PropList Blog
Tales of a property professional…

For those of you who are just taking your first steps into the world of property, the opportunities that lie ahead are vast. From quantity surveying to managing hedge funds, it’s a truly diverse sector, full of curious and interesting avenues. And along your journey, you’ll come across some unique properties, some eccentric characters, and some days you’ll encounter things that will stay with you forever.

We caught up with PropList CEO, Richard Howells, a 17 year veteran of the property industry, as he shares some of his surprising experiences throughout his career.

“My most surprising experiences? There has been quite a few over the years and I’ve had some exceptional stories shared with me – I think everyone in our industry has turned up at a site and been completely taken aback by what they’ve seen, both pleasantly surprised and embarrassingly shocked.

“I went along to view an office block once, and the agent subtly dropped in that the whole building was completely rocket-proof – a feature I never hope I’ll need in a commercial property, but certainly it’s a USP! It turns out the offices were formerly a Georgian war office and at the time, protection from rockets was paramount. If PropList had existed back then, we’d have definitely developed a ‘safe for war’ search parameter!

“There have been a few not-safe-for-work visits, which I’ll gladly tell you about over a pint, but others I can talk about on the record include houses with giant secret bunkers which the agent didn’t mention over the phone, plus and a very intriguing public toilet for sale. Whilst it sounds slightly dodgy, it was actually the only plot of freehold land up for sale in the South Bank area – it ended up fetching a tidy profit and showed me that some properties aren’t what they seem!”

We’ll be catching up with other agents and experts to find out what weird experiences they’ve encountered at work – feel free to tweet us yours too @proplist_uk