Hawk & Chadwick Ltd

Summer is finally here and we’ve all been waiting for the chance to get into our shorts and t-shirts and fire up those barbecues. Surely the last thing you want to think about is dealing with an Estate Agent and going on the market?! Well, here are some great reasons why selling in the height of summer can work in your favour when it comes to moving to greener pastures.

So, why is summer a great time to sell?

Sunshine
It seems obvious but believe me it’s hugely underestimated and often overlooked. Sunshine and blue skies make property listings look stunning in print and online and will help you to stand out amongst the dreary pictures taken in the Springtime. Professional photography using clever tricks to really make your images pop, will further set your property apart, capturing more attention, clicks and enquiries than the other properties on the market in your area and price bracket, thus putting you one step ahead already.

Beautiful Gardens
If you’re lucky enough to have a good sized garden and are green fingered, or even have a professional gardener or enthusiastic neighbour on hand to give you some tips, your private patch of green will always have the capability to look stunning, no matter what the weather, but the summertime can transform your outside space. Taking time to trim the grass, neaten up the edges and plant some colourful summer flowers is all that it takes to encourage buyers that this a place they could relax with a gin and tonic. For the more adventurous, there are hundreds of resources and ideas for gardens at popular local centres such as Ayletts near London Colney.

Longer Days
Longer days and later sunsets simply mean more viewings. You can potentially allow buyers to attend for viewings well into the evening, and you can feel more secure with plenty of daylight still around. Would-be buyers will be able to see your property in the daylight too, which naturally will lead to offers in a shorter time frame as they won’t need to wait until the weekend to get a sought after daytime booking. If you have exterior lighting in your garden this is a fantastic time to really demonstrate how your property looks at dusk in a summer setting – remember you’re working with your agent on selling a dream and a lifestyle, not just a house.

It’s A Sellers’ Market
In line with record summer temperatures, demand for property in the UK is at its highest level for years. In previous election years, and stock levels are at a record low. Historically, the market tends to explode in late August and early September following a national election, so if you put your property on the market now, not only will there be less competition from your neighbours jostling for a buyer, but there will be more people feeling great and willing to go and look at properties – and more to the point, put their money where their mouth is when submitting offers.

A Better Price
People feel naturally more positive in the summer and as a result it’s common for some to have a natural tendency to push the boat out a little more when it comes to making important decisions. It’s also the perfect opportunity to showcase everything your property has to offer with great pictures, showcasing the garden and bringing plenty of light into dark internal corners. Since the market is experiencing lower stock levels and higher demand, buyers are paying top money to secure the right house so while haggling still takes place, there are no shortage of ready willing and able buyers looking for a new home. Now is the perfect time to entice buyers to make the decision to view your property and recognise the value so that they move forward and make an offer.

Interest Rates
Without wishing to rain on anyone’s barbecue, there is a potent view that interest rates must eventually rise, which will certainly have an impact on the day to day finances of people who are already stretching their resources to cover mortgages – this could mean an inflow of property to the market with people shifting to downsize or return to rented accommodation when the hikes start, and that’s tipped to happen in 2016 – 2017. Unless this is carefully controlled, a sharp rise may encourage a deluge of available property, increasing supply and eventually having an impact on property values. While the pounding on your equity may be sustainable, and may not be a fly in the ointment if you do not plan on moving, it could mean that if you were thinking of taking the leap, waiting until next year might cost you more. Keep an eye on the interest rates and the market to make sure you’re not part of the crush.

Strike while the iron (and the weather!) is hot, and make sure you get the best price on your property before the market really steps up a gear for the autumn. For a completely FREE valuation and marketing consultation, contact us on 01582 346111 or 01727 226253.

Following a discussion with one of my longest standing landlord clients who lives in Wembley but has an investment property in London Colney and another in Hatfield, he was thinking of purchasing another ‘buy to let’ investment to add to his portfolio in the local area. He sought my advice on which would be the best place to secure his next investment.

I carried out a comparison between the two areas and was surprised to find that despite the excellent transport links and the overall benefits of being near to St Albans, the annual yield/return in Hatfield is more healthy than London Colney. The average price of a property in the Hatfield area is £350,224, whilst in London Colney it is £459,639. The last few months have seen the average rent in the Hatfield area to be around £1230 per month and around £1465 per month in London Colney.

