Bill Lightfoot MRICS

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My grandfather, Robert Guy Hobbs, introduced me to Hobbs Parker when I was two years old, when he sat me down next to him on the auctioneer’s rostrum while he sold the cattle at a rattling pace. I was a regular visitor to the auction market and the Hobbs Parker offices from then onwards. My father followed my Grandad into the Managing Partner’s chair and I was often put to work helping Polly the tea lady on her rounds, chasing sheep around the market and stuffing envelopes in the post room.

Eventually, aged 19, I escaped this cruel world of child labour and, with my A levels in my back pocket, went away to study Rural Estate Management at the Royal Agricultural College. Remarkably, considering the temptations available there,  I graduated and then moved on to live and work in the Yorkshire Dales. Too young and foolish to appreciate the stunning beauty of the national park, I did, however, learn from some very straight-talking and seasoned professionals and managed, under the strict eye of the RICS, to qualify as a Chartered Surveyor in 1995.

Travelling back South again in 1996, I set about designing and building a new house in Brook. I still live there today with the mistakes of my naive architecture! But I hope to put that right soon with planning permission to build a new Para 80 house on my small farm. At the same time, I joined Hobbs Parker, although this time, I was paid a wage. Not a living wage, nor in fact a minimum wage but a wage nonetheless! I worked in every conceivable part of the business before finding my natural place in the business of property.

Invited into the partnership in 2001, I set about building a remarkably successful local estate agency business with the help of some very bright and determined colleagues. Mindful of the great history and reputation of the firm, I have always insisted that we treat all of our customers with respect and provide them with sound honest advice. The result is our enviable reputation for professionalism which I am very proud of.

A few years ago, I passed the Estate Agency reins to Alex Davies and decided to focus full-time on the world of development. Alex has since taken the estate agency business from strength to strength.

I have always had a strong interest in architecture and design and in fact had I had the patience for the long technical road, I might have liked to have been an architect. But now I enjoy providing detailed advice to land owners and property developers in all areas of the business, including planning, valuation, promotion, sales and purchase, legal agreements and a bit of honest realism when required! It is a very interesting specialism, not least because of the financial sums involved, but also because it is not something that can easily be learnt from books and lectures but only through gritty experience and the wisdom of others.

All in all, my work at Hobbs Parker manages to keep me out of mischief most of the time. However, when I am not at work, you will find me mostly walking the dogs in the hills and woods around Brook, huffing and puffing around the squash courts of Hythe, skiing whenever I can, and merrily eating and drinking with my friends and family.