It’s February already! How’d that happen?

Anyway! Here’s what we’ve got coming up:

• Sellers: learn from the best
• Landlords: legislation just got more fun
• All the news you need to know
• Top tool: it’s an “-ometer”, so you know it’s going to be fun

Sellers: do you have the power of persuasion?

As you may know, Fish Need Water has a service that allows you to do the viewings (rather than us) when selling your home, and in return we’ll take a smaller fee. We believe that you know your property more than anyone else, and you’re therefore in the best position to show it off to prospective buyers (if you have the time).

If you’d like to give it a go but you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed by the idea, don’t be! If you love your property and you’re knowledgeable about the area, you’ll be absolutely fine.  We will handle all the tough sales negotiations because that’s what we are really good at.

A typical viewing only lasts about ten minutes, and all you need to do is show off the high points and answer any questions. But to give your confidence a bit of a boost, we highly recommend a book called “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion”, by Robert Cialdini (view it on Amazon). It’s one of the classics, and it’s genuinely interesting as well as useful in a practical sense.

Even if you’d prefer us to do the viewings for you, you’ll still pick up some handy Jedi mind tricks to use on your colleagues/partner/dog.

Landlords: do you know about “Right to Rent”?

Just as we thought they must surely have run out of ways to legislate landlords… nope.

From 1 February, landlords across England will have to check the immigration status of every new tenant. Congratulations: you can now add “immigration officer” to your CV.

Snide and jaded joking aside, you need to make sure you comply in order to avoid hefty fines (and potentially harsher punishments in future).

So what does “compliance” involve?

Before you sign a lease with a new tenant, they now need to give you evidence that they have the right to reside in the UK. A passport or national identity card will be fine, as will a current immigration status document, an EU/EEA registration certificate, or a permanent residence card. You’re expected to view at least one of these documents in the presence of the applicant, and to store dated copies in a safe place.

If the prospective tenant can’t give you the evidence, it’s not just a matter of you turning them away: you now need to report them to the Home Office. It just gets better, doesn’t it?

If you have a managing agent looking after your property, they should take care of this as part of their routine process – but make sure they are, because it’s been poorly publicised and less on-the-ball agents might not be prepared.

Alternatively, if you’ve been self-managing, this might be the point at which you throw your hands up and say “Enough!” If so, give us a call on 020 3199 3439 and we’ll tell you more about how we can help.  To find out more information click here.

Property news

Where to buy a property in London in 2016: east London’s new post-Olympics boom towns. Property prices east of Tower Bridge have jumped by more than 300% over the past decade, and the population is forecast to rise by another 600,000 over the next 15 years. Might be time to take a look…

London rejected from the 10 best European cities for investing in property. We think we’ll cope.

Prime property in London declines while the price of lower priced homes continues to rise. According to this report, property worth up to £1.5million could grow in value by as much as 5% over the next year, but owners of any property worth more than £1.5million can expect a static year.

The most outrageous deals of 2015. Includes a £1 million shed, a £24 million garage, and a London mansion sold for £280 million.

Our useful tool of the month

Rightmove’s House Price Trendometer is a nifty little tool that allows you to track house prices by area and date, and see how they’ve changed over the years.

Check it out here.

The end! (Until next month.)

If you have any questions or queries about anything property-related, just give us a call:020 3199 3439

Speak to you soon!