This means the annual yield/return would be 4.2% if you were to buy a property in the Hatfield area, but only 3.4% in London Colney…

This, however, is a great example of annual yield/return not being the only factor when choosing an investment property, as you should also consider how long it takes to find a tenant. The average time in the London Colney market is five weeks, whereas in Hatfield this figure more than doubles to just over eighteen weeks. If you take into account the extra thirteen weeks of potential void period for your property every year, you would be losing rent and therefore annual overall return from the property. Capital growth of the asset is yet another factor that you should consider when choosing an investment – we will examine this in the coming weeks.

If you would like to talk to us about marketing your property, or had any questions you’d like answered, please give us a call on 01582 346111 or visit our ‘Contact Us‘ page. We’re always more than happy to help.

Selling is easy! Oh if only it were true. Selling a house is both an art and a science, with some alchemy thrown in for good measure. But it doesn’t need to be an experience that leaves you tearing your hair out and wondering why wave after wave of interested buyers just won’t make an offer. Well, now you can get your home on the move with these 5 top tips to selling your home, fast!

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Clean and Tidy
It seems obvious, but you’d be surprised at how many people find this a challenge, hence why it tops our list. Buyers will be sincerely unimpressed by seeing your leftovers from last night in the kitchen sink, or your children’s toys precariously piled in a muddle in the corner of the sitting room.

If you’re serious about making a sale and moving on to your next dream home, then it’s advisable to take the time to ensure your house looks as clean, tidy and plain as possible so that a potential buyer can appreciate the space on offer without tripping over your possessions. Not only this, but an untidy home littered with obstacles can be a health and safety hazard for would-be purchasers.

Let’s Go Outside
The outside of your property is just as important, if not more important, than the inside. Poor weather is no excuse for avoiding simple tasks such as neatening up driveway weeds, or storing recycling containers and wheelie bins. Pruning out of control hedges and shrubs is an absolute must, and if not too wet try to cut the grass. Even the most frugal of gardens can be enhanced at very little cost by bargain hunting in local charity shops or by making use of community services such as Freegle to add some colour to intrigue to outside spaces.

Another important factor in staging any property for sale is enhancing what is known as the ‘kerb appeal’ by making your property look at it’s absolute best to any potential buyers when they approach from the road. Sometimes with flats or concealed entrances this isn’t possible, but certainly any rubbish or unsightly items should be removed and stored or disposed of.

Show Your Home In Daylight
This is a particularly difficult barrier in the Winter months when the sun sets long before many of us can unchain ourselves from our desks and get to a viewing, but if you’re motivated to sell it’s always worth trying to accommodate an early morning or a weekend viewing during daylight hours. This will reduce the number of viewings on the property as many buyers will want to view again in daylight, and it will also reduce any misunderstandings about the sizes of outside spaces, or invisible defects.

Remember that the more transparent you can be, and the more you can show a potential buyer, the more likely they are to trust you and your agent and the closer they will be to putting their money where their mouth is and making you a reasonable offer.

Make Use Of The Internal Space
You might have set your spare bedroom up a study, or you may have set up a home gym in the garage, but is this what motivates your buyer? You want a potential purchaser to feel as though they’re gaining some value for their hard earned pennies, and the best way to illustrate this is to take the time shifting around your furniture and your possessions to give the impression that rooms are much larger. Where possible use light colours, turn on the lights, and create a welcoming and inviting atmosphere.

Another tip is to try and limit the number of personal effects where possible, even it means putting family photographs away in a drawer for now – your buyer wants to imagine themselves living there, not you.

Be A Good Host
Perhaps one of the greatest errors. Why would you let your teenage children or even worse, weekend staff from an Estate Agency show off your property’s shiny bits?! While your Estate Agent may be the self-professed expert at Selling property, nobody knows more about your home than you do, so what better tour guide could your purchaser possibly hope for than the curator themselves? In addition, your presentation of your home will be infused with more passion and vigour than the inexperienced suit toting viewing assistant will ever be capable of. Highlight what you love about living here, why you moved here, what are the great things that, deep down, you would honestly stay for. Above all, take an interest in your buyers – what do they need, why are they moving, and what attracted them to the house? This will all help you to tailor the experience and increase your chances of receiving an offer.

If you would like to talk to us about marketing your property, or had any questions you’d like answered, please give us a call on either 01582 346111 or visit our ‘Contact Us‘ page. We’re always more than happy to help.

Whether you have a studio flat that is paying for itself or you have 10 houses that bring in a healthy yield income every month, you’ll know what it’s like to keep your investment on par and you’ll also have a good idea of the importance of those timely and regular ‘club fees’ in terms of rent from your tenant. Here are a few of our best tips for landlords to add to your property investment caddy, which we know will help make things even easier when you’re aiming for a hole-in-one with your rental.

