We signed the lease on the shop pretty much the day Northern Rock began to slide down the pan in September 2007. We opened the doors in Jan 2008; the bleakest of bleak months. We had a handful of properties on loan from friendly agents and mates who’d taken a punt on selling or renting through us. So we switched on the lights and the market duly slid off a cliff. God, it was horrific. No one knew quite what was going on, as we all shuffled the deckchairs around the listing deck of the good ship London property. We sold a good 4 bed house off Northcote Rd for £700k for a city analyst who’d said we were only half way down the dip; it had been worth around £925k the year before….. That spring we framed our first commission cheque and gradually began to cash in others, but as the year progressed things got worse. By autumn, Lehmans had gone and taken most of the market rationality with it. By winter 08/09, we were down to 3 staff and had switched off the heating. So we smashed open the framed cheque and hurried down to the bank.
