The lettings market used to slow after September but not now! We have had such demand one one bedroom flats we have non left and the two beds are going in days! This I think is all the new workers coming to Abingdon working for companies like Sophos we even had a lovely chap who viewed a flat in Jackman Close, wanting to move in on the 25th of December!
Letting Fast wth Blue Door Lettings Abingdon
Sink not emptying down the plughole? Funny smell from the bathroom basin? Toilet not flushing well?
What to do? You might want to pick up the phone to us and get us to fix it but there are some things that you should do first as resolving blockages in sinks basins and toilets is a tenant’s responsibility as tenants are the ones who are using them. This is in your tenancy agreement as it is a logical situation.
Once you have a problem you can try using a plunger to clear it. You don’t need to buy an actual plunger though: your hand or a plastic cup can do the job just as well. Fill the sink with water and then press your hand or the cup over the plughole and lift it up and down quickly. If that doesn’t help, then you can try tipping half a cup of bicarbonate of soda down the plughole followed by a bottle of vinegar. This will fizz and pop and dissolve grease that might be stick in the drain so that you can try plunging the thing again.
If this still doesn’t work you will need to get a bowl and get under the sink with it. You will see the famous U-Bend under the sink and there will be ridged bits around it which make it easy to remove. This is where the bucket comes in handy to catch any water that might come out when you disconnect the U-Bend. If you are lucky you will find something in the U-Bend which explains why the water isn’t going down the plughole. Take out whatever is stuck in there and sluice the tube through with hot water then re-attach it to the pipework. The last time this happened in my house I found a wooden lolly stick in the pipe surrounded by bits of carrot and pasta. Yum.
If you’ve tried all this and even add some shop bought unblockers to the mix with no luck then you will need to get some more help. Do be aware though that if the plumber finds that something you have put down the sink has blocked it, you will be liable for the cost of his invoice to fix it.
The internet is a fantastic source of help for this kind of thing and you can spend a good while watching videos about how to unblock your sink or toilet before you do it yourself.
This is a case of prevention being better than cure so be careful about what goes down the sink when you wash up and don’t pour hot fat or other greasy things down there which will become solid when they cool.
I have some tips
Keep it simple. Keep it cheap but not nasty. Keep it small.
Here’s a nice simple kitchen. Not much fuss and a good price at Jewsons.
The only thing I’d quibble over here is the hob. A ceramic hob is smooth and therefore easier to keep clean than this one and the price difference is only about £30 at the low end of the range.
Here’s a simple bathroom too from Grahams
You see? No messing about. Quick solutions for your local builders merchant so no need to trek to John Lewis or Ikea!
My kids are mad for Dr Who and thought they saw the crack in Amy’s wall while we were out on our bikes the other day. Can you see what they mean?
With winter receding and a little bit of sunshine peeking through the clouds, landlords are turning their thoughts to renting their properties with us instead of putting up with the service they have been getting from other agents. We don’t beat about the bush or promise what we can’t deliver or pretend that everything is straightforward then add charges for this, that and the other. There is no hard sell, no flannel and there are no shiny suits in our office.
We have new properties in Abingdon, Cumnor, Oxford, Gloucestershire and Bicester: one beds, two beds and family homes. Take a look at our properties page and see if anything takes your fancy.
We don’t have a shop front where you can stare at us through the window all day but we do have an office in a very desirable part of town which almost has a view of one of the oldest buildings in Abingdon. Pop in and have a cup of tea with us; we have Twinings English Breakfast, Assam and Rooibos as well as biscuits so you can be sure of a thirst quenching pit stop, if nothing else!
This is a view from our window facing north as a clue in case you aren’t sure where we are.
Did you watch that programme about estate agents the other night? Mary Portas is an interesting character but I have to say I think that she sort of got hold of only one end of the stick. Even in lettings we are agents working for two parties and in the first instance it is the Landlord who is our client, not the prospective tenant viewing the property that belongs to the Landlord. You can’t put the needs of one ahead of the other as she suggested the agents should.
She jumped all over their estate-agents-speak advertising and their lack of knowledge of the properties. If she had looked at our business she wouldn’t be able to criticise us on either of these counts.
We are the only agent in Oxfordshire who has always used interesting and honest wording in our adverts. We don’t go always go quite as far as Ralph Bending but we have come close on occasion! We pride ourselves on our honesty and straight forwardness and we know the properties we manage very well.
We like to think that we are the north and that is where all the agents’ compasses should be pointing. We are pretty sure that people like our advertising, like our honesty and like the properties we have to offer. Perhaps where we lead, others will follow but until they get out of their rut and change, you’ll can rely on us to keep doing things differently.
I took on a new property in Bicester today but I promise we won’t be using this photo in our advertising and telling you this is a 5 bed detached mansion!
Here’s a story. See if you can spot where the landlord went wrong.
