John McDavid isn’t a magician but his abilities do border on the alchemic, seemingly manifesting much-wanted homes into existence – at least, that’s how he and his Sekforde Property co-founder, Rosie Falconer, would have it appear.
Before handing over the reins of Aucoot, the independent estate agency he founded in 2015, John already had one eye on this new venture – a search and buying agency acting on behalf of buyers with an appetite for architecturally significant properties. In short, people who are looking to buy a home and happen to possess exceptional taste.
John’s entrepreneurial sensibilities means he’s no stranger to well-calculated risk, and Sekforde proved an opportunity too good to pass up. A space to flex his decades-long studied knowledge of the property market; a chance to reunite with a much-respected colleague (they worked together at The Modern House many moons ago when John was Sales Director), and also a way to bring true customer service value to an industry all too mired in faceless, transactional and often ill-thought out deals.
“We could see that nobody was catering for people who would spend their time looking on design-led agency websites and waiting for the perfect thing to come up,” he explains.“We’re not reinventing the wheel, we do the same as other search agents, but what makes us different – and this is why we could see that there was a space for us – is that we understand design and architecture, and how to then find those places using our collective knowledge,” he says.
His words gloss over just how much work goes into securing these dream needle-in-a-haystack homes. The reach is wide (from the Home Counties to Kent), but with a laser focus on London that straddles the Highgate-Hampstead border all the way down to the river, and stretches from Fitzrovia to Hackney with no smart postcode left unchecked.
After an initial briefing meeting with their client to discuss non-negotiables, John and Rosie cast their net. The viewing process is really when visions begin to crystallise, in part because it’s at this stage that the client, now able to see things in the proverbial flesh, has a visceral reaction to what they’re seeing. Can they picture themselves living here? This emotional response is a vital part in the early stages of the process: a chance to distill down, to sort the wheat from the chaff, and a helpful steer towards a happily ever after scenario. “That’s when we understand what they respond to emotionally in a space, and we can really dial it in from that point. Then we’ll do a sweep, mobilise our network and really get everything moving behind the scenes,” says John.
These connections are the culmination of John and Rosie’s combined three decades in the industry. An enviable little black book of estate agents, architects, solicitors and interior designers, each a cog in the wheel of a very well oiled machine put together to make every step in the process feel entirely effortless. Clients can sit back and reap the rewards. This can be anything from removing the competition from the equation altogether:“If an agent has something that they know about, we can get our guys in before anyone else, and then they don’t have to compete with other people,” to offering counsel during the survey stage. “We work with an amazing surveyor. He’ll go around, then we all get on a call with the solicitor, our client, us, and whoever else needs to be involved to discuss any issues, how serious they are, and what needs to be done,” says John.
But a huge part of the process relies on John and Rosie’s collective knowledge, their impressive recall of London’s boroughs and its vast selection of housing stock: anything from mid-century modern builds to Georgian piles, Victorian villas and projects still in the construction phase.
“We had clients that were in Islington with a brief to find them a mid-century modern house. We went all over London, looking at these amazing things, but what it came down to was the fact that they still wanted to be in Islington, and those houses don’t exist there. Because of our background, we knew of this one house that wasn’t mid century, but it was as close as you could get to it. We wrote them a letter, popped round and had tea with them – then we introduced the buyers and it all happened completely off-market,” says John.
Given their years in the industry, it should come as no surprise that John and Rosie are both fluent in the art of negotiation. Seasoned players well practiced in putting forward a compelling case as to why their buyers are the most deserving. “It’s not just financial. Because we’ve negotiated so many sales, we know the psychology of how a seller thinks. When we’re making an offer, we’ll write a letter on behalf of our client – we know how to position them to give them the best chance,” says John.
But what if a property isn’t for sale?“There’s a lot of people that would move, but they don’t want to have to go through the hassle – they don’t want to deal with agents, they don’t want people traipsing through. So if you can just deal with somebody who has representation, you know they’re legit and they’ve got somebody handling that. These people are sitting and waiting, so if somebody approaches you when you’re in that mindset… there is potentially a whole market that’s not doing anything, just waiting,” he explains.
Indeed, John and Rosie’s direct yet courteous approach has been met with high praise not just from their clients but from the selling parties, too – their glowing comments testify to just how enjoyable the experience has been for all involved. “One of our website testimonials is from the sellers in that scenario, and they said that we changed their lives. They had to sell anyway, they just didn’t want to go through the hassle of it, so that worked really nicely,” says John.
Sekforde is a boon for time-poor folk of a certain wealth bracket – not just those looking to buy but also sellers for whom discretion is paramount. Offering them access to the market without compromising their privacy – invitation only, if you like: “You just have a select few people coming through the door who are genuinely interested parties,” says John. While he and Rosie no longer sell properties, they do operate on a consultancy basis through Sekforde, advising those keen to sell on matters of strategy: which agents to instruct to achieve the desired outcome or which interior designers might help with a refresh to get to a point of sale, for example.
“When you sell houses, the whole process can become very transactional. It can feel like a bit of a numbers game and we wanted to step away from all that,” he says. “Now we get messages from clients saying, ‘We’re so happy you found us this place, we would never have found it without you,’ and that’s a wonderful feeling – we’ve done our job well. We spend a lot of time with these people on their quests, so there’s a genuine relationship there – and some real, ongoing friendships that have been made, which I think is quite rare in this field of work.”
And in an industry underpinned by transactions, working with Sekforde is anything but. It’s clear that finding clients the right home, not just any home, is the end goal for the pair and a mantle they don’t wear lightly. And how does he feel stewarding these people through such a potentially stressful life-changing event? “When people are selling their home, even if they’re moving for positive reasons, there’s always a negative. Their home is their emotional rock, and they put it on the market and kind of lose that grounding. And throw in the fact that they’re dealing with their most valuable asset most of the time, so perfectly rational people can become hard to deal with. And you’re the person in the middle trying to keep that all together. Whereas acting just for a buyer, there’s optimism and hope and it’s fun – it’s positive change, which I think is really good for humans.” What a lovely way of looking at it.