Investing near a railway station; is Johnson Road the ideal investment location?

Amenities, transport links are all vital to making a wise investment purchase. The question is to what extent is this true? One of my clients is looking at purchasing street local to our office in Erdington, Johnson road (0.2miles from Erdington Railway Station) and comparing it against another investment on Turfpits Lane, Erdington (1.4miles from Erdington Railway Station). Johnson Road and Turfpits lane are both streets I know well as we have let and managed a significant number of homes on both streets. Having spent many years renting them out my gut feeling was that houses on Johnson Road were quicker to rent and achieved higher rents due to the demand generated from its proximity to the Railway station. I took it upon myself to investigate to help my client make the best decision. It is notable that the Johnson road has properties come available on a more regular basis than Turfpits lane. The houses on both are a mix of mid terrace and semi-detached. They are similar in length of road with similar number of houses. Focusing solely on 2 and 3 bedroom houses that have been for let since 2013 I have found a significant difference in the speed that properties let on the two roads. Using the historical data available since 2013 the average house on Turfpits lane takes 42.25 days to go from being on the market to Let Agreed. In direct comparison Johnson Road takes 32.1 days. That 9 day difference is significant (roughly a £200 loss to the client) My client and I took it upon ourselves to compare some other roads and found that this was echoed all around Erdington and in other locations close to our office. Naturally there are many other factors at play when renting out a house, but the old saying “Location Location Location” remains true to this day! If you want to know more about investing in and around Erdington and Sutton Coldfield give me a call on 0121 321 6090.

One of my Landlords and I were having a discussion about buying on a busy main street in Sutton Coldfield. We got talking about how often they come up for sale and whether this was an off putting factor. Turnover or churn of property is an important factor to think of when buying a house. It is overlooked by many. What does this turnover mean? Turnover on the street is the number of houses available compared to how often they come on the sales market.

We sat down and had a look at the area in question, B72 post code, which runs from Sutton Coldfield Town centre all the way down to Wylde Green. It seems the natural trend is for certain road to come up for sale on a more regular basis than others. Taking Birmingham Road for example has had around a 102% turnover in the last 20 Years. This is not actually a relatively high percentage, as comparably taking the smaller road of While road, 134% turnover rate can be seen in 20 Years. This Value can be calculated for almost any street and can help in the decision making process when buying a home or investment...... My client and I came to the conclusion that as an investment a street with a higher turnover was good for him as it showed desirability and increased the chances of adjacent property being kept up to date with contemporary design (to keep up with the changing legislation and fashions that come in play when selling a home). If you want to know more about where is best to buy then give me a call and I will be happy to help Andrew Clinton 0121 321 6090

Investment, A Hunters' Game

I have been looking for lots of properties for clients recently. Investment property is something which needs to be carefully considered. All questions are important when looking for the right property. From rental yield and capital growth to “What type of tenants will I get?” and “Does this kitchen look good?”. The pros and cons of individual properties can be numerous. So how do you start looking for the right property to buy to let?

Firstly, how much to spend. Investment is about spreading out risk: if you have £200,000 in the bank, it would be best to spread this out over 2-4 properties, rather than one. This will reduce your risk and increase your return on investment. Now you have established how much to spend, you need to know where to buy. Go and see your local Letting Agent and they will tell you about the pitfalls and traps of certain areas. Sit down with your Letting Agent and take a look at what is on the open market. Once you have decided your general area, you are ready to start looking. Obtain details of some properties you are interested in and then take them back to your agent to discuss if they are suitable. You need to find out: • What is the rental yield based on comparable properties? • What is the immediate area like and what type of tenants would apply? • What is the churn (rate of moving) of the properties on that street? • What is the capital growth, recently (last five years) and historically (last 15-20 years)? • Do I need to invest more money to bring the properties condition up to reasonable rental yield? • What range of offers should I put in? What is the maximum I should offer? You and your Letting Agent and should establish quickly which properties to rule out, then book your viewings. If your agent is free, he/she might be able to come and view the houses with you or alternatively, advise you based on your report. After locating the right property, get the right price for it. It may not sound simple, but it is. Once the vendors go above what you are willing to offer, move on - there are plenty more fish in the sea! Once your offer is accepted, get a good conveyancer in place and progress the purchase. In the meantime talk with your Letting Agent about required maintenance, marketing and getting a tenant asap. Get the ball rolling as soon as legally possible. That’s it! If you want to talk more about this process and what Martin & Co. can do for you, please call me, Andy on 0121 321 6090 and let’s see what investments are out there for you!

Winter is coming? Are You Prepared?

We are writing to all tenants/landlords to remind you that winter is coming! Extra precautions need to be taken to protect your home. We want to avoid any costly damage for instance, in a recent case where adequate precautions were not taken; there was a resultant damage in excess of £20,000 in a property where pipes had frozen and then burst causing extensive flooding.

