Mr & Mrs Clarke

It's taken quite a while to write this review (something else always gets in the way), and particularly when you've moved in to a new house, reviewing the estate agent who handled our seller's sale, not even our own, isn't immediately a priority. However it is testament to how good our experience was with Mr & Mrs Clarke, that we did not want to neglect to review them, we owe them that much. When we came to look at the property being listed by Mr & Mrs Clarke, we had spent an exhausting amount of time looking for the right property for both of us, and had firmly stuck to the “it has to feel right to us both” principle – easier said than done when you have viewed approx. 25+ properties and are starting to question whether you'll ever find that one that makes you both think “this is the one.” It does make us wonder whether we would have had that feeling on the first viewing if it had been a different estate agent. Having been shown around so many properties by countless agents, ranging from pleasant and professional, to downright ignorant, disinterested, or a talking cliché, we instantly warmed to Borja, who was very welcoming, accommodating and genuine from the first meeting. Not just a sincere and genuine personality, he had also quite clearly spent a lot of time talking to the sellers, listening to their needs, and absorbing as much information as possible in order to best be able to represent them and answer questions about the property. We asked many questions about adjacent land, rights of way, previous planning permission, and more. There was nothing we asked that Borja was not completely knowledgeable about, which in our experience was non-existent in the other properties we had viewed prior to this one. He had a very open and detailed candour in answering questions, and we knew within minutes he was a very trustworthy genuine professional who wasn't into guessing or offering vague answers to try and make a sale – he was more focused on ensuring we had the answers we needed to decide if this was the right property for us. Attempts to tell us what we wanted to hear to try and create an attraction to a property was something we had become used to spotting early on, and had tended to factor in putting us off properties. Borja knew what he was talking about, and conveyed that information in personable and genuine way, giving us total confidence in him; it was clear his priority was to ensure he had the right buyer for his clients. I don't doubt the experience helped us to reach a conclusion on first viewing that we should return for a second the next week. He maintained excellent contact by phone and email throughout the process, returned our calls and emails promptly and was never “unavailable,” minimising the stress as we went through the period of making offers– this further warmed us to the experience of dealing with this agent. By the end of the experience, he very much felt like a friend to us, such was his manner and degree of care. Once the offer was accepted, he was genuinely delighted, guided us through the ongoing process and sale of the house, and went above and beyond when it came to progressing things along and facilitating communication between our sellers, and other parties involved. His handling of the sale of the property was enviable when we look back at how the sale of our own property was handled by a different, more well-known estate agent. Not because they were particularly bad, but they clearly had neither the time, nor the interest to provide the sort of personal vested attention that our sellers clearly had received from Mr & Mrs Clarke in progressing the sale of their house, and I expect it was a far more enjoyable and less stressful experience selling theirs than for us selling ours. I cannot recommend highly enough the first class, personal and genuine way that Borja handled the entire process, and this is absolutely to his credit and Mr & Mrs Clarke's. After a year of various estate agents, countless viewings and houses, and the inevitable stresses of selling and buying, our experience with Borja was hands down the highlight of the process, second only to the feeling of finally moving in! Our sincerest and upmost thanks and gratitude for helping us to choose and fall in love with this house, and we would not choose anyone else to sell our house with, not that we have any inclinations of every moving having found what we both felt was the right one, finally.