Alex Woodleigh Smith of AWS Prime: The buying agent who goes above and beyond

In the long, dark days before the internet — days which seem almost impossibly distant now — there was one great reason to use buying agent to find the right property: time. Finding potential places, sifting out the non-starters and staying on top of multiple estate agents to make sure you were at the front of the queue for any new arrivals to the market almost amounted to a full-time job. But then the era of the property search portal, near-endless online listings and instant alerts to new properties arrived, and changed everything.

Except it didn’t — not quite everything, anyway. Once property was splashed everywhere across the internet (not least via this very website, of course) it was only ever a matter of time before information overload changed the problem from one of finding the right places to one of cutting through the vast amounts of information out there. And it did something else, too: with everybody having easy, direct access to the open market a different set of variables came in to play, particularly with regards to new opportunities, development potential and understanding of market conditions.

And all these thanks have left a huge space for the very best buying agents — people like Alex Woodleigh Smith, founder of AWS Prime, and widely recognised as one of London’s most well-connected property gurus.

The starting point for those seeking a buying agent is the same as it once was. ‘For most of our clients, their time is simply too valuable to spend trawling websites and fielding calls from agents,’ says Alex. ‘We properly research each search, previewing an average of 50 properties per client.’ The result of this sifting is that every house a client sees will be a gem that ticks every box. ‘Only the very best reach our shortlists,’ Alex adds.

If you’re looking for a particular house, or on a particular street full of homes that you’ve fallen in love with? That’s all part of the service too, with a significant percentage of the company’s annual £100m of property deals (his portfolio is something else) being done via private and off-market sales. These contacts — Alex’s contacts — open doors that aren’t so much closed off as invisible to the average buyer. Then, once the right home has been found, Alex’s unsurpassed knowledge of the Prime Central London market means that he’ll be able to hammer out the best possible financial terms for the deal.

Saving time and money is just the start, though. In his two decades working in London property, Alex has built up a network of contacts in everything from developers and planning experts to the architects, interior designers and specialist craftspeople who’ll be the best choices to make any changes required by the buyer — something that’s invariably the case for those looking in the £5m to £15m bracket which makes up the bulk of AWS Prime’s property searches. It’s an end-to-end service from a man who’s as happy talking about the gorgeous Georgian architecture of West London as he is discussing the under-the-radar, cutting edge developments afoot in the capital’s fastest moving and most dynamic neighbourhoods.

The service doesn’t stop after the sale is complete, either. AWS Prime’s discreet and professional understanding the needs of their clients — many of whom are High or Ultra High Net Worth individuals, and regularly juggling homes in multiple countries — have led them to going beyond simple buying agency and in to management of property development and further acquisition.

Many of Alex’s clients have been coming back to him for years; and if it sounds like you’d like to become one of them, you can get hold of Alex and his team at AWS Prime via alex@awsprime.com.