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The government has spent £300 billion so far trying to fight Covid-19 and there is no doubt that at some point in the near future, they will need to raise taxes in order to balance the books. The Conservative Government made manifesto commitments not to raise income tax, national insurance or VAT and they will…

Agents spend their whole careers telling vendors and landlords why they will be able to achieve a better sale price or a higher rent than they could achieve themselves. Then, at the end of their career, they try to sell their own business. I am constantly amazed by this and during the twenty-five years that…

At this time of year I am usually busy helping my consultancy clients to prepare their financial targets for next year. But at the moment there is so much uncertainty that this is almost impossible to do. On the lettings side, good managed letting businesses have hardly been affected by the pandemic at all so…

The government has spent £300 billion so far trying to fight Covid-19 and there is no doubt that at some point in the near future, they will need to raise taxes in order to balance the books. The Conservative Government made manifesto commitments not to raise income tax, national insurance or VAT and they will…

This will be my last article about surviving Covid-19 and I have saved the most important topic for last. That topic is the importance of strong leadership. For many years, I devoted a section of my management training course to the importance of good leadership. I started the topic with a syndicate exercise. I asked…

One of the most important factors that separates the best estate agency and letting agents from the rest is the quality of their staff. Until now employers have competed to recruit the best staff by offering higher salaries, better cars and better promotion prospects but COVID-19 has changed all this because a huge percentage of…

My previous articles on Coronavirus have focused mostly on how to maintain your income. So, the focus of this article will be how to make savings in your running costs with a particular focus on using Prop Tech. Covid-19 has made many companies completely reassess the way that they use Prop Tech and it is…

Most estate agents and letting agents that I talk to are pretty confident now about surviving the rest of 2020. They have had the benefit of the furlough scheme, the local authority grant money, reductions in their portal costs, reduced marketing costs, deferment of a quarter’s VAT and deferment of the second tax payment on…

I was very sorry to hear that Andrew Grant in the Midlands had gone into administration. It seems a sad end for a business that has been trading for almost fifty years, but I fear that it will not be the last business casualty of Covid-19. Most letting businesses have performed well during the lockdown,…

The market for successful lettings businesses is still strong according to one of the country’s leading business transfer agents, reported Letting Agent Today on the 28th May. Adam J Walker and Associates has sold Daisy Lets in Maidstone to (local competitor) Seekers, SD Lambert in Upton to Baker and Horner and Whites Independent Lettings in…

Well, hallelujah, you are allowed to open your office, your bank balance is looking good and your business has survived the virus. Or has it? Unfortunately, it is still too soon to say. Let’s consider this example of a small business that usually banks £480,000 per year, half from sales and half from lettings. John…

The recent Pie survey showed that 57% of people who work in the property sector think that it is too soon for agents to return to work. However, most estate agency business owners are delighted that they have been allowed to reopen their businesses. Nevertheless there will be many obstacles to overcome before business can…