Richard Sexton, Business Development Director at one of the Council’s newest members, e.surv Chartered Surveyors, shares some of the details of his working week.
Monday
Like most people, the furthest I’ve been for a meeting for a long time, is the back bedroom. I’m not missing the early starts and 6am trains from Cardiff to London though, If I’m honest.
One of the first jobs of the week was an internal review of audit results, regarding our remote valuation accuracy during the lockdown period, when physical valuation inspections were not allowed and ‘desktop’ was the only option. Many lenders have adopted this approach permanently, including those in the equity release sector, so it’s important we keep refining our offering and learning from our growing experience.
The first of four virtual colleague conferences also took place today with about 250 people due to attend each one. These are normally physical events but we are holding them online for the first time. There were lots of questions about the future strategy of the business and I gave an overview of what changed in the market in 2020: house price trends, buying patterns and lender expectations etc.
At end of the day I participated in a regular team meeting with our client relationship managers, to share the issues of the day and general feedback from lenders. It’s also a chance for the team to compare notes and share a little down time, before we do it all over again tomorrow.
Tuesday
I had my usual daily call with the operational team to review incoming volumes, pipeline cases and business mix. We need to keep a constant check on our capacity in the field and we continually review the challenges valuers are facing, as a consequence of Covid protocols.
I also had a budget review with the finance team today. The pandemic is making it difficult to benchmark incoming volumes, so we found ourselves debating whether we have returned to ‘normal’ volumes or whether there was more growth to come, particularly with the end of the stamp duty holiday looming large and home movers keen to beat the March 31st deadline. Nobody knows for certain but we still have to plan for multiple scenarios.
Wednesday
I had a discussion with colleagues in our sister company Your Move. The Scottish estate agency business wanted our support to implement a new IT platform to allow more efficient processing of Home Report requests. These requests are an essential component of the buying process and unique to Scotland, where we trade as Walker Fraser & Steele. Connecting with far flung colleagues has never been easier but Zoom doesn’t quite cut it when it comes to seeing your loved-ones. I’ve got grown-up daughters in Edinburgh and Manchester, which has been tough.
I had the first visit of the week to what I grandly call: The Shednasium. Basically, it’s a leaky shed at the bottom of the garden with an old punchbag in it. It’s tough to burn calories when you’re sitting down all day but a few rounds on the punch bag keeps the blood pumping and helps manage stress levels!
Thursday
We held a scoping meeting to consider how to service a ‘back book’ analysis request from a major lender today. They are concerned about the ongoing impacts of the unresolved cladding issue that the Grenfell disaster brought into sharp focus.
We also received news today that for the 23rd year running, e.surv has been successfully re-certified by the British Standards Institute (BSi) to ISO 9001: 2015, the globally recognised standard for Quality Management Systems. We never take it for granted, which is probably why we keep hitting the required standards. It’s really welcome news for the team, especially when you consider the testing times we’ve endured in 2020.
Friday
After what must be the 10th courier delivery this week, I once again lament not buying Amazon shares before lockdown! Today’s mystery box contains food for our pet leopard gecko, Gizmo.
We interviewed two candidates for a new Bid Manager’s role today, which was one of the highlights of the week. They were both really interesting candidates but one of them had experience as a stand-up comedian. A sense of humour is definitely an advantage at the moment!
My partner and I love to travel usually. Even if we stay home, in the Welsh countryside, I’ve been known to take a camping stove, some bangers and a hip flask for an al fresco lunch.
With snow on the way, the furthest I’m going to get this weekend is the trip outside to pick up logs for the wood burner. If we are going to be locked down, we may as well be cosy. We’re both avid rugby fans so we ought to enjoy the peace too, when my beloved Wales meet her team, England, in the six nations, things might not be as harmonious.
PICTURE CAPTION: Keen traveller Richard stands on top of the world’s largest sand dune which is known as Big Daddy, during a trip to Namibia, in 2019.
