Grange Estate will generate strong rental demand

In amongst the new build properties that have been brought to market this week, this one on Witton Drive stands out as investment potential-

WITTON DRIVE, SPENNYMOOR, SPENNYMOOR DISTRICT

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-50205161.html

It's a 3 bedroom terraced property, although the estate agent (Dowen) describes it alternately as a mid link property and a town house. The asking price is £99,950.

Witton Drive is on the Grange Estate and property here usually sells quickly and demand for rental is strong. The property has 2 reception rooms, double glazing and a garage.

The average sold price for a property on Witton Drive is £64,392, according to the nethouseprices website, and there has been only one sale there in the last three years - at a price of £100,000-

http://m.nethouseprices.com/soldprices/property_results?street=WITTON+DRIVE&town=SPENNYMOOR&outcode=DL16

I would expect this property to achieve a monthly rental of between £525 and £575 per month. Based on the asking price, this equates to a gross annual return of between 6.3% and 6.9%. This is a strong return on an investment.

With any potential house purchase, it's best to go and view the property several times and ask lots of questions. Investors may have to move quickly and fend off owner-occupiers for this one though.

Parkside in Spennymoor will attract families and investors

A new property to the market is this 3 bedroom family home that's just come to the market via Dowen-

PARKSIDE, SPENNYMOOR, SPENNYMOOR DISTRICT

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-50169509.html

It's in the ever-popular Parkside and has gone on the market at £118,500. Although it's another example of an estate agent not getting to grips with portal pricing, there's definitely potential here. It may appeal more to a family than an investor, but there's probably value here for either.

It's got three bedrooms and a kitchen/diner, which is popular for current buyers. Personally I'd get the estate agent back round to re-take some of the photos - a car on the drive is never a good start, for example.

For an investor, this property would attract a monthly rental return of between  £525 and £600. This equates to an annual rental return of between 5.3% and 6.1%, based on the asking price.

For a family home, there is always a demand for homes on Parkside. There have been 8 sales on Parkside in the last 5 years, with sold prices ranging from £86,000 to £130,000 but recent sold prices have been towards the lower end of this range-

http://m.nethouseprices.com/soldprices/property_results?street=PARKSIDE&town=SPENNYMOOR&outcode=DL16

It's definitely worth viewing for investors and owner-occupiers, so call the agent and make an appointment!

This property stands out from the crowd this week

There is a plethora of properties come to the market this week as the first property season of the year starts to really tak hold. There have been 24 properties uploaded into Rightmove in the last 3 days alone. One that caught my eye is this on Jackson Street-

JACKSON STREET, Spennymoor, DL16

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-48072358.html

It is a 4 bedroom terraced house that has gone in the market for Offer In The Region Of £84,950. That's a lotoif bedrooms for the money!

The property is marketed by Harringtons and they have put a full description and a full set of photographs on their listing. The property is double fronted and the agent states that it is double glazed with central heating. Of course, you will have to view yourself to establish what refurbishment is needed, if any, but from the description and photographs it looks like it is in a good state of repair and could probably be let out pretty quickly.

Now with so many properties coming to the market at the moment, there is a lot of competition for every property in terms of finding a buyer but this property definitely has investment potential.

I wpd expect a monty rental return of between £575 and £650 per month. This is a gross annual rental return of between 8.1% and 9.2%, based on the asking price. A standard expected rental return is quoted as 6%, so this looks like a much better bet than that.

It's probably worth a look and a potential 9% rental return is always worth consideration.

Only one photo but a promising location

A new property to market in Spennymoor is this one on Kentmere-

Kentmere, Spennymoor, Durham

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-50025410.html

It's quite intriguing, because these these properties on the Yuill estate are always popular, but the estate agent has only given us one photo. Robinsons use of o lay one photo obviously leads to questions of why only one, but nonetheless there should be potential in this property.

As I've said, this estate is popular and the average price of a property in Kentmere is £83,696, according to the net house prices website, but recent sakes have been in excess of £105,000-

http://m.nethouseprices.com/soldprices/property_results?street=KENTMERE&town=SPENNYMOOR&outcode=DL16

The latest sold was number 11, and this sold for £109,950 in September 2013, according to the site.

