This is part one of my blog featuring a humorous and light-hearted look back highlighting almost 60 mad moments in my 'crazy life' as an Estate Agent which I am sure many of you will be able to relate to.
I started to panic once my School days finished and reality struck home; it was now time to face the big world in search of employment.
My parents had hoped for great things from their youngest son, and set about it the right way (well that’s what they thought) sending me to a private School in Essex with the hope that this would help broaden my rather shallow mind and help me achieve academic excellence.
To be perfectly honest my own hopes were based on less academic qualifications and more on a dream like lots of kids of 17 have, and that was to be a professional footballer and play for my beloved Leeds United, become a top disc jockey with my love of pop music or a sports journalist reporting on matches from Elland Road. Who was I kidding?
My academic achievements in view of my dreams were limited to just 5 'O' level passes and any prospects of University thereafter just vanished and I was left with a real dilemma:What to do now?
The big wide world beckoned and I hadn’t really got a clue what I wanted to do with the rest of my life now that any hopes of becoming a professional footballer or disc jockey had all but disappeared. A career was required.
My father was a Pharmacist and had hoped that one of his three kids would have chosen a career in medicine, following in his footsteps, but none of us took that route, although I think I may have momentarily considered it.
I was sixteen and a half years old when I left School and faced with the biggest decision I had ever have to make. It was difficult. Friends with more academic qualifications were either University/college bound, going in to family businesses or joining various professional practices.
The search for employment started and I began scouring local newspapers for job adverts and I came across an intriguing vacancy for an 'outdoor clerk' within a solicitors office, impressed at the prospect of working within legal circles I rang the company and an interview was arranged.
Being very young and quite naive I was offered and I accepted the position of outdoor clerk, which basically entailed visiting the law courts chambers in London getting various documents stamped for legal processing etc which was all very boring and I was constantly harassed by barristers and judges for visiting the wrong chambers or arriving late.All this for the grand sum of £30 per week. Six months later, much to my parents disappointment, I decided the legal profession wasn’t for me and it was time to move on and back to the drawing board.
The sound of 'Bow Bells' was my next venue joining an advertising company as an outdoor clerk, a mind blowing position involving the locating and removing of adverts of certain media the company was responsible for publishing on behalf of clients. I was receiving £50 per week for a sharp pair of scissors and eyes. This really wasn’t me, so after a year I had already had had two jobs.
At this point of my life I began to have many regrets and 'if onlys'.
Back to the news papers situations vacant column and I noticed a 'local' position
15 minutes from my north London home. There were just two things wrong with it; firstly it was with an Estate agency and secondly it was next to a cemetery.
The thought of ever working for an Estate agency was never something I contemplated as they always struck me as similar to used car sales people or similar, all be it I did enjoy a game of Monopoly.
Following an interview with the branch manager, Mr White, a middle aged Rotarian, I was offered the position of junior negotiator with a princely salary of £50 per week working in a regimentally organized office overlooking the cemetery and my life began!
My job was basically was to watch, listen and assist Mr White and other colleagues with the day to day events in an Estate agency office which of course included making everyone tea or coffee on a daily basis and sometimes 3-4 times a day.
Following two disastrous previous jobs I had found a job I was actually enjoying, watching others make money, and my hunger began to grow. Mr White could see that I was getting impatient to get more involved and gave me the opportunity to get involved in sales and deal with the public and I began to SELL SELL SELL. I liked this particularly as the £50 per week basic salary soon began to double, treble, and quadruple with the addition of commission, and I thought before long I would be going home with a guarded escort. I have a lot to thank Mr White for as he was a good teacher, had a lot of patience and a gentleman. I worked here for about a year and a half and then it was time to move on, and move house, as my parents bought a property in leafy Mill Hill, a nice part of north west London.
It didn’t take long to get established with a new Estate agency, this time five minutes from my home and next to a Kosher Butcher's shop who used our rear yard for their discarded pieces of meat!
This was my opportunity to come in as a negotiator and get stuck in to sales straight away with Tom ( who drove an ex-police jaguar) and a very nervous chartered surveyor for colleagues. I was really enjoying life here, doing plenty of sales and increasing my limited experience daily. Unfortunately within six months the company was sold to people who were better known for running supermarkets, and time for me to move on.
Kilburn was next on my radar, a father and son run business and a true leader in the area. The office was located beneath a railway bridge, and I soon became familiar with the times of trains, and the frequent vibrations of the office shaking every time a train passed.
This was a really busy office, and I got straight in to things and before long I was agreeing plenty of sales in north west London.
Within the space of 3 years the company was about to open its second branch in Cricklewood and next to a French Boulangerie, I only mention that because of its wonderful croissant prepared and made in the premises, and normally joining me with my first cup of tea of the day.
This was a great opportunity for me to step in to branch management and get a branch running from cold. I was about 22 at the and truly excited at the prospect. My first task was to employ a secretary, and Pamella was soon on board. Slightly over excitable Pamella soon settled in and we became a two person team which worked well.
Within the first six months the area was festooned with our for sale and sold by boards, and quicker than anticipated we had become a major force in the area, and the local renown Hocroft Estate was feeling our force as one after the other properties there went under offer. Infact so impressed was a local solicitor living on the Hocroft Estate, she arranged a meeting strongly expressing her desire to act for a number of our clients, and this proved quite a long relationship.
I will never forget a certain regular Irish caller who made a point of phoning me on a weekly basis, and basically threatening to 'blow my legs off', well I’m pleased to say I still have both legs, and I never did meet the caller.
After five years working in Kilburn and Cricklewood, a good friend of mine who was working in Golders Green rang me asking if I would like to pop round and have a word with her boss who was looking for a new branch manager.
Golders Green was to become an interesting area for the next 7/8 years and probably the busiest office to date that I have ever worked in.
Strange shaped office long and narrow, being a half shop, the other half occupied by a ladies clothes shop. The office was quite traditional, with very old fashioned tinny looking desks and exceedingly uncomfortable chairs, but I didn’t let that bother me or the small team I was managing.
The company had two offices, this one and another one in Swiss Cottage, maybe three miles, where Peter the senior principle and his son ran the show.
We saw quite a bit of Peter at Golders Green, he was a nice 'old boy' and we all learnt a lot from him, and always looked forward to his visit on a Friday when we were paid and in cash.
With a fantastic register of property for sale, we were possibly the areas second leading agent behind Glentree who specialized more in the upper market and we concentrated on the 'bread and butter'.
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