Former NCFC footballer teams up with city estate agent for new venture

Hatters on White Lion Street, Norwich, is where Steve Pymm and Darren Eadie first met (Image: Archant)

Darren has nothing but respect for how Steve has built the business – something he has always been interested in. He set up his own relocation services business, Elite Fortress, in 2020, first helping footballers to move, and then the general public. The next step was to go into property.

“I went to work inside an agency for a period of time, just to kind of understand how it worked from the coalface,” Darren explains. “I can say quite openly in front of Steve... If you list 10 things you don’t trust, estate agents are generally on it.”

Since then, Darren says he has wanted to develop both his business and to change the perception around the sector. “I think Norfolk people in particular are very trusting and they want to work with successful local independent businesses,” he says. “They want to support you, they want you to do well, so I thought: how do we join those together, to mutually benefit each other?”

Once he had decided that he wanted to team up with another successful independent, Darren delivered his vision at a business dinner. Six or seven businesses showed interest, he says, and Steve was one of them. “I’ve known Pymmy for years,” he says, “so it’s almost like it organically fitted at the right time.”

The pair hopes that a combination of Steve’s property expertise and Darren’s public persona will help to differentiate their services from others on the market. “Steve’s got the brilliance of his business in the marketing side and the property side,” says Darren.

“But for me it’s the reach. I’m obviously well known in Norfolk and Norwich and my reach goes across the sector. I’ve got that immediate trust with players, I’ve got that immediate trust with the public, so I’m hoping that we can entice people to come and use us rather than someone else.

“The people who generally watched me play football now own their own businesses, they’re now the ones that are selling houses – they’ve almost grown up with us as well, so that for us is another key. People would have seen us about – they know Pymmy, back in the day, they know what he does in terms of his business, so you’ve already got that element of trust.”

Darren Eadie played for NCFC in the mid 1990s (Image: Archant)

Their new strategy will rely on social media – as well as Pymm & Co’s ongoing regional partnership with NCFC – to put them at the heart of the community. The aim is to publish a handful of videos each week, starring Darren. He will guide viewers around new property instructions and
chat to them about some of his favourite city hotspots.

“Norwich has clearly gone on the map since Covid-19,” says Steve. “The number of people that are moving to the area is unbelievable. What we’re looking to do is talk about Norwich itself, talk about the facilities and the amenities and the coastline and the Norfolk Broads. We’re trying to give Pymm & Co a bit of a broader reach, so it has a following – the fact that we can sell your house is something that will just happen anyway.”

While building its online presence is certainly not new to Pymm & Co, it has definitely become more important – particularly during the pandemic, Steve says. “We still traded but the office was pretty much closed for two years and we sold the most houses we ever sold.”

But Steve says the dynamic has changed and since 2010 he has shut five of his six branches. “You clearly need a base to sell from but no one really comes into the offices anymore. All engagement seems to be either over the telephone or via social media – I mean, we’re on Twitter, TikTok, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook.

Darren Eadie has joined up his relocations business, Elite Fortress, with Steve Pymm's estate agency, Pymm & Co (Image: Elite Fortress)

“What we want to do is build that now because I believe that the 20-year-olds at the moment... when they come to buy their first house in the next five to 10 years, that’s all they’re going to look at.”

Steve hopes Darren’s fresh approach to the industry will also help, longer term. “I think taking yourself out of the industry is brilliant,” he says. “So getting Darren’s perspective on how the customer perceives an agency... You can’t see the wood through the trees. All I’ve done since 1995 is sell houses and all I think like is an estate agent, whereas Darren sees it as a customer, as somebody who’s moved house himself, and somebody that is involved in the city of Norwich and the community. Personally, I think it’s a really good match.”

Part of Darren’s ethos, he says, is also to do away with the idea of the ‘hard sell’. “That’s one of the biggest things I noticed about estate agency when going inside it,” he says. “It’s always about the hard sell.

“I think where we try and do things differently is about understanding those people’s stories. You know, why are they selling their property, why are they moving on and the story behind it – the emotion behind it.

“I think there’s too much of a rush sometimes to get that business so quick that you lose sight of that. We’re understanding. We’ve been in the same position. We’ve been through it all, because of our age, so it’s actually about that – about understanding their stories, being a bit more empathic and caring about their situation than perhaps somebody else might have.”

To find out more, visit www.pymmand.co.uk or www.elitefortress.co.uk

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