About me
I am the Past President of the National Association of Estate Agents, NAEA Propertymark, a fellow of the NAEA, and have worked in Estate Agency for 48 years selling a wide variety of homes in Birmingham, Sutton Coldfield, Staffordshire and North Warwickshire.
I have been a member of the NAEA Propertymark for 40 years and in the past have taken on the role of Chairman and President of the Birmingham Branch. I became Regional Executive for the Midlands and joined the main NAEA Board in July 2015. In June 2016 I was voted by the members to the role of Vice President and at the same time was voted onto the main Propertymark Board. In 2018 I became President of NAEA Propertymark.
In 1976 I joined Quantrill Smith & Co Estate Agents, Sutton Coldfield’s leading firm as a trainee. 4 years later I joined Temple & Co who had offices in Sutton Coldfield, Erdington and Birmingham in my first branch manager position. I was then approached to take on the running of a recently opened branch of Ward Turner & Co in Yardley, Birmingham. Just 12 months later I was approached by our main competitor, R J Harrison and Co, to join them. Over the next 4 years we became the area’s leading firm selling over 100 homes a month from 3 offices.
In 1986 I joined Slater Dann Estate Agents in Sutton Coldfield to run their Four Oaks Office and was then promoted to senior manager and ran their flagship office in Sutton Coldfield Town Centre. General Accident Property Services then purchased Slater Dann and I was promoted to Area Manager then Area Director overseeing the running of 12 offices across Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham and Wolverhampton. I was also trained to train and ran training courses for the company up and down the UK.
For 22 years I was a director of Paul Carr Estate Agents, a company that over that time has become the largest independent Estate Agency in the West Midlands.
I created and ran the company’s Exclusive and Rural Homes Department which for the last 18 years has sold upmarket homes in Birmingham, Sutton Coldfield and Walsall and rural homes including cottages, farmhouses, barn conversions, equestrian properties, halls etc in Staffordshire and North Warwickshire.
I also ran Management Training Courses for the Branch and Department Managers.
For 18 years was one of the directors of West Midlands Surveys Ltd a successful small local Valuation and Surveying Company. I retired as director in 2023.
In the summer of 2018 I stepped way from front line estate agency to focus on my 12 month role as NAEA Propertymark President and to run my own Property & Estate Agency Consultancy business, Mark Bentley Ltd.
Mark Bentley Ltd offers a wide range of services for past and new clients and support & training services for Estate Agents.
In March 2020, due to requests from past clients, friends, solicitors etc I started providing full estate agency services, powered by eXp UK.
I have been married to Joanne for 36 years and have three children, Sam, Jack & Emily.