Antonio Greco, Sales Manager at Property Webmasters
Connect with Antonio on Linkedin
What is your career background?
I come from a background in website development and digital Marketing but unlike Property Webmasters, my previous experience was working with all businesses from various industries. I left my previous role after 8 years and in that time worked as a Team Leader and Senior Sales Executive. I joined PWM as a Senior Growth Consultant and have thoroughly enjoyed making the transition to the Prop-Tech sector.
How did you come to work for Property Webmasters?
I have known Matty Hynes, the Commercial Partnerships Manager here, for 30 years and I had noticed on LinkedIn that he had got a job with Property Webmasters.
It caught my eye because in my previous role catering for estate agents was always a fairly difficult task, and I had identified that Property Webmasters had found a niche in an industry that can be difficult. Me and Matty were having a general catch up and I heard there were some vacancies - the rest is history.
What's your proudest achievement?
I am extremely proud that I have now been promoted to Sales Manager in under a year with the company.
What are the top 3 challenges you believe your business solves for agents?
- We are specialists in delivering fantastic website solutions to cater for any client's needs. Estate agents need very capable websites and our services certainly provide that.
- We are also industry experts when it comes to marketing campaigns; more generic companies don’t offer that sort of specific industry insight.
- And thirdly I would say we have a tight-knit team and communication is always great between us and clients, where other companies can pass you from pillar to post to get things done. We are proud of the support we offer.
Which industry suppliers do you admire most?
I do firmly believe we are up there with the best, if not the best, around. I don’t like to bog myself down with competitors, my main focus is to focus primarily on Property Webmasters.
Which estate agencies do you admire most?
We cater for clients worldwide. We can cater for the small, independent one-man band to the massive global franchises. It is fantastic to engage with people at all levels.
A side point is how we went to Marbella for work purposes. It really was great to immerse ourselves in that environment and really get a feel for how agencies operate out there! I suppose you could say I have a soft spot for the likes of Dolan Property, One Property Group and Daniel Kenton at Vilujo.
What is the most valuable lesson you have learnt from working with estate agents so far?
You have to literally listen to every client’s requirements. We can produce a solution but it is all about helping and trying to have that conversation, not to oversell or over promise. It is good to have an honest conversation and to have good honest listening.
Mal Boston, Lead Developer at Property Webmasters
What is your career background?
I have over twenty years of experience as a professional web developer in the industry. I am 38 and got my first job at 17. I have been in lead/management roles for approximately the last twelve years. Previous to Property Webmasters I was at Frank Recruitment Group, a multi-national company with thousands of employees, and then did some contract work work for Redu, a major specialist marketing company.
I moved to Property Webmasters for the second time in March 2021, having been the initial developer ten years ago and now I have come back.
How did you come to work for Property Webmasters?
I worked for Jamie Arthur, the CEO, 11 years ago as one of only two developers, the lead developer. I was here for around 18 months and moved on.
Jamie and I have always stayed in touch and over Christmas 2020 we got talking again, I was reviewing workflow here, and on the back of that I agreed to come back full-time.
What's your proudest achievement?
I came back with the sole goal of working on the new AgentPlus platform. From a developing point of view it is an exciting project with some serious technical challenges.
It is working well, has businesses running on it, and that 13 months of work has made me proud of what has been achieved.
What are the top 3 challenges you believe your business solves for agents?
AgentPlus is a system that runs many different estate agents at once, but they all want their own vast array of needs so the system must be feature scalable to be able to accommodate those needs.
Producing a platform that is both simple and intuitive to use, while also advanced and powerful is also a challenge that needs to be overcome. Lead generation is key too. We wanted to produce a platform completely geared towards generating leads towards estate agents and every part of the website we produce is designed with a call to action in mind.
It is all about supplying clients with the leads to make money.
Which industry suppliers do you admire most?
In my area of the business, Laravel is the tech framework that we are built upon. It is the most popular PHP framework in the world and a solid foundation for the project
Which estate agencies do you admire most?
Foxtons and OnTheMarket because they have a fresh and clean approach to their websites
What is the most valuable lesson you have learnt from working with estate agents so far?
Every estate agent is unique and wants to do things a little differently. Although at a high level you would think all estate agent sites are all very similar they are in fact very different be that on-site functionality and external dependencies such as CRM and feed integrations. Fortunately, we are aware of this and the new AgentPlus platform has been developed, from scratch, with this in mind.
James Sheldon, Operations Manager at Property Webmasters
Connect with James on LinkedIn
What is your career background?
I had worked in financial services for 12 years, working for Deloitte, Lloyds, Barclays, Clydesdale, and Virgin Money.
I was a contractor during that time and was promoted through the ranks. It was mainly in complaints, client management and customer services before I came in as Operations Manager at Property Webmasters in November 2021.
How did you come to work for Property Webmasters?
I was looking to work more local after my second child and the company stuck out immediately. It was something I thought was interesting and the company stood out straight away as well as the clients it worked with. I felt I could offer Property Webmasters something different and it happened very quickly. The moment I met Jamie I really got a great feeling from him and couldn’t believe the worldwide reach they had for a local company.
What's your proudest achievement?
That has to be closing the largest project down in Virgin Money’s history, worth £8bn. I had only been there for two years and I was brought in to close that PPI project down and we completed it. There were so many arms and legs to it. There will never be another banking project like that. I had started and closed loads of projects up to that point but that was the big one.
What are the top 3 challenges you believe your business solves for agents?
Our AgentPlus platform at Property Webmasters is like a pick-up-and-go solution. It is versatile and a lot is developing constantly. That is a huge challenge in itself.
We also work hard on teamwork and we share experiences we use for our big clients with our newer clients too. We provide solutions for everyone, everyone is different.
We will build sites for one-man bands and then others for worldwide providers like Sotheby’s and Chesterton’s. We work with the client to be specific to them.
And then, thirdly, we make PropTech really simple. We want to educate and share our knowledge. We educate clients on key solutions and we don’t hide behind jargon.
Which industry suppliers do you admire most?
Valpal, Homesearch, and Vouch.
Which estate agencies do you admire most?
I love working with the bigger, prestigious clients like Intrum and Chesterton’s but I admire the young independent companies too. I like the people who invest in themselves.
An example is Alex Evans, who works for Keller Williams. He is doing it the right way, investing in a site with us, starting to market with us and backing heavily in himself and the company.
What is the most valuable lesson you have learnt from working with estate agents so far?
Those that embrace the technology and want to improve are miles ahead of the established ones. PropTech done well means, ultimately, they have more time for the people side of the business and what will drive their business. They will get to spend more time with the clients and then buy and sell properties which is key.
