Recent weeks have seen a phenomenal increase in lets!
Is it just us? Is it an improvement in the market? We are now running low on properties, which to be honest is not a bad thing! An empty property does not earn you a living - we are in the business of renting after all. Naturally our Landlords are pleased we have rented them and our new Tenants hopefully will be very happy in their new homes.
In the current economic climate we are being pummelled by the media in doom and gloom. Lately is MP's expenses, the recent gloomy budget, job losses, you name it. I often complain that there isn't enough good news. There are plenty of people still well employed, businesses still doing well, the high street looks busy. Im frustrated that the media doesn't highligh this. Yes of course there are redundancies, there are a lot of worried business owners out there, a lot of worried families and individuals. Even the local paper wasn't interested in a particular success story we had to share.
I offerred my services to the BBC who I found out were looking to produce a programme in May about property and further offerred to appear on the programme with the Letting Agents perspective. I may be wrong but can only assume it is the current BBC2 programme Property Watch as I was approached in February and told it would be aired in May. I spent probably an hour on the phone to the BBC Researcher at the time and was so frustrated that the direction of her questions were all geared towards the negative and the bad.
Did I know tenants who had been evicted? Did I know of any Landlords having their properties reposessed? Did we have any serious rent arrears? Did we have problem tenants? Were landlords pocketing the rent and not paying their mortgages.........Could I put them in touch with these people currently "suffering"?
Hold on! I daresay bad news, sensational news makes better viewing figures, but what about educating people? Giving them the benefit of your experience? Advising them? Helping them? The BBC researcher was just not interested. I offerred to speak on achieving maximum rental return, preparing your property, how to deal with falling property prices as a Landlord, what to do if you've bought a property on a development with a high number of rental properties, how to assist tenants looking for property, advice to Landlords on the new Local Housing Allowance which replaced Housing Benefit, Deposit regulations, companies like Inside Track (thankfully gone) who convinced people of untold riches by buying off plan properties at home and abroad, how Landlords can widen their market - the list went on, but none of it was of interest.
Its only my opinion that these are relevant topics but hopefully such a programme will be aired in the future.
