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

See a real bargain in Front Street, Tudhoe in an unusual property sale

This property below has really caught my eye this week, as it's price looks unbelievable and the way in which it's being sold is interesting-

Front Street, Spennymoor, County Durham, DL16 http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-36747867.html

The agency selling the property is Livin Housing Ltd (resale) which is the selling arm of the local housing association. They describe the property and condition as-

Offered for sale by informal tender, a 2 bedroom end terrace house in need of structural repair and renovation so ideally suited for a Builder or Property Developer.

The only photograph of the property is the one of the front included, so you'll definitely need up visit the property with a builder to see what work needs to be carried out. The budding process is described as-

Offers are to be made in writing on form to be provided and returned to Livin Housing Ltd no later than NOON on FRIDAY 27 NOVEMBER 2015.

I'd suggest from this description and the low price that the property is being advertised at that there will be some interest in the property. And as such, the final sale price won't be as low as £25,000 but there's sjestsca chance!

In terms of rental return, I'd expect a monthly rental figure of between £375 and £425 per month for this property. That's a gross annual rental return of between 18% and 20%, based on the figure of £25,00 - an amazing rental return.

You'll have to see the property and have a think about how much you'll need to spend in it before making a bid, but this looks like one that definitely needs to be considered. And unlike many properties at a great price, you may not have many owner occupier as competition.

Durham Road in Spennymoor always has strong demand from tenants

Although it's for sale by auction, so it's a little difficult to determine the actual selling price, this property on Durham Road definitely has investment potential-

DURHAM ROAD, SPENNYMOOR, SPENNYMOOR DISTRICT

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-51785729.html

It's showing on Rightmove as offers over £49,950 and is being marketed by Dowen. The actual price will be determined by how the auction goes plus there's a buyers premium when you've bought the property - although the amount of this wasn't stated on the Rightmove listing. And the confusion continues a little further as, although the property on showed as uploaded in the last 3 days, the listing also states that the auction took place in 4th June. I'll attempt to clear up the confusion and post my findings on here.

In any case, the benefits of buying in Durham Road are evident, no matter what the property, as long as the price is right.  Durham Road always has a good demand for rental as it's good for transport links and close enough to the town centre. The only downside is the recent rise in attendances for Spennymoor Town football club and the parking issues this sometimes causes. But once a fortnight for a couple of hours through the football season isn't a major hardship.

The agent describes it as-

"A spacious THREE BEDROOMED end terrace property which has the benefit of TWO RECEPTION ROOMS and OFF STREET PARKING."

Although it appears to need some work to bring it up to modern rental demands, it is an end-terrace and it has the off street parking, so I'd suggest that when it has been modernised, it could a he ive a rental return in the region of between £425 and £500 per month.

This is where is usually give a rental return figure, but this one is a little more difficult than usual given the fact that the property is at auction and there is this unspecified buyers premium to consider.

I'll base the figures in £60,000 to cover these factors and the renovation costs. It works out as a possible gross rental return of between 8.2% and 10% per annum. A quite healthy return for your money.

As I've said before, I'll try to find out some more facts about the sale, the auction and the buyers premium and when I do I'll put a short post on here to confirm the details.

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.