Pring's Blog

April 2010 “You can’t keep a good man (or woman!) down”.

As another of my former colleagues from much loved and respected CJ Hole opens his door and starts trading as an estate agent in his own right, I have allowed myself a wistful look back over my years as a local estate agent and fondly reminisced about many former colleagues, now in some cases my competitors, and how we have all influenced each others careers.

Since launching Pring & Co in September 2008 amidst what was undoubtedly a dire state of the property market, many of my former colleagues have followed suit and also started their own, or become managers of, local estate agents throughout the towns and villages of North Somerset and do you know, I am delighted that they have done so and sincerely wish them all the very best for the future.

Since that time Annie Thomas, David Powell, Debbie Fortune, Nick Emery, Jon Morris, Nigel Dunn, Marilyn Mansfield, Jo Fox, Jackie Boreham and Steven Smith have all re-entered into estate agency (if I have missed anyone out I apologise!) and past colleagues Ed Creswick, John Webb, John Ford, Robin King and Simon Williams have been operating their own businesses successfully for many years.

We all “learnt our trade” together through many years of shared experience and encouragement; through mutual respect and in the knowledge that all of us shared the same hard working ethos where “nothing is too much trouble”. It held us in good stead over the years and through many different phases of the property market; my former Managing Director used to say… “There’s nothing new under the sun Stephen, things just go in cycles - it’s like a big wheel”!

We have all discovered how best to market and sell property at any time and helped each other through good and bad markets. We all know what it takes to get the best out of anything that the property market can throw at us and underpinning all this has been the core fundamental values of trust, honesty and integrity and never forgetting who the client is!

I feel privileged to have worked with people whom I consider to be the very best of my generation of local estate agents - that’s not to say that I am casting aspersions on others in North Somerset, the great majority of whom I have the highest respect and regard for – but I have seen first hand how my former colleagues operate and I have worked hand in glove with all of the past CJ Hole’ites - I really do appreciate their knowledge and skill in the property market.

When I launched Pring & Co I was overwhelmed with messages of good luck and best wishes; every one of my former colleagues has the same story to tell. We have all been genuinely humbled that helping people move home, often quoted as one of the most stressful things to do in life, has resulted in respect for a job well done from people who were once strangers, and who, in many cases, became new friends.

“That’s all very well Stephen”, you may well be thinking, “but how about now, now these guys are no longer your colleagues but your competitors - do you feel the same way about them NOW”?!

My reply, without hesitation, is this:

“I most certainly do! I still hold them all in the highest esteem - to a man (or woman!) they are all excellent estate agents and now I’m in competition with many of them… well… good competition never did anyone any harm”!