Alex Goldstein News

Alex Goldstein On Homes Under the Hammer. Filmed in 2011.

BBC 1 – Homes Under the Hammer Highlights

Full transcript below:

Lucy: Hello and welcome to the programme.

Martin: Even in the currently challenging property market we still both enjoy buying property.

Lucy: Yeah, we like the idea of getting a good deal, but in today’s competitive market, well it’s not always that easy.

Martin: One way you could get a bargain is to buy under the hammer.

The city of Ripon in North Yorkshire has an abundance of old and historic properties. Some of them are in good condition and others if not quite ruins, have definitely seen better days. That was the case for this 17th century grade two listed former flat and shop not far from the city centre. Built before the invent of the motor car it was on a busy road and had windows, floors and doors from another age. With its rather higilty pigilty layout turning it round would be a uphill struggle for most people but for married couple Giles and Claire tackling a mountain of work was nothing new.

Giles: Yeah, we’ve got a property in the French Alps, we run a catered chalet.

Martin: Oh great.

Having paid £68.5 thousand to get a foothold in the UK market and armed with an £11,000 budget former top slalom skier Giles and his wife Claire set about turning the shop and flat into one large home. 14 months later we’re back to see the results.

Well the outside’s a big improvement with snowy white walls and a new black front door, while inside, well on the face of it, it’s not quite so impressive but as with any assault on a mountain the key to success is preparation but will all their efforts be worth it? What do two local property experts think of the progress so far?

Alex Goldstein: I really like the open plan aspect that immediately hit you. I think the breakfast kitchen will be fantastic and again the open plan into what will be the family area and then going up onto the next two floors, excellent accommodation and very much look forward to seeing it once it’s completed.

Martin: Encouraging comments but will the lack of parking and garden limit its rental potential?

Alex Goldstein: I think you’re looking between £600 and £650 per calendar month.

Giles: Well that’s very good yeah, pleased with that.

Claire: Yeah that’s pretty good.

Martin: Yeah pleased with even a rental of £600 a month on a £100,000 investment would mean a yield of over 7%, that’s not bad. How would it fair if re-sold?

Alex Goldstein: I think once renovated you’re looking between £175 and £190,000.

Giles: That’s good as well, yeah brilliant.

Martin: No wonder they’re pleased, that could be a pre-tax profit of between £70 and £90,000.

I focus entirely on your needs and your requirements. I’m here for you at the end of the day to give you the extra support and confidence through what is one of life’s most stressful situations sometimes. At the end of the day, I’m here to take the burden off your shoulders.

The property market can be so fast-paced at times it can actually send your head in a spin. Giving you a professional service is obviously a given, but actually, so is giving you the time and support through potentially one of life’s most stressful situations. I aim to uphold the highest of standards and the greatest reward, for me, is actually seeing you happily in your new home, and hopefully recommending me to your friends and family.

I’m not interested in paying lip service, just having great open communication with my clients. My reputation is absolutely everything, so I’m a firm believer in that talk is cheap. If I say that I’ll call you on a Thursday at one o’clock, I will. If I feel that your time, money, and energy are better spent on another opportunity, I will tell you.

I’m not tied to any estate agents, surveyors, or solicitors. And therefore, you can rest assured that any advice and guidance I give is not biased in any way. So many companies I come across put forward people’s names and suggestions, but actually behind the scenes, they’re getting a monetary reward for it. At Alex Goldstein and Associates Property Consultants, we don’t do any of that, it’s only ever looking in your best interest.

It might sound a bit cliche, however, it’s actually true. If I can do this, then you are more likely to recommend me, and I have given you true value to your property needs.

I’d like to tell you a bit more about how I can help you sell your property. The number of clients I actually see who have got their heads in a spin, they’ve taken advice from three or four agents, they’ve looked online, they’ve got the media talking to them, and friends and family of course are going to be an influence. And the other side of the coin is I see clients who have been on the market for six months, a year. I had one the other week, three years in the market. And they just didn’t know where they’d gone wrong. This is where I can help.

So I go in and advise clients on how to maximize the value of their property. And this can be through getting planning permission, outline all be it, advising on cosmetics, lighting and presenting the property to its absolute best. Thereafter I give thoughts on marketing strategy, photographs, and also which is the most appropriate agent, because after all, how do you choose the agents? With my experience, you get to know the agents. And I know most of them on sort of personal terms. You know what some agents are very good at, and what others are by comparison. So after we have run through the most appropriate course of action, we invite said agent out to give his thoughts, combined with my own to get the very best ideas out for you, so we start heading in the right direction. The agent comes on board and once a week I ring the agent for 30 seconds, no more, and I just say, “What’s going on with this property?” I know what he means, we speak the same language, and half an hour spent with you I can run through exactly what is going on with your sale, what it actually means, and if with my experience I can see a problem, we can tackle it head on. So if we need to fine-tune the website or cosmetically tweak the price, we can agree between ourselves and go and tell the agent just to get on with it. So all of a sudden, you are speaking weekly with your agent, you’re being proactive with your sale, and you will find the very best answer. The key to the service, the appointed estate agent pays my fee, not you, the house seller, and it’s exactly the same commission rate, exactly the same terms of business that you would normally have with that agent, it just happens that he gives me a cut of the commission. So the end of the day I add value to your sale without the cost.

Alex Goldstein – Property Buying Service

I’d like to tell you more about my buying service. I often get telephone calls from individuals saying, “We’re fed up with the estate agents. They’re not taking us seriously. We’re in a good position. We’re always the last to know about property, or we’re finding ourselves constantly getting gazumped.”

I’ve got 13 years of experience, and I really have seen it all, and my primary role is to give you the inside track on property and to get you to the very front of the queue so you are the first to know, and it puts you in pole position. So how does the whole structure work?

