Can a 4 bedroom home on Glastonbury Close be a Spennymoor investors dream?

In recent weeks I have seen more of a trend in the Spennymoor rental market for 2 bedroom homes to be available. This means that there is quite some competition for landlords looking to rent out a 2 bedroom home and there is some downward pressure on price starting to appear. With this in mind, I'm starting to look away from 2 bedroom properties at something a little larger for the family.

I have come across the following property from an estate agent outside of the town-

4 bedroom detached house for sale on Glastonbury Close, County Durham , Durham, DL16 6XP

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It is for sale by a company called Springbok Properties, who are based in Manchester. Their marketing blurb says -

"Springbok Properties offers a market-beating alternative to the traditional way of selling property. 

We have grown from selling 4 properties a month in March 2012 to selling 200 properties a month in March 2015. How have we grown so quickly? Simple: our entire organisation is aligned to one mission, and only one –providing the best customer service humanly possible."

There probably is long overdue a real shake up in the estate agency industry with better customer service and lower costs starting to come through, especially from online-only estate agents.

On to the property in question. It is available at an asking price of Offers In Excess of £140,000 and is a 4 bedroom detached house. It lies on the Yuill Estate so is very popular and has great transport links, being close to a bus route and close to the town centre.

The description and photographs are of a generally well maintained property that wouldn't need much work to turn around and start renting out. Whoever decided that it was a good idea to include those photographs of the bathroom need to start thinking about their future in estate agency though.

I think that there is a demand for four bedroom properties in the Spennymoor area and, as I said before, there is a glut of 2 bedroom property at the moment. In terms of rental potential, I can see this one going for somewhere between £575 and £650 per month. This equates to a gross annual return of between 4.9% and 5.6% based on the asking price.

It really has become decision time for many landlords with the changes in buy to let rules occurring in April 2016 so if you want to make a move before then this may be the time


.

Robinsons office on 'Estate Agents On The Job.'

It's going back a little while but remember Robinsons Estate Agents office in Spennymoor and their recent appearance on the BBC series Estate Agents On The Job (series link here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b040tlwh)

They probably thought it would be a great idea to get exposure for their brand by appearing on the programme but it had created somewhat of a local backlash, as the programme-makers wanted to highlight the divide between North and South. The programme saw a Chelsea estate agent selling homes at tens of millions of pounds and opposed this with pictures of run down areas and talk of "starting price at £1."

The feedback from the local community was scathing, with several letters to the local newspapers, people taking rental properties from them and reports of death threats.  Now the level of overreaction has been quite appalling, but the message is very clear - Use marketing campaigns where you control the content.

The programme-makers have their right to make their point and have their story to tell. There is a housing price divide between London and County Durham based on factual evidence.

What could they do differently?
As with any marketing or publicity, they needed to sit down as a business and decide what they would get out of it.  If they couldn't control the outcomes then they may have needed to think twice about their involvement. There are so many ways to reach an audience now, and the cost of many of these has reduced greatly. Social media marketing campaigns are very-low-cost and they would have complete control of the content. Their website should have a section for a blog, latest news and views, marketing and advertising. Advertising in the local newspaper or on local radio has decreased in cost significantly over the last 10 years, so can also be considered when distributing a marketing budget.

Is there alternative outside help?
If they didn't have the time or resources to continually refresh and update marketing content then they may look for outside help to assist.  This can take many forms, such as tapping into creative talents at local colleges and universities to hiring a local PR or marketing consultancy firm.  Networking via places such as breakfast clubs will give a great link into local talent that can be both a useful contact for business and a referrer to their own business.

Overall, a rounded marketing strategy that takes in online and offline sources as well as rewarding existing customers and being creative with content will lead to a more satisfying experience business and clients alike.

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