STOP PRESS: BELVOIR ANDOVER wins top National Award !

We are delighted to announce that Belvoir Andover has won ‘Best in South’ award at the glitzy National Belvoir Awards held at the Radisson Blu Hotel in the East Midlands last Friday Night.

The business owners were on hand to collect the award which has recognised Andover as being ‘Best in South’. The south territory has some 20 offices within it including the largest office in the country!

Best in South Award 2014

Phil Pinkney said ‘We are absolutely delighted to have received this award which recognises the efforts made by the whole team to enhance and expand the services offered to both its clients and fellow franchisees. The introduction of selling property has seen the biggest level of interest and we do not intend to rest until the public knows how much better we are at that too!’

Greg Greatbatch said ‘We were not expecting this award which makes receiving it even more special. To be recognised as ‘Best in South’ really makes all the hard work our team has put in over the last 12 months, really worthwhile. We were up against stiff competition with the largest Belvoir in the country being in the same south region!’

This is the second consecutive year that Belvoir Andover has won an award at the annual gathering of over 160 offices at their annual conference.

Belvoir Andover acquired two local estate agents in 2013, being Redwoods and ClearMove. They also moved into their Flagship offices on Bridge Street and doubled their team. Lastly 2013 saw the introduction of selling property too and Belvoir quickly became the second largest agent for selling in Andover.

Daniel Tarrant & Phil Pinkney on the night

When asked about the incredible amount of change that has taken place for the Andover office in 2013 they commented:

Greg Greatbatch said ‘It is important for us to consolidate our progress of 2013 and ensure that our commitment to outstanding customer service remains strong. We have made a considerable investment over the past 12 months, which we believe was essential to maintain our undisputed ‘Leading in Lettings’ crown, but also adding the additional services of sales and mortgages that was missing from our previous business model’ 

Daniel Tarrant commented ‘It has been an exciting journey over the past year, partnering with the incredibly successful Greg and Phil who have achieved such a phenomenal success with their agent since I met them back in 2005. I have always aspired to be my own boss and in 2013 my dream became a reality. I am proud to be working with these two bringing all my experience in successfully selling property in my home town of Andover. Clearly there was a gap in the market for offering a much higher level of customer service in estate agency than the public were used to which has played a big part in our success’ 

Phil Pinkney said ‘We have been very focused on where our business needed to be in order to offer our clients continued stability, high levels of customer service and a range of services that were consistent with the needs and demands of our extensive client base’ 

Phil Pinkney & Greg Greatbatch on the night

When asked what plans the business owners had for 2014 they commented:

‘We have a variety of plans for 2014. All will further enhance the service level and diversity that has been implemented in 2013. We plan to build on the team success of last year but you will see some new faces as both Karen and Emma go on maternity leave’ says Phil Pinkney

‘Commercial property sales and lettings were introduced in the late part of 2013 which has seen an enormous amount of interest with a number of successful contracts exchanged with large blue chip companies. We are expecting to see more and more commercial advertising boards go up around Andover in the coming months’ said Greg Greatbatch

‘We simply need more property to satisfy the intense demand we are seeing for residential property and the surprisingly high level of buy to let demand. There has been an unprecedented level of new investors coming in to our offices this year and we are delighted to be helping these new landlords start to build their buy to let portfolios’  says Daniel Tarrant

Belvoir Andover continues to go from strength to strength and is recognised as the leading property specialist in Andover. If you have a property to sell or let, join the success story by choosing Belvoir for all your property needs. Call us on 01264 366611 or email: andover@belvoirandover.com

Belvoir has been an owner operated business since 1997 and is part of a national network of other like minded agents.

www.belvoirandover.com

Job Vacancies (Andover) - Negotiator, Senior Negotiator & Maintenance Co-Ordinator

BELVOIR Andover has been a high performing Lettings Specialist since 1997. Andover is a bustling market town and a property hot spot for Buy-to-Let investors. BELVOIR is part of a national network of over 160 independently owned offices, of which Andover proudly sits at number 5, with only cities such as Sheffield, Lincoln & Peterborough etc ranked above us.

We are focused on not only providing award winning customer service for our clients, but also to our staff. We are constantly investing in the business and we have seen significant growth (particularly over the last 12-18 months). We like to keep our business at the forefront of modern technology, presentation and lead the town for innovation.

With a significant market share and an increasing portfolio, we have the requirement for a Lettings Negotiator, Senior Lettings Negotiator & a Lettings Maintenance Co-ordinator. Each of the roles are crucial to the continued success and customer satisfaction that has been the foundation of our business. We are looking for people who are keen to develop their career and join our enthusiastic team of property professionals.

We are offering attractive packages to suit the successful individuals including; competitive salary, bonuses, possible car, pension & private healthcare.