Initially, I meet with you, and we would run through, in detail, your criteria and requirements. I would then go away and just do an initial search. And what I always try to do, at that point, is actually take you slightly out of your comfort zone and just fully test the criteria so that we know that we are heading along the right track. And once we’ve fine-tuned that, then we arrange however many viewing days it takes, and it’s quite often I say to clients, “Look, it’s best to have five or six viewings in a day, absolutely no more, because then you just can’t quite sort of remember it all.” We evaluate all the properties that we’ve seen, and when we do find the right answer, I will help you with some great advice, negotiate on your behalf, and just make sure that the whole process runs very smoothly, indeed, to exchange.

Once you’ve completed, my service doesn’t stop there, and I offer what I call ‘post-purchase care’. And all this very simply is, most people, when you buy a property, want to do something to it and make your own mark. So what I do is, I will give you and hand over my trusted tradespeople. I get nothing for it, but if you need a great decorator, or a roofer, or a joiner, I know the right people and I will put you in touch, just to make your life more simple.

Today I’d like to tell you a bit more about myself and my background. I actually started my career as an estate agent, and I was an agent for about the last 13 or so years for some of the biggest names in the industry. I actually started with Cluttons, which is a very large sort of international residential property firm, and I started at their Oxford City market. And after a year, I was then promoted and went to the Country House team. And at that point it was a very specialist department and we were actively involved with multi-million pound sales anywhere in the country. Big focus was at that time [inaudible 00:00:45] counties, but interestingly linked in a lot with a lot of the regional offices and helped them get the higher value properties and was very successful at it and did it for a very good number of years. I then moved to Sutton Park in Harrogate, where I was involved again with country properties and [inaudible 00:01:05] with them started more on the town and urban market. I then moved to Knight Frank and, again, solely concentrated on gaining sort of town urban properties for them. Left all of that and the corporate world behind me a couple of years ago having spotted an opportunity, and I set up Alex Goldstein & Associates Property Consultants because every time I went to see an individual that was looking to sell their property they would say, “Alex, look, really like you, we’ve seen three other agents, but what is the difference? What are we actually buying into?” And often found that a lot of agents, you…under pressure to get just properties on your books, and you’re not necessarily give clients the best interest. So I now on the other side of the fence and aim to hold people’s hands through what a very stressful life experience. So if you feel I can help, do feel free to give me a call and we can catch up.

Alex: Alex Goldstein, pleased to meet you.

Trevor: Nice to meet you.

Alex: Trevor, who wants to sell up, is showing off his wing of the castle.

Trevor: Let me just show you. On this side, opposite the lake, we’ve got the two floors.

Alex: Another storm is brewing.

Trevor: This road, they created, you see. I mean, this road wasn’t there.

Estate Agent 1: Right.

Trevor: And there was a lovely hedge along here which was 30 feet high, which got cut down by mistake.

Estate Agent 1: By mistake?

Trevor: Yes, a mulberry hedge, lovely, 30-foot high, all the way along here. Come and say hello to Tom. It won’t do any harm.

Alex: The two gentlemen are estate agents from London. Trevor wants to sell up and move as soon as possible, but there is an unresolved issue. The garden that went with the south wing is now part of Tom’s World Garden.

Trevor: I think we do have to get our heads together, you know.

Tom: Okay.

Trevor: I mean, what these gentlemen are doing, which is selling the south wing for me, is going to fall flat on its face if we still, you know, haven’t sorted out all these things that need sorting.

Tom: Yeah, yeah. Hi, great to meet you. Brilliant. I mean, I’m surprised. Yeah.

Alex: In London, Trevor’s top firm of estate agents are discussing the garden problem.

Estate Agent 2: Now, the bit that we do need to think through very carefully is this worry in aspect, in relation to the garden. Do you agree?

Estate Agent 1: Oh, absolutely. You cannot go to market with a problem along those sort of lines.

Estate Agent 2: We must get this agreed with the Hart-Dykes. Marketing that wing without a garden, I mean, I think it would be virtually unsaleable.

Alex: But, with an alternative garden, what can Trevor expect to get for the south wing?

Estate Agent 2: So five bedrooms, two bathrooms, three good reception rooms, what are our thoughts on the guide prices of the whole thing to start with?

Estate Agent 1: Really, it’s in excess of a million.

Estate Agent 2: Offers in excess of a million.

Estate Agent 1: I think it’s definitely got to be that exact figure.

Estate Agent 2: A realistic guide price, and then let the market tell us exactly, really, what it’s worth.

Alex: Trevor’s estate agents have been busy marketing his wing of Lullingstone Castle, which is up for sale. This morning, Trevor’s firm of top estate agents is showing him the fruits of an intensive marketing campaign to find a buyer for the south wing.

Estate Agent 2: You’ll see that we’ve got an advertisement in there at the bottom.

Trevor: Oh, yeah. Oh, there we are. Lovely.

Estate Agent 1: It’s almost a double-impact, really.

Trevor: It catches the eye. Yeah, I think you’re right.

Estate Agent 2: Now, of course, tomorrow, Trevor, we’ve got the weekend “Telegraph”, the full property supplement on Saturday.

Trevor: Right, right.

Estate Agent 2: We’ve got a “Country Life” editorial, may well be today or next week, but early days. Don’t let’s preempt and prejudge it. It think there’s one other point, Trevor, we just thought of. It was just whether it would be worth sending a brochure to the other members who live in the other wings and portions of the Castle.

Trevor: I certainly don’t really want to send one to the Hart-Dykes. They’re not going to move here.

Alex: Meanwhile, the Hart-Dykes’ neighbor in the south wing has something to celebrate. Finally, the legal loose ends are tied up, and Trevor is moving out and saying goodbye to Lullingstone after 30 years.