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Neutral All Round
Firstly, it’s all about décor, and unless you can get away with bright colours in all the different rooms by claiming it’s a funky pad in the middle of Camden Town, then it’s definitely worth sticking with the plain and simple neutral shades. With this, we’re not talking Magnolia necessarily. It dates very quickly and can look cheap. Off white though, is brilliant. When it comes to carpets or flooring, go with something that will match everything. If there is a dated carpet with a floral design from the 1960’s on it, it’s time to go shopping. But none of this has to cost a fortune – smaller rooms can be fitted with off-cuts which you can often find at your local carpet shop at a generous discount.

Thing to remember is that an investment property should never be a statement of who you are as an individual. That’s for your own place and you’re own walls. The simpler, the better, and the more likely you are to let at the asking price and attract a higher calibre of tenant.

Maintenance
Something to definitely keep on top of is maintenance. Keep it up to date with yearly safety checks and get on top of things as soon as there is an issue, no matter how small it may seem. Small issues can swiftly turn into big problems if ignored, and then you really could have a very costly situation on your hands, not only with a bigger maintenance bill, but possibly external agencies such as the Council if tenants are fully aware of their rights and are given enough reason for complaint.

To avoid any hassle or huge layouts, make sure you have full landlord and buildings insurance from a reputable supplier, and ensure your agent routinely visits the property to make you aware of any areas that may require attention. Many Landlords run their investments by taking a little of the rent and storing it in a separate account to cover maintenance costs. This also helps some Landlords to see the property as a business concern and not a personal one.

Know The Legal Stuff
Whether you’re managing the properties in your portfolio independently or using an agent to do this for you, know your rights and legal bits as a landlord. There are a wealth of resources to help you with this from support organisations such as The National Landlords Association, The Property Ombudsman and even Tenant focused organisations such as Shelter who can assist in expanding your knowledge of the industry. Knowing the law can save you a lot of money, and if you’re short on time your best bet is to make an appointment to meet with an agent that is fully qualified and Ombudsman registered.

We suggest arming yourself with any pertinent questions prior to meeting an agent, and keep an eye on whether the front of house staff know the ropes legally as it’s often the younger and inexperienced team members in a high street office that will be handling the day-to-day negotiations with your investment assets – make sure you trust them implicitly.

Compliance’s
One thing that is a serious must is that all of your compliance’s are in place. This means a current and valid EPC, gas and electrical checks (carried out by Gas Safe and NICEIC/NAPIT registered engineers), fire checks and correct tenancy agreements for the type of tenancy; for example, where you are a landlord who lives in a converted building and you rent either a room which shares common areas with you such as a kitchen or bathroom, or if you let out each room as a self contained studio, a standard assured shorthold tenancy will not cover these particular situations as they are non-housing act tenancies which will not be covered by the statute provisions of the Housing Act 1988.

Using the incorrect contracts could mean that you are relying on an area of statute law that does not apply to your specific situation. Needless to say this gets expensive and messy if you get it wrong at the start or rush things just to get that essential first month’s rent in. If you’re in doubt, always ask a qualified agent for advice, and as before make sure they know their stuff – even go so far as to ask for proof of their qualifications before you commit to spending 10% of your rent on them.

Gear Your Investments
Many landlords will venture out and buy one property, or indeed inherit one, that delivers a solid income and a hassle free experience… If you’re lucky. The dark side of residential property investment, as many a veteran landlord will tell you, involves void periods, boiler breakdowns, water damage and plenty of other problems just waiting to happen. All of these come with a price tag, and lets just say the majority won’t be cheap. One investment method to soften the blow is to split larger investments, ie, a three bed house, into two smaller investments, such as one bedroom flats or studios. The theory is that, when one is vacant, the other will have a tenant living happily on the inside of those walls and bringing you a healthy income. This also gives you a little time to do any smaller tasks on the other property without the worry of not having an income at all.

Of course, all of this depends on marketing the property at the correct price, and with the absolute best level of presentation in terms of photographs, floor plans and descriptions. The best way of doing this is to get an expert opinion from a qualified agent. Even if you have the time to do your own research, it’s definitely worth shopping around and working with the agent who really does sound like they know their onions.

If you would like to talk to us about marketing your property, or had any questions you’d like answered, please give us a call on 01582 346111 or visit our ‘Contact Us’ page. We’re always more than happy to help.

