Confessions of a valuer, chapter 10: a biblical approach to promotion – The Property Chronicle
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Confessions of a valuer, chapter 10: a biblical approach to promotion

Investor's Notebook

In this very special series of exclusive articles for the Property Chronicle, Australian property legend Norman Harker reflects on his extraordinary 50-year life in real estate. He will pull no punches partly because, as he freely admits, Norman has a limited life expectancy of five years from December 2018 due to a diagnosed terminal blood cancer, which he has cheerfully accepted in preference to (in his words) “kicking the bucket without notice”. We are honoured he has chosen us to publish these brilliant, funny and incisive reflections of a lifetime in property.

Chapter 10: biblical approach to promotion – or, how I accidentally landed on the fast track

!!!Health warning!!! Do not try this method without considering the very high probability of failure.

At the end of the last chapter, I was getting a reputation. It wasn’t the one I wanted, which was the one enjoyed by my flatmate as a ‘go-to man’, but rather that of a problem solver.

Although now working in different departments, Phil Newmark and I shared a flat. We had got on extremely well when he was being trained up. He appreciated my ‘deep end’ approach and was clearly from the same type of sado-masochistic school as me. I thought my school was unique in this quality in Britain. It was! I had developed mine at Colchester Royal Grammar School (CRGS) in south-east England. His sado-masochism was learned at Trinity College Dublin.

Sado-masochistic educational institutions: Colchester Royal Grammar School and Trinity College Dublin

Both were founded by Elizabeth I from the proceeds of a takeover bid of the Catholic Church monasteries.

Infamous graduates: me and Bram Stoker






Investor's Notebook

About Norman Harker

Norman Harker

Norman Harker FRICS FAPI, the Principal of Sydney-based consultant Norman Harker & Associates, is a specialist Excel property consultant, with expertise in developing, validating, and securing the robustness of Excel DCF and CF analyses for analysing transactions, valuations, investment analysis and feasibility studies. He was an elected New South Wales divisional board member of the Australian Property Institute in 2013-2015 and for many years was a senior lecturer at the University of Western Sydney, where he specialised in developing applications for the use of practising valuers; before that he lectured at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. He began his career at Conrad Ritblat & Co in London, where he rose from trainee valuer to associate partner. He was diagnosed with incurable multiple myeloma in 2018 and given a life expectancy of five years, and also suffers from an incurable and often inappropriate sense of humour.

Articles by Norman Harker

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