Would you be open to a confidential discussion?

 If any of the above is of interest, please forward a CV to greg.greatbatch@belvoirandover.com or contact us on 01264 366611 to arrange an informal chat.

We understand that it could be a scary prospect moving jobs but we are confident that you would be joining a dynamic and forward thinking agent that values their staff and are always looking to develop their careers.

Costly waiting game as nine out of 10 buyers not willing to compromise on first choice location

Despite rising prices and highest ever consumer confidence - 79% expect prices to be higher in 12 months - only one in 10 prospective buyers are willing to compromise on their chosen location

Finding their dream home is a challenge – while a third (32%) say they have found a home in their ideal location, 58% are still looking or waiting

Downsizers are the least willing to settle for second best (92%) and while first-time buyers are more willing to compromise, 85% still wouldn’t look elsewhere

As national asking prices hit the biggest annual rise in over six years, looking a little further afield could give buyers a better chance of finding their dream home at a more affordable price

Despite more people than ever expecting rises in asking prices over the next 12 months, the vast majority of potential buyers (90%) say they are not willing to compromise on their chosen location.

Rightmove’s Quarter 1 2014 Consumer Confidence Survey of over 45,000 respondents found that nearly eight out of 10 (79%) expect house prices to be higher in one year’s time. However, against this backdrop of rising prices, only one in 10 is willing to look beyond their first choice location for a suitable home.

Miles Shipside, Rightmove director and housing market analyst comments:
“There’s a real mismatch between buyers’ no-compromise stance on their most favoured place to live and the rising tide of prices.  Playing a waiting game and holding out for the right property in the right location could prove risky as, with prices in some locations rising by the month, buyers may discover that the one they’ve been waiting for is over their budget.”

With buyer demand exceeding available property supply in some areas, and the market momentum gathering pace in most locations, buyers are faced with limited choice.  Achieving the goal of the right property in the right location, and at an affordable price, is a considerable challenge.  Some success is being achieved, but currently for only around one third of buyers. While 32% say they have found a home in their ideal location, 58% are still looking or waiting.

Shipside adds:
“It’s still early in the year, so there is some encouragement that one third say they have found their first or next home where they wanted it to be. There needs to be more property coming to market however, to make sure that the needs of those still looking are met. People who want to sell and buy again are sometimes nervous of putting their house on the market if they cannot see much for them to buy.

“However, once you have a buyer lined up for yours, you are in a much better position to pounce and close the deal on the property you want.  If it takes time for you to find your next dream home, your buyer will often wait. There is no legal obligation to move out, so just keep the buyer warm and it will put you in a much better negotiating position when you find somewhere, as you can then offer your sellers a quick move.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, downsizers are the least willing to settle for second best (92%). While first-time buyers are more willing to compromise, 85% still wouldn’t look elsewhere. These are still startlingly high percentages, given the challenges of raising finance and rising prices.

Shipside observes:
“The by-product of the credit-crunch years is that fewer are willing to compromise on location, and are staying put until a property in their chosen area comes along.  Yet if people were willing to widen their location criteria even within a few miles, they might find they can find the type of property they want, but at a more affordable price.  Furthermore, the down-sizers who are least willing to compromise might run the risk of leaving moving too late and have less energy to fully embrace the freedoms of moving into a smaller home and a new community.”

* Source: Rightmove Blog

CHARITY AWARD FOR ANDOVER LETTINGS OFFICE

A property lettings agency in Andover has run away with a national award in recognition of its charity fund raising efforts for Macmillan Cancer Support.

Greg Greatbatch, who owns the Belvoir office (along with brother-in-law Phil Pinkney) on Winchester Street in Andover was declared a Charity Champion at the Belvoir annual ‘High Achievers’ award ceremony, staged at the Belton Woods Hotel, near Grantham, Lincolnshire.

The Belvoir Bronze Award recognises the contribution made by Greg and his colleague Emma Bevan who both completed a gruelling sponsored race in support of Belvoir’s company-wide campaign to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support.

Greg explains: “We ran the 2012 BUPA London 10.6k in May last year, which was on the same course the Olympic athletes used.  Over ten thousand people took part in the race with a number of famous runners including Mo Farrah.

“Emma started training to get fit for her wedding, which was in early June and I was recovering from physio on my knees following an old cycling injury.

“The day of the race was absolutely beautiful, but it was also the hottest day of the year and running in a temperature of 26 degrees meant the heat was more of a challenge for us than the actual course. We had to keep swerving across the road to try and find some shade as relief from the heat.

“Our donations were from a variety of people, including our landlords.  We raised £687.20 for Macmillan, which was a great result but unfortunately, we couldn’t beat Mo Farah who won in record time!”

