Former Humberts Country House chief joins property search firm Recoco

Jeremy Campbell-Harris, one of the most senior staff to be let go by estate agency Humberts earlier this year during its pre-sale clear-out, has now secured a new role at country house property search firm Recoco.

Standing for Relocation Coast and Country, Recoco has seven other staff including several former country department partners from Strutt & Parker.

It has its headquarters in Exeter and was founded in 1999 by Nigel Bishop, who until then ran Devon and Cornwall agency Rickeards.

Campbell-Harris headed up Humberts’ Country House Department until his role was made redundant in April along with dozens of other staff, but says his new job at Recoco is ideal because it enables him to both work from his home in Farnham but cover the whole of the South East of England.

Berkeley Square

“When I was at Humberts I travelled the whole country pretty much every day but was based in Berkeley Square [in central London], which I was lucky to visit once a fortnight,” he says.

“I’ve been selling country houses for a very long time, so I felt it was a natural progression.”
Campbell-Harris also says he believes more and more buyers of country homes are turning to buying agents like Rococo as the pressures of their social and working lives make it impossible for them to do all the legwork themselves.

“They just don’t have the time and resources to take a purchase from offer right through to completion including doing the paperwork, the fruitless viewing trips and the handling of the complex, sensitive negotiations.

“And they are prepared to pay for it if the service is good enough.”