A North East property company at the forefront of new ways to buy and sell housing is ramping up recruitment following a year of growth.
I Am Sold Ltd, which forms part of the I Am Property Group, was first launched by Jamie Cooke and Ben Ridgway after they spotted a gap in the market for an online property auction service.
The Newcastle firm offers services to estate agents including the ‘Modern Method of Auction’, conveyancing and compliance, as well as a number of tech solutions including ‘movebutler’, which is designed to modernise the moving process for private treaty sales.
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The company has seen huge growth over the last few years as auctions have become more commonplace, driving the need for more staff, with more than 70 people joining the firm in 2021.
Accounts published for the year ended October 31 2021 show saw sales jumped 42% to £34.3m, while operating profit more than doubled from £2.48m to £5.74m. Overall profit for the year came in at £5.76m, up from £2.48m, on the back of soaring auction instructions and sales.
The number of auction instructions jumped from 6,413 in 2020 to 8,296 in 2021, and auction sales topped 4,972, up from 3,768.
The Gosforth company – which last month hit the milestone of 300 employees – pointed to activity levels dropping at the start of the year as a direct result of the Covid-19 pandemic, but as lockdown restrictions eased demand returned, and by the year end it was back to trading at pre-pandemic levels.
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Jamie Cooke, managing director, said the average selling price increased by 19% in 2021 when compared with 2020 averages, which she said proves the versatility of the types of properties that can be secured through auction.
He said: “The speed at which we can progress sales through to completion has proven extremely attractive to buyers and sellers, especially whilst Private Treaty completion timescales remain higher than ever. Buyers and Sellers are also able to benefit from a 95% completion success rate, demonstrating how auction provides enhanced speed and security.”
Mr Cooke said recruitment is continuing in 2022 in line with rapid growth, with the firm currently recruiting for more than 40 new employees across the teams, including sales roles, admin and business support roles and legal roles.
He said: “We’ve added more than 70 people to our team this year and we’ve always been really focused on building a great culture, and no matter how big the business gets that will always be front and centre. We’ve always been accessible and present as part of the team as founders, but during the last 18 months we’ve spent even more time with our people and our Partner Agents, listening and learning and keeping them informed as we moved through the pandemic.
“We had to lead on that continued communication throughout and made ourselves more available to the team than ever, prioritising honesty and talking about where we were getting it right (and wrong!), learning along the way, celebrating the successes together and putting our team’s wellbeing at the heart of that.
“It kept our culture alive even when the whole team were remote working. Keeping morale high meant that we were able to ensure we continued to deliver the supportive service that we’re known for and guide our partner agents through what could have been a really tough time and that feels like a huge achievement.”
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