At the company’s annual awards evening, co-presented by comedienne Ruby Wax, Belvoir’s Chairman, Mike Goddard, said: ”Greg and his partner Phil Pinkney run their business with a real commitment and passion for community involvement and this is a tremendous achievement. The money raised through Greg and Emma’s gruelling run has given a considerable boost to Belvoir’s commitment to Macmillan.

“In February 2011, we aligned ourselves with Macmillan to raise £10,000, and in that first year I was pleased to announce we had smashed our target and raised £16,000. This year I am delighted that we increased our total raised to £25,013.67.   What a fantastic achievement!”

On receiving the award Greg said: ”We are absolutely delighted with this recognition.   We knew we had been shortlisted for an award and we were thrilled and excited just to be nominated as finalists.

“We owe a lot to the many people who sponsored us to help us smash the £500 target we had set ourselves!”

Tanya Taylor, a fundraising manager for Macmillan, said: “Greg and his team have made a major contribution to the overall sum raised by Belvoir over the past year.

“Thank you so much – this money will make a real difference. One in three people will get a cancer diagnosis at some point in their lives and there are currently two million people living with cancer in the UK.

“We currently support half of these people and every penny that you help to raise is greatly appreciated by everyone at the charity.”  

For more information about this and other awards, please visit our website www.belvoirandover.com/award.html

Belvoir Andover Wins at the 2013 National Belvoir Awards

This will be the second time Belvoir Andover has won an award at these annual ceremonies. Back in 2007 we picked up ‘Most Improved Office’ after doubling the size of the 8 year old business in just 12 months (see story at the foot of this page).

The award this time was in recognition of the outstanding contribution made to the charity efforts of Belvoir as a group who have now raised in excess of £25,000 for Macmillan Cancer Support. The award was given by celebrity comedian Ruby Wax and followed a brief speech by Macmillan representative Tanya Taylor who gave an emotional thank you to the whole of Belvoir for reaching this astonishing total amount raised.

Business co owner Greg Greatbatch and Lettings Negotiator Emma Bevan had trained and run the 2012 Bupa 10000 which was the exact same marathon course used in the 2012 Olympics (except they had to run the course 4 times!). For photos on this event, please visit our Facebook page and navigate to the photos album.

The award ceremony was held this year at the prestigious De Vere Hotel, Belton Woods for a glittering black tie dinner with high profile celebrity guest speaker Ruby Wax. Greg Greatbatch (Director) says ‘We are truly delighted to be recognised in this way. We feel this charity is such a worthy cause which touches the lives of so many. It was our pleasure raising the money and hope to continue these efforts in 2013.

7 investment traps that could harm your wealth

Avoiding these common pitfalls could be a key to long-term investment success.

1. Too many eggs in one basket

When putting together your investment portfolio it's important to ensure you don't end up with concentrated exposure to a particular type of risk. One obvious area is industry sectors: consider the banking crisis in 2008, and the technology crash in 2000. Any investor whose portfolio was over exposed to these areas would have seen a dramatic fall.

Investors who took a more diversified approach would have seen a far smaller impact on their portfolio. Having a well-diversified portfolio is a key way to reduce risk.

2. Over-diversifying

Just as damaging as putting all your eggs in one basket is over-diversifying a portfolio – sometimes dubbed 'di-worse-ification'. This can happen quite easily when building up an investment portfolio over a number of years. You can end up with dozens of quite similar investments, collectively delivering average returns.

A more effective approach may be to focus on a handful of favorite fund managers investing in different areas of the market. Our Wealth 150 list, which contains our favorite funds in the major sectors, could help you with this choice.

3. Paying too much in charges

Aside from investment performance, a crucial factor affecting your total returns is the charges you pay.

Consider two funds, each delivering a return of 6% a year, but one with an annual charge of 1.5%, and the other with an annual charge of 1%. If you invested £10,000 in each:

• The fund with the lower annual charge would be worth £26,533 after 20 years
• The fund with the 1.5% annual charge would be worth £24,114 – or £2,419 less.

Keeping costs to an absolute minimum could mean thousands of pounds more added to the value of your investments over the long term. We can help you keep costs to a minimum by tailoring our services to your exact needs.

4. Not taking enough risk

Like many investors, you may be understandably nervous about taking risks with your hard earned capital. However, not taking enough risk can be just as damaging as taking too much risk.

One of the main dangers from not taking enough risk is that the spending power of your capital could fail to keep pace with inflation. While money saved in the bank might seem 'safe', in real terms its value is gradually falling every year because of inflation. Inflation of just 3% per year will nearly halve the spending power of capital over 20 years.

We believe taking more risk, in order to try and achieve an inflation-beating return, is therefore vital for any saver or investor taking a long-term view. However it is still important to have an emergency cash fund of say 3 to 6 months salary.

