The Company was founded by Frank Maitland Selwyn who joined the Wolverhampton Express and Star Newspaper with aspirations of becoming a journalist. That did not materialise with the outbreak of war. He joined the Armed Forces and on his return from the war, he acquired an auctioning licence and went into his father’s car auctioning business. His family soon decided he needed a proper job and he went to work for local Birmingham estate agent Alec Coleman.

After working on several projects for him, Frank then decided to set up his own business in Wolverhampton rather than Birmingham. Here he thought he may be a bigger fish in a smaller pond rather than staying in the Birmingham area, and so the company Maitland Selwyn was started in 1950. He went on to sell new homes for developers, first for John McLean through his connections with the Abbey Road and National Building Societies. Later he was given the opportunity to sell for Bryant Homes and at one point he was selling 80% of their plots for them.

In 1956 he went to America and learnt about selling techniques, budgeting and providing good show homes on properly presented sites. There was an excellent response and soon his reputation was spreading far outside the West Midlands. Instructions to sell new homes were continuously growing in both numbers and geographical locations and Maitland Selwyn were now established as the leading specialists in new homes sales.

Maitland Selwyn never had numerous branches in High Street locations, but concentrated their selling operations direct from show homes and at the heart of the client’s interests, on their developments.

With the boom of the late eighties there was no shortage of offers for the company and in 1988 the Company was sold to Birmingham Midshires.

In 1992, with a tough housing market, Birmingham Midshires put the Company up for sale which then started a new chapter. Christopher Haley, who had started his career in estate agency followed by eight years in the American real estate market and from 1996 as Managing Director of 140 offices of the Prudential, acquired the Company.

Chris recognised from an early stage that what Maitland Selwyn had to offer was a successful sales organisation through a dedicated team of managers and sales consultants. All developers wanted quality sales teams and this Maitland Selwyn could offer.
Chris is very heavily involved in the training programme for Sales Consultants, writing and delivering some of them himself. Part of the programme is lectured, part role-play and part on site. This training programme enables all new Sales Consultants to develop their knowledge, sales skills and therefore be productive and effective to the developer from day one. He also believes that we are never too young to learn new tasks and train new recruits from all age groups.

The 90s saw an extension to the business. Due to its unique understanding of new homes sales, the Company moved into the provision of both temporary and permanent sales consultants to a broader market place. The temporary staff can cover for both holiday and sickness and permanent staff are provided for all developers on both short or long term assignments and placements.

A strong focus still remains on the sale of new homes for developers with its historical “manning plus” service and its experienced management team.

Maitland Selwyn’s strength is both the development of personnel through its recognised training and its understanding of the developers’ needs. The addition of experienced Sales Managers has seen the growth across the country with regions opening in Bristol to cover the South West and Manchester to cover the North West. This growth continues with further expansion planned with Account Managers in the North East and East. The Company operates with over 300 sales consultants and with over 150 developers.

The Company prides itself on understanding the developers’ needs in all aspects of sales and believes that its training gives people the opportunity to learn skills in a growing market. It provides coaching and on going training to those who require it.

The Companys’ aim is to give you the best start for what will be an exciting and rewarding new career.