Picture an estate agent and you probably imagine a man in a suit. But contrary to what many people might think, there are lots of highly respected women in the world of property.
After all, it’s an industry that deals fundamentally with homes, which are traditionally women’s spaces. As International Women’s Day approaches, it’s a good time to meet and pay tribute to some female agents – and learn why they believe that being female is in fact an advantage.
Lisa Jacobs got into the industry by accident. When her husband bought the Devizes Winkworth franchise, she had spent 10 years at home looking after the family, so she was quite happy to join his business. At first she was working on accounts and compliance – but it was when she stepped in to help with Lettings that she decided to take the plunge and get qualified. Now she believes that being a woman in the industry is a positive, simply because “people trust women. You might have an image of an arrogant and cocky agent – and that’s always a man.” Women have a different approach, she says. “I am interested in clients as people, while my husband isn’t really interested in their lives. I’m concerned with what's motivating them and whether this is going to be the right thing for them. For the men in our office it’s about the numbers, which are of course important. But we’re more interested in the people – if we felt that someone was making the wrong decision, we would sit and talk it through.” Ultimately, it’s good for the business to have both men and women in the team, she asserts. “Vendors like the fact that Claire’s talking about the curtains and Jack’s talking about percentages.”
“I don't know why more women don’t do it,” says Shilpa Bathija of Winkworth’s Kingsbury office. As the franchise owner, she runs an office of 12, evenly split between men and women. “It’s a male-dominated industry – I feel like I’m one of the only women valuers in the area and as directors, women are very few and far between.” But she quite likes the advantage that gives her. “I tend to have a unique connection with my clients - there’s a sense of trust that comes from me being a mother of two and a family person, which gives it something. We’re dealing with homes and a lot of the decision-making – from deciding to sell to accepting an offer and purchasing – is down to the woman of the house and I connect to the woman. People relate to me. I’m seen as Shilpa, not as an estate agent thinking about their commission. I have a softer touch, I’m more understanding.”
In Fulham, Faith Cook took over the Winkworth franchise last year and her office is almost entirely staffed by women. When she started her career with a different agency, she was the only girl in the office – and clients would gravitate to her when they walked in. “So I got the best leads,” she says “Often I’m against men in valuations, and people feel they can approach me. Women have more empathy about how people are going to live in a property, and more of an eye – I will run through what potential vendors need to do to the property to make it more desirable, which male valuers don’t seem to do.” There’s a sensitivity required from estate agents, dealing as they so often are with the inevitable death, divorce and debt. “You need emotional intelligence to deal with it. We end up being counsellors and going above and beyond – I’ve been to mediation meetings with a divorcing couple and last year I helped a lady sell the house that she’d lived in for 50 years. Our meetings involved lunch and lots of emotion.” She confirms that the decision-makers are mostly women – and in Fulham, they’re often dealing with the wives not the husbands. “My clients mean so much to me and I’m very emotionally involved.”