Good things in Abingdon

We have been looking down on the street out of our window and seen some friends who have taken a while to see that we are calling them from above, not along the street! We have had some folks bold enough to ring our bell and come up and sit in our comfy chairs for a cup of tea too, which has been nice.

Over on the Abingdon blog it seems that some people think the town is going to the dogs. Whatever next! We do bemoan the lack of this and that here but it is after all a little town close to a big town so you can't complain too much. As for it looking derelict take a look at this:


What could be more idyllic? Roll on Summer.

In other business we have been looking around the internet to see what other agents are up to and finding some new lettings heads poking up above the parapet. That my friends is a sign of the sales market hitting the fan; when the market slows down they all turn to lettings for a bit of monthly income.

Some new businesses have also appeared no doubt after reading the property pages in the broadsheets saying that everyone will be renting for the foreseeable future as no-one will be able to afford a house or get a mortgage for one. One such new business declares itself to be 'Revolutionary' We make no such claims, as you know. All we do is make it simple, which is unusual.

What do you think about doing Market Appraisals on a Sunday, transparent fixed fees and being left like the un-sporty kid on the sidelines when the team is picked? The 'winning' agents refused to go out on a Sunday, charge a percentage and all sorts of add-ons, advertise with one picture and wear shiny suits. What gives? Maybe they thought I was too honest and that didn't fit with the stereotype.

It's not all bad though, as we have got a gorgeous flat on in Waddesdon just close to the Manor there which I have to say is much more in keeping with the high standard of property Blue Door - and our tenants like.

One of our long-standing landlords is cashing in his nest egg and looking to travel the world so has put his rental house up for sale. He instructed some agents who duly came and took measurements and pictures but he contacted us to say that he is really disappointed with how they are advertising his property as we did a much better job when we let it. Come on chaps! You've all got swanky digital cameras so take some more pictures and make houses look good! (It takes next to no time to upload them if you hold down the ctrl key as you select from your folders)

We are in the market for buying ourselves now that the small people are growing larger and larger but my missus is getting a bit picky about what we bother going to see if they aren't many pictures as she is a bit suspicious of what the agents might be hiding!

Wow! Blog readers!

Welcome to all our new readers who have found us via ThisAbingdon blog. We were quite surprised to see that so many people had hit our blog on Wednesday after Backstreeter's post about us.

If you are a careful checker of photos you will have noticed that one of the To Let signs he was talking about getting larger is in fact on the wall of our new office! David and Mark over at Meeson Williams will be surprised at their new found infamy!

We have had some lovely potential tenants viewing properties this week including Kathy who emailed us last week to say "I saw a few advertisements of yours on rightmove and liked your ethos and humourous approach! Please let us know if you think you have anything that would suit us. Thank you very much."

She was really pleased to see me on Saturday and find that I wasn't another greasy youth dressed in a shiny suit who didn't know anything about the property they were viewing. I rarely wear a suit nowadays or even a tie. I do wear shirts though and most of them are double-cuff if that makes any difference! I also know a lot about our properties and our service which is apparently tricky information to find out from many agents on a Saturday.

I started as a Saturday viewings lad back in the early 90s but I can assure you that I was almost as attentive to detail back then as I am now. I had very good teachers though which I think is what is missing from the business nowadays; anyone can start up an estate agents or lettings business and although many of them do a good job it isn't always a good thing.

Anyhow, I am glad that people feel that they know something about us from reading our adverts as we have always tried to set ourselves apart from the other agents in more ways than just price. If you are a landlord or a tenant give us a ring to see why we are the Unusual Agents. New office, same phone: 01235 524800

Moving things

The lads did sterling work today and my old office now looks rather sad and empty and the new one is now wired up, connected and stacked with paperwork. Unfortunately the filing cabinets haven't arrived yet so I am surrounded by mountains of filing boxes.

I hope the lads had a good hot shower when they got home because they might ache tomorrow. Two hours of going up three flights of stairs, down three flights, up the road and up one flight of stairs then down again while carrying all kinds of stuff might just be a bit more exercise than they are used to! We had some odd looks from folks in town, especially some ladies waiting at the bus stop who eyed them most suspiciously as they were carrying the desktop photocopier past them.

Hopefully Rachel can start organising it all on Monday as I have absolutely no skills in office tidyness whatsoever.

I have got some new headed paper and business cards on order from Laserset in Abingdon who are fantastic. They are a relatively small company who offer great service and rapid turnaround on any job I order from them.

Despite sending out a lot of our paperwork via email we still get through reams of paper every month but all our agreements are on recycled paper and we use recycled envelopes too. If only I could recycle the postage too!

One more thing: this is a snippet of email from a third time landlord Mr R "Many thanks with all the help given. I think you have given me a fantastic
service and will not even think of using any other letting service."

Thank you Mr R; it is so nice to be appreciated.

We have moved

It is with some sadness that we have left number 25 Bridge Street to its fate at the hands of Cranborne Homes but with men in suits spraying the walls with words like 'poor' and 'danger' we thought it was time to go.

Our new place is at 5-7 Stert Street just next to Pizza Express, across the road from Added Ingredients, up the road from Pamela Lucas and Mostly Books and above a stock broker. We are in good company!

Here is the view from my window down the street























and up























I had some help from Richard our IT man.



He built the 'puter under the desk and Dabs are sending me a monitor for it tomorrow. He also helped me put the desk up which was more of a 2 person job than I had originally thought! Don't worry though I won't be looking at the wall all day as I've got another desk to have by the window which will be just for the phone and some pens..... I hope.






The 3 smallest people in our family also helped a bit


The eldest will take his turn in the week to help me move all the files, other office hardware, Colette our long lived houseplant who grew out of the space she was in at home and a few other plants I have rescued over the last year or so.

I even have an entryphone thing so just press for BLUEDOOR and come and have a cup of tea if you are passing.