FAIR PRICE OR A FLEECING?

FAIR PRICE OR A FLEECING?

CHRISTMAS – WEDDING – NEW YEAR’S EVE – LANDLORD

What do all these words have in common?



I’ll tell you: they make the sellers bump up the price of items and services unnecessarily!



I’ve seen it today in the local shopping centre. We’re a few days before Christmas and shoppers were falling over themselves to buy, in short, utter tat. Christmas presents items such as soap sets, make up, aftershaves, tacky toys, novelty gifts etc. 

It’s always baffled me why the price of these goods massively increases just because the manufacturers have boxed them up in jazzy snazzy festive boxes aimed for the Christmas market. 


Look at the actual products inside people: you’re not telling me it’s worth the bumped-up value just because it’s in a nice glittery box?!



Ditto New Year’s Eve – where many pubs, free for 364 days of the year, now sell you tickets on the door just to let you in to buy their beverages – what’s all that about?!



And as for the word ‘wedding’ – ooof, it’s a free reign licence to sting you!



But my gripe today is when contractors bump up the price of a job just because they hear the word LANDLORD.

There is some bizarre assumption by the world as a whole that most landlords are super rich, greedy money-grabbing fatcats.


I am not most landlords. 


And although I acknowledge that there are some people in property world exactly like that, in my experience, most of the property landlords I know locally are just hard working people doing their best to provide a service, and they’re not super-wealthy. 


Even though we’d like to be!!


But sadly, this urban myth remains prevalent amongst contractors, who persist in giving you ridiculously-prices for services, just because they know you’re a landlord.



I have this running joke, when my friends and other people say “Oh, you must be rich, you’ve got all these houses!”


To which I reply “I’m not rich, BECAUSE I’ve got all these houses!”


Boilers don’t fix themselves you know! All maintenance and repairs works must be paid for – and sadly the Maintenance Monster rears its head in rental properties way too often for my liking!

Now when I talk about fair prices or fleecing, this is not about me being super tight, or mean, or pennypinching (oh ok, I am a bit, I’m Yorkshire, but we all are up here!)


I’m not saying that contractors aren’t worth their price. 


Some definitely are - and they’ll know I appreciate their good work and fair fees because I’m loyal; if they look after me, I’ll use their services again and again.


Several times recently I have had discussions with contractors, where they were nice guys, I liked them and wanted to give them the business – but then they went and gave me a stupid quote.


And then things get awkward when you have to tell them: ‘OWWWW MUCH?!?! That’s double what I’ve ever paid before, sorry, but you’re not getting the job.

I know people still need to make a profit, and they’ve got their own business to run and their own families to feed. 


I get that.


But I also know what things are worth, because of my experience and prices I’ve paid for things before.


Yes, I might be a landlord, but I’m not a gullible moron who wants to set fire to my money just because you’re greedy.


So yes, sadly, I do find it difficult to undergo any refurbishment work from fair people for a fair price. Add into the mix that I’m female and the amount of piss-taking pricing and patronising doubles. 


(Don’t believe me? Ask any other female property investor!)


I just want a good job done by good guys in a decent timescale for a fair price - without being ripped off – is that too much to ask?!!

It’s sheep that follow someone blindly and end up getting fleeced – so you need a fair price, not a fleecing.


Here’s a couple of tips when looking for contractors to do work:

1.   Find some local firms who provide the service you need. Meeting them in person is good, such as at networking meetings, or ask for referrals from people you know who have used their services.

2.   Check them out online, look at their social media, examples of work, testimonials.

3.   Arrange for each of your shortlisted contractors to come and do a site visit. Not all at the same time though!

Ps - some of these contractors won’t even turn up.

I’m not joking…

If they don’t even ring you to explain with a genuine excuse for their absence, remove them from your list. 

4.   Bear in mind their attitude, personality and demeanour on the site visit.

If you hate them automatically, your gut instinct is giving you a stark warning to avoid avoid avoid!

Like the recent patronising guy who kept calling me ‘flower’… Imagine the drama I’d have had getting him to do what I needed without a load of hassle and fuss?!

5.   Await quotes. This can be anything from 2 hours to never.

Yes really. Some people you will never hear from again.

I’m still waiting for a quote from a guy 18 months ago who spent two hours travelling and pricing up a job!

(Makes interesting fun seeing him dance about to avoid me when he attends the same networking meeting…

…hey, maybe he just decided he hates me, and that’s ok too!)