I was browsing through properties yesterday morning, as you do. I know I’m an Estate Agent, but I also need somewhere to live myself and am looking for a new home in my beautiful home towns of St Albans and Harpenden.

On my browse through the property portals, I noticed something that made me wince on more than one occasion. I’m sure you’ll agree with me on some level, whether you’re looking for a place or you’ve just popped your home on the market that some of the pictures are nothing short of horrendous.

Doesn’t it make you cringe – I mean, a picture says a thousand words, doesn’t it? This kind of half-baked attempt at photography belongs in a collection of embarrassingly bad estate agency pictures. In this business, pictures mean everything. If someone looking at your home doesn't see just how amazing it is from those snaps taken, then they won’t book an appointment to come and actually see it with their own eyes. I feel sorry for the owner of this property, because they’ll be missing out in potential tenants that their own estate agent is turning away with their dreadful presentation skills. I will continue to stand by what I’ve always said – nothing beats a professional photographer. Photos that look like they’ve been taken on an iPhone by someone who is hung-over from a heavy night out just won’t cut it, whether it’s a cosy 1 bedroom flat or a 5 bedroom detached with a double garage and 2 acres of land.

This doesn’t mean ‘take as many pictures as you can and upload 5 different wonky shots of the same room’ either – reasonable skill and care should be taken when presenting a house for Sale or to Let, and that level of service should be the norm, not a special bolt-on that you pay extra to receive.

Many of our contemporaries will baulk and scoff at the extra cost of employing a professional, and many make the grave mistake of assuming that photography is something that ‘anybody can do’ often leaving it to negotiators and managers with little or no photographic expertise – let me assure you, taking excellent photographs most certainly is not something that any old chap can pull off! Honestly, if it’s a good agent who wants to get the best out of your home this should be part of the package without question. After all, their job is to sell or let your property, not to have it sitting on their books for 6 months to a year with little or no interest, but I am still baffled by all of those home owners who will settle for those dark, dreary pictures that really don’t do any justice to their beautiful living spaces and gardens.

This is the difference between professionalism combined with marketing diligence and lacklustre presentation. The latter is obviously an immediate turn-off to any potential purchaser, or tenant. The nature of modern consumerism is fast paced and decisions are almost instant – take eBay and Amazon, or even iTunes or the Google Play store as simple examples – the wealth of choice is overwhelming, and the modern consumer is ruthlessly efficient at sorting the wheat from the chaff, however the human mind, as we know, is not entirely infallible and so many potential deals fall through the cracks due to abhorrent presentation skills that comes with a stack ’em high and sell ’em cheap mentality.

The difference in quality is clear, even from something as simple as a photograph. Hawk & Chadwick always get the best and most out of your home on your behalf, and showcase that to your potential buyers and tenants. We understand what it’s like to be in the middle of selling and buying (we’ve done it ourselves, so we know the stress) and one thing that you really don’t want to worry about is whether the photographs, or any other area of your agent’s presentation of your property, are lacking – these should be perfect, without question. I, personally, would never want to be instructed to sell or let somewhere and make my client disappointed by the one thing they shouldn’t be. I will always use a professional photographer like Tony Boyle at EVR Photography (Watford) and Joel Buckland at Joel Buckland Video, Photography & Online Content (Letchworth Garden City), at no extra cost or expense to my clients.

If you would like to talk to us about marketing your property, or had any questions you’d like answered, please give us a call on 01582 346111 or visit our ‘Contact Us‘ page. We’re always more than happy to help.

Sometimes it’s difficult to assess where to buy, and where to avoid when it comes to investing in property – and the maths should stack up whether you’re buying to let, or buying a family home.

Prompted by a recent conversation with a local Landlord looking to relocate herself to a more upmarket area, we undertook some research into the two main areas she was looking at. Her question? Wheathampstead or Sandridge. Both brilliant town just outside the affluent areas of St Albans and Harpenden, but commutable to Hatfield.

We looked at her needs and affordability and agreed that we’d look at terraced houses for her as she wanted something with a ‘cottage’ feel. The results were quite interesting.