Over winter and especially Christmas, tenants will wish to go away and visit friends and family, we ask that you take the following precautions if you’re away for more than 24 hours: 1) Keep the central heating on a low or normal setting to maintain a temperature of between 12 to 15 degrees Celsius. 2) Turn off the water supply, and shut down and drain any central heating boiler and associated pipe work. To do this, you will need to turn off the water supply at the main stopcock and open all taps, hot and cold, to drain water from roof storage tank and pipes. Circulating water central heating systems will also need to be drained (and refilled on return before re-starting). 3) Ventilate the property to ensure that moisture does not build up inside the home Whilst this is general advice, the characteristics of each individual property may be slightly different. If you are unsure how to take appropriate measures to protect the property whilst you are away please do not hesitate to contact us. Landlords, if you are not at present on a Fully Managed Service it maybe a time to consider upgrading to this contract. Call 0121 321 6090 to discuss.

We also recommend you review your insurance suppliers to make sure that you are covered for your Landlord and Tenant Liability. We need tenants insurance on file, please email a copy to suttoncoldfield@martinco.com

Great investment property in Dunslade Road which could yield close to 7%

Here's an interesting property that's on the market in Dunslade Road in Erdington. It's on the market at £95K (offers in excess of) with Bairstow Eves. At this sort of price, this looks a good investment property. From experience of letting out property of this type and condition it could easily obtain £550pcm. Now based upon these figures, this will yield circa 6.9%, which is not too bad. Delve a bit deeper and let's say that the property was given a 'lick of paint', I would reckon that the rental figure would be closer to the market rate of £575pcm, which in turn makes it now closer to 7.2% yield, which is getting even better! In addition, the agent has disclosed that it's Chain Free! It just gets better! Give them a call and check it out further. Further details at http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-43663237.html

Should you wish to discuss any other specific properties or just a general chat regarding the current market, please feel free to contact me on 0121 321 6090 or call in and see me at 24 Birmingham Road, Sutton Coldfield.

Tudor Hill in Sutton Coldfield, ideal for family homes, is it time to sell?

A couple asked me to value their home on Tudor Hill in Sutton Coldfield. An excellent location, ideal for the park and yet a quiet street with some magnificent properties. This got me thinking, how much have house prices increased on roads like this over the last year? Interestingly since the outbreak of the global financial crisis and the property crash circa 2008 little can be reported for streets like this in Sutton Coldfield as there was lack of movement in the market. Therefore the local downturn in houses prices could be considered as unquantifiable. Certain you might think that we could consider it against the UK housing market as a whole, but this exercise now is irrelevant.

Focusing on the street and averages, from 1 year ago a value change of around 8% can be found from data on major property web portals. More interestingly that over 5% of that change has been in the last 6 months with nearly 2% of that increase being in the last 3 months! Interesting indeed. The number of Sales on the street in the last 5 years is 18, with an average house price of £533,497. My clients with their home on Tudor Hill found it interesting that in the last year most sales have been around £395,000 average, with only reportedly 4 completed at this time. Tudor Hill, as mentioned earlier has some quite large and expensive property, with unreported sales (on land registry) yet to be update over £700,000 mark. This pans out well for my clients who wish to sell their home in the near future and they should achieve a comfortable price for the family property. It has been an excellent period for house selling and home owners such as those on Tudor Hill have been able to achieve sales respectable of the true value of their homes. If you are interested in a free market appraisal let me know by contacting me on 0121 321 6090 or emailing Suttoncoldfield@martinco.com SELL YOUR HOME 0.5% +VAT (For new client instructions only between July and December 2014) Terms and conditions apply

Where to buy in Walsall, Street Research

Having let out a few properties in the Walsall Area recently I was intrigued to see the range of value of properties in the Area. I looked at the WS5 postcode for comparisons. Certainly I was surprised to see that the most expensive street in WS5 was Woodlands Avenue with average house price (since 1995) being £705,148. Not cheap you will agree but certainly not the most expensive within the larger Birmingham Area. What about the bottom end of the property spectrum, where are the cheaper houses? The answer Acacia Avenue with an average value of £72,309. Well priced and competitive with other areas in the wider Birmingham Area. Most interesting from the data I discovered was that since 1995 Woodlands avenue has had 34 property transactions out of 35 Residences. Meaning on average each house has had a new owner in the last 20 years. Acacia Avenue however has had only 4 transactions in the last 20 years out of 68 residences. Amazing, people in Acacia Avenue just seem to stay put. We cannot determine why this is, educated guesses can be made, but certainly this will be down to affluence in some form. With the list of least expensive streets in WS5 I am contacting investors who I know to be operating in that area to see what yields they can achieve. Where would you invest if you were looking at becoming a Landlord? Let me know by contacting me on 0121 321 6090. TO CELEBRATE 5 YEARS IN SUTTON COLDFIELD WE HAVE A SPECIAL OFFER SELL YOUR HOME 0.5%, PROPERTY MANAGEMENT FOR 5%. (For new client instructions only between July and December 2014) Terms and conditions apply