These are all reasonably-sized properties and Yuill seem to have built them better than more modern new homes.even the smallest bedroom is 7'8 x 9'1, which is reasonable. Obviously you'll have to go and view it to get an idea of condition and value but there may he investment potential for a landlord.

Monthly rental return would be in the region of between £550 and £625 per month, depending on the condition of the property. This would mean a gross annual rental return of between 5.7% and 6.5%, based on the asking price. This is a good rental return and is worth a look for all investors.

Why don't Spennymoor agents get Tudhoe Village properties?

It's long bugged me, so I decided to try to look a little deeper into it -

Why don't Spennymoor agents get Tudhoe Village properties?

As a rule, the properties in Tudhoe Village are put up with (probably expensive) Durham City estate agents that produce glossy brochures and take endless photographs of the property. This is rather than chose a more local Spennymoor agent that may have less glamorous surroundings and (generally) poorer photography standards, although the high-end properties are much more photogenic.

What drives this? Are the Spennymoor estate agents losing out? If so, where are the Spennymoor agents losing out?

I don't have first hand experience of this, but I believe that two things are happening-

Image counts

When buying or selling one of the large Tudhoe Village properties then the image of the property counts for a great deal. The vendor and buyer don't ideally want to do their business in one of the tatty estate agent offices that Spennymoor provides. Selling or buying from a plush office in the stylish city of Durham appeals more to the clientele of these transactions. So the Spennymoor estate agents could possibly gain a foothold in the market if they spent money in refurbishing their offices.

Conversation counts

I also believe that Durham City estate agents must be playing in the above. Showing potential clients the glossy brochures they produce alongside the one sheet, plain paper efforts of their Spennymoor counterparts must be a great selling point. Add to this their photography and office locations.

The biggest pulling factor into opinion must be the market, and how it can he accessed. The potential buyers are more likely to be from Durham City than from Spennymoor. So it follows that the better agent for your property would be in Durham City.

Spennymoor estate agents can have a conversation with sellers that in the world of the internet that buyers approach estate agents via the internet, rather than via their city centre offices.

From this, Spennymoor estate agents can gain a foothold in the market.

Burn Terrace catches the investors eye

There's a property that caught my eye this week, although it's not on with a Spennymoor estate agent is this-

Burn Terrace, Spennymoor, County Durham, DL16

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-47774389.html

It's a 3 bedroom end of terrace house on Burn Terrace on the market for £99,500. I've stated until I'm blue in face about portal pricing and this is one of the worst price points I've seen. A more detailed description of portal pricing and what it means is featured in my blog below-

http://eaboost.blogspot.com/2014/05/why-portal-pricing-really-matters.html

The agent has chosen to lead with the living room photograph, and this does show off the property in a better light than the front photo. I'd have tried to do something with the front of the house, such as a fresh coat of paint or some plants. It would set it off differently and promote the property to potential buyers, for a relatively small cost.

I believe that the property would get a monthly rental returning between £375 and £425. Based on the asking price, this would give a potential gross rental return of between 4.5% and 5.1%, which is an average rental return, if not quite up to the standard accepted measurement if 6%.

Have a look.

Property season starts with a potential 14%+ rental return

The property season will start in earnest soon, so here's one to start of the new year. It's a possible investment on Salvin Street in Spennymoor-

SALVIN STREET, SPENNYMOOR, SPENNYMOOR DISTRICT

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-49743683.html

 It's a 2 bedroom terraced house on the market for offers in the region of £29,950, and is being marketed by Dowen.

The clarion call at the top of the property description is "calling all investors" and there's probably something in that.

From the photos it looks as though it needs decoration, as a minimum. I would strongly suggest at least 2 visits to the property and a list if questions for the estate agent to help make a final decision on whether to buy as an investment. From part experience, I know that Dowen won't deal with housing benefit tenants, so it's definitely worth asking them how they feel demand for non-housing benefit tenants will be.

The agent, Dowen, states on the property particulars that they think it would achieve a rent of £325 per month, and I think it could generate a rent of between £325 and £350 per month. Based on the asking price, this would generate an annual rental return of between 13% and 14%, which is obviously a really good investment return on any measure, as long as the demand is strong.