"The housing market has boomed but old attitudes to copy-and-pasting bad and outdated practices continue," laments our ambitious cover star, Michael Mortimer
Michael is managing director of Newcastle estate agency, Hive Estates. He set-up the firm in 2016 with the aim – he says – of offering an alternative to his ‘salesy’ counterparts who overpromise, inflate valuations and under deliver. Michael, 32, talks to us about shaking up the ‘we’ve always done it this way’ estate agency model, the Gucci-clad glamourous letting agent that changed the path of his future and why not fitting-in has eventually paid dividends for him. “I suppose I could be described as a disruptor,” says Michael.
“But I’d say, I’m an improver. I’m not afraid to question why things are done that way and change things up.”
It’s an approach that has led to the business announcing a 62% increase in turnover last year, and its team doubling in size to 12, from 6, over the past twelve months.
A square peg in a round hole.
Michael grew up in High Heaton, Newcastle. He did well at school, but by the time he reached A-Levels, he started to feel as though he didn’t fit in. Not at home, nor at school. He left home at 17 – searching for some place, some path, someone where he could find happiness. With no A-Levels. No Degree. And no plan.
He got a dingy house-share in Heaton and a part-time job in Newcastle’s John Lewis as a sales assistant. He didn’t fit in here, either. After regularly butting heads with management, Michael’s individual approach eventually led to disputes and him leaving.
One day in 2008, a fractious encounter with the letting agent in charge of his house turned out to be a catalyst for change and his career in property was ignited.
“I was young and naïve. I had no clue that you couldn’t withhold your rent because you weren’t happy with your accommodation. And that’s how I ended up on the wrong side of my letting agent, June Anderson-Talbot.
“Long story short, she turned up looking for the rent in a fabulous little black dress, Gucci sunglasses and Louboutin heels with beautiful blonde hair swishing. We hit it off. After a heated back and forth, we managed to resolve the rent issue.
“Ultimately, she saw some potential in a feisty, sometimes misguided, 18-year-old me. She offered me a part-time job doing some web design for her letting agency one morning a week and that’s when I fell in love with the business. The meeting with June really did change my life, in that single moment.”
After eight years progressing through the ranks at several North East estate agents, Michael began to build a concept for his own estate agency – where things could be done better.
“I just thought, we’ve lost our purpose here, our reason for being. We’re too busy carrying out practices that don’t deliver for our clients, instead of making them happy through fair ways of working, effective marketing of their property and achieving the best prices possible for them.”
Michael took his vision for a transparent and more modern approach to selling and renting homes to landlords he worked with, George Jenkins and Alastair Adams. With George and Ali as investors, Hive Estates was born.
The agency, based in Newcastle’s fringe suburb of Sandyford, says its rapid growth is down to a number of things: “It’s our accurate house price valuations and gaining our customers 105% of the asking price on average, when the national average is 95.8%, according to GetAgent. We do this in market-leading time. And, because we use state of-the-art videography and new, modern ways of marketing homes, including Tik Tok and Instagram.
“We don’t lock house sellers into long unfair contracts and don’t charge extortionate withdrawal feels either. My fabulous team work with them every step of their home moving journey. Above all, we care about making our customers happy. That’s it. That’s our special formula.”