6.   Assess all the quotes for the best. This might not necessarily be the cheapest.

Stupid quotes can also be removed at this point.

In my head, that’s basically the contractor saying: “I don’t like you, I don’t want to work with you, so I’m going to rip you off”. 
So that’s those guys doing you a favour, they’ve heard the word LANDLORD and those pounds signs starting flashing in their eyes. 
Not today, and not with me, my friend!

7.   Pick your favourite contractor with their fair quote.

Book them in for the job. Ideally, it’s someone you know, like and trust.

8.   Let them do the job! 

Oversee their work, address any queries that arise, but no need to micromanage. They’re competent experts, not schoolkid apprentices.

9.   I’m going to add this in, as it seems to be a rising problem for contractors…

Once they’ve done their job to a great standard – pay them!!! There’s been a horrendous rise lately in service providers not being paid for the work they’ve done, or people withholding their payment for ages - and that’s simply not fair.

If they’ve done you a great job, delivered what you asked, why would you not pay them immediately?

And if you can’t afford to do that, then you shouldn’t be booking them in for work until you can. *RANT OVER!

10.               Appreciate their efforts. Make sure they know you’re thankful for their super work. Leave them online testimonials. Refer them to other people you know. Use their services over and over again.

So there we have it… we all love a fair price, but we hate a fleecing!



And yes, for the record, I am a Libra starsign – the sign of the justice scales, of fairness and equality – so woe betide anyone who tries to upset that balance!



Have a super Christmas and a very happy new year!



Kellyann x x x 

HALLOWEEN HORRORS... OF PROPERTY!

I love Halloween! 🎃 👻

So as it’s October 31st, I will share with you some Halloween Horrors... of Property!

There are many scary things about property that keep us terrified and awake at night... and some are just downright horrors!

First one: mysterious happenings in the middle of the night! 😱

During a property’s refurbishment, sometimes spooky things happen when you’re not there... 🤔

Here’s some examples of things I’ve experienced - and how to avoid them rising from the dead again on future projects! ⚰️

👻 Curse: a magic apparition of a load of old junk added to my scrap pile 😤
✝️ To break the spell: avoid this by collating all your junk materials, old bathrooms etc, INSIDE until the day the skip arrives. Then whang all the junk in at once and get them to lift the skip the same day, to avoid demon neighbours inflicting their curses and junk on you! 👍

🎃 Curse: paranormal activity, in the form of your rubbish bins magically disappearing overnight! 😤
✝️ break the spell by fetching your bins inside the property, or they will go missing. Why? Because often some impish neighbours will fancy an extra bin - and many councils now charge for replacement bins. 🤨

👹 Curse: on one project, some utter evil devil had dumped a monster-sized bag of, erm, stinking doggy ectoplasm in my garden, for me to kindly dispose of 💩😱😤
✝️ BEGONE SATAN!!! Sometimes in property - and life - very shitty things happen - quite literally.
No cure for this curse, sometimes people are just fiends and wretches out to inflict hurt and suffering on you.
To deal with this though, you have to adopt a strong PMA (positive mental attitude) for bad things, to keep those demonic vibes at bay.
So think positively about such demonic acts - use your strength and will to tell them: “the power of Christ compels you... to not be so powerful so that your horrible nonsense won’t get to me!!!”

Remember, things can only upset you if you allow them to!
💪😁✝️

Next Tale from the Crypt…

Sometimes when you get the keys to a property, you will find that the house is possessed - by all sorts of creatures, dead or alive!

Bugs, woodlice, silverfish, mice, birds, and our old Halloween favourite, those beastly spiders! 🕷🕷🕷

However, all those fail in comparison when I remember the Longroyd project, with the Bugs of Doom...

This particular house was the deceased estate of a little old lady.

All the carpets had been stripped out - but little did we know, that lurking in the floorboards, ready to pounce, was THE CURSE OF THE INDESTRUCTIBLE KILLER FLEAS!!
😩☠️👾☠️👾

We all got bit by these fleabag masses; itchy, horrid biting creatures; urrrgh, I shudder just remembering them.

And then worst of all, because they get in your clothes, I inadvertently brought them home with me - and despite never before being infected, in all her years... I ended up giving my own Pusscat fleas...
😱😱😱

I WAS THE SPREADER OF EVIL!
👺👾🙀😿😾

That house took me four flea bombs and a mass amount of cleaning to rid that satanic scourge, and then the same again in my own house.

So I’m not a fan of house possessions, by horrible creepy crawly poltergeists!

