friday

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It’s nice to be noticed ….but!

Hey, we must be doing something right.
It’s very flattering when other companies – or maybe their overzealous internet marketing agencies - try to rip you off by using your good name and reputation to try to market their own products on line.
For the record, I approve and recommend a lot of companies in the business – people like Landlordlaw, LandlordZone and Property Investor News to name but three. All good guys with super reputations and an honest approach to marketing– and there are lots of other companies too, many of whom I list on my links page.
Plus, I’m always ready to hear from other reputable outfits too and maybe give you a link.
However, if you are from one of the “Become a Property Millionaire Overnight” firms or you are an agency representing one of these companies please don’t waste your time contacting me. And please save your adwords marketing pounds too – you aren’t fooling any potential customers of mine and you are getting yourselves a bad reputation too.

Letting Agency Renewal Fees - The Lettingfocus.com view

Letting Agency Renewal Fees - The Lettingfocus.com view
I recently did some consulting with a chap who was not happy that his letting agent was going to charge him to renew his tenant’s contract – the original tenancy had been arranged through the agency.
My view is that all landlords must read the contract with the letting agent BEFORE they sign it. If they have signed to say they agree to being charged a renewal fee then that’s tough, I’m afraid.
I’m not an agent but on the matter of agency fees, my view is that agency letting fees are not high. In fact, a friend of mine has just asked me if I would find a tenant for him whilst he is overseas. My answer was No.
Putting in adverts, doing viewings on wet evenings and weekends, checking references, doing check ins and dealing with the general public and the like is all a lot of work – and not something I would personally do for the going rate agency finding fee of around 8 to 10% plus VAT.
Sorry, but I have better things to do than that – which is why I like to keep my tenants by keeping my rent increases reasonable and my rents below the market average.
The reality is that there is not much cash in lettings – agents often use it as a loss leader to get more lucrative work selling properties.
This is why they often try to make some extra money by charging renewal fees – even though they often don’t do much at time of renewal – and why they always try to load up fees for other services like printing off copies of tenancy agreements and making charges to tenants for doing references etc.
In this particular case the agent wanted to issue a new tenancy agreement.
I said that, seeing as the landlord indicated he did not want to necessarily issue a new longer term tenancy, why not just extend the existing one to make it a periodic tenancy.
One benefit to doing this would be that the landlord would not need to join a Tenancy Deposit Scheme because the original tenancy started before April 2007 – i.e. before TDS became compulsory. So, he would save on the hassle and / or cost of having to register for TDS because TDS is not compulsory for Tenancy Agreements starting before 6 April 07.
If you need more advice on where to letting agency fees ask me. I’m David Lawrenson from property investment experts www.lettingfocus.com
I’m the author of the buy to let book “Successful Property Letting - How to Make Money in Buy to Let” the UK’s top selling property title.
I’m an expert on UK property investment and a well known property freelance writer and I contribute to newspapers and a host of property websites, write a property investment blog and run a property investment advice service - check out my columns for FinancialExpress.net and Archant’s “The Guide” magazine
I also work as a consultant helping banks, building societies, housing associations and web portals with their buy to let and property products and services.
You can read more of my landlord blog and details of my networking, advice, property seminar programme at my website www.lettingfocus.com.
My next London landlords networking meeting is on March 12th. Click here for details: Property Investment Advice
What’s unique about lettingfocus.com is that we offer independent property investment mentoring because unlike most people in the buy to let and property “advice” business we are not linked to a property company, developer, agent or bridging loan financier and do not receive commissions from any of these sources.
If a property investment is lousy – We’ll tell you straight and we will tell you all about buy to let and property investment - the good and the bad and we won’t make silly promises that you’ll become a millionaire overnight.
Copyright: David Lawrenson 2008. This blog is updated at least twice a week. Permission must be sought before using the material in the blog.

Rental rates continue to go up as predicted at lettingfocus.com last year

28/1/08
Rental rates continue to go up as predicted at lettingfocus.com last year
As we predicted last year we are now seeing a strong rise in the number of people looking to rent property after they have been priced out of the property market or because they are running scared of all the talk of a big fall in house values.
High mortgage costs have forced more people to turn to the rental market, according to the annual UK housing review by the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) and the Building Societies Association (BSA).
In fact, renters now pay about a third less than the mortgage repayments on the same property – making renting very attractive.
At the same time, the lender Paragon Mortgages latest monthly study shows that rents in the buy-to-let sector are rising at their fastest rate on record owing to strong demand.
In fact rents increased 19 per cent in 2007, and 8 per cent in the last quarter of 2007 alone according to Paragon.
I predict this very fast rental growth for properties that are not oversupplied to continue this year.
If you need more advice on where to buy to let investments ask me. I’m David Lawrenson from property investment experts www.lettingfocus.com
I’m the author of the buy to let book “Successful Property Letting - How to Make Money in Buy to Let” the UK’s top selling property title.
I’m an expert on UK property investment and a well known property freelance writer and I contribute to newspapers and a host of property websites, write a property investment blog and run a property investment advice service - check out my columns for FinancialExpress.net and Archant’s “The Guide” magazine
I also work as a consultant helping banks, building societies, housing associations and web portals with their buy to let and property products and services.
You can read more of my landlord blog and details of my networking, advice, property seminar programme at my website www.lettingfocus.com.
My next London landlords networking meeting is on March 12th. Click here for details: Property Investment Advice
What’s unique about lettingfocus.com is that we offer independent property investment mentoring because unlike most people in the buy to let and property “advice” business we are not linked to a property company, developer, agent or bridging loan financier and do not receive commissions from any of these sources.
If a property investment is lousy – We’ll tell you straight and we will tell you all about buy to let and property investment - the good and the bad and we won’t make silly promises that you’ll become a millionaire overnight.
Copyright: David Lawrenson 2008. This blog is updated at least twice a week. Permission must be sought before using the material in the blog.

