Freddie Cheshire, Sales Negotiator at Jackson-Stops Chester, discusses a day in his life as an estate agent...
"People sometimes think that estate agency is all about targets and money and less about good, trustworthy service, but at JS our ethos is different and this is why I love my job. No two days in the life of an estate agent are the same - this is because every client, buyer and situation is unique and this means that our tailored and individual approach to buying and selling allows me to work closely and build lasting relationships with our clients to get the best outcomes, something I really enjoy.
The Chester JS area is enormous and covers some of the UK’s most stunning countryside from Abersoch on the west coast of Wales, to Trearddur Bay in the west of Anglesey, and the picturesque areas of Snowdonia ad Vale of Clwyd on the mainland; in England we cover from Lancashire in the north to Shropshire and all the places in between. This means we see an enviable variety of properties – from small cottages, to seaside holiday parks, urban modern apartments and extensive farms and country houses with estates. Thus, a lot of my day can be spent in the car, as well as in the office and sometimes the two meet with a laptop and phone in a car park outside Costa.
The hours are long – sometimes 8am to 7pm but whilst the days are all very different, there is a certain framework to each one – there is always a 9am morning meeting – vital to communicate all the updates from the weekend and to plan the day, ensuring we are all clear on our “to do” lists for the day. Our office is a hive of activity - there is always so much background work that we do, to take a property from valuation through to the completion of a sale – valuations, statutory compliance, measuring up, producing brochures, undertaking viewings, reporting feedback, taking enquiries, negotiating offers, contacting buyers, updating the database, sales progression and all the necessary paper trail and administration that is required, nowadays.
No matter what we plan for each day we have to remain responsive – the phone is always ringing – advice, viewings, information requests from surveyors and, of course, putting off sales calls from call centres! And that is why despite our sometimes less than complementary image, estate agency is a fabulous profession.
