DISCUSSIONS WITH | 5 MINUTE READ
THE LONDON BROKER: HOW BUSINESS HAS CHANGED
SINCE COVID-19
As part of the ongoing Lockdown Lesson series on the Accouter Instagram in association with AGC, our designers are hosting live Q&A’s with leading artisans, agents along with other key industry experts. Amongst the first succession of the live interviews was the Q&A with Charlie Willis, CEO of The London Broker. Willis recalls his history within the industry, the importance of an agent and interior designer relationship and how The London Broker business will change post lockdown.
PROFILE GLIMPSE
With over 25 years of estate agency experience in the super-prime, traditional and modern, residential property market of central London, Charlie Willis London proudly offers “Property as an Artform”. After leaving Strutt & Parker two years ago, Willis joined The London Broker. The company set out to assemble in a collaborative approach with highly experienced brokers. The most trustworthy independent brokers working together and helping one another collaboratively and providing them with a platform and an armoury of tools to help them help their clients brilliantly with assisting them to sell or buy. Willis has since become the CEO, sitting alongside Rupert Collingwood and the rest of the team.
THE IMPORTANCE OF INTERIOR DESIGNERS
“The thing about being an agent is that I am fortunate enough to have certain clients who will call you up and ask for advice, that advice can come at any point in the stage of buying property or selling a property or even if it is the right thing to do? The average length of most people stay in houses is seven years. So, through the lifecycle of those seven years as an agent, you are there from beginning to end and talking to them the whole way through.
When it comes to interior design, people like to upgrade their properties every year or so. The key bit is making sure from an agent’s perspective that they are keeping an eye on the final saleability of the property. Trying to source designers who do not go too over the top, sometimes can be quite difficult. The experience that I'd like my clients to have is, being able to call in brilliant, professional, interior designers or architects and building that around them so that they have the best team, to enable them to do what they want to do. Creating the property that they want to create. Interior designers are critical to enabling that. Some interior designers are a lot more flamboyant than others, then, some people understand developments more than country houses. There is a great variety of different designers doing different things and specialising in different areas. The key thing has to come back to whether it is right for the clients and creating value in their property.”
HOW BUSINESS HAS CHANGED SINCE COVID-19
“The way we are looking to set the platform up is making it incredibly flexible and agile and very open for the right people to come in, utilising it in a co-operative way. We are heading in the direction of not necessarily having an office but having the time to meet up once a week, through Google Hangouts. There will be a small change particularly when we start talking to our brokers coming in from the Home Counties and how they collaborate with us in the future. The ability to share with people and communicate through these online tools is brilliant. We have brokers in the South of France already, and now Cape Town. Having the ability to be able to communicate with all the brokers at one time, in a personable format where people can actually see and talk to you and ask questions, rather than just be on a conference call or listening in without any ability to ask questions is a fantastic new step forward.
The extraordinary thing about being at home is; you can create time and find time to do things you want to do. Part of that for me has been learning and watching webinars, listening to people who, maybe before you haven't had the time to before. Certainly, for me the future will be finding the time to do new things, making sure that I give people more time as well. Creating time for individuals has been important. Finally, most importantly, listening to people.”