A young estate agent who earlier this month appeared in Channel 5’s Faking It TV series, successfully fooling judges that he was a meat market trader and not a ‘posh’ prime property salesman, has told The Neg that both jobs have similarities.

Rex Adams, who has worked for five years at upmarket Berkeley Square-based property firm David Adams, says he has no regrets doing the show, which required him to take a month out of work to film.

Rex’s father, who is a Spears Top 500 agent and was previously a Savills and Hamptons senior, founded his eponymous estate agency five years ago.

But his son, who is 27 years old, says that although both jobs may seem poles apart, it was his ability to connect with people quickly and gain their trust that helped him ‘fake it’ as a northern meat market wheeler dealer.

“You need the same qualities to gain the trust of both vendors and potential buyers when selling homes and that’s particularly true in the prime London market.”

Covid

He left University with no idea what career to follow and initially worked in retail, which he disliked, entering the property industry during Covid when his father asked to ‘help out’ during the post-pandemic sales stampede.

“I agreed to help out and that was five years ago,” he says.

He then made a property viewing video for Instagram to help market the David Adams brand and, after it was spotted by a TV producer, asked if he wanted to be on Faking It.

“I never though it a million years that I would end up on national TV,” he says. “I did it because it was an opportunity to do something completely new and different that ordinarily I would have never had the chance to do.

“I thought it would be an exciting thing to do and it was.”

“You just have to go with it – the director and productions staff don’t tell you anything on a day-to-day basis because they want to see your authentic reaction to things as they happen.

“So the camera would be pointing at whenever they revealed big news or latest developments.

“For example, in the scene with the pub quiz, I had no idea that was going to happen until I got out of the taxi and into the pub – I honestly though I was going for a social drink.”

Rex also says his success at selling meat over the counter caused the production team some difficulties.

“During the final challenge at Barnsley Market, I was flogging it so fast that there was danger there wouldn’t be any left to sell when the judges turned up to watch me action – so I had to keep telling customers I couldn’t sell the meat to them, which confused them somewhat, “ he says.

But it’s clear Rex wouldn’t like to become a meat trader, however much he enjoyed being a ‘fake’ one.

“It was quite shocking how hard they work and the hours they work – getting up at 2am to buy your meat wholesale and then be down on the market in all weathers to sell it is not for the feint hearted,” he says.

Rex featured in the first episode of the new Faking It Series.