Many, many years ago I’d finished studying and went to a careers meeting. They fed my interests and characteristics into a computer the size of a filing cabinet and it spat out my most perfectly aligned career…………estate agency, and so it looks like I was destined to do what I have always done.

I started at a very small local independent agent in 1987 before moving a year later to Whitegates. By 1990 I’d taken up my position as Branch Manager for Cornerstone Abbey National in their Huddersfield office. The industry had just suffered a huge property market crash, and little did I know that Huddersfield was their biggest loss maker in the Region. What I lacked in experience I made up for in raw energy and enthusiasm. In fact, my lack of experience helped me, as I’d pretty much only known a housing market on its knees and to me that was normal, and so I got on with making the most of it whilst seasoned hands moaned about conditions.

The Abbey National sold Cornerstone and it ran as an Independent for some time before being acquired by Reeds Rains (who in turn were later acquired by LSL). I managed to pull a handbrake on the losses and then beat each preceding years profit concluding with the final couple of years at the helm being companywide record breakers. This led to a Hall of Fame Award, the plaque for which I still cherish to this day.

Area and Regional management followed during which I spent the next 15 years wrestling to loosen the constrictions of the PLC corporate straitjacket that arrived, in my view, to hinder our ability to be estate agents. What a relief it has been to take the Reeds Rains brand back into independent ownership.

The last few years have been a joy, as well as incredibly hard work getting Favsco23 set up. We’ve managed to get back to some core beliefs and put property first rather than it being overshadowed by cross sales, or by chasing vanity projects. As a PLC our paymasters were effectively city stockbrokers, and so the main goal at that time was all about share prices and this led to decisions being made for the short term. Now we are making decisions to build for a stronger future, and I very much feel my responsibility as one of the custodians for a brand that has been around since 1868. Reeds Rains need to be in rude health and making the most of the next 150 years.

I have a few core beliefs that guide me and are never very far from mind. The first one is that you can’t sell or let what you haven’t listed. Get me in any scenario today whereby I can talk about being in a valuation and see me light up……….and struggle to shut up. The next is always trying to see things from the other point of view to help you make the right decisions and always be one step ahead. An oft quoted example of this is a property only being worth what someone is willing to pay, which in essence means valuing it through the eyes of the potential Buyers. From a business strategy point of view this translates to what do the customers actually want rather than trying to dictate that to them. Finally, I think our business should be run from the bottom up as much as possible, with strategy designed for local markets rather than a one size fits all. We should guide and support people but ultimately allow our sales force to be able and make an on-the-spot decision when it matters the most.

Another revelation for me in the last few years has been going back to school and studying for some fresh qualifications. I thought I’d reached an age where all of that was in the rear-view mirror but do now have IOOSH and ARLA qualifications under my belt.

My quote is somewhat stolen from a previous Reeds Rains great, Steve Minchin, ………. we aren’t a single business with 46 branches, but instead 46 businesses operating under a single umbrella.

I’m an instinctive estate agent and a ‘blue blood’ through and through.