It’s a home

far too nice to be compared to the Oppenheim Group.

As we step into the huge house the smell of my grandma’s house hits me and I’m very unimpressed with the carpet. It’s immediately a no from me.

Amber however, is beaming. Where I see a never-ending refurbishing job and the back pain that follows, Amber sees potential. She discusses with Ashley what she would do if this was her house.

Where I only see the current state of the house, they see what it could become for a local family. I’m starting to realise that’s why they have this job and not me.

The entire Verdala team go out to look at properties before they hit the market so they can all answer questions and host viewings.

“It’s important to remember that houses are so personal. We don’t deal with houses, we deal with people,” says Amber.

Back in the office again, the day is far from over.

Office hours might be coming to an end, but for Scott and Amber there is still work to be done.

There’s feedback from viewings to go through, invoices to send and social media posts to create and schedule.

“After office hours the house fairies come out and put all the listings online,” laughs Amber.

I haven’t even worked half their day and my head is about to burst from all the phone calls, emails and calendar entries I’ve witnessed.

Verdala has also completely changed my view on estate agents. Having more experience with letting agents, I figured estate agents would be the same – slow to reply, disinterested and hard to deal with.

Thankfully, I’ve discovered they are not.

But it’s quite a demanding job where you always have to be available and you are under huge pressure to get houses sold or to find someone’s perfect home.

Though I imagine the feeling you get when you’ve sold someone’s dream home is an incredible reward for the hard work.

Scott Bremner, Amber Cochrane, Ashley Scott and Sam Donaldson in the new Verdala office.

Scott answers phone calls, checks properties and works with photographer Sam to get social media footage.