True confessions of an estate agent

Journalist Rosalind Russell spent eight years editing one of the property industry’s funniest columns, The Diary of an Estate Agent, for the London Evening Standard.

They contain such gems as the story about the young negotiator colleague of Ross Howard at Dexters in Chiswick.

He returned from a valuation, “his ears glowing a tell-tale pink. Eventually we coaxed the story out of him. He’d rung the bell, and the door was opened by the owner who was breast feeding her baby son. Flustered, he’d followed her into the lounge which was dominated by a large and ornate fireplace. Inevitably, the first words out of his mouth were ‘What a lovely breast! Chimney! I mean chimney breast’. Apparently the nursing mother was quite amused, but it’ll take a while for my colleague – unnamed to spare his blushes – to recover.”

One also has to admire Lloyd Moss, of Regent’s in Sunbury: “I had a valuation at a 1930s house owned by Mr and Mrs T. We eventually reached the dining room where, above a drinks cabinet, hung a painting of Mrs T, leaning casually on a bookcase, completely naked. ‘What a lovely drinks cabinet!’ I exclaimed. What else could I say?”

There is plenty more where this came from and now Rosalind has edited it all into a book, Confessions of an Estate Agent.

It’s very funny. Available to download as an e-book from Amazon, £4.95.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Confessions-Estate-Agent-ebook/dp/B007ONNCAQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1333630950&sr=1-1