A guide to North East England for a visitor from Outer Space

If you are looking at areas for oproperty investment and don't know a lot about Spennymoor or the North East of England then my blog is a great place to start.

It is full of things about life in the North East of England and also looks at the area in general.

Check it out!

A Guide to North East England for a visitor from Outer Space

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


.

Can this Tudhoe Moor property be one to add to your portfolio?

There always seems to be the better potential of higher rental returns on property at the lower end of the property market. To explore this, I'll take a look at a house that has come to market this week with an asking price of £52,000.

Tudhoe Moor, Spennymoor, County Durham, DL16

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-57429539.html

It's is up for sale with Robinsons and can be found on Tudhoe Moor. As I've already said, it's available with an asking price of £52,000. The property is a 2 bedroom semi-detached house.

Aside from the standard comments, the estate agent states -

"Corner plot with extra large Gardens to rear and side. Patio area, Off street parking to the front 

Brick outhouse in rear garden"

It's interesting to know some detail about a property, especially if you are intending on letting it out in the future. A selling point for a sales estate agent will be a selling point for a landlord looking for tenants.

From the description and photographs it looks like it would be ready to rent out straight away, so the expenditure would only be linked to the purchase of the property. You may want to add a lick of paint and put a few plants in the garden but nothing of great cost by the look if it from here. Of course you'll want to go and check it out yourself before making an offer.

It's time for the financials, so let's take a look at what it will bring in rent. There looks to be quite a bit of competition for 2 bedroom properties to rent, so I think that you would get somewhere between £325 and £375 per month. This equates to a gross annual return of between 7.5% and 8.7% based in the asking price. This is a good solid rental return for any investor but beware the competition - there are a lot of 2 bedroom houses available for rent at the moment.

What does jargon do for the house buying process? Not a lot in my view

There haven't been many properties come to market recently. Rightmove new listing show nothing for the last week.

And very little for the last fortnight. It's the time of year when new properties will start to turn from a trickle into a flood. The Christmas and New Year period ends up with people breaking up, looking to move upwards and wanting a change.

This means new properties to market for the seasoned investor to look through and decide upon. There is a little more urgency than before this time because of the changes to stamp duty rules.

This property is something to consider while you are waiting for other options-

RUSHMOOR, SPENNYMOOR, Spennymoor District, DL16 6NX

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-56863415.html

It's marked by the estate agent as-

• IDEAL FOR FTB

This got me thinking about how much information an estate agent gives and how much they should give. For a potential owner occupier, the phrase ideal for FTB (First Time Buyers) is about as useful as putting any other three initials in the description.

As a property investor reading this and looking to see whether there is potential in the property above, the phrase ideal for FTB means absolutely nothing.

So we've established that it's of no use to anyone - mini-rant over.

Let's get to the figures.I think that this property would command a rent of somewhere between £375 and £425 per month. This equates to a gross annual rent of between 5.6% and 7.3%, which is a good annual return to start looking at for investment in property.

Keep an eye on this one.

Can this auction property in Spennymoor attract an investor?

This property jumped out of Rightmove this week and into my attention-

HAZELMERE, SPENNYMOOR, Spennymoor District, DL16 6UL

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-37396203.html

It's a 2 bedroom semi-detached house on the Greenways estate, which always draws a lot of attention from investors and owner-occupiers.

It's being advertised at offered over £65,000 because it's being sold in auction by Dowen. They describe it as-

"A two bedroomed semi detached property situated in a quiet spot on the popular Greenways Estate in Spennymoor and having the benefit of GARDENS TO FRONT AND REAR, a GARAGE and TWO DOUBLE BEDROOMS."

Auction properties can be a little volatile in terms of what you will actually pay, just because of the nature of the auction itself. You could pay as little as the £55,000 advertised or much more if there are many people interested. And it all comes down to the day.

For someone who will buy at auction, it is important to know what you are doing. You must have a grip on the following-

• The auction rules
• Your finances
• The legal side of things
• Your deposit

I think that to assess this property, I'll have to select a price to base my calculations on. The price I have selected is £60,000. I think that this property will attract good attention on the rental market and I'd expect the monthly rental to be somewhere between £450 and £475. This equates to a gross annual return of between 9% and 9.5%, which is a good return.

This is one to keep an eye on.

