Jake Willis – Managing Director

Hailing from New Zealand, Jake came to London over six years ago to visit the British side of his family and to work in hospitality following completion of his university degree. After meeting a manager of one of London’s leading estate agencies, Jake was invited to interview for a position in telesales. After working his way up the ranks in both sales and recruitment for the next two and a half years, Jake decided to establish London Living Homes.

Jake was originally involved in house-share and property management, with his focus being the growth of the company’s property portfolio. Since early 2008 he has also established successful lettings and sales departments within the company.

Jake is well travelled and has done some interesting things; he grew up in New Zealand, lived on a remote island in Fiji for six months, was an exchange student in Brazil for a year, speaks fluent Brazilian Portuguese, and trained at a Thai Boxing camp for six months in Thailand. He has been working in the UK since 2004 in property management and lettings. In his spare time, Jake is an avid rugby fan and general sports enthusiast. He likes socialising with friends, loves to travel and can be found most mornings running (though to most people it looks like a slow jog) with his yellow Labrador, Mango, along the Thames in Fulham.

Kim Felettigh – Business Development

Kim came to London from Sydney in January 2004 where she worked for one of London’s leading estate agencies as a portfolio manager. After two years she returned to Australia and established a successful property management department for a start-up property company which focused on shared accommodation.  Kim joined the London Living Homes team in 2007 and has been an integral player in the start-up and ongoing management of the company.

At London Living Homes, Kim has directed and established a thriving house-share and lettings department which continues to grow and develop each year.

Kim is a Management and Real Estate graduate with more than seven years experience working in the property industry, both in Australia and the UK. She loves to travel and is a budding master chef in her spare time; she also likes playing tennis, although she needs to do some serious work on her backhand.

Zanna Larsen – Lettings Manager

After finishing secondary school in Sydney, Zanna studied marketing at university, majoring in events. Following her time at university, Zanna moved straight into the property industry, working in property management and lettings for a well-known company for just under two years. Zanna decided to skip across the pond to England and managed to secure a job straight away in a phone-based role in sales for a leading estate agency in London. After honing her skills on the phone, Zanna decided she wanted to get back to dealing face-to-face with her clients so she accepted a job as a sales negotiator for another well-known agency in South West London. As with all of her roles Zanna thrived - with her great interpersonal skills and fun loving attitude she was a favourite among both landlords and tenants. Late in 2010, Zanna was approached by Jake to join his lettings team as a negotiator. Since taking the job she has not looked back, and has enjoyed phenomenal success in the company, helping tenants to find their new home and keeping the staff entertained with her general antics. In 2011 Zanna was promoted to Lettings Manager, helping to drive the company forward by providing an unparalleled service to our landlords, while mentoring our negotiators so that they can learn as much as possible while working as part of the team.

In her spare time Zanna is not afraid of a glass of wine and socialising with friends at the pub. She loves travelling around London and seeing new sights and has a little brown Labrador puppy called Dutch.

Noah Pickens – Lettings Negotiator

Noah is one quarter English; however he is originally from New Zealand and grew up in West Auckland. He studied sports management at university, and after completing his studies he worked as a sports manager within a local school, managing 62 sports teams for kids ranging from 13 to 18 years old. Though he loved the job and the challenges involved, Noah decided to get in touch with his roots and came to England in 2006 for a working holiday. He spent two years working in the building industry learning about the trades involved in property and soaking up some English culture. Having gained an interest in property, Noah returned to New Zealand to work in sales for a company which sold insulation services for residential homes. Being a commission only job it was tough going, however Noah stuck it out to become one of the top salesmen within the company and stayed for over three years. Having once again been bitten by the travel bug, Noah decided to see some more of the world and embarked on a tour of South America and then settled once again in London. Noah joined London Living Homes in July 2011 as a lettings negotiator and has been enjoying getting stuck into the role ever since.

Being a sports fanatic he has played almost every sport under the sun, however his passion is Rugby and Rugby League. He loves to travel, socialise with friends and take long walks on the beach.

Hailey Trantum – Business Development

Hailey grew up in Herefordshire, and has lived in London for the past five years. After finishing school, Hailey got stuck into working life straight away, working for Oakley sunglasses. She did exceptionally well, starting from a junior position and working her way up to become a senior sales agent after five years. After collecting a wonderful array of sunnies, Hailey decided to try something new so she moved to London and began working in sales for a software company which helped companies to compile data from events and exhibitions (all very exciting stuff). Though she enjoyed her role, she wanted to see the world so she packed her bags and travelled around the world for the trip of a lifetime! She went to many countries - the US, Singapore, Indonesia and Australia, just to name a few. After returning to London, she met with Jake and London Living Homes and is now directly involved in developing the business by maintaining contact with all of our Landlords and Developers, making sure they are taken care of and are receiving optimal customer service at all times.

Her time abroad made her fall in love with snowboarding, so she hits the slopes whenever possible. She is also a keen wakeboarder and football fan, travelling as much as possible to cheer on her team at their stadium.

Simon Southey – Lettings Negotiator

Simon grew up in Melbourne, Australia and studied property at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. After obtaining his degree, he spent seven months working in commercial property management and lettings company, learning all about the property industry and gaining an understanding of what is involved not only on the sales side of things but also after-sale customer care and property management. He was very successful within the role and enjoyed his time there however he wanted to see more of the world so embarked on a tour of South America for six months. The six months away was an amazing experience for Simon and he made sure he pushed himself wherever possible to take himself out of his comfort zone. After riding a bike way too fast down the world's most dangerous road in Bolivia, he thought it was time to meet the other side of his family in England.

Simon is working as a lettings negotiator and working hard to learn as much as possible about the property industry in London while retaining his Aussie accent. He can't live without his Aussie Rules football which he carried all around South America and he fancies himself as a bit of a crooner (specialising in the Beatles) especially after a few beers at the pub!

Elise Taylor – Lettings Negotiator

In her hometown of Sydney Australia, Elise was working as a PA for a Financial Planning and Accountancy firm before making the decision two years ago to come and live in London. After arriving in London, Elise was working as a pet shop manager and head receptionist for a veterinary clinic before being approached by Jake to come and work for his company as a Lettings Negotiator.  

Elise works both in shared accommodation and lettings as a Property Negotiator, helping prospective tenants to find both room in flat shares and whole properties. She has taken to lettings like a duck to water, enjoying the customer interaction and the variety that the job offers.

Elise loves the summer months, going to the beach, Mexican food and living up to the Australian stereotype by having barbeques on the weekends. Elise aims to visit as much of Europe as she can while living in London. She also enjoys extreme sports like coasteering, bungee jumping and skydiving.

Magda Kocan da Silva – Administrator

Magda came to England from Poland in 2002 and has since decided to make London her new home. Magda initially worked for four years in retail as an assistant and then manager at a well-known clothing store. In 2007 she made the change into estate agency working for an independent agent.

Magda is the newest addition to the London Living Homes team, keeping a close eye on all the paperwork and making sure everything is thoroughly checked and completed with minimum fuss. Her attention to detail is second to none!

Magda is happily married to a Brazilian and she is on a mission to become fluent in Brazilian Portuguese (mainly to impress the in-laws). Like everyone else in the team Magda loves to travel and try new things, her favourite adventure of late being a trip to Cuba with her husband where she got to witness first-hand how Cuban cigars are made - and realised that they actually don’t taste very nice at all!