The Landlord and the London Letting Agent

Happy Hippy

A small Landlord in a Rural Village goes out every day to tidy up the hall and entrance of the HMO that he rents rooms out from. The landlord tidies, repairs & cleans for three or four hours, before returning home. Every day he does this, without fail.

One week, a London Estate and Lettings Agent is having a holiday in this same village. Every day he sees this small Landlord go out, tidy, repair & clean, come back, go out, tidy, repair & clean, and come back. So after a few days, the London Estate and Lettings Agent approaches the small Landlord and he asks the small Landlord if he maintains his property like that all the time.

“I do,” says the small Landlord, who is about thirty years old.

“How long have you been renting?” asks the London Estate and Lettings Agent.

“All my life,” says the Small Landlord. “Since I was a boy.”

“And you rent like this every day?” He looks at the small HMO.

“Yes,” says the Small Landlord. “I have nice tenants, they tell me about their jobs, they pay their rent on time ……. then I go home for the afternoon”

“But you only go spend a short while in this house!, Why don’t you go out into town when you have finished – leaflet drop? You could source more properties, do them up, rent them out”

The young Small Landlord thinks a minute and looks down at his feet. He looks back up at the London Estate and Lettings Agent. “Well, I like to spend time with my family play with my children, go to the pub and play cards with my friends, watch the big game on TV. Some afternoons I go fishing, or I go for a stroll with my pretty wife”

The London Estate and Lettings Agent nods, he steps closer to the Small Landlord. “Look,” he says, “if you redecorate, and put a new kitchen and bathroom in, you can remortgage and draw your equity out – you’ll make double the amount of money you make now. You can afford to pay someone to do the leafleting for you. Plus you can use the equity that you’ve drawn out for the deposit on another house”

“Why would I want to do that?” asks the Small Landlord.

“Because once you’ve got 3 or four houses then you can hire a few people to do the cleaning and decorating for you, which will give you the time to follow up more leafleting leads, buy more houses, and get more mortgages”

“Why would I want to do that?” asks the Small Landlord again.

“Because then you’ll quadruple your earnings and pretty soon you can have your own Portfolio.”

“And why would I want to do that?”

“Well, once you have your own portfolio you’ll have enough houses to cut out the middle men and rent a High Street Office, and set up a lettings agency to rent out your own houses as well as some for other people You do well enough and then I can help you – we do a joint venture, and then we franchise out the business model, and we go National. Then we a float on AIM and take the whole operation public. We will cash in. We will be rich.”

“And then what?”

“Then,” says the London Estate and Lettings Agent, “you can spend time with your family, and play with your grandchildren, go to the pub and play cards with your friends, watch the big game on TV have someone push you and your wife’s wheelchairs round some pretty walks ….…”