Agency’s first ever full time employee retires - after 40 years!

A director of Essex estate agency Beresfords has announced his retirement after 40 years with the company - and after being its first ever full time employee when he joined as a manager in 1981.

Terry Holmes, joined Beresfords’ Upminster branch just as the company was expanding to its third office in Brentwood, working alongside Beresford family members Reg, Eileen and Paul. 

The company has since expanded into one of the highest-profile independents operating across 17 sites, employing over 200 people with specialist divisions covering sales, country and village, lettings, surveys, property management, land and new homes, marketing and financial services.

“I consider myself to have been incredibly fortunate to have been part of the quite extraordinary journey Beresfords has been on from those early offices in Upminster and Brentwood to the diverse business it is today” says Holmes “especially as it is still a privately owned family company, now spanning three generations, with Paul Beresford as chief executive who has just celebrated 46 years with the company, and Paul’s son, Alex Beresford, who is assistant managing director of the residential sales division.”  

Until relatively recently Holmes had been heading up both the marketing and land and new homes divisions within the residential group.

“I was lucky enough to be involved in what were two really enjoyable areas of the business, creating leading edge marketing and reaching a dominant position in the new homes sector including acting for some of the biggest builders in the UK.” 

He has been a member of the National Association of Estate Agents since joining the property sector and served as chairman of one their largest branches, Essex, as well as being a longstanding member of the NAEA’s Council pre re-organisation.

He has always championed the need for minimum industry standards and is still active in Propertymark both as a member of one of their working groups and in a training consultancy role.

“I have seen lots of highs, and some real lows, in the property market over the years and witnessed at first hand how innovation has changed how estate agency functions. Some things haven’t changed though, exceptional customer service is still the key to success now as it was 40 years ago. Oh, and the other thing that hasn’t changed is that despite huge advances in technology, it still takes as long, if not longer, to get a sale through than it did in 1981.”

He concludes: “I’d like to say a big thank you to all the wonderful colleagues and clients I’ve worked with over the years and a special thank you to the Beresford family for giving me the opportunity in the first place and allowing me to grow with the company. As Vinnie Jones’s character says in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, ‘It’s been emotional!’ “