A terraced house in Wheathampstead will go to market for, on average, £269,000 (which is an increase of +26% in the year since October 2013), and the same property in Sandridge could be up to £156,000 more expensive at £425,000 but the +67% uplift in property prices in St Albans will have had a huge impact on this figure. As a Landlord, our client was interested as to whether the potential rental value could redress the balance between the two areas, so we did some more digging;

In Wheathampstead similar properties have achieved in the region of £1298pcm rental income, but with a moderately painful 13 weeks (96 days) to wait on the market before the right tenant arrived. In Sandridge and St Albans the rental income still hovers around £1300pcm for houses of this size and price point, however they do attract a lower average time on market of just 9 weeks (63 days).

The clear winner for investment Landlords then is Wheathampstead by a long chalk, however if one has deep enough pockets and building capital is the objective, then stretching the budget to secure a property in Sandridge, or one of the more desirable and better connected St Albans boroughs could be just the ticket.

If you would like to talk to us about marketing your property, or had any questions you’d like answered, please give us a call on 01582 346111 or visit our ‘Contact Us‘ page. We’re always more than happy to help.

It seems our last investment article was really quite popular so we decided to investigate more local area and see what the balance between annual return/yield and the annual value increase/capital growth is in the two mighty areas in Hertfordshire: Harpenden vs St Albans – this truly is clash of the titans!

Harpenden with its population of just under 30,000 residents lies in a highly attractive and popular part of Hertfordshire, and as a result of not only its delightful home counties location but also the swift motorway and railway links to London makes it a veritable honeypot for wealthy former City dwellers. The massive growth in population over the past 100 years has naturally seen a similarly powerful explosion in property prices, however don’t be put off! This can mean that investment deals command equally handsome rents.

The cathedral City of St Albans, a mere six miles to the south of Harpenden, is home to a greater number of occupants at around 60,000 and boasts the benefits of a larger City – well known for the wealth of history associated with the Abbey and again a magnet for those whose lifestyles demand balance between countryside access and the benefits of cosmopolitan living. So the big showdown of the Cathedral City of St Albans with double the population of the former sleepy village of Harpenden – but how will this play out in the rental income versus capital value debate when it comes to your investment? Let’s find out!

Let’s look at flats and apartments this time, and for a middle of the road figure we’ve decided to go for properties with two bedrooms as a benchmark. In broad brush average terms a two bedroom apartment in Harpenden will go to market at £303,877 and current asking rents for this size and type of property are sitting around £988 per calendar month.

With this in mind, it was fascinating to find that similar sized two bedroom flat in St Albans outperformed the properties we studied in Harpenden. This is because a two bedroom flat in St Albans can be bought for a touch more at around £327,475 but the average achievable rents leave Harpenden in the dust at around £1,250 per calendar month.

Based on these figures, the yield which could be achieved from property in Harpenden is around 3.9% per year. When we compare this to the possible 4.5% yield in St Albans it is clear that investors will win a 15% increase in yields by placing their money in St Albans property investments which would seem to follow with the higher population levels.

Going a little deeper and noting that yield is not the sole consideration when investing in Buy to Let properties. The average value of a flat in St Albans in 2011 was £235000 which has since risen by a whopping 39%. A similar property in Harpenden in 2011 was £249,000, meaning the value has increased by just 22% in the same 3 years.

Where would you invest your money now that you have this insider knowledge? What other factors are there to consider when your friendly high street agent assures you that the flat he’s selling is a ‘great investment’?

*Please note the figures used in this article were based on data sourced from the websites Home.co.uk and Zoopla.co.uk

If you would like to talk to us about marketing your property, or had any questions you’d like answered, please give us a call on 01582 346111 or visit our ‘Contact Us‘ page. We’re always more than happy to help.

Every month, I host a property networking evening which takes place in St Albans and attracts a good cross section of the property industry ranging from trades to agents, from solicitors to landlords, and at each meeting there is a consistent theme – value. Whether that is the value in a property of the value added by networking, value is the word on the lips of everyone associated with property. One of our many regulars raised the idea of either property investment in St Albans or moving here from London. We had a very in depth discussion about her situation, and while she ideally was seeking a house, we did discuss the market for flats in the local area in terms of investment, and thus value – when asked about larger developments near to the mainline railway station to provide easy access to London, and those which posed the best value to an investor, I immediately thought of Lemsford Road. While there are other developments nearby, Lemsford Road has always seemed to be a nice quiet place with plenty of opportunity for investment and growth.

I promised her I’d take a look at some figures to see where she might be best advised to invest, and I’d like to share this research, and the intriguing results, with you. We looked at comparing and contrasting different developments on Lemsford Road in the main, but also took into account nearby properties of similar age, style and type.

