Richard Sexton (pictured), a stalwart in the mortgage valuations sector, has been appointed as the commercial director of proptech surveying portal HouzeCheck.
Sexton previously worked at General Accident Property Services, which went on to become LSL Property Services in 1991. He was part of the management buyout team that took the business into private ownership in 2004, before it was floated on the London Stock Exchange.
He held a number of management positions within LSL’s property services, asset management and, lastly, its valuations division. There he focused on B2B business development and relationship management.
Until he resigned this year, Sexton was the longest-serving board member of LSL’s surveying and property valuation brand E.surv.
His recruitment at HouzeCheck follows the appointment of Paul Latham, industry veteran and former chair of Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) residential arm, as its chair.
HouzeCheck is a digital property surveying portal which uses cloud, digital and artificial intelligence technologies.
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It has completed more than 35,000 surveys in the last seven years on properties with a combined value of more than £10bn.
HouzeCheck works with around 150 accredited RICS members and provides property valuations and surveys.
Sexton said: “HouzeCheck already has a modest presence amongst mortgage brokers, conveyancers, and estate agents – who can earn a passive income by introducing HouzeCheck to property buyers. I’m here to develop these channels across England and in Wales and accelerate the reputational growth of the brand. As part of that, I want to position HouzeCheck not only as a leader in residential property surveys but also as the champion of all property transaction professionals, supporting them as they look to grow their revenues.
“Given HouzeCheck’s cutting-edge technology helps us to deliver a faster service to our customer – our average report time is three days – we should be helping to drive transactions forward, too: buyers who have commissioned a survey from us are less likely to pull out once they have sunk that cost and use the report to negotiate as needed to conclude the transaction with increased certainty.”
