Kentish Express Ashford & District
‘Have gavel, will travel!’
…the life story of TV auctioneer Clive Emson
Have gavel, will travel! That mantra may be the driving force behind the success of TV property auctioneer Clive Emson. From starting out earning just £1.50 a week as a junior estate agent, the entrepreneurial businessman now chairs a company spanning from Kent to Cornwall, taking in the Isle of Wight on the way.
And he largely puts his expanding expire down to his get-up-and-go where the business has taken him over the last 30 years.
The former King’s School, Rochester, pupil left at the age of 16 with a couple of O-levels.
He disliked the discipline of the public school, hated sport and couldn’t wait to leave.
And the feeling was mutual: “It was not the best time of my life and I was a nightmare for them,” says Clive.
His childhood home was in Maidstone – about a mile away from his current head office in London Road – and he went to Maidstone Technical College when he took on more “useful” subjects, such as commerce, book-keeping and economics.
Careers in law, accountancy and banking beckoned, but Clive did not want to be stuck in an office so opted for estate agency.
He said: “It was more laid back and I enjoyed talking to and meeting people.”
He started at Geering and Colyer in Maidstone in 1968, and moved to various offices across the county, including a Tonbridge branch where he met his wife Sue, who was the daughter of the boss at the time.
The couple have two children: James, 47, who is now managing director and Rebecca, 50, whose husband Steve is involved in the IT side of the company.
Sadly Sue, whom he was married to for 50 years, died two years ago.
He launched his first estate
agency, Clive Emson and Co, in Hythe in 1973 until 1983, when he merged the business with the rapidly expanding Ward and Partners.
They were in turn taken over nationally by Prudential in 1986, but Clive says he became disillusioned and resigned as regional director three years later.
He took the plunge and opened up his own firm in Folkestone during the height of the recession and shortly afterwards took over a small industrial unit on Medway City Estate in Strood, where he quickly learned tough lessons on how to keep afloat.
Gradually his portfolio started to creep across southern England, with James launching in Hastings and then Brighton.
They outgrew their auction venue at the Great Danes Hotel in Maidstone, now the Mercure Maidstone, when the fire brigade said they had to find somewhere bigger for safety reasons.
The company relocated to the Kent County Showground at Detling where the massive Clive Emson Conference Centre is one of several halls where their sixweekly land and property sales are staged, although because of the pandemic they are still online.
It was the first property auctioneering house that was not backed by an estate agency.
He said: “I had to move on, find my own niche. I love selling and auctioneering is what I’ve done
all my life.”
Although Clive’s career has been an outstanding success, he fell foul of one notable bad decision to open a branch in New York.
On ill advice he sent a team of 10 people over to Manhatten, but did not get the feedback from his advisor, a colleague of Donald Trump’s.
After losing £250,000 in a matter of weeks, critics said he was left with “egg on his face”.
But in true Emson style, he replied: “Well it’s my egg and it’s on my face.”
His regular appearances on BBC Homes Under the Hammer over the last 17 years ha made him a household name to viewers of the popular daytim TV show.
Clive said: “There was a tim when we were approached by TV companies every week.
“They wanted to put in a fake buyer, but how’s that going to work? Once the hammer dro the property is yours.”
He said the programme h served to make the auction house a more respected pla to buy property and land, saying “there was a perception th they were frequented by dealers and crooked people”.
His team view every single of the potential thousands of lots before they make it into the auction catalogue.
“If we think the price wanted is wrong we will say so. W
sell 85% of what goes into the catalogue. We are the f biggest in the country.”
As well as the Maidstone HQ, there are offices in Exeter Devon, Chelmsford, Essex, and Fareham, Hampshire. ton, Today, near at Sellindge, the age of where 75, he has he taken a back seat in running the company, preferring to spend time at his home in Monks Horsed-e loves to tinker with his vintage cars.
He has invested his money in a fleet of several classic British vehicles – including a vintage Bentley.
At one point for “a bit of fun he launched Carmen Roller providing a chauffeur-drive service for weddings.
He is happy son James has stepped into the role of running the company.
He said: “When he joined when he was 23, I said ‘Do this foryou,notme’.
“Over all this time, we have never argued over business.”
Apart from playing golf, he also likes to get involved in charity work and is president of the Young Lives Foundation, which supports vulnerable and disadvantaged young people in Kent.
In 2019, he was made an MBE for his services, which includes being a volunteer having one-toone sessions with one child for three years.