Estate agency virtuoso Mark joins Preston Baker with eye on growth

Mark fuelled with enthusiasm for helping grow the Preston Baker brand and developing its team.

Mark Christopher, a man with over 30 years’ experience of the estate agency sector, is the newly-appointed Business Development Director at Preston Baker Estate Agents as the company looks to grow its market share and geographical footprint.

A qualified valuer and surveyor, Mark was Regional Managing Director of Countrywide Estate Agents for over 20 years, Head of Residential Sales at Yorkshire estate and letting agents Linley and Simpson for more than seven years, and most recently was Regional Director at Yopa online estate agents.

He comes to award-winning Yorkshire estate agents Preston Baker fuelled with enthusiasm for helping grow the Preston Baker brand and developing its team.

“Preston Baker is ahead of the market curve in terms of technological innovation and has a team of highly-talented, like-minded people in place to drive the business forward,” said Mark.

He added: “I have worked with several members of the Preston Baker senior management team previously and have always had the highest regard for the business model and its people. My main reason for joining is to impact growth by adding value and I am looking forward to being part of growing the Preston Baker brand still further and more specifically launching our new innovative “Search” project”.

Mark will be heavily involved in supporting valuation generation, the listing process and supporting doubling the Financial Services broker numbers as well as looking to grow its geographical footprint and develop new products.

“This is a very exciting time to be joining the Preston Baker business,” said Mark.

“Preston Baker is committed to and passionate about delivering an excellent customer experience and everything we do is driven by this.”

He is a time-served professional. As Regional Managing Director at Countrywide Estate Agents, Mark had multi-site management responsibility for up to 27 branches within the North East, Yorkshire and Durham. When he was Head of Residential Sales for Linley and Simpson he was responsible for establishing and growing residential sales within the existing lettings operation through 10 branches in North and West Yorkshire.

Mark first joined the estate agency industry as he had a desire to be in a customer-facing environment and to help people achieve their aim of moving home and achieving their lifestyle goals.

He is now driven by growth and developing individuals to unlock their potential and achieve significant personal growth and earnings in the estate agency sector.

“I get tremendous reward from seeing others blossom and flourish,” said Mark.

In relation to the current housing market, Mark said the hiatus of the stamp duty holiday had not quelled the market as predicted. Rather other factors, such as low interest rates and lifestyle choices including a need for more space away from city centres, was continuing to drive prices and demand.

Mark, who lives in Harrogate, is a family man who spends much of his time away from work with his wife, children and grandchildren. When he does get any free time he likes to spend it on his bike cycling around Yorkshire. He describes himself as a “social cyclist” but does about 50 to 100 miles each week and has completed a number of long rides, including the London to Paris and Leeds Liverpool Canal routes. He’s a keen sportsman in general and loves to watch rugby union particularly.

Welcome to the Preston Baker team Mark!