Rene Dokter

Marlo Wesselman | Sophie van Ittersum | Jip Oudes | Rene Dokter |  Floris van Ede
Dennis Thomassen | Douwe van den Broek | Guus-Jan Somer | Josepha de Bruijn 

Rene Dokter (born 1957). He moved from Amsterdam to the Burgundian city of 's-Hertogenbosch, but came back to his home town when he was 19 to decide whether to study or become an estate agent. The answer is pretty obvious. He now lives in Hilversum with his wife and four children, but still finds time for reading books by Dutch writers (his favourite is 'The Discovery of Heaven' by Harry Mulisch), cycle racing, playing golf and running. He loves the province of Calabria in Southern Italy and the film ‘La vita è bella’ by director Roberto Benigni.

My area
The area around the Spui, the Grachtengordel ("Canal Belt") and the Utrechtsestraat.

My favourite restaurant/bar
Altmann on the Amsteldijk. Sing Sing on Cornelis Krusemanstraat in the south of the city.

My sources of information
I read nrc.next and the Volkskrant.

My experience of the Dokter Estate Agency
Honest to the core. This applies to the whole office. We never send anyone out who is not suitably qualified (we are all certified estate agents/valuers). Personally, I'm an old hand at this business – I don't drive myself crazy any more.

My most memorable sale
When I sold an apartment in Amsterdam with a roof terrace. It was an extremely cold winter's day and the heating in the apartment was set to 10. It was sweltering inside, so one of the viewers had taken his coat off. Towards the end of the viewing, he wanted to take a look at the terrace. When I thought that everyone had gone, I locked up and left. An hour and a half later, my office called to say that a man dressed only in his shirt sleeves was standing on the top of the building shouting for help. We let him out straight away!