BlueDoor Sales is doing business everywhere

Did you know that we are now selling houses too? We are rocking the boat with our fixed fees and hearing the same old rumbles form other agents as we did when we started letting properties.

They are telling people that our fee must be an up front fee. It isn't!

They say that we are an online agent and won't do viewings. We are online and we do viewings at any time you like!

They say that it's too far to travel from Abingdon to Bicester. Have they not heard of the car?!

They say that we don't have an office in Bicester. We do have a serviced office in Bicester!

The reason why we are offering Fixed Fee Sales is the same reason why we do Fixed Fee Lettings: we run the business without expensive offices or expensive cars or expensive suits that landlords and vendors have to pay for.

We do what we do so that you can spend less and save more. There is no catch and there is no trick. We just like to work this way!

There's a man waving not drowning

I was out doing a take on this morning and popped out in the garden to take some photos when I heard a shout from high up. Actually it was more of an "Oi, oi!" which made me think I might see someone mooning on a roof.

Thank goodness it was just this guy waving at me to take a picture of him and make him famous. I didn't catch his name......

Are the stars mis-aligned?

Everybody looks but no-one makes offers. No-one can commit right now and they have to have a think about it.

What is going on? Whatever happened to "I like it/it will do to keep my stuff from getting wet/I like the look of that fridge"?

All the properties we have available right now have something special about them. Either the location, the period features, the views.... they are all waiting for someone to love them or at least want to shack up with them for a year then see how it goes. We even have an office available to save a marriage from a miserable entrepreneur working from home and drinking too much coffee.

Have a look at our listings on rightmove and tell me which one you would rent.

Flat fees - a disincentive for what?

This week two customers who I spoke to at the start of January have come back to me to say they don't want to instruct anyone else so can I come and take some pictures of their properties and get them advertised.

Great news as I was beginning to think they had forgotten about me! When I worked for a corporate company we had to chase up new landlord leads on a daily basis if a couple of days had gone by and we hadn't heard from them. I hated doing that and tried to avoid it if I could. Now, as you can imagine I don't do it at all. If they want bluedoor they will come to bluedoor, it is as simple as that.

It seems that the other agents who these two landlords invited into their homes proceeded to hound them on a daily basis offering them all kinds of inducements to instruct them which as you can imagine is pretty annoying - and off-putting. Our deal is our deal and everything I say when meeting a landlord for the first time is the same as what I say a week later. No deals, no discounts and no guilt trips!

Anyhow obviously our honesty, transparency, integrity and consistency have won out yet again and several folks are now sitting in their offices disappointed. Take note of the above my friends.

This latest landlord asked me a strange thing when he called me to instruct me though. He was wondering what incentive we have for increasing the rent on his property if we stand to gain nothing from any increase as we don't charge a percentage. Good question!

I hope that over time he will see that the honesty that I show upfront is also the honesty which drives our business. Our first adverts had the text 'Helping Landlords get more of their rent' You might have seen on in the Post Office in Abingdon or in the Property Weekly. That is what we still do. We do the best for our landlords and charge a flat fee for doing it. Simple and unusual but still true.

Onward and Upward

Tonight I've been on Rightmove adding some new instructions and I thought I'd have a look at those folks who I consider to be our competitors and see what they are offering to let this month. This is not a list of all the agents locally just some who I spy on to see what they are up to!

The results just in, hot off the screen are as follows:

Hodsons Abingdon 7 properties Go Robin and Joe!

Hodsons Didcot 14 properties Go Trudles! (she is good you know!)

Andrews Abingdon 8 properties Go Andrew!

Buckell and Ballard Abingdon 12 properties Go James!

Allen and Harris 13 properties Off to a good start....!

Lansbrough Lettings 11 properties Go Hadrian!

Chancellors 11 properties Go team!

Abingdon Lettings Centre 17 properties Go Dougie!

BlueDoor has 20 properties and none are advertised with any other agents unlike some of those above. I could pretend that I don't know what we are doing that other people aren't but I can't be that modest! We are the only people who will answer the phone on a Sunday and take on a property there and then if that is what the landlord wants. We are the only flat fee agents in the county and no amount of maths can disguise the fact that even 10% of your rent is often a lot more than our fee of £65 per month for full management. Oh and we'll give you £50 if you recommend a landlord to us and we let their property for them.

We have not been trading for quite three years yet and we already have a big share of the local and Oxfordshire market because we are unusual. Big corporate companies with lots of office space, staff, overheads and cars are becoming difficult to justify in this market. Slim businesses, smart use of time and frankly crappy looking cars are obviously the way to go!