The average price for a property in the Thirlestane development in 2014 is £249,666, and properties rent at around £925 per month. This provides a roughly calculated yield of 4.45%. If we walk from Thirlestane back towards Sandpit Lane, on the right there is a development known as Eastbury Court. The last property to sell in Eastbury Court went for £280,000, and properties here achieve £1050 per month in rental income, which lands us with a rough yield of 4.5% – slightly higher than Thirlestane, on average.

Perhaps this is in part due to a greater amount of property being available in Thirlestane and marginally closer to the station; however restrictions on parking can prove to be a problem. Eastbury Court seems more relaxed on the parking rules, and although it lies closer to Sandpit Lane – and thus farther from the ‘Holy Grail’ that is the station.

Interestingly just a stone’s throw away Murton Court on Hillside Road seems to attract a higher yield of 4.7% with the last sale value pitched at £281,000 in January 2014 and an achievable rental income of £995 per month.

I would argue that Hillside Road is a more prestigious address than either Thirlestane or Eastbury Court, and as such one would have thought would attract premium rents, however the marginally higher yield figure would lead us to assume that it’s likely that capital growth is slower in that location. Why?

Certainly one explanation for this lack of capital value growth could be due to the new properties on the former Oaklands College site ‘Newsom Place’ which are currently selling for £375,000 (rental income of £1500 per month) for a two bed flat and £275,000 for a one bed (rental income of £975 per month) which will achieve yields of 4.8% and 4.25% respectively, meaning that anyone wise enough to invest in a two bed on the new Nicholas King site is certainly sitting pretty with a tidy rental income, but will the properties hold their value? Time will be the judge of that.

Somewhat interestingly to contrast the above figures, the average ‘time on market’ for property in the AL1 postcode area differs wildly by bedrooms size, and Landlords investing in two bed properties should expect to wait around 55 days (nearly 8 weeks) before a tenant is found, whereas owners of one bed properties enjoy a very short void of just 19 days (3 weeks) – the potential rental income lost on the larger properties during 5 further weeks of void period alone equates to a whopping £1730 off the bottom line, not including Council Tax and bills.

However all is not as bad as it may seem! As ever, the key to reducing those dreaded void periods with no tenants in sight is to work with a proactive company who look after your investment and will work with you to present your property in its best possible light at all times. We are experts and specialists in achieving shorter voids and higher rents for our clients.

If you would like to talk to us about marketing your property, or had any questions you’d like answered, please give us a call on 01582 346111 or visit our ‘Contact Us‘ page. We’re always more than happy to help.

‘Which house should I buy in St Albans’ was the musing question posed by one of our landlords who was pondering whether they should buy a three or two bed property to rent out to tenants in the area as their next foray into the world of buy to let investment. The first question I asked them was ‘What are you looking for from the investment – capital growth in the property or a great yield?’.

When investing from a private Landlord perspective, answering this question will go a long way to helping you figure out which properties you should buy, or at the very least it will serve as a quick gauge when conducting your preliminary research as we all know there is more of the iceberg beneath the surface.

We know that the average asking price of a two bed terraced in St Albans is £335,816 today, compared to £398,124 for a three bed terraced or even small terraced-detached. The three bed achieves an average rental price of £1550 per month compared to £1350 per month for a two bed terraced.

That’s a yield of 4.82% for the two bed against 4.67% for the three bed. So surely, the two bed terraced is the better bet? Well it does offer a better rate of return, but being more desirable to families, the three bed terraced is slightly easier to rent out (which will result generally in fewer void periods where no rental income can be derived from the investment) and will be easier to sell in the future as St Albans is a big town for families and has a huge desirability factor when compared to surrounding towns. This keeps capital values high, and it’s worth noting that some character cottages are currently on the market for around £500,000 due to their historic appeal and proximity to the station and town, however as the demand for accommodation is high, these could still stack up as a good investment.

If you would like more information or would like to discuss your current investments, why not drop us a line at info@hawkandchadwick.co.uk or call on 01727 226 253.

There are many ways of handling your residential property investments; however we advise that all new Landlords should first seek to find out if using the services of a Letting Agent is right for them. New Landlords are advised to choose the agent that suits their personal needs and not only one who you feel can be trusted and relied upon, but somebody with whom you feel comfortable with personally.

This guide has been compiled to assist you, as an individual who may be new to the world of property investment, in making the right decision. We, of course, hope that you will choose us to manage your property investment, but there is a great deal of choice in our market and we want you first and foremost to be happy.

To download our FREE Landlord Guide for 2015, please click here.