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<strong>THE</strong> BUYING AGENT<br />
Penny Mosgrove<br />
QUINTESSENTIALLY ESTATES<br />
We are running late. The CEO of Quintessentially<br />
Estates (QE) is waiting for us in<br />
the bar of Belgravia's Halkin hotel and<br />
Google Maps has unfortunately sent<br />
us elsewhere. Despite her incredibly hectic lifestyle –<br />
finding properties around the world for the clients of<br />
QE – Penny Mosgrove is rather relaxed about our late<br />
arrival and instantly apologises in advance for the client<br />
telephone calls she will have to take during our meeting.<br />
Client service is everything to the Quintessentially<br />
brand and no exception is made at their international<br />
property company. With six offices globally and more<br />
in the pipeline – the next being Los Angeles and Monaco<br />
– Penny is ambitiously driving the business forward<br />
to create a truly global property search agency.<br />
With a passion for property instilled in her as a youngster<br />
by her father, through his own property development<br />
business, Penny was running an estate agency branch at<br />
just 23, and somewhat inevitably was then drawn to the<br />
London property market – both as a commercial property<br />
agent and as an investor. Originally recruited as a buying<br />
agent for QE, she quickly proved her ability to manage<br />
the multitude of demands from their global client<br />
base and was promptly appointed to head the business.<br />
As QE effectively operates as a separate entity from its<br />
parent company, it also services the requests of individuals<br />
who are not clients of the Quintessentially concierge<br />
service although, naturally, the wealthy client base of the<br />
latter is a significant and valuable source of business for<br />
Penny's agents around the world.<br />
A GLOBAL CONCIERGE NETWORK<br />
The Quintessentially brand is now synonymous with<br />
lifestyle concierge services. With 67 offices around the<br />
world, 23 specialist businesses, 35 languages spoken<br />
by their employees, an unparalleled network of contacts<br />
at their disposal and a client list comprised of the<br />
global elite, Quintessentially is the ultimate concierge<br />
service – a way for cash-rich, time-poor individuals to<br />
manage their lives and experience the unique and the<br />
impossible. If it's a table at a fully-booked restaurant,<br />
a private jet booking, a dinner for two on an iceberg<br />
or a party for two hundred at the pyramids, Quintessentially's<br />
team will deliver and it is this ability to assist<br />
in every area of their clients' lives which led them to<br />
create QE.<br />
BARCELONA, IBIZA, NEW YORK AND L.A.<br />
Intimately knowledgeable about the London property<br />
market, partly as a result of personally owning a property<br />
portfolio in the capital, Penny gets very much involved<br />
in QE's day to day activities whilst also overseeing<br />
and liaising with her global team of property finders.<br />
Offering search services for both buying and short or<br />
long term rentals, the QE team is asked to look everywhere<br />
for everything to satisfy the full spectrum of demands<br />
from their clients (Quintessentially concierge offers<br />
a range of service levels which means that although<br />
all clients are of course successful individuals, some are<br />
prosperous professionals whilst others are global entrepreneurs<br />
with a huge range of interests). Thus a typical<br />
day in the life of a QE employee might involve viewing a<br />
£500,000 investment property in London, dashing off<br />
to some of London' finest boutiques to fulfil a client's<br />
request for their new home and then a conference call<br />
with agents in Ibiza to locate an Ultra Prime villa.<br />
Bursting with interesting stories (although many details<br />
she is not at liberty to divulge), Penny was once<br />
contacted in the middle of the night by an entrepreneur<br />
who was on his way to Rio de Janeiro to view<br />
some properties previously identified by Penny's team.<br />
Summoned to join him, she was on a flight to Brazil the<br />
following morning to accompany the client on viewings<br />
and within days had completed a deal on an Ultra<br />
Prime penthouse overlooking Copacabana beach –<br />
all to ensure that the client had a suitable base in the<br />
country during the FIFA world cup. Other assignments<br />
have taken her to Barcelona, Ibiza, New York and L.A. –<br />
the last of which is the destination for QE's next phase<br />
of expansion. Having opened in Ibiza during 2014 and<br />
now with a new office in one of L.A.'s most prestigious<br />
locations, QE is riding the wave of global Ultra High<br />
Net Worth population growth and looks likely to be<br />
a significant force in the property industry<br />
108 Feb 2015