Managed or Non-Managed?

Nice big rubbish bin, green recycling box, doormat and lawn neatly mown by our gardener?

Or unkempt front lawn and no bin?

We can show your tenants that you are a nice landlord in lots of ways. If you are nice to them they are nice to you and we are nice to everybody. Smile!

Ramblings on prices

I have a lot of theories about a lot of things but some of the theories I have about lettings are spot on.

One is that a property will only let for what a tenant is willing to pay for it. This sounds obvious but what I mean is that the prospective tenant for a one bed flat or a three bed house has a budget in mind based on a few things. Firstly how may people will be paying the rent, secondly how much the monthly mortgage payment on the house would be if they bought it themselves and thirdly there is a seemingly random relationship between rent and property prices.

Thanks to the internet it is very easy for anyone to find out what a house was bought for and when or how much similar properties are being sold for. Sites like http://www.nethouseprices.com/ have taken the mystery out of purchase prices and for a mere £3.00 Land Registry will sell you a pdf of the title deed of any property which lists its owners and any mortgagees.

This is why there is a ceiling on rents for a particular sized property which to some extent disregards its interior finish or its location. Furniture does not add a premium to the rent and neither do white goods. Tenants in this area expect white goods and beds as basics and in a lot of properties landlord's furniture is seen as a hindrance.

Tenants aren't silly, if they could buy the property for less than the advertised rent then they will do that instead. The days of landlords picking a price and tenants paying it are long gone which brings me to the last point about rent and purchase prices.

There's a funny thing in and around Oxford that if have a house to let which is worth between £200,000 and £250,000 you will get a rent of between £850 and £950 pcm. I can advertise these kind of properties on a landlord's instruction for £900 or £975 and get absolutely no hits whatsoever. If I drop this by even £25 I will get have the phone ringing off the hook. It seems that there is a magic number and that it is in the tenant's head, not the landlord's!

If this seems like a bad return there are a few things you can do; switch to an interest only mortgage on your rental properties then let through bluedoor. Our fees for full management are only £65+VAT which is £76.30 per month or less than 9% on that £850 rent.

If you are thinking of investing in property to let and aren't sure what to buy give me a ring and I will help you all I can. 01235 524800

Hello from Bluedoor

I like to be cheery in my emails and I seem to be writing a lot of them lately. My email is as busy as the phone!

This morning I tested my sat-nav to see if it would get me to a small but perfectly presented terraced house in Reading. Yes, Bluedoor's fame has spread south and we now have 2 properties in Reading. Want a look? Here they are

Check out the shine on that parquet flooring in Caversham!



And here's the terrace with my kind of door- lovely and blue. I didn't think I should move the umbrella-man sign just in case............

The sat nav is a bit crazy and decided to guide me home a different way which sent me past my sister's house so I stopped in there to say hello and see my sweet little niece. Once I got back to the office I sorted the post and replied to the phone messages that had piled up while I was driving then a new landlord called and asked me round to her flat in Oxford to see if I would take it on. 6.30? Of course, no problem. This is why I am losing weight - I keep missing dinner!

So after a busy, busy day I'm hoping tomorrow will be quieter so I can walk to work and get me some fresh air.

Oh and do you like my new clock over there on the right? Click on it if you want one for yourself!

The Unusual Agent

We don't advertise much in the real world as you will know, because we believe that the internet is a much more powerful tool than any paper advertising and way more economical too.

We get at least 2 estate agent invitations through our door at home each month and they go straight in our recycling box. I'm sure most people throw them away and I really don't want to spend money on stuff which will end up in a bin. It's bad for my green credentials and it's bad for our tenants and landlords because we try to keep costs low so they don't have to pay huge fees.

Which reminds me of one of our paper adverts which went to print before I had added one vital line. It said Who is paying for all the fancy offices? Landlords You Are! It should have had a little line underneath 'See the difference at bdea.co.uk' Oooooops!

My so called friends in the lettings business laughed almost as much as they had when I was on the front page of the Property Weekly a few years ago and they faxed me copies of the photo with glasses drawn on me and one really awful one with the label Ming the Merciless!

Our phone rings red hot all day most days except between about 3 and 4.30 in the afternoon which is when I put the kettle on and talk to my office neighbours over a cup of tea.

One afternoon at just that cup of tea- time I had a call this week from the guys in the advertising section of the Property Weekly (try their interactive paper) and they told me that Bluedoor is the only agent who has ever advertised in the paper without a photo of a property. They thought it was unusual and had called to ask why. I have no idea other than our adverts are so cool that a picture of a house in the middle of one would look odd.

If even ad executives think we are unusual we must be on to something.

Builders, who'd 'ave 'em?

I met a landlord at a brand new property yesterday and instead of being greeted by a smiling face I found him hopping mad.

'There's a stool in the bathroom' he said.
'Oh, that's useful for a bathroom isn't it?' said I wondering what had got him so angry.
'No, a STOOL, a sh*t' he shouts and I finally got it.
'Bloody builders taking bloody liberties' he ranted.

Lost for a suitable reply I said 'The toilet works ok doesn't it? Shall I check?'

And there it was with no sign of toilet paper either. Ewwww.

In my professional capacity I have only needed to use a vendor's toilet once and I can assure you that I asked for her permission, used the outside toilet and went to great lengths to ensure that it would be as if I had never been there.

My dad was a builder and used to think nothing of peeing in a sink. What can I say?