Adam Walker
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Features
Increasing the value of your business
A great deal of my consultancy work these days involves helping business owners to increase the value of their businesses prior to a sale in a few years’ time. Letting businesses used to be valued on a multiple of turnover so my job was to identify various ways to do this. More recently however, the profitability of the letting business has become a much more important factor in determining its value. As a consequence, I now have to consider cost control and efficiency improvements as part of my brief. Salaries should not be more than 40% of turnover but many businesses are spending 50 or even 60% on staff. Cost control is a subject that is often misunderstood. It is not about saving a few pounds by buying cheaper stationery, nor is it about making swingeing cuts to the staff or advertising budgets which can reduce the turnover of a business by an amount that exceeds the saving. Most costs, such as rent, rates and utilities are fixed and most variable costs only make up a small percentage of the expenditure, so the only area in which significant savings can be made is staffing. Salaries should not be more than…
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Latest property news
Let-only agents must adapt or die after tenant fees ban
Read how leading industry figure and consultant Adam Walker believes let-only agents will be hit the hardest by the tenant fees ban.
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Features
Managing Brexit
"Brexit: the utopian ideal that was sold to us by the Vote Leave campaign has been proven to be unachievable, says Adam Walker – we now face a choice between a bad deal and no deal at all. "
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Features
Why tougher times ahead will be an opportunity for some estate agents
Many agents predict tough times ahead, says Adam Bernstein, as online platforms, waning consumer confidence, rising interest rates and a ban on letting fees create a perfect storm… but one man’s nightmare may be another’s opportunity.
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Features
The viability of your business without tenant fees
Warning! This article may make some letting agents slightly uncomfortable. A crimewave is about to happen, says Adam Walker and, in his opinion, is not based on a psychic premonition...
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Regulation & Law
The brutal truth for let-only agents after the tenant fees ban
It is becoming increasingly clear, says Adam Walker, that many letting businesses are not going to survive the tenant fee ban that is due to come into force next Spring.
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Resources
Avoiding business ‘divorce’
Divorce is a terrible thing. All marriages start with high hopes of eternal happiness and yet, says Adam Walker, decades later, half of all marriages end in divorce. Business ‘divorce’ is even worse.
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Guest Blogs
Protecting your business from the consequences of new legislation
"Imagine, says Adam Walker, that all the speed limits on our roads were abolished tomorrow and replaced with confusing new legislation under which motorists would, in future, be prosecuted for “going too fast”.
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Guest Blogs
The future for independent estate or letting agencies
"The butcher, the baker (and the candlestick maker) are now rarities in England’s villages, says Adam Walker and, sadly, it looks as if the local independent estate or letting agency is going the same way."
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Adam Walker
Reputational Damage
"Every year, over 200,000 students rent a house for the first time. For most, says Adam Walker, it is their first experience of dealing with a letting agent and all too often their experience is a bad one."
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