The dangers of overseas property investment

Well, I’m just back from a lovely holiday in Mexico on the Cancun coast - which is really more like America than Mexico.
There is a long lovely coastline with many miles of beach still to be built on.
And that’s the danger here because it is already being built on. The diggers are moving in and the supply of hotel standard accommodation is being added to all the time.
As a place it’s lovely. As a property investment, I wouldn’t go near it because all the new supply will ensure that rents and prices are kept low.
Indeed after the last 2 years of strong hurricanes, many owners have not bothered to fix their properties that were hit hard in the storms and many still lie boarded up. That really tells you all you need to know about the returns in this market. Sadly, the same goes for lots of other sub prime developing areas.
If you need more advice on where to buy property as an investment or buy to let please ask me. I’m David Lawrenson from property investment experts www.lettingfocus.com
I’m the author of the buy to let book “Successful Property Letting - How to Make Money in Buy to Let” the UK’s top selling property title.
I’m an expert on residential property letting and a well known property freelance writer and I contribute to newspapers and a host of property websites, write a property investment blog and run a landlords advice service - check out my columns for FinancialExpress.net and Archant’s “The Guide” magazine
I also work as a consultant helping banks, building societies, housing associations and web portals with their buy to let and property products and services.
You can read more of my property investment blog and details of my networking, advice, property seminar programme at my website www.lettingfocus.com.
My next London landlords networking meeting is on March 12th. Click here for details: Property Investment Advice
What’s unique about lettingfocus.com is that we offer independent property mentoring because unlike most people in the buy to let and property “advice” business we are not linked to a property company, developer, agent or bridging loan financier and do not receive commissions from any of these sources.
If a property investment is lousy – We’ll tell you straight and we will tell you all about buy to let and property investment - the good and the bad and we won’t make silly promises that you’ll become a millionaire overnight.
Copyright: David Lawrenson 2007. This blog is updated at least twice a week. Permission must be sought before using the material in the blog.

Two Week Break for Hard Working LettingFocus Blogger!!!!!

Two Week Break for Hard Working LettingFocus Blogger!!!!!
Well, we are off on a well deserved two week break – back on 25th January - by which time the new edition of Successful Property Letting should be hitting the shops.
May I take this opportunity to wish you all a happy New Year!
Please enjoy reading all the past blogs – scroll down or look in the archives.
David Lawrenson

Be careful if you buy property near soon to be improved rail links

Be careful if you buy property near soon to be improved rail links
If you buy property near a place that will benefit from faster rail links, you need to watch out.
For example, many people bought in Ashford, Kent because it was going to a stop on the London to Paris and Brussels route. Now, however, services have been massively trimmed back and only a few international trains will stop at Ashford.
Still in Kent, the new services on High Speed One (the new name for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link) will start from December 2009 and the timetable for our existing 'classic' routes will be re-drawn completely.
Services using High Speed One will go to London's St Pancras station and journey times from places like Ashford, Folkestone, Canterbury and Dover will be significantly reduced.
However, whilst many people are keen to know exactly what the timetable will be, this is all still at planning stage and the details are yet to be finalised.
It’s not out of the question that existing services might have to be reduced to accommodate the new trains.
If you need more advice on where to buy property as an investment or buy to let please ask me. I’m David Lawrenson from property investment experts www.lettingfocus.com
I’m the author of the buy to let book “Successful Property Letting - How to Make Money in Buy to Let” the UK’s top selling property title.
I’m an expert on residential property letting and a well known property freelance writer and I contribute to newspapers and a host of property websites, write a property investment blog and run a landlords advice service - check out my columns for FinancialExpress.net and Archant’s “The Guide” magazine
I also work as a consultant helping banks, building societies, housing associations and web portals with their buy to let and property products and services.
You can read more of my property investment blog and details of my networking, advice, property seminar programme at my website www.lettingfocus.com.
My next London landlords networking meeting is on March 12th. Click here for details: Property Investment Advice
What’s unique about lettingfocus.com is that we offer independent property mentoring because unlike most people in the buy to let and property “advice” business we are not linked to a property company, developer, agent or bridging loan financier and do not receive commissions from any of these sources.
If a property investment is lousy – We’ll tell you straight and we will tell you all about buy to let and property investment - the good and the bad and we won’t make silly promises that you’ll become a millionaire overnight.
Copyright: David Lawrenson 2007. This blog is updated at least twice a week. Permission must be sought before using the material in the blog.