Unlike residential estate agents — where quality varies wildly from region to region — the commercial property world is far more consolidated. Most major players operate nationwide, with only a handful of smaller firms specialising in particular regions.
For most of my career, I actually had decent experiences with commercial estate agents. In the early years of running my e-commerce business, I moved through several premises as we grew. Later, following the 2008 financial crisis, I reinvested surplus cash into warehouses and offices when promising opportunities appeared. Back then, all the agents I dealt with were everything you’d hope for: knowledgeable, friendly, responsive — true professionals.
But ever since we moved to Birmingham in 2009, something changed. I’m still not sure whether the financial crisis permanently reshaped the industry or if Birmingham just operates on a different wavelength, but my experiences went steadily downhill.
The first warning sign came in March 2009, when I became interested in Merit House — the very building that later became home to my office furniture business, and now, ironically, the foundation of my self-storage business.
I saw the listing for Merit House on Estates Gazette Property Link and thought it might be perfect for my e-commerce business. I emailed the agent to request a viewing.
No reply the next day.
Nor the third.
Nor the fifth.
After a week of silence, I phoned the office. Nobody answered.
Perplexed, I decided to dig deeper and soon discovered that a company called Merit Badges was operating inside the building. I called them, reached the owner (Peter), and discovered that the building actually belonged to his friends. In the end, I negotiated the purchase directly with Peter — not the estate agent supposedly representing the property.
It was a bizarre experience.
To make matters stranger, a few months after moving in (September 2009), I emailed the same agent demanding them to remove their “For Sale” sign from the building. I warned that if it stayed up for two more weeks, I would start charging rent for the advertising space. The sign quietly disappeared shortly after — without a word of acknowledgement.
Fast-forward to 2023.
My other business had moved out of Merit House, and I needed to rent it out. Naturally, the first agent I contacted was the one who had brokered our new premises at Network Park. He responded promptly… only to inform me he’d be on holiday the following week but would arrange a viewing once he returned.
He never did.
And I didn’t bother chasing — clearly, if he didn’t care, I needed someone who did.
Unfortunately, that someone did not exist.
One internationally recognised agency declined the opportunity — fair enough, the giants only chase giant deals.
But what shocked me was a national firm (active in both residential and commercial) that completely failed to return any of my calls. Their receptionist apologised multiple times for “no response from the surveyors,” yet nobody ever followed up.
I tried a couple of local agents in Birmingham as well. Every time, the receptionist answered politely… but no surveyor was ever available, and not a single one called me back.
So there I was, with an empty building, no agent willing to list it, and business rates plus utility bills mounting to over £2,000 a month. More than once, I woke up in the middle of the night, staring at the ceiling and wondering:
What exactly am I supposed to do now?
And it was during one of those sleepless nights that the seed of an idea — long dormant — finally sprouted again.
Next Chapter: Is Self Storage a Good Business?
free to follow my BSS journey — one sleepless night at a time.
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