Forty years ago – on December 29, 1975 – a 16-year-old called Mike Day started work in an estate agency.

Today, Day is an industry compliance expert, consultant and trainer, who has worked with over 120 agency clients this year alone, helping them to achieve their business goals.

We asked him to cast his mind back over the last four decades, starting with his very first day.

“My first task was to climb in the window in my new suit and clean the artificial snow off the window,” he recalls.

He had been hired by a business in Harrow called Wretham and Company.

“The business no longer exists having become part of Prudential Property Services in the late 1980s where interestingly I was regional sales director at the time.

“The premises are now owned by Gibbs Gillespie, a client of mine, and so I have had an involvement with the office in three separate guises over the years!”

Day went into estate agency as a school leaver at 16, having agreed with his parents that he would only go into a job that offered further training.

At Wretham and Company, he went on a day release programme to qualify with the Incorporated Society of Auctioneers, which in 2000 merged with the RICS.

Day duly qualified in 1980 and was national vice-president at the time of the merger.

He had looked at other possible first jobs, including retail management with British Home Stores and M & S, but would have had to work Saturday afternoons, “and I wasn’t prepared to miss out on watching my beloved Watford FC” – a team he still supports.

By contrast, opening hours 40 years ago were 9-5.30 during the week and 9-1pm on Saturdays. The concept of Sunday opening was some years off.

The first property he sold was an apartment in Alexandra Avenue, South Harrow, for £7,850. Today it would be worth £275,000.

In the late 1980s Day joined the NAEA, even though he regarded it at that time as a weak trade body.

Today, he says, it has modernised and grown up a lot, “but I still think it struggles between being a professional, regulatory body – which is undoubtedly what it would like to be – and a trade body that simply represents its members’ interests”.

After the RICS and ISVA merged, Day became the inaugural chair of the RICS Residential Faculty.

However, his only involvement now is as a member and, very proudly, as Chair of the ISVA Past Presidents Club.

One of the great changes he has seen over the years has been the emergence of women agents, particularly as the private rented sector has grown.

“I cannot recall any women working in estate agency other than in administrative roles when I started out,” says Day.

“The private rental sector was small and most agents were sales only. Wretham and Company did handle rental but this was mainly regulated tenancies. The AST had not yet been created.”

Did agents have a good reputation 40 years ago?

“As now it was mixed, but with no social media or the communication methods that we have now, news (good or bad) did not travel fast.

“Despite still being much maligned by the independent agency sector it was largely as a result of the corporates entering the estate agency market during the 1980s that standards improved as they introduced formal training, agency agreements and the original Ombudsman Scheme, for example.”

The industry has grown markedly since the mid-seventies.

“The actual number of estate agency branches has grown and, if you take the number of pure lettings operations and online operators, it has possibly doubled.

“Franchises were unheard of.

“Of course, the number of properties in the private sale and rental market has also grown and the value of those markets has increased substantially.”

Day’s career has also survived five housing market busts.

“The early 1980s before Thatcher came to power was a grim time and then again after the Tories boosted the market in 1988 the market crashed until the early to mid-1990s.

“In 1992 we had Black Wednesday and sterling had to be withdrawn from the exchange rate mechanism.

“The property market was again weak in the late 1990s to early 2000s and collapsed again in 2007.

“Will there always be cycles of boom and bust?

“I have no doubt that there will be elements of a cyclical nature, but lessons have been learned.

“We no longer have interest rates being set by politicians, for example.

“Lenders are no longer constrained on mortgage lending by the amount of savings they hold.

“At one point in the late 1970s mortgage money was so scarce that there were six-month waiting lists for funds.

“There was a joke that a couple went into their building society (banks didn’t do domestic mortgages then) and asked ‘How do we stand for a mortgage?’ to which the reply was ‘You don’t stand, you grovel!’”

The biggest changes over the years have been driven by technology and legislation.

“When I started, the internet, mobile phones, digital cameras etc did not exist.

“Agents did not have photocopiers either.

“We printed details on Roneo Gestetner machines. It was like Caxton’s printing press. Dirty, slow and messy.

“The first photocopier I encountered was in 1977 and was a huge ‘coffin like’ machine that required electrostatic paper – a bit like shiny toilet paper.

“It had to be kept in the dark so as not to be exposed to the light. The images were a bit like invisible ink – after a while they would simply fade away!

“Technology has enabled the pace of business to increase significantly, although I’m still not sure that all conveyancing lawyers have caught up (sorry!).

“Public expectations have significantly increased and put even more pressure on the delivery of service and performance.

“Legislation has increased but is still fragmented.

“It is a nonsense that you could be banned from being a sales agent under the Estate Agents Act (1979) in the morning for committing some heinous crime and then set up as a letting agent in the afternoon.

“Even now, aspects such as money laundering compliance are different for sales and letting agents.

“Consumer Protection Regulations are perhaps the first step in bringing a more unified requirement across the industry.

“The biggest challenge for agents, though, is exactly the same as it was 40 years ago – winning business.

“Put simply, if you are an agent, you need the property to sell or let if you are going to survive and thrive.

“The business now has more players and I still think most agents fail to differentiate themselves enough to stand out from the crowd.

“Reputations can be more quickly won (and lost) now.”

Day says he continues to enjoy the industry and getting to grips with the new challenges that arise. However, his first employer remains his all-time industry hero.

“Len Wretham, sadly no longer with us, was both a gentleman and a true professional.

“He set me on the path to professional qualifications and always took an interest in my career.

“I treasure a letter he wrote to me when I became vice-president of the ISVA. He was genuinely delighted with my progress.

“Commercially, the smartest operator I have worked with was Stephen Shipperley at Connells. I do have a lot of respect for his ability.”