I couldn’t afford to take the bus… now I’m selling properties worth millions
A HIGH-flying estate agent who sells properties for millions has revealed he was once so poor he couldn’t afford the bus to appointments.
As a schoolboy growing up in the West London neighbourhood of Greenford, Grant Bates would flog sweets and CDs to his classmates as a way to make some money and supplement his pocket money.
By his own admission he was “a bit of a cheeky chappie type”.
After taking his A-levels he turned down a place at university to study law as he couldn’t face yet more studying and was keen to get going earning some money.
He started his career as an estate agent selling flats around Wembley and Sudbury, North London.
Grant told : “I earned so little I used to walk to appointments to avoid paying for the bus.”
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He added: “It was real bottom end of the market stuff, my salary was £9,000 and my average commission was £15-a-room.
“I would walk to appointments because I didn’t want to spend money on the bus.”
Since then though his career has taken off.
He initially moved up by joining the cool East London agent Urban Spaces and spent six years selling lofts and warehouses to City types and then joined upmarket agent Hamptons in 2012.
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Grant, 36, now heads up the firm’s private office and deals with the firm’s most high-profile, wealthiest clients.
He specialises in selling homes to and for musicians - although he declined neither to confirm or deny he was linked to the six-bedroom house in Hackney which sold for £9.15million to the Canadian rapper Drake.
Grant also declined to comment on a property nearby which was sold to the US singer and rapper Chris Brown.
Despite dealing with worldwide celebrities, Grant says one of his most memorable clients was a teenager who was looking for a property as a nightclub-style party pad.
The realtor found a suitable penthouse apartment not far from London Bridge but there was a snag.
Grant said: “He was 17 and his dad was buying it for him.
“It was dependent on his A-level results though, so on results day I was anxiously listening to the radio to find out if it was a good year or not.”
Luckily, for Grant, the student got his grades and the sale was made.
Grant has also built up a strong following on Instagram, (@grantjbates) and styles himself as London’s coolest agent.
It’s safe to say he no longer worries about being able to afford the bus fare.
While commissions on property do vary, Hamptons charges between 1 and 2.5 per cent commission to its clients.
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Staff though can expect to take home somewhere between 10 to 20 per cent of that.
So for every £1m-worth property sold, an agent can expect to pocket around £2,600.
