Emson began his career in property at 16, earning £1.50 a week as a junior estate agent after leaving school with a couple of O-levels. He attended Maidstone Technical College to study commerce, book-keeping and economics. In 1968, he started at Geering and Colyer in Maidstone, where he met his wife Sue, the daughter of the boss. They were married for 50 years before she died six years ago. The couple had two children: James, now managing director, and Rebecca, whose husband handles IT.
Emson launched his first estate agency, Clive Emson and Co, in Hythe in 1973, merging with Ward and Partners in 1983. Ward and Partners was taken over by Prudential in 1986, and Emson resigned as regional director three years later. He opened his own firm in Folkestone during the recession and later took over a small industrial unit on Medway City Estate in Strood. His portfolio expanded across southern England, with James launching in Hastings and then Brighton. They relocated to the Kent County Showground at Detling, where the Clive Emson Conference Centre hosts six-weekly land and property sales, now online post-pandemic. Emson once lost £250,000 in a failed venture opening a branch in New York on advice from a colleague of Donald Trump.
Emson was awarded an MBE for services to vulnerable and disadvantaged young people in Kent. His regular appearances on Homes under the Hammer made him a familiar face to millions of daytime viewers.