When Libby Watt was a little girl growing up in Harrogate, she remembers playing ‘estate agents’, showing her friend around imaginary houses.
The childhood dream became a reality and she has enjoyed a long, illustrious career in property, which has seen her sell some of London’s most exclusive homes.
Now, she has returned to her roots and is three months into running her new estate agency, Barclay Watt Estates.
‘The most perfect cottage’
She said:
“I’ve just sold the most perfect cottage in Bishop Thornton and I’ll actually be really sad I won’t be going there any more. It has been a joy showing people.
“I’ve also got one due to complete next week and I’ve sold a couple off market.
“I’m really excited about it. I think Harrogate will be slower than London, but I am enjoying it and I love property.”
Ms Watt was brought up on Hookstone Road and moved to London in 1999.
She said:
“I was the administrator for a big corporate company. Unbeknown to me at the time my two managers there were setting up on their own, so they were out of the office all the time.
“Applicants would come in and say they had viewing books, so I told them to hop in my little Clio and drove them down to see the properties.
“I kept getting offers on them and I thought ‘I really love this’.”
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She went on to work for a number of property firms in the capital, including Featherstone Leigh, Hamptons International and Manors.
She said:
“One Saturday I kept getting calls from former clients asking where I had gone. I remember, I was driving and thinking ‘I can do this for myself. Why am I working for other people I’ve got the contacts, the knowledge and enthusiasm’.”
In 2010, she set up her own successful agency called Napier Watt in Mayfair.
Back to her roots
After selling the business, she went into property acquisition, before making the decision to move back to Harrogate to be closer to her parents.
After being unimpressed by the service when she was buying a property, she decided to launch her own firm.
She said:
“I was surprised at the level of service. Friends and family told me I should open an estate agency here as I would do well. So I thought ‘why not?’
“I started doing all the branding and paperwork and in March I was up and running.”
Ms Watt is focusing on sales, lettings, management and property acquisitions. She also works with interior designers and offers a global relocation service.
Female bosses
She said:
“I have noticed there don’t seem to be many female bosses of property firms up here. I am so pro women doing well.
“I was lucky enough to have some great mentors.
I went to Harrogate Grammar School and actually only got two GCSEs, because I’m just not academic. I just can’t retain things that I don’t find interesting.
“So I always tell clients I’m not taking notes, as I have photographic memory. I could draw a floor plan of a house I saw 20 years ago.
“As long as you have got a work ethic, you can do anything.”
