Estate Agent Talk
SWORD OF DAMOCLES HANGING OVER UK PROPERTY INDUSTRY (HINT: IT’S MONEY LAUNDERING).
In the ancient tale of Dionysius and Damocles, Dionysius, a powerful and rich man, offers Damocles the chance to sit at his throne to experience what Dionysius himself experiences every day. For all its splendor the throne has the unfortunate characteristic of having a large sword hanging over it by a horse hair. Pragmatically, Damocles…
Alex Evans
TPO announces its first ever conference “Raise Your Standards”.
The Property Ombudsman (TPO) scheme is delighted to officially announce its upcoming conference called “Raise Your Standards” which will take place on 14th October at the National Motorcycle Museum in Solihull. Gerry Fitzjohn, Vice Chairman of TPO Ltd, said: “TPO Conference 2015 has been in planning for some months, and we can now inform member…
Christopher Walkey
Five key questions to ask your estate agents.
Selling your home can be a testing time. This traumatic life event can be full of anguish as you question almost every decision you make. Is it the right time? Will I get the asking price I want? Can I find a suitable property in the area? How will this impact family life? The list…
Alex Evans
VIDEO: Are you #IRPM Qualified?
Alex Evans
In-house or Outsource?
To in-house or outsource? There’s often a debate about the best option when it comes to the subject of property reporting. In some parts of the UK many letting agents are outsourcing their mid-term and inventory requirements, but in other areas there is a high percentage of agents that still use in-house staff to produce…
Alex Evans
Do you know your Murphy’s Law from your Black Swan?
If you’re a letting agency owner or property manager, you should be familiar with both of these terms. For those who need reminding or who don’t know, here’s what they mean. Murphy’s Law is an old adage that assumes that if anything can go wrong, it will go wrong. The Black Swan theory, meanwhile, was…
ARPM
How do vendors get the right smell for a successful home sale?
In a recent survey of home buyers by property marketing, content and home staging company A Passion for Homes, the worst thing to encounter on a property viewing is a bad smell! Accounting for almost a third of the results, it is no surprise to most estate agents and property professionals that smells have come…
Alex Evans
The costly mistake of not home staging.
I think one thing we can agree on when we attend market appraisals, is that every home is different and how they are presented for sale can vary dramatically. We have previously talked about honesty when conducting an appraisal, and how to broach the subject of home staging. I had a great response on this…
Stephen Brown
House Pricing in UK 2015
How house pricing is managed in UK ?? The average London home will cost more than 1 million English pounds by 2030, according to new analysis as strong jobs growth and a chronic housing shortage keeps pushing up prices, strong growth population and higher employment combined with a shortage of housing would lead house prices above £1m…
Alex Evans
Investing in Central London property? Why a Property Manager should be top of your list.
Press Release * SANDFORD The rush to invest in property is understandable. Take a recent headline from The Independent: ‘Buy-to-lets top investments, with returns of up to 1,400%’. It will have caught the eye of savers whose nest eggs may be languishing in cash accounts and ISAs, where the rate of interest is probably hovering…
Christopher Walkey
Property in the North West is highly investable.
Recent findings by HSBC reveal that Manchester has the 7th fastest growing rental yields in the UK and Manchester, Blackpool and Liverpool all made it onto the top 10 list of buy-to-let hotspots according to rental yield. Blackpool was found to be the seaside town with the best rental yields in the UK (7.81% before…
What a Conservative win means for the property sector.
As I write this blog, the Conservatives have won a majority seating in Parliament. As a recruiter entrenched in this sector I have followed the election campaign trying to build a view of what will happen to the sector after the 7th May. Housing policy was definitely used in the ground war to secure seats…
Alex Evans
VIDEO: Is there a housing capacity issue in London?
Alex Evans
Online only… Can they be called ‘Estate Agents’?
Managing a few Estate Agency groups I get to see a lot of debates and opinions shared on varied industry topics. One of the popular discussions is to whether or not online estate agents, a growing popularity currently, should be classified as actual ‘Estate Agents’. As per usual, I will have no real opinion on…
Christopher Walkey
JUST WHAT IS PRIME IN CENTRAL LONDON?
While the exact boundaries defining “Prime Central London” are unclear, isn’t it time we recognised the likes of Hackney, Stratford and Woolwich as some of London’s real “prime” locations? We’ve launched a number of London property developments so far this year, and as is so often the case when we turn our attention to this…
Alex Evans