Feedback required on Landlordzone.co.uk

Mark,

Agreed – looks v professional. They were offering some Crest Nicholson property for investment at market price. They are an authority, so for me they should be trying harder for their readers and negotiate big (real) discounts. I asked them for some information regarding advertising, but haven’t had a reply – that was 2 weeks ago, so not sure they have adequate support in place to answer enquiries.

Mick

Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated. I could see it was a highly commercialised site in terms of advertising but I hadn’t appreciated that they were sourcing properties. If we ever do that here, please point me back to this post as I think it’s commercial suicide for sites of this nature. Look at the way Singing Pig, Property Secrets and others went.

Mark
A useful site as far as it goes especially some of the links. As with all sites like this it is a matter of trying to filter past all the dross to get to the meaty stuff.
Your comment on Singing Pig was a little unfair, again a lot of very usefull information spoiled by one or two taking the wee. Generally any one who says they are an expert isn’t. and everyone is responcible for their losess if they think there is a magic wand out there.
Any advert that points to a good quality site is worth while as thats how I found this one and I would never use Money Centre for mortgages again but that is my choice from my personal experience.

Hi Chris.

Perhaps I was a bit hard on Singing Pig. I’m sure there were some very good posts on there but I always felt it was very much shark infested waters. For my liking there were far too many self styled experts/guru’s peddling expensive training courses and packaged investment deals that a seasoned pro would not touch with a barge pole.

Regards

Mark

Hi Chris

Coming back to your point on TMC, sadly you wouldn’t be able to do a deal with them even if you wanted to. They pulled out of the broker market in November 2009. It was well reported at the time. Links to recent press on the sorry affair that caused 300 people to lose their jobs and millions to be written off TMC’s balance sheet are below.

Thames Valley Police Report
http://www.thamesvalley.police.uk/newsevents/newsevents-pressreleases/newsevents-pressreleases-item.htm?id=160461

The Bucks Herald – 10th Jan 2011
http://www.bucksherald.co.uk/news/local/three_years_for_fraudster_who_caused_mass_redundancies_1_2219444

Introducer Today – 10th Jan 2011
http://www.introducertoday.co.uk/News/Story/?storyid=3807&title=Mortgage_fraudsters_'should_have_been_given_longer_sentences'&type=news_features

Mortgage Strategy – 10th Jan 2011
http://www.mortgagestrategy.co.uk/latest-news/money-centre-franchisees-jailed-for-%C2%A328m-b2l-fraud/1023927.article

Estate Agent Today – 22nd December 2010
http://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/news_features/Mortgage-fraudsters-should-have-gone-to-prison-for-longer-says-boss

EDP24 – 17th December 2011 –
http://www.edp24.co.uk/business/fraudsters_got_off_lightly_business_chief_1_755549

I’m a long-time user of LandlordZONE and one of its major contributors.

The website is a very useful source of information as well as a lively forum for members’ exchanges of views and comments. There are many different sub-fora, specific to discrete areas of law and practice. Anyone [landlords, tenants, letting agents, surveyors, conveyancers,or just involved/interested], whether legally-trained or not, can join (free) and ask or- if able- answer on the thread topics.

Contact me direct (e-mail or on 0114-268 7638) for more about it.

Hi Jeffrey, Excellent feedback, thank you. How do they compare to the likes of Property Tribes which, I appreciate, is not a direct competitor as they are a very puristic, none commercialised, property discussion forum?

If you have been in the property business any length of time, surely you must have heard of LandlordZONE – we have been in operation since 1999.
We service the landlord market – information and suppliers for landlords.
We do NOT source properties and we are not involved in any way with that type of activity.
We are quite selective in they type of ads we take.
If you want feed-back on advertising I suggest you ask some of our long-term advertisers, some of whom have been with us for 10 years – I think that speaks for itself.
Tom, Editor – LandlordZONE

Hi Tom

Thank you for your feedback. Of course I have heard of LandlordZONE and you appear to be doing very well. However, I’ve not personally used the site to any great extent hence my request for feedback. I’ve always been an advocate of heathy competition. It is not my style or intention to approach your advertisers directly or to poach business away from you. However, if any of them are already subscribed to Property118.com I welcome their feedback, as I do yours.

Wishing you continued success.

Regards

Mark Alexander

Thanks for the kind words.
Regards,
Tom