Careers - Sales Agent
First. Who you'd actually be working with
Because the diary means nothing if the people are miserable. We're a small team who care...properly, almost annoyingly, about what we do and how we do it.
"It's always been done that way" is the closest thing this office has to a swear word: we ask why about everything, we move deliberately and with purpose, and we have a genuinely good time doing it.
You won't find suits or shiny shoes here either; we're not going to dress you up like a wedding guest in thirty-degree heat. Polo shirt, smart shorts, trainers: absolutely fine.
We care about what you solve and the results you have, not what you wear.
Problem solvers, not problem makers- that's the culture in five words.
Monday to Friday. Every weekend yours. 38 days' paid holiday.
Yes, estate agency. No, we haven't hidden a Saturday rota in paragraph nine. Go and check. We'll wait.
We know why you're suspicious
Every agency ad promises "we're different," and then you start and it's the same job: six days a week, a leaderboard on the wall, a bell someone rings when a sale agrees, and a manager who treats leaving at 6pm as a resignation letter. We can't prove we're different in an advert. But we can show you the diary.
The diary
Monday to Friday, full stop. No Saturday rota. No "one in three." No "it's quiet, but could you pop in." Saturday morning is for football, the big shop, or absolutely nothing at all, your call, because it's your day.
38 days' paid holiday a year. Here's the maths, because we did it three times ourselves:
20 days' annual leave... yours to spend however you like
all 8 bank holidays on top
the office closes over Christmas, around a week of extra paid days between Christmas and New Year, and not one of them comes out of your 20. Rarely does anyone sell a house on the 29th of December, and we refuse to pretend otherwise
and 3 paid family days a year, because sports day, the nativity play and parents' evening never land on a weekend. Take them as they come up. They don't touch your holiday either.
The industry standard is 28 days including bank holidays plus your Saturdays, gone. We think that's a bad trade. This is us fixing it.
Who we are
Nest in Essex is an independent agency in Rayleigh, we . Small team, on purpose. Every client gets called back by someone who actually knows their sale, because there's no call centre to hide behind, and nobody here has ever said "that's not my department" and survived the tea round.
We'd rather lose an instruction than win it with a made-up valuation. That costs us sometimes. We're fine with it.
You will have the chance to learn and improve with constant development as well as the chance to meet, network and learn from some of the best agents from all around the UK in the arenas we find ourselves in.
The job: one thing, done properly
This role is business generation. Not half generation, half admin, no sales progression at all (i can hear the relief on that!), or half whatever the branch needs that day... all of it, every day, pointed at one outcome: new listings, new clients, new opportunities.
What that looks like in practice:
Valuations are yours. You book them, you do them, you win them, and you bring the property to market properly
Prospecting, however it works. Door knocking, calling through our client base, working the buyer book, chasing down old valuations that went quiet, spotting an opportunity nobody else has noticed. If it generates business, it's your job. If it doesn't, it isn't
And here's the unusual bit, what you won't be doing. Weekend viewings are covered by other team members. Sales progression, client updates — handled by the team too. We've deliberately built the role so nothing pulls you off the thing you're best at
You'll have the tools, the process, the systems and the materials from day one, and full training on the Nest way of doing things. Once you're confident, you get something rarer than any of that: the freedom to get on with it.
The commission is uncapped. Your direct effort pays you directly and the numbers are real ones, worth getting out of bed for. We'll talk specifics when we meet.
We target two numbers. That's it.
Valuations completed
Valuation-to-sale ratio
No stock-count vanity target, no leaderboard theatre. We don't want listings that sit on a portal for eight months going stale our job is selling homes, not collecting them. Win the valuation with an honest number, bring on property that actually sells, and both of your targets look after themselves. If you've ever been pushed to overvalue just to get the board up, you already understand why we do it this way.
You, if this is going to work
You've done estate agency, or close enough to it, and you're good at it, you're just tired of what the industry charges you for the privilege
You talk like a person. No scripts, no fake urgency, no "I've got another couple viewing at four" when you haven't; leave the BS at the door.
Organised enough that nothing slips. Honest enough to say so on the rare day something does
You want your work to be visible, not negotiator fourteen of forty in a branch that measures you by call volume
You're someone who wants a career, not just a job. you are looking to get in somewhere where you can build yourself up, grow as the company grows and not looking for a comfortable 9-5 (because this will not be that).
You're coachable; we aren't looking for anyone who thinks or acts like they know it all. We need someone who is coachable and willing to be coached to help them improve to the next level, so they can inturn do the same. So you need to be someone who enjoys learning, improving and doing better (not better for targets' sake, wearent that sort of agency, better for quality's sake).
Self-motivated is an important factor; we don't want someone who is going to sit and wait to be told what to do, we want someone who doesn't believe in sitting back and being relaxed, there's no room for coasting.
What you won't find here
A Saturday rota. A leaderboard. A bell. A script. A "that's not my department." and Suits or Targets which increase after a good month... or a one-to-one telling off once a month because you didn't refer enough mortgages... that's just not us.
We aren't going to dress this up
Estate Agency isn't an easy ride; this isn't a role to turn up and relax at. It will be a busy week, every week, and if it isn't, you will need to make it, working hard for 3 months followed by coasting wont work here, we wont be asking you to head out and deliver leaflets every day, but we will be looking for results, if the results are there you will tend ot be left alone as what youre doing is clearly working.
How to apply
Email hello@nestinessex.co.uk. Skip the "I am writing to apply for the position of" bit — just tell us about a sale you're proud of and why it stuck with you. CV welcome, but the story is what we'll read first.