Award-winning sales and lettings business is growing through acquisitions
An award-winning sales and lettings agency – run by landlords, for landlords – is growing through acquisitions, as the owner aims to become the go-to property management company in the North East.
David Lamb, owner of Orange Sales and Lettings recently bought a premises on Belasis Avenue, in Billingham, to accommodate his growing team of sales and lettings agents, as well as an office in Sunderland.
David, who is from Billingham and got into property through investing money earned from working in the steel industry and offshore, has acquired six lettings agencies across the region, bringing them into the Orange fold.
David and the Orange team were also recently named Property Manager of the Year at the Blue Bricks Magazine Property Awards.
David, who attended the awards ceremony at the Titanic Hotel in Liverpool, said: “We were proud to win this award, especially as there were a lot of companies larger than us in our category.
“I looked at the nominations and thought, ‘oh well, it’s nice to be nominated’ – but then we won!
“It’s great to receive the recognition for what we are trying to build here at Orange Sales and Lettings, as we look to become the go-to sales and lettings business and property experts in the North East.”
Orange has also just been listed amongst the finalists for Residential Agency of the Year at the National Property Awards in Birmingham this September.
David, who also presents a property podcast called Back to Brick, has been a guest speaker at a series of events across the UK over the past few months, sharing his journey as a landlord turned sales and lettings agent.
Having just purchased another two agencies, one in Hartlepool and one in Sunderland, he is taking on four more staff from one of the businesses he has acquired, taking his team of agents to 12.
In addition, he also contracts a number of tradespeople to carry out repairs and refurbishments to his high standard.
David said: “I have done 49 episodes of my podcast and it’s been great for networking and has given me credibility.
“I stopped doing the podcast for six months and the amount of messages I got on Instagram asking me when the next episode was coming was unbelievable!
“I’m quite proud that a large section of the audience are young people all aspiring to do what I have done.”
David says that sharing his story on other people’s podcasts also helps to inspire others, something which is important to him in a world where many young people look for easy routes into making money.
“To share my story on other people’s podcasts makes sense,” he said.
“People didn’t know I worked at the steelworks and on the rigs, as, if you’ve got a large portfolio of properties, people just assume you’ve come from money.
“I’m just a lad from Billingham and I’m not very good at looking back and appreciating what I’ve done, but when you’re talking on a podcast, you’re reflecting and it’s a bit like journaling – it helps you mentally.”
David also talks about leaving school with “three or four” GCSEs and wants to let young people awaiting their exam results know that it is not the end of the world if you don’t get the grades you want.
He also dropped out of a college business course – something he is a “bit annoyed” with himself about, but nevertheless, this has not held him back.
“I went and got a job at Rington’s and my patch was Blackhall, near Hartlepool.
“I had a wicker basket full of tea bags and had kids throwing rocks at my head calling me all sorts, so that lasted five days!”
From there, David went to work in a dairy’s laboratory for eighteen months, eventually ending up on an apprenticeship as a metallurgist at the steelworks.
“I worked with 40 blokes all saying “I wish I’d bought property when I was younger,” so I decided that’s what I’d do,” he said.
“It had always been an interest – my Dad had a painting and decorating business and I used to go on building sites with him, and as a kid I would stop and stare at houses asking questions like ‘how do the windows get put in?’ and ‘what’s that layer between the bricks?’
“My Mam used to think it was so bizarre that I was so interested in how houses were built – I think it’s just in my blood and I don’t think I was ever going to do anything else.”
David now wants to be the “go-to property management company in the North East”.
“I want to be providing the standard everyone else is aiming for because the quality of the team we have got is unbelievable,” he says.
“No other lettings agency owner has got 10s of properties themselves and while there’s some brilliant agencies out there, who we can learn a lot from, they don’t understand what landlords go through, because they are not going through it themselves.
“We have experienced strong organic growth as a result – because I think people buy into the fact that they can see me developing buildings and buying houses.
“I want to be the biggest and the best in the region – and we may look at other regions further down the line.”
Watch this space!