Clive Hedges, manager at Arnolds Keys' Coastal Hub in Sheringham, reflects on 50 years of service for the estate agent.

Regular readers of the EDP property supplement will have noticed that I celebrated something of a milestone last month: 50 years working for the same firm of estate agents.

I joined Keys (as it was then) in 1974 straight from school and have had the pleasure and privilege of managing what is now Arnolds Keys’ Sheringham office since 1980.

Inevitably, many people have asked what are the biggest changes I have seen over that half century. My answer is that there have been many – but that the fundamental basis on which our profession is built has not altered at all.

The most obvious change has been in technology. When I started, property details had one black and white photograph and were printed off on a Gestetner machine.

Over the years the introduction first of colour photography and then of digital photography, followed by the advent of the internet, all resulted in estate agents being able to offer a more sophisticated service to both buyers and sellers.

It is very easy for those of us who have the benefit of many years’ experience to wax lyrical about how ‘it was better back in the day’. But who would want to go back to a time when the internet wasn’t opening up vendors to vast new pools of buyers, and allowing buyers to take interactive 360-degree tours of houses online?

Not every change has been for the better, though. When I started, there were no corporate agencies, the profession was made up of local firms staffed by local people who really knew the market, and more importantly, the people in their community.

They still exist – I am proud to work for just such a firm – but there is no doubt that the market is more corporate today.

And that brings me to the most important thing I have learnt during 50 years as an estate agent. No matter what changes there are in technology, the personal touch will always be central to success.

Our profession is still about having an encyclopaedic knowledge of the local market, and above all building personal relationships.

For more than half a century that has always been my focus. Over the years I have played a part in many local families’ homes histories, selling the same houses three or four times, and selling homes to the same people as they moved up the property ladder.

In the end, estate agency is about people, not bricks and mortar, and no amount of technology – great though it is – will ever change that.

For more information, visit arnoldskeys.com