2015

Not a great week to be called Jeremy…

.. be it Vine (tries hard but can't get those hips to work), Kyle (mmm, who would you choose; the purveyor of cheap daytime mocking of the misery of the masses or a 25 year old international polo player 15 years your junior?), or Corbyn (how long have you got-comrade..?)  Alongside the angst of those shackled with an unfortunate first name, sat that of those embroiled in the deepening housing crisis. ...

Dear Jeremy…

Today saw the property news, (invariably sequestered somewhere between the coffee break puzzles and the adverts for walk-in baths) jockeying for position with the 'real' news in the pages of the paper with single numbers.  It even made the headlines on the BBC.  For once, it was not about the heinous breed known as estate agents, but the even more odious sub-class known as landlords. The Local Government...

She’s back

The pulchritudinous Ms Beeney graced the pages of the property news this week.  Again.  Whilst I would always be pleased to view her 'come hither' simper, it was especially welcome this week as a break from being assaulted from every quarter by the barbate/too lazy to shave (you all know my views on beards), character who is now the leader of the Opposition.  I would imagine my reaction to his...

“The truth is incontrovertible…ignorance may deride it…

...but in the end , there it is ..."  So spoke a certain Winston of the Churchill variety, (no, not the irritating puppet that was voiced by Martin Clunes until he-rather inconveniently for the insurance company that was paying him-was banned from driving).  I thought of the statesman on Saturday night as I watched the grand unveiling of the Strictly Come Prancing Celebrities and their dance partners. ...

For every action, there is a reaction….

With tomorrow's Bank Holiday comes the end of the summer.  Cue the arrival on our screens of a plethora of adverts featuring roaring log fires, rosy cheeked infants sitting at tables covered with enough food to keep them going until February whilst their parents smile beatifically at each other, (just before they serve the divorce papers/commit matricide/announce that they are going to live in a kibbutz...

Who exactly decides whether to buy or not to buy?

To paraphrase the former resident of Stratford-upon-Avon, that is the question.  With reports in the media of surges in house prices, a housing shortage, interest rate rises and the real decider on this morning's news-that One Direction are taking an indefinite hiatus-it is worth looking at who/what are the real power brokers and game-changers in the house selling industry.  Yes of course the tsunami...

“They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance”

Alas, for Major General 'Uncle John' Sedgwick, a Confederate sharp shooter could indeed have hit an elephant, but instead made do with a human being at the Battle of Spotsylvania in 1864.  I was reminded of my fellow military conquistador this week (stop laughing at the back, being able to quote entire scenes from Dad's Army is the equivalent of attending SAS training...), when a landlord uttered the...

Let the silly season commence…

August has long been regarded as the silly season in the media, where stories make the headlines that would normally struggle to find a resting place somewhere between the TV listings and the adverts for walk-in baths. It would also now appear that aside from odd-shaped vegetables and babies with luxuriant bouffants, August is now ‘Protect the Tenant’ Month/’Get landlords to do the council’s job’...

Who actually is the protection protecting?

Those who know me will be aware of my intense dislike for self-regulatory clubs; with the exception of Slimming World where the weekly humiliation of standing up and saying, "Hello, I'm Gareth and I'm a fat b"£$ard" does have the desired effect. Which is why the founders of  all diets clubs that have been syndicated across the globe are now lying beside their pool in their penthouse in Monte Carlo, where...

One does wonder…

...why a landlord needs the services of a lettings agent.  What a landlord needs is the services of a good agent to facilitate their (the landlord's) property being rented out to the right people for the right price-for all parties.  Thank you for pointing out the blindingly obvious Chesh, I hear you mutter.  My pleasure.  Further to the earlier blog that featured 'We'll have the pennies out of a dead...

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