Mr X is moving abroad and thinking that it would be better to rent his house than sell it. So, he has a load of local agents round to see what kind of rent he could expect and what fees they might charge to look after the house for him while he is away.
He likes one more than the others but thinks he might be better off not using an agent at all and finding a tenant himself. Through the work grapevine he finds tenants and does a deal with them, choosing the rent and deposit that they can afford.
Then he prepares to leave for his new home and gives keys to the new tenants but realises that he hasn’t got any idea how to formalise the arrangement or if there is anything else he should do.
PANIC! Where did he go wrong? No points for correct answers!
One phone call later and we have met the new tenants, done an inventory, referenced the tenants, produced a tenancy agreement, emailed all the necessary paperwork to the landlord who is now abroad and calmed everybody down – all in one day.
The moral of the story is not that you shouldn’t think about letting out your house by yourself but that if you don’t have the information you need to do it yourself, you should look for someone who does. That person is an agent but not just any agent. You need a good agent like BlueDoor.
Also, don’t leave things until the last minute. We can do things at the drop of a hat and are happy to do so but it leaves everyone’s nerves a bit jangled and gives you more stress than you need.
In the end we have added another happy landlord to the band of happy BlueDoor Landlords
We have another happy landlord this week too. We’ll call him Mr X too. He doesn’t like the cut of his agent’s gib any more and a friend has recommended us to him. The tenants are due to move out in 2 weeks so there is plenty of time to re-let it. We are happy to take on his property and offer him a rather large saving on the management fees he is currently paying. He dis-instructs the other agent and we let his property for him.
Job done. Smiles all round and Mr X gets to see more of his rent than he has ever seen!
Two more happy folks are BlueDoor Landlords who have recommended friends to us and have now got £50 more in this month’s payment from us as a thank you.
Older houses speak a lot of people; they are often more spacious than modern boxes and if previous owners missed the 50s, 70s and 80s they also have a wealth of original features to please the eye.
Old sturdy houses can also have a wealth of original difficulties too, though. The roof, the walls, the plumbing, the windows and the electrics can all be sources of trouble. Little old ladies sell up and move out of these kind of houses for a reason: they can’t keep us with the maintenance demands. Buyer beware!
More modern boxy houses have much less to go wrong with them. A re-dec and re-carpet once in a while will keep them looking good and replacing a bathroom or kitchen won’t be too tricky as long as you keep it simple and don’t go fro granite work tops and spa baths!
The ideal rental property is low maintenance and easy to maintain when work is needed. Look for modern wiring and a new consumer unit (fuse box), simple plumbing and electric showers and heating. A grassed garden with small shrubs for interest is ideal; large bushes, hedges and trees will need more attention.
Choose a freehold property possibly with a very small ground rent if it is a cluster home or studio flat but avoid new builds with leasehold agreements and high management charges.
If you are wanting to invest in a rental property but aren’t sure what to buy, we are happy to offer you advice with no obligation. Callus on 01235 524800 to make an appointment.
A lovely lady called us at the end of last week to say that she loved the look of a flat we have in Spenlove Close Abingdon and could she see it asap as she was going away on holiday on Monday morning.
We tracked down the current tenants (who are on holiday somewhere nice) to ask them if it was ok to do a viewing while they weren’t there and spoke to them on a line that was clearer than calling Oxford! They were happy to let us show this lady round so at 5pm Greg met the hopeful prospective tenant, who loved the flat and made an asking price offer on the spot.
Job done. She couldn’t arrange any viewings with any other agents today so we have got a let and others that she might have been wanting to view and make offers on today have lost out.
We are ridiculously flexible when it comes to booking viewings for tenants or arranging to meet new landlords so if you work a lot and are struggling to fit in a meeting with your agent without taking time off work, call us!
Have you been to the Co-op in Abingdon lately? If you do pop in there mind your head on this
We drop our franked post off at the Post Office counter in the shop and when I popped in yesterday that was hanging from the ceiling! We used to have an advert in the old post office on the High Street and when that closed our ad disappeared. Apparently it has been in safe storage until someone realised that it should be out and about advertising BlueDoor’s difference and hung it up!
Guess what we have been up to this week?
Making people happy!
This weekend we have two sharers moving in to a flat in Iffley Road, a couple moving in together for the first time in Abingdon, a chap settling in to a new bolt-hole in Botley, a French family starting a new adventure in Kidlington and a couple with two furry moggies trying out a new cat flap in Bicester.
The only bad thing about moving people in to new homes is the amount of paper that goes through our printer. We are email mad which saves a lot of paper but you can’t sign a virtual tenancy agreement – the law doesn’t like it! We use recycled paper and envelopes which eases our green conscience but each time I put a fresh ream of paper in the drawer I wonder how long this one will last. We keep the printers up the road happy to though with all the lovely blue logo’ed paper they produce for us.
We hope you are having a good week and enjoying the cooler weather a bit.
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