Business – Competence And How To Recognise It
Most people would agree that Liz Truss was the worst Prime Minister that the UK has ever had and thank God that she has gone. The question that remains, however, is how someone so unsuitable could have been selected for such an important job? The Negotiator magazine is not the right forum to investigate this…
Read MoreHow To Make A Profit In A Downturn
In last month’s article, I said that good agents can make money during a downturn in the housing market. In view of the economic damage caused by Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-Budget, it seems appropriate this month to cover this topic in much greater detail. Let’s take as an example an estate agency which generates income…
Read MoreAre Your Post-Covid Working Practices Correct?
A lot of working practices have changed forever as a result of Covid but more than three years after the pandemic started, the time has come when we must question whether all of these changes have been sensible. Let’s start with the issue of working from home. The arguments for and against this policy have…
Read MoreBeware False Prophets When Selling Your Business
Back in the 1980s, I used to write a regular property column for The Sunday Times. The article that attracted the most attention by far was entitled, “Beware False Prophets.” It was a warning to the public about how to avoid being caught out by estate agents who overvalue their property in order to gain…
Read MoreThe Alternatives to Selling Your Business
The consolidation of the letting industry continues at a frenetic pace and hardly a week goes by now without a story of yet another independent agent being snapped up by a larger competitor. However, we are approached on a regular basis by people who want to retire but do not want to sell their business…
Read MoreThe True Cost of Anti-money Laundering (AML) Rules
Everyone agrees that money laundering needs to be stamped out and the recent sanctions against Russia have drawn further attention to the problem. However, the current rules are cumbersome and inconvenient for customers to comply with. They are also expensive for companies to implement, and I am becoming increasingly doubtful about how effective they are…
Read MoreHow Clear Leadership Brings Results In Business
The recent results achieved by Connells/Countrywide are nothing short of astonishing. They were of course helped by the impact of Covid and the stamp duty holiday but even after allowing for this, the improvement in the underlying results of the Countrywide business are way beyond anyone’s expectations. So, how did they achieve this? Let me…
Read MoreWhat Next For The Housing Market?
A week is a long time in politics and a month is a very long time for a columnist. I can hardly believe that only last month I wrote a piece about how positive the outlook was for the housing market following Covid. Since then, dark clouds have returned with a vengeance. The war in…
Read MoreCause and Effect of VAT Rules
Over the last few days, several events have caused me to think about the madness of our VAT regulations. The problems started when the builder who has done all the work in my private home for the last twenty-five years told me that he could not carry out the latest repairs for me because he…
Read MoreWhat Will Be The Long-term Impact Of COVID On The Housing Market?
Now that the Negotiator magazine is back in print again, I must write my monthly article a couple of weeks before it is published. This makes me a little nervous about covering fast-moving topics but this month I am going to make an exception because this article is too important to delay. After two years…
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