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

Where is Hot to buy in Sutton Coldfield?

A young couple were asking me where the best places in Sutton Coldfield were to buy a home a few weeks ago. They had a budget between £150,000 and £180,000. Of course the answer I gave them was primarily subjective, due to their requirements for commuting and schools. Locations and price can easily be compared by using area heat maps, it narrows your targeting area for your price bracket. With prices over £250,000 clustering around Sutton Coldfield town centre and surrounding the park. The couple could see that they were better to concentrate their search in the lower parts of Wylde Green and Boldmere areas, with prices ranging from the £150,000 to £200,000. Trends like this can easily be seen in other locations, with central areas being more desirable or particular sites drawing in greater affluence a tendency for higher prices can be found. Take for example, Four Oaks Private Estate, the surrounding area maintains a high level of value even outside the Estate with average prices well over the £450,000 to £500,000 bracket. Certainly for this young couple we ruled out looking in this area, but we discussed their future plans to move to the area. The interesting thing here is the “gentrification” process can easily be related to the movement of people from Urban Birmingham locations through to places like Four Oaks. The couple since found the right property at the right price and we look forward to proceeding there offer through to completion on their new home! Information such as the above can be found on Mousprice.com

Around Sutton Coldfield, Good place to invest?

A new client asked me whether the property market in the towns around Sutton Coldfield is a good place to invest in so we did a little research with a focus on the villages of Water Orton, Curdworth, Wishaw and Middleton… There are some great properties available to rent for a tenant, from lovely three bedroomed detached houses at over £700 per month, to beautiful barn conversations at over £2,000 per month. Quite interestingly, nearly 4 out of 5 people own their home in these villages whilst the national average is just over 3 out of 5 people. This suggests there are not many properties that are in the privately rented market in these villages. In fact, according to the recent census figures, there is only around 10% of rented stock in the surrounding area. Certainly this would create demand for property for people looking a moving to the area.

Some people have the perception that village properties are difficult to let, however, as the tenants have to own a car and can afford the fuel and maintenance that goes with it many people look at commuting whilst enjoying the more rural lifestyle. Also, the issue of car ownership we can assume would not be a problem with average earnings being higher than the Birmingham area. Putting aside the large stone country properties with land and stables, which usually let well, as long as you have a property that is not above the £1500 per calendar month mark, and is within reasonable driving distance of transport links; there should be a strong demand for it. If you would like to talk to us about your potential investment, please come into our office on the Birmingham Road or call 0121 321 6090. For more articles visit our blog suttoncoldfieldproperty.blogspot.co.uk