having the funds to do so on his own. After coming to an agreement, Mr and Mrs Clarke gave him everything he needed to do this, allowing him to be an estate agent with everything from marketing and lead generation support from Mr and Mrs Clarke.

From there things snowballed, and Paul had more people saying they wanted to work with the agency, wanting to be self-employed estate agents, with the brand and support of Mr and Mrs Clarke.

And the rest is history...

From Romania to Real Estate

Adina shares she was born in Romania and moved over to America when she was just 10 years old. Bouncing around Europe and the US growing up, she landed herself a career in real estate with Knight Frank in 2010 in commercial brokerage. Loving it immediately, she found an inspiring mentor within her first boss, who ignited her passion for the market that they were building, which was the prime office market in Romania.

Determining this was the career for her, but maybe not the location, Adina returned to New York in 2012 landing herself a place in the esteemed NYU graduate programme in real estate finance. Whilst accomplishing this, she happened to find herself a role within the emerging market of multi-family/Build to Rent. Missing the sex appeal of the commercial real estate and Europe she moved back to London to join Greystar.

Adina worked on enviable development acquisitions, such as the Ten Degrees project, which is the world’s tallest modular building located in East Croydon. Adina shares she is now getting back into the more diversified rental living space with MGT, across the spectrum from urban to suburban. She has remained committed to the rental living space after stumbling into it a few years back and is driving a focus on the middle-income earners, driving affordability for that renter profile.​

The origin of Ladies in Real Estate

​Beginning as a humble brunch club with friends from grad school, Adina reveals the idea for Ladies in Real Estate derived from wanting a place to build personal relationships with other women in the industry. A place to exchange views, talk about the market and ultimately making friends in an informal and easy environment.​

In wanting to make this a regular occurrence, Ladies in Real Estate was born, and Adina bought the concept across the Atlantic to London. Adina discloses that she had to adjust to the market, as brunch wasn’t proving too popular, and that’s where the breakfasts entered the picture.

It must be 50/50...

Adina openly shared that when you looked around in her early career, she struggled to find senior or junior women to form personal relationships with. She noticed it to be easier for men to attain this within the industry. Realising that with creating gender equality, men needed to be bought into the conversation to avoid creating resentment from those that should be allies. The 50/50 breakfasts aim to show just what a balanced room should look and feel like and normalise that feeling within the property sector.

Nicola is the owner of a renowned and award-winning estate agency nestled in the vibrant Colmore BID district. Since establishing the company in 2004, Nicola has steered the company to prominence, earning it a respected reputation as one of Birmingham's premier residential agencies.

She shares her inspiring journey to success, her commitment to the Colmore BID and what plans she has for the upcoming year.

You can watch and listen to the full episode now...