Oops! We've let all the properties we had to let in Abingdon, Oxford and Kidlington. Lots of happy tenants and happy landlords but who else wants to take advantage of our fantastic service?
If you are tired of your agent charging you a percentage of your rent and adding fees for renewing a tenancy to the same tenant they moved into your property six months ago, perhaps it's time you looked at BlueDoor.
Showing posts with label other agents. Show all posts
Showing posts with label other agents. Show all posts
Monday, May 07, 2012
Friday, April 27, 2012
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!
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!
Friday, January 09, 2009
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!
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.
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.Monday, December 29, 2008
Another year almost gone
It is almost the end of another year. We are still here fighting the good fight, doing lettings as it should be done and keeping landlords and tenants happy.
We are still growing, meeting new people and finding that people like us and what we do. We have only lost three customers in the whole time we have been trading which is a pity but we don't seem to be able to deal well with control freaks who want to micromanage everything about their property themselves. You pay us £65 per month to get on with it not to do it all yourself! Oh well, they have gone to new agents who we know are now suffering as we did.
Sadly not all agents have survived this past year. Charles Lawson has gone from Stert Street, Buckell and Ballard Sales or Adkin as it used to be has gone from the High Street and their lettings department from Bath Street have moved in there.
We hope that everyone else in Abingdon can hang on in the year to come as even though people hate estate agents for some reason we are all human and lots of us have families who need a salary coming in every month to keep a roof over their heads.
We are still hopeful that our way of doing business will continue to be attractive to new customers and there is no reason why it shouldn't be. We are the only fixed price agents in Oxfordshire with no add-ons or odd charges for this and that, just one simple fee and in times when money is tight even landlords like to know exactly what they will be paying out from month to month (barring changes in VAT......)
And, if I hit the target for new lets set by the wife I can buy myself a new pen!
We are still growing, meeting new people and finding that people like us and what we do. We have only lost three customers in the whole time we have been trading which is a pity but we don't seem to be able to deal well with control freaks who want to micromanage everything about their property themselves. You pay us £65 per month to get on with it not to do it all yourself! Oh well, they have gone to new agents who we know are now suffering as we did.
Sadly not all agents have survived this past year. Charles Lawson has gone from Stert Street, Buckell and Ballard Sales or Adkin as it used to be has gone from the High Street and their lettings department from Bath Street have moved in there.
We hope that everyone else in Abingdon can hang on in the year to come as even though people hate estate agents for some reason we are all human and lots of us have families who need a salary coming in every month to keep a roof over their heads.
We are still hopeful that our way of doing business will continue to be attractive to new customers and there is no reason why it shouldn't be. We are the only fixed price agents in Oxfordshire with no add-ons or odd charges for this and that, just one simple fee and in times when money is tight even landlords like to know exactly what they will be paying out from month to month (barring changes in VAT......)
And, if I hit the target for new lets set by the wife I can buy myself a new pen!
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