See the rental potential of this flat in Dundas Street, Spennymoor

I'm going back to the basics of the blog this week and looking at a lower-priced property that has the potential for a good rental return. This property is a converted flat in Dundas Street-

Dundas Street, Spennymoor

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-37229916.html

It's a 2 bedroom flat on the market at Offers In the Region of £89,950. It looks like quite a stylish conversion and the estate agent described it as-

"CITY LIVING AVAILABLE IN SPENNYMOOR

A fantastic opportunity to purchase this unique ground floor apartment in a characterful building."

The estate agent is called Venture Properties and is based in Durham City, not based in Spennymoor. As with some of the properties I feature on here, the photographs and the description show a property that needs little or no work to have it ready to rent out. I think that rental demand for it would be strong as I agree with the estate agents - the apartment is akin to one you would normally find in a bigger city. I'm not sure why there have been two photographs included of the front door (one of it open and one of it closed) but generally the photographs show a well-maintained flat.

I'd expect a rental return of between £450 and £500 per month. This equates to a gross annual rental return of somewhere between 6.0% and 6.7%, based on the asking price.

This is a good, solid return on a residential property investment and I think that you could make a good long-term return on this property. There may also be a little play in the price. Nethouseprices show 2 properties sold in the street, but both freehold houses-

http://nethouseprices.com/house-prices/streets-details/county%20durham/spennymoor/dundas%20street/dl16/6ar/dundas%20street%20spennymoor

Comparing purpose-built 2 bedroom flats in Spennymoor, we have asking prices from around £60,000 to just under £100,000 so this one is towards the top end of that.

It's well worth a look.

Can an investor make a good return from this Spennymoor new build home?

I've been keeping an eye in the Spennymoor housing market this week and this property started me thinking.

Whitworth Road, Spennymoor, DL16 7QF

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/new-homes-for-sale/property-55510805.html

And what it got me thinking was can a new build be an investable property? The reason I ask this is because there's often a premium to be paid for new build. The developers have prices higher than a resale property but offer incentives such as legal fees paid, stamp duty paid, white goods and carpets. So for the investor, a new build property is usually avoided.

This property is on Whitworth Road and has an asking price of £169,995, which is a lot of money for a 3 bedroom property in Spennymoor. The selling agent describes it as-

A flexible THREE BEDROOM DETACHED HOME featuring a beautiful OPEN-PLAN KITCHEN and DINING AREA with a GLAZED BAY leading to the REAR GARDEN.

With a new build there's a guarantee and the place should be totally ready to move in to for your tenants. The photographs look great, but the show homes always do.

In terms of rental potential, tenants will probably be queued up for the prospect of renting this property, as long as the price is right. I think that this property would command a monthly rental figure of between £475 and £575 per month. Based in the asking price, this equates to a gross rental return of between 3.3% and 4%. It's an okay return but may not be what the seasoned investor is looking for.

Can a new build provide a good rental return? Maybe, but probably this one will go to a owner occupier.

See this potential investment property in Spennymoor before anyone else does

Another property that has come to market this week is this 2 bedroom house in Harewood Close, Spennymoor.

Harewood Close, Spennymoor, County Durham http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-35928357.html

It's on for the strange combination of "Offers over" and "£99,950." I write on a regular basis in this blog about the need for estate agents to think about their pricing strategies. Round figures work extremely well with internet property portals - it's called portal pricing.

If a customer puts in a search that they are looking for property from £100,000 to £125,000, for instance then they won't find this property, even though it's only fifty quid less than their search terms. The old "price it just under a hundred grand to make it seem cheaper" strategy doesn't work with the internet.

The estate agent is Robinsons, who are serial offenders with this portal pricing mistake, but market the property with the following description-

"This lovely TWO BEDROOM, TWO BATHROOM END LINK HOUSE is offered to the market in superb decorative order throughout and is situated on the popular Whitworth Park development."

And the property does look in good condition, from the photographs and the overall description. Any potential buyer, especially as an investment, will want to view the property at least once and ensure that it is in good working order and ready to rent out.

I'd say that this property would command somewhere between £400 and £475 per month as a rental figure. This equates to a gross annual return of between 4.8% and 5.7%, based in the advertised price of £99,950. It's an average rental return and the fact that the estate agent has stated offers over may stop you from getting it at a better price than this. I think that it being a relatively new property will attract interest from owner occupiers so it may be time to assess and see what the rest of the market thinks.