We are DCTR

Rachel joined DCTR in July 2019.

She brought with her over 20 years of graphic and web design experience from both the private and public sectors. During her career she has been the creative lead of numerous visual identities and brands for specific campaigns, organisations and events.

Her role with us is to work on creative projects for DCTR and its clients. This can be virtual furnishing, photo editing, new homes creatives, web and social media. Her favourite edits are at Christmas adding snow & decorations!

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If golf was a religion, Shirley would be its Archbishop. But she spends much of her time in front of her computer instead of on the golf course as DCTR's Financial Director. She's been so important to the growth of the business, keeping John and Tom on the straight and narrow at the same time as supporting them. Of course, there's also the need to speak to customers who have lost their invoices and produce data for the monthly board meetings where she also makes the coffee and buys the biscuits. Shirley's other passions are her 6 grandchildren and she loves nothing more than being 'Nana' - except, perhaps, golf! :o)

Tom started his working life as an Estate Agent in Exeter back in 2008 and worked for The Chapel of Ideas property marketing agency as an intern during his A-Levels. After earning a 1st in Business Economics and cheeky little Marketing MSc from Exeter Uni, Tom worked in Brand Management for Walkers Crisps, KFC and the Boston Consulting Group. He was never really a corporate chap, so Tom decided it was time to come back to his heartland and rejoined the property industry with his father. He's been with DCTR for the last four years.

Tom heads up Creative, Sales & Marketing for DCTR and has a keen eye for detail. He's always been a creative and some might say a little eccentric. Setting up and running the Surrey Cider Festival was one of his key accolades; drawing in over 1000 cider-lovers from across the county. Tom appeared on the BBC in the process and won a Facebook Marketing Star award from the guy at Facebook HQ. He still loves cider but prefers a cold IPA these days...

Tom is not only a ninja retoucher but also a Shodan Blackbelt in Shotokan Karate! Tom works in our Doctor Photo department, working on your photos and visualisations. He also supports our New Homes department with design projects and social media.

John started in estate agency straight from school over 50 years ago. During his career he was a Fellow and Committee Member of the NAEA and also a judge for the Estate Agency of the Year Awards. He built and sold three business, one to Prudential Property Services just before the recession in the early 90's. He loved his job but his true passion was for property marketing and photography. Thanks to his second boss, throughout his career he found that presenting properties in a way that was better than his competitors, played a huge part in his success.

Many estate agents will understand that estate agency can be fun but often isn't so after 37 years he changed his life and sold his partnership to his partner and quickly established himself as a leading country house photographer (hello-photo.co.uk). He wrote the RICS Guide to Property Photography and was lucky enough to photograph some of the UK’s most prestigious properties, as well as working for some of the biggest names in the industry.

Doctor Photo grew from a cottage industry that started 11 years ago – when John as a favour to his agent mates, used to spend his evenings removing skips, bins and other agents' boards from their photos – to become a leading property market supplier, enhancing thousands of images a week for clients around UK & Europe.

John's passion is to help DCTR's customers to sell more houses and to improve their brand image. If you have any questions or just want a chat, he’d love to hear from you. In the meantime, do read our blogs which are updated on a regular basis with tips and information that will help readers present properties to a professional standard.

Interesting fact: John was present the day Baby Spice joined the Spice Girls (before they were the Spice Girls). As Chairman of a charity that provided studio recording facilities for young people he was introduced to Emma the day she arrived.

Sarah joined DCTR in 2018 and plays a vital role running keeping the show on the road in the studio. Sarah is also a trained social worker and has two beautiful kids called Bluebell & Huxley.

Becky joined DCTR in September 2020. Gaining a degree in Interior Architecture and Design, Becky has previously worked in the commercial sector as an Interior 3D Designer. She has now returned back to her hometown and eager to explore the residential sector of our industry. With a flare for bold, statement designs, Becky is happy to aid you through your virtual furnishing needs and assist on any design queries you may have. As long as she is able to help bring your spaces to life, she will be happy!

Steve joined the team at the start of 2019 leaving behind a career in Estate Agency spanning the last 25 years, and so fully understands the daily challenges faced by our Estate Agent customers.
Steve is a passionate photographer and retoucher and is always happy to assist with any photography questions, along with any account issues such as the most common "I've forgotten my username and/ or password.

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Helen runs our Video Training programme alongside her own production business, Orchid Digital. Helen started working on video to promote products and services when it was still 'new', at the time only big brands with the money were wanting to invest in this kind of marketing. Over the years video production has become far more cost effective without losing quality and so Helen strongly believes it's possible for every business no matter how small, to tell their story.

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