Current rental market and trends....

Mr_Frugal

Calling all property investors.........

I was just reading another thread on this board ( http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=31140 ) and noticed from the reply that this board is "populated (in large part) by property investors" (makes sense I guess). So my question goes out to all of you experienced property investors....

I am currently looking at purchasing a franchise business (with little or no personal experience of this type of business) in a residential property lettings company (who shall remain nameless).

The company I am looking at have residential lettings as the core of their business (with add on such as estate agency and mortgage referrals). Whilst I can appreciate the add ons are extremely dependant on the economic climate of the day (ie I would assume now to be a difficult time for estate agency and would predict it to only get worse in immediate future) I am trying to get a grip on what the economic climate does to the rental market.

I am told that the lettings market (from an agency point of view) is fairly static with not much movement and as such with this as a cornerstone of the business I would be profitable. I am told that the concept that most landlords are purely property investors is not true as the majority of the market is made up from persons whose personal circumstances have changed leading them to rent out a single property (ie boy meets girl both have property but move into 1 and rent other, or required to work abroad for couple of years or travelling world etc)

Would you say that the majority of landlords fall into this category or are they mainly property investors and would you say that the market is fairly buoyant irrespective of economic cycles or is it affected in the same way as the estate agency business ?

I would be very interested in the thoughts of experienced property investors on this matter as I am currently pulling my hair out working a business plan out trying to ascertain whether or not my figures are realistic or not and this issue could be central as to whether I risk it all or not.

Many thanks in advance.....

YorkshireBoy

Sorry, I can't answer any of your questions but, when I was considering buy-to-let a couple of years ago I subscribed to a newsletter from the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA).

Maybe they could help?

Check out their website on https://www.arla.co.uk

HTH
YB

Mr_Frugal

Thanks Steve.

Just spend last 20mins looking through the site...there's plenty of food for thought there with loads of statistics. Good few hours reading material here !

Much appreciated.

Natelle_2

Mr_Frugal wrote:

Calling all property investors.........


I am currently looking at purchasing a franchise business (with little or no personal experience of this type of business) in a residential property lettings company (who shall remain nameless).

My first observation would be to rethink the question of purchasing a franchise to operate a rental management agency! If you want to operate in this type of market, then do all the investigation you can, re-investigate it and if it really is the market for you - go it alone!! You do not need to pay a franchisor an excessive fee to help you set up a business - which will never be yours, as the franchisor will always own the goodwill of the trading name and the client list. Your paying to be a manager of someone elses business. If you believe you're capable of running your own business do it on your own. Don't waste your money paying a large sum to a franchisor to help expand his/her business, use your money to market and build YOUR OWN business!

My second observation is that there will always be a market out there for good managing agents, for property investors, absent landlords and those owners who either don't want the stress of dealing with tenants and the problems they bring. It may be of help if you have a look at some of the articles on https://www.timesonline.co.uk that refers to the buy to let market and possible near future trends.

The views expressed here are from an ex-franchisee who learnt the lesson and one of those, dare I mention it, property investors who are totally to blame for all the troubles of the property market.