For Perdip Johal, life in property has gone somewhat full circle

Having worked in the Wolverhampton branch of Martin & Co as an enthusiastic and eager-to-learn graduate, almost a decade later she is back in the Property Franchise Group fold as the new owner of Whitegates Wolverhampton.

Property wasn’t always at the forefront of the 29-year-old’s mind – having graduated from the University of Wolverhampton with a degree in Law, Perdip could have easily found herself in the country’s courts rather than running a successful independent estate agency.

“I worked at Martin & Co in Wolverhampton initially but left and set up The Lettings Shop in West Bromwich when I was 21,” she says. “Prior to that I had worked at places like Argos and Comet while at university in order to save up as much money as I could so I could start my own business when I finished uni. At one point I was managing more than 300 properties at The Lettings Shop.”

A combination of family life, the pressures of running an independent agency and a yearning to take her business back to Wolverhampton from West Bromwich, though, saw Perdip look at a resale opportunity back where her journey began with the Property Franchise Group.

“I’ve had two kids since starting The Lettings Shop and my husband came into the business to help run it,” says Perdip, “but I felt that running an independent lettings agency wasn’t working as well as it had before. It’s so competitive against more established agents and then the onset of online-only agents. I felt coming back into the Property Franchise Group would work better for me, having that established and larger brand behind me. As soon as the opportunity to purchase the Whitegates office in Wolverhampton came up, I was interested.”

However, having got the resale process over the line with support from the Group, Perdip was left thinking her step back into the fold was cursed.

“The Group has been really helpful as this wasn’t an easy resale and we’ve had a lot of issues. Pretty much everything I have done has been jinxed,” she laughs. “But they have been really supportive and have been up to Wolverhampton to help as well. I couldn’t have done it without their support.

It’s started really well as we are doing around four or five valuations every day and people are saying that they dealt with us 10 or 15 years ago so that shows how established the Whitegates brand is in the area. That kind of thing is exactly what I want to hear. We brought over around 140 properties from The Lettings Shop so we’ve now got 340 managed properties at Whitegates Wolverhampton.”

Never one to stand still and take stock, though, Perdip is already pondering expanding her Whitegates operation back to her old stomping ground in West Bromwich.

“West Bromwich and Wolverhampton are a fair way apart so one thing I have found bringing over properties from The Lettings Shop is the distance as a lot of our landlords in West Bromwich like to come into the branch to see us,” she admits.

“Already I’m thinking I may have to open a West Bromwich branch to deal with that but we’ll see - one step at a time!”