How many offices have you walked past this week and seen people at their desks surfing the internet or making cups of tea? If you are a landlord you are paying for that to happen and if I were you I'd be wondering if my money was being well spent.

We had the pleasure of taking over the management of a property in Didcot this week and when I popped in to collect the keys from the old agents I was faced with a ghost of my corporate past that I thought was well and truly buried. I only asked how it was going just as you would if you bumped ito a friend in the street and I got a most bizarre response: 'I completed so many lets last month my conversion rate is 1 in 5 which must mean that my applicant matching is really good'. Gosh. Is that a good thing?

We don't use that kind of speak here. We advertise with lots of pictures, do viewings and let properties. We don't have a white board with targets, yields, conversion rates and completions which needs to be monitored and updated daily or someone gets it in the neck. I used to work in a place with one of those though and my colleagues were always irked that my numbers were regularly bigger than theirs in every column.

Smug, me? No, just quite good at this job!

Oh well that's my ramblings for today. Let me find a picture or two for you now.

First, these are our favourite locksmiths who we like because they share our view of how to get business done.

And secondly, probably the highest stairwell I've seen for some time. I don't envy the decorators who painted this! There are stairs there I promise, I just couldn't get the window and the stairs in at once without getting dizzy.

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!

Yes, I am short

We have a lovely flat right up in the eaves of a block near the Manor Hospital in Oxford which has such restricted head height in the bathroom that even the current Chinese tenants have to sit down to have a shower.

I had a phone enquiry about the flat this evening and don't ask me how I ended up talking about height but I did and I had to tell the lady that it wouldn't be worth even looking at.

Perhaps she thought she was talking to a leckie who was being a bit cheeky so she sent this email follow up tonight.

"I called this evening to enquire after this flat, and was informed that my Fiancee might not fit. He is 6'5". I would appreciate it if you could keep me abreast of any new flats that are available with rents up to £900 a month"

We don't usually measure room sizes for lettings but I will have to raise my awareness of ceiling heights from now on.

Location Location Location

Do you watch it? We do and we love it!

There are several reasons: one is Kirsty - half woman, half sweater and the other is Phil - half man...(can you tell we also love Dead Ringers?) Oh and they have a real honest streak which we like to think that Bluedoor shares.

Here's a great quote from Phil 'Mate, it's the mutt's nuts, what are you waiting for?'

We have a property in Headington which is the mutts nuts. Click here to see it and decide for yourself. If I could get this landlord to re-do my house like this I'd be laughing.

Apprentices Wanted

This is the most fantastically finished HMO I have ever seen. I don't even want to advertise it as a shared house because that sounds too seedy. This is Oxford's version of the house where Alan Sugar's Apprentices live in London.

It has 7 bedrooms and seven beds but the HMO man says 'No.'

He thinks that the 7th room is to small to be a bedroom. Yikes. Its got a bed a wardrobe and a bedside table in it. If it looks like a bird and flies like a bird... And as for sizes: the understairs cupboard in this house is bigger than my bathroom at home; the 7th bedroom is bigger than most second bedrooms I've seen in modern flats lately.

The landlord is a builder who has owned the house for years and he's really pleased with the result and not too pleased with HMO man - or himself: when we were looking at the outside of the house he said to me that he had been cursing the idiot who scratched all the brickwork when he put the Coronation Street rendering on. Then he remembered that he had done the job himself 20 odd years ago!!

But even the brickwork looks great now though after some hard graft done through clenched teeth and if you know anyone who wants to live here get them to call me.

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!

Would you like a cheque for £50?

Did you know that you can get £50 when you recommend a landlord and we let their property with our full management service? Well you can and a good number of our landlords and friends are pleased as punch when they get their cheque in the post.


Maybe that's why this week has been so busy. We've got a new property in Peachcroft by recommendation as well as flats inJackman Close and Headington. The gorgeous house in the previous post is let subject to contract as is the lovely family place in Radley.



I had a raised eyebrow when taking the internal photos of the Peachcroft house because one of the bedrooms has a lot of green plants under lamps. I thought I was going to have to ring the old bill! The current tenant isn't a small time dealer though, he's an orchid collector - thank goodness.





Then new tenants have moved into Caldecott Road and are even happier now that a good man has been in there and not found any spirits needing sending towards the light. The chap had looked at letting the house himself so gave it the once over. Apparently there a quite a few places in Abingdon where spirits have needed a nudge to move on. They aren't usually bad; they're just a bit lost between here and there. I might get him to check out all our properties before letting them in the future!