If you have similar ‘unwanted tenant’ squatters - purge your property thoroughly with an exorcism: with hard cleaning graft, prayers and strong chemicals.
It’s the only way to rid yourself of such demons!!

🕷🦗🦟🐜🐝🦇👾☠️



Moving on, another cautionary tale that strikes immense fear into my being...

The very thought of it brings me out in a cold sweat, and undertaking the necessary evil of it is like a dagger to my heart... 🔪🥶🥵🤯🤮

What I am talking about?

If you’re from Yorkshire, I know you’ll already know what I’m about to say...

... the biggest horror in property is THE CURSE OF THE BURNING PURSE!!! 😩😫😭😭😭💷🔥

 

Property costs money, in all sorts of fiendish ways:
❌ purchase ❌ stamp duty ❌ insurance ❌ legal fees ❌ gas safety ❌ refurbishment ❌ operating expenses ❌ maintenance ❌ utilities ❌ voids ❌ repairs ❌ naughty tenants ❌ 🆘

The scariest thing in the world for a Yorkshireman is having money extracted from our weary paws.

We hate the evil, bloodsucking flesh-eating bogeyman known as the Grim Reaper Taxman!

And as for the eerie cackling call of the House Repairs Goblin, he terrifies us with his creepy visits way too often!

Still when you have families living in your property - many of them angels, and not werewolves - you’ve got to do what’s right to protect them from evil.

So you unnervingly summons your petrified purse / wallet from beneath the grave, dust off the cobwebs, and see what decomposing funds lurk within.

Then zombie-like and crying, you perform a spell, which mostly involves setting fire to your money.

After this chilling sorcery, magic apparitions then appear - more recently in my case, in the form of a new light fitting, a new door handle, and a new electric cooker 😩💷🔥

So beware all ye wannabe property investors - have ye got the stomach to cope with such grizzly, ghastly and horrifying money-sucking phantoms?!? 😭🤮

And Yorkshire folk: normally your purse has to be prised from your corpse’s cold, dead fingers... can you perform some supernatural hocus pocus and... ACTUALLY SPEND SOME MONEY?!?

Terrifying stuff, I know, it scares me too...

Be afraid... be very afraid... 😱😱😱



Finally, this last topic is the scariest yet.

It can either be a trick or a treat, depending on how you prepare yourself.

The most terrifying thing in property are... bloodsucking vampires.

What do I mean by this?

I mean that there are some horrible people in this industry that are out to bleed you dry for all they can get.

Examples of these demons include:
☠️ beastly cowboy builders
☠️ bungling scarecrow solicitors
☠️ bloodsucking bridging firms
☠️ vampires who want to extract all your time, knowledge and education for free
☠️ horrible trolls out to hurt and criticise you
☠️ incompetent zombie workmen
☠️ repulsive RIP-off merchants
☠️ petrifying Ponzi schemes
☠️ shady sharks out to strip you of your money
☠️ outrageous ogres who make all sorts of unbelievable claims about ROI
☠️ untrustworthy shyster wolves who don’t return your investment funds.

I’m not pulling any punches here.
It’s a spine-chilling warning.
The most terrifying part about this post is that it’s all true.

These nasty people do exist, and they walk amongst us - often smiling and beguiling us with their witchcraft.

I myself have experienced several of the above, and I know that many of my investor friends have too.

So what can we do to ensure we get a little less trick, and a lot more treat?

Here are some tips, to renounce the evil:

✝️ Don’t work with people you don’t know, like or trust 🥰
✝️ Do your due diligence on people - are they who they say they are? How do you know? Can they show you evidence and proof? 🧐
✝️ Google them! Reviews, testimonials, online presence, Companies House, images, news... EVERYTHING!
Sometimes it’s in your own interest to be a bit stalker-ish... 🤔🧟‍♀️
✝️ You are a grown adult of your own free will. If someone is putting you under pressure to part with cash, your internal alarm bells should be ringing 🚫
✝️ Trust your gut instinct. If anything feels wrong, for any reason - don’t do it 👊👌👍

Phew!
Terrifying stuff!

But forewarned is forearmed.
Use these tips above as your vampire-slaying kit.
Add in some garlic if you like!
Avenge these property monsters!

Although I’d leave the knives and weapons at home... or at least until the Halloween moonlight hits... 😏🔪

Have a spooky and safe Halloween everyone! x x x

😁🎃

Kellyann Martin is a Property Investment Strategist based in Leeds.

For more details on working with Kellyann, visit the website

www.kellyannmartin.co.uk