I have updated and re posted this blog as Barney and Kirsty finish their penultimate day in the office – for a while at least. They are both preparing for their new arrival – the bump and we are all very excited.
After a brisk dog walk in the freezing cold, I open up the Chorleywood office at 8.30am and whack the heating on full blast! Luckily, it doesn’t take long to warm up as we have the popular ‘Gusto’s deli right next door and with one of their large lattes quickly consumed I’m ready to start the day. Preparing myself for the first valuation, I get together my folder, property reports and example brochures before heading off.
Kirsty heading out on a sales valuation
It is only when I walk in the front door of the property I am valuing, and am greeted by a large dog’s nose in my coat pocket, that I realise I have forgotten to remove the dog biscuits from my pocket after my dog walk this morning. But it certainly breaks the ice and I now know I’m the dog’s agent of choice, which is a good start! The house is beautiful and clearly well looked after by the current owners. After the guided tour we sit down with a cup of tea to discuss their home and the current property market. I am confident I have plenty of buyers for this property and that at the right price it will sell quickly. After a long and positive conversation the sellers inform me that they have also seen a couple of other local estate agents and were surprised to hear them say negative things about Sewell & Gardner. They said that after having met me, they realise none of their comments were at all fair or true… My recent favourite has been the suggestion that Sewell & Gardner are ‘wideboys’, comparable to ‘Delboy and Rodney’ and, although I have always loved the TV programme ‘Only Fools and Horses’, I have never used it for professional career guidance, so find it hard to believe I can be compared to these two famous personalities! I can guarantee my colleagues James and Martyn don’t meet this description either, nonetheless I appreciate the seller’s honesty in telling me this and am obviously delighted that they didn’t believe the gossip. However, they are not the first; I often hear from sellers that a couple of the other local estate agents have been making untrue claims about us and putting our company down. Although it obviously upsets me that other agents are doing this, it also makes me question why they feel the need to talk badly about us in order to try and gain a property instruction. I don’t feel I need to put down my competition in order to make me or the company look better, instead I feel I can talk through our merits and what we can offer the client. When they are ready to sell I am confident these particular clients will choose Sewell & Gardner and I just hope that other people looking to sell won’t listen to the gossip and instead will call us up, arrange to meet us and hear what we can offer, so they can decide for themselves. They don’t need to take our word for it as we have plenty of testimonials and thank you cards from our happy clients to prove what a great service we offer.
Kirsty x