A property with the potential to rent out immediately in Spennymoor

New to the market this week is a recently built property near to Green Lane. It's on Watson Park and is being marketed by Robinsons-

Watson Park, Spennymoor

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-51877109.html

It's a two-bedroom terraced house and has an asking price of a very strange £90,500. Why the estate agent has picked a price of just £500 over a property portal threshold is completely beyond me, but that's their decision.

They describe the property as -

"We offer to the market this recently constructed TWO BEDROOM MID-LINK property which is offered to the market in immaculate decorative order throughout. An ideal purchase for the FIRST TIME BUYER."

As a quite new property, and judging from the photographs, the chances that there is work to do in the property in minimal.

I think that the fact that the property is so new, you could be looking at an average rental return of between £400 and possibly pushing up to £500 per month. This equates to an gross annual rental return of between 5.3% and 6.6%, based in the asking price. This is a good solid return for an investor, with the property more than likely to still be covered by a new build guarantee.

Detached property on a large plot in Spennymoor

With property starting to be diluted over the property portals with the advent of On The Market and their rules regarding signing up with them and the competition, the Spennymoor Property Blog will continue, but with feeds from more than one portal. On The Market is a new property portal that set out on the first of January 2015 and their proposition centred around three main areas, as far as I can see-

1- As an estate agent, you can only set yourself up with On The Market and one other property portal (large or small.)

2 - They charge less than Rightmove for what they provide for estate agents.

3 - They haven't got the saturation of the market that Rightmove have achieved - the majority if the general public haven't heard of the website and as such don't use it.

This property listing came from Rightmove and is a 2 bedroom detached house. There is potential to develop this property -

Barnfield Road, Spennymoor, Co Durham, DL16

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-48446104.html

It's on Barnfield Road and is in the market for offers in the region of £89,950. I am blue in the face with talking about portal pricing, so I won't go any further than to say that the agent isn't doing the property it's best by pricing it to the principles of portal pricing.

Its a 2 bedroom detached house that, in the words if the agent that has it for sale, is "in need of some internal modernisation and updating." This is generally agent speak for something that need a lot of work but in this instance, I fem that were looking at much more than a wreck. It's detached, has a detached double garage and what looks like, and is described by the agent as "a good sized plot." I know all of you developers out there like to add value and there is potential in this property. Potential to extend and possibly potential for more if the size is right and you can get the necessary planning permissions.

According to nethouseprices Barnfield Road is quite popular with 32 sales on their records, including 3 in 2014 and an average sale price of £78,021.

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

I'd expect a rental return of between £375 and £400 per month for this property as a two-bedroom house. Based on the asking price, this would equate to an annual rental return of between 5.0% and 5.3%, which may be a little on the low side for an investor, but the potential to develop this property and make it into a large 3 bedroom house. This will change the rental potential into something more like £600 per month and the return starts to look like something more serious.

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.

Fern Grove in Spennymoor would give a decent rental return

One property that has come to market in Spennymoor over the lady week is this 2 bedroom house on Fern Grove, which has gone on the market for £72,500-

Fern Grove, Spennymoor, Durham

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-49518983.html

You'll have to forgive the estate agent for going over-the-top in their description of this one. Look at the following sentence from the description-

"Conveniently located for local schools and bus routes the property in our opinion would suit a variety of purchasers including the first time buyer and this lovely home must be viewed to be appreciated."

And that's all one sentence!

Putting this aside, it's in a good location, close to South View, and the bus route. The property has been refurbished in the standard manner of low-cost fitted kitchen and magnolia walls.  This will probably bode well as the current owner will most likely have put right any potential traits as part of the refurbishment.

I know that many landlords would rather do the renovation work themselves than pay a premium for someone else to carry it out, but there's still some mileage left in this property.

I'd expect a rental return of between £425 and £450 per month for this property.  This would bring a gross annual return of between 7% and 7.4%, based on the asking price. This is reasonable, compared to the standard accepted return of 6%.

Go and have a look!

What's in an estate agents for sale board?

What's in an estate agents's for sale board?

The two main agents in Spennymoor both have for sale boards that don't really stand out.

In particular, Dowens boards are dark in colour and as the Winter closes in, they tend to fade against the background of surrounding dark.

Robinsons for sale boards are brighter but contain almost nothing except for the Robinsons name and contact number.

What does this mean to me? I hear you ask.

Well, the service you expect and receive from an estate agent surrounds their ability to sell your property.  The only other consideration is the estate agent achieving the best possible price for your property.

So it follows that a property where the for sale board can't be seen well in darkness or a property where the for sale board says almost nothing about the property render the property less saleable or achieving under the best possible price.

There is a largely held opinion that the for sale board is nothing but an advert for the estate agent and doesn't mean a great deal for the property or seller. This may have been true when the housing market was flying and estate agents didn't need to work hard for their business but time has moved on.

Estate agents that don't maximise EVERY possible opportunity to sell your property at the best price achievable are letting down their clients in some way.

Improvements in for sale boards and the technology that surrounds them can be found here-

http://eaboost.blogspot.com/2014/04/what-do-your-for-sale-boards-say-about.html

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