5. Poor administration

If you have investments dotted around between providers and you ever need to make any changes, you will often need to fill out a myriad of forms, which makes it a far more laborious process, and may prevent you from acting.

Good administration is key to managing your investments effectively. A good administration system means you can make changes quickly, conveniently and cost effectively. If it's easy to make changes you are also more likely to act, improving portfolio performance.

Good administration also helps you to gain a good overview of your portfolio. How much do you have in each area? Is it time to take profits? Making these decisions is far easier when you can view all your investments together, at a glance.

Here at Belvoir Andover, we can take the burden of the administration of your property portfolio away. Our accounts package is approved by the Institute of Chartered Accountants and we can readily provide you with annual accounts which can be, if requested, emailed direct to your accountant. We are also more than happy to have a one to one financial review of your portfolio, giving you market trends, rent reviews, yield report (see if you are achieving what you set out to achieve) and much more, contact our team to discuss this 01264 366611

6. Paying too much tax
Quite simply, the less tax you pay on your investments, the higher your returns will be. Fortunately the government offers a number of tax breaks to encourage investment. Two of the most popular are ISAs and pensions.

ISAs - if you hold your funds or shares within an ISA there is no tax to pay on any capital gains, and no further tax to pay on any income. Each tax year you have an ISA allowance, this tax year the allowance is £11,280, and used every year the ISA allowance allows you to build a significant portfolio of tax sheltered assets. What's more on the majority of funds the ISA comes with no extra charge, so many investors receive these benefits free. The icing on the cake is that with ISAs you can withdraw your capital at any time, so they are suitable for investors who want maximum flexibility.

Pensions offer similar tax benefits to ISAs, with a few important extras. Firstly when you add money to a pension you receive income tax relief, at a rate that depends on how much income tax you pay. So, for example, if you are a higher rate tax payer you could receive up to 40% tax relief on any contributions you make. It's also worth remembering that with pensions you can't access your capital until you retire. When you do, up to 25% can be taken as a tax free lump sum, with the remainder used to provide you with a taxable income in retirement.

Please note the value of tax shelters will depend on your own circumstances, and tax rules can change over time. The value of stock market investments can fall in value as well as rise, so you could get back less than you invest.

7. Focusing on the short-term

Legendary investor Warren Buffett famously once said "You can't buy what's popular and do well". There is a lesson here for all investors. Many are tempted to over-expose themselves to the latest 'hot' investment trend. Often these will be companies or sectors that just seem to rise relentlessly, giving the impression that you "can't lose". In the past sectors such as technology stocks have experienced such a rise, followed by a sharp fall in value, affecting the portfolios of thousands of investors.

Before you choose an investment, ask yourself: what is your attitude to risk? Would you be happy to hold it for the long-term? Do you think the shares represent fair value? Are there other overlooked areas which may offer better long term opportunity? Property can typically return you a minimum of a 10% yield and therefore represents a strong and reliable (when compared to alternative investments)

If you are thinking about investing in property we would recommend that you take independent financial advice. We are more than happy to help anyone get on the property investment ladder, please call Phil Pinkney at Belvoir Andover on 01264 366611 or visit our website at www.belvoirandover.com

Avoid Property Trading Tax by Belvoir Andover

 

Avoid Property Trading Tax top

Some people regularly purchase run-down houses, do them up and sell them on. If you do this as part of your building/property development business, the profits made on the sale of the properties may be taxed as trading income (tax rates: 20%, 40% or 50%). If you let the renovated properties, then sell them at a later date, the profits made on those sales will be taxed as capital gains (tax rates: 18% or 28%). The position is less clear cut if you live in each property for a period either during or after the renovations are undertaken. The Taxman is keen to charge any profits made on the renovated property as trading income, because if the profits are categorised as a capital gain, that gain may well be exempt from tax on the basis that the property was your main residence. For the Taxman to prove the money made from the property is trading income he must show the owner's motive for purchasing and renovating the property was to make a profit, and not simply to make the property more comfortable for the owner to reside in. This is difficult to prove. If the owner is a builder by trade the Taxman may also argue that the property renovation was undertaken as part of his building business, even if he also lived in the property. The Taxman may say the profits should be taxed as a trade if the owner has a history of purchasing and renovating many properties and living in each for only a short period.     If you would like to save more tax and get advice from property related specialists, please contact Greg Greatbatch at greg.greatbatch@belvoirlettings.com or telephone 01264 351222 (opt 2).   Belvoir Andover has been operating as a lettings specialist in Andover since 1997. Belvoir Lettings is a national network of franchise offices dedicated to offering the highest possible levels of customer service to both landlords and tenants. Visit www.belvoirandover.com for more information about us.