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When Thames Valley teenager Brendan Cox got bored of engineering studies, his father bought him a Hepworth suit, and drove him to a job interview with estate agents Carson Thompson. ‘I became a trainee negotiator and really took to the business,’ says Cox today, aged 52
20-year insights
Brendan Cox: Homes, sweet Thames Valley homes
Families are thriving in the Thames Valley and that puts a smile on the face of Brendan Cox, MD of Fleet- based Waterfords, specialists in residential properties.
“We have a large and vibrant network of families and like-minded companies in this area. People love it here with their playgroups, schools and social circles, their good jobs and lifestyles, and they are not planning to move anywhere else.
“Most people here simply to want to upgrade or downsize to more suitable Thames Valley homes. It’s a cultural thing. People like owning their homes, being proud of them. You only have to watch the busy tills at DIYs and garden centres.
“That’s why Thames Valley house prices have never really suffered over the past 20 years.
“The problem at the moment is getting people to put their homes on the market.”
That problem aside, Cox along with his founding co-director Gary Brook and 62-staff based in five offices (Fleet, Sunningdale, Camberley, Yateley and Chobham), are faring very well with an approximate £4 million turnover.
When Cox set up Waterfords with Brook in 1995, it was something of an overnight success story. “Abbey National was closing its Cornerstone estate agency chain. We literally took over their old Camberley office as a turnkey operation, painting up the office, changing the fascia and window display to our Waterfords brand. We rang their former clients and just introduced ourselves; sold ourselves and our services to them, if you like.
“We did a lot of legwork getting things going, but we knew the area well, had plenty of local contacts,
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and importantly understood the business.”
Plainly, the duo was fortunate to launch as property values boomed 1995-2007, but they were also very good at their job. “Several clients sought us out by name to help them.
“To this day, that’s what this business is all about. It’s who and what you know, networking with the right people, and giving clients value for money.”
In truth, that ‘overnight success’ had followed almost 20 years of experience and tutelage under Roger Carson – who instilled in Cox the importance of “professionalism and honesty in all you do for clients.”
“In our business, people talk a lot, and it will either be a good or bad story. Building up a reputation for doing a good job is vitally important.”
Cox has continued that customer- focused ethos within Waterfords creating client-adviser working
relationships of valued mutual respect.
Despite his dislike for the large corporate approach (the reason he left Carson Thompson when it was acquired), Cox maintains Waterfords standards through regular morning team briefings, staff procedure manuals, and customer feedback.
“We are a friendly family-style business, but it’s still often the small details that matter most. And as an ambitious owner-manager you have to decide if you will work on the business, or in it.
“Unfortunately, ‘honesty’, ‘integrity’ and ‘customer satisfaction’ are easy words for some estate agents who don’t afford the industry a good reputation. They overlook these simple but essential values.”
Cox has long advocated a greater focus on highly regarded professional training, vocational qualifications and licensing of estate agents.
When the recession hit, Cox was on a yacht in the Solent chartered for top-performing staff. “Fortunately, we went into 2008 with money in the bank, and although things started to bite very quickly, we trimmed back costs and survived the recession without making anyone redundant.”
The recession also benefited Waterfords. “For many years we had not taken lettings seriously enough. When sales went belly up, we were forced to look at other aspects of the property market.” Waterfords lettings business has increased four-fold since the recession.
The great challenge now is the Internet. “Our business is now more competitive then it has ever been; that’s partly why I enjoy it so much.”
Internet-enabled online customer browsing and information access has dramatically shifted estate agency focus from buyers to sellers, particularly in the past five years, says Cox. Less involvement of agents in the pre-purchase search process has reduced customer ‘footfall’, squeezed agency fees, while highlighting the need for highly professional but personable valuation and selling skills when the opportunities arise.
“Fortunately with houses, every property is different, with no standard price-tag or aspect. While the Internet will continue to take a grip on our sector, no-one is going to buy their future home online without visiting it first.”
Cox sees his sector’s future as different but promising, particularly with the recent government underpinning of mortgage funding. He aims to double the size of Waterfords over the next 10 years.
“There have been days when I could happily have said, ‘That’s it, I’ll throw in the towel,’ but then I’d think what else am I going to do? Everything else would just be a hobby rather than overall an enjoyable working life.”
The thing is, during the past 20 years Cox hasn’t lost the ‘buzz’ that he gets from his work.
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – SEPTEMBER 2013
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