Home Study Course

[MarkP]

I am new to the forum and have been for the past few days researching home study course. I am aware of Southcourt but I have also found Letting 4Success which looks to be very similar but less than half the price. Has anybody used this course?

Is it viable to set up a letting business from home on a part time basis, obviously the courses are sold on that basis but I am a bit sceptical.

Mark

[Paul_f]

It depends where you live as there college courses available at about 11 centres in the country. The one I teach is at college over 10 weeks is in Warwickshire and costs £280 including the NAEA/ARLA technical award exam fee and all the learning material, but you won't find it that competitive anywhere else and should expect to pay probably twice as much.

You can do the course on a distant learning basis through MOL (Manchester College) and you should contact the NAEA Education Dept on 01926 496800 for details. It costs between £200 and £300 I think but they will tell you. They can also tell you which colleges are running courses.

The Southcourt package as far as I know gives you a lot of information but the NAEA course can give you the only formal NVQ level 3 qualification and is therefore far, far more valuable.

[MarkP]

Paul

Thanks for the reply. Am I right in thinking that I do not necessarily need to be qualified if I intend to set up on my own? (Apologies if I am covering old ground) I am told by the authors of the courses that they are comprehensive and designed for a complete beginner with the added extra of providing info about how to market the business etc.
Obviously my main concern is that I may have been taken in by the sales talk and I am wondering whether it is actually feasible to set up and run a business such as this from home?

I would appreciate your thoughts

Mark

[justaboutsane]

If you are looking to join ARLA/NAEA You need to have a business premesis that customer can visit! Found this out while we were in the process of joining!

Both myself and my collegue work from home, we both have home offices and find it works well, it fits in with my child care arrangements (I dont need any!!) and I can work as and when I want to pretty much! However, once we start gaining more business we will need a bigger office we currently only manage on behalf of our boss and his business partners, but we are now looking for other landlords.

I personally would avoid the Packages on offer, there have been posts stating that they are not much good, I would however recommend you look at Paul_f and his courses as I think you will gain much more from them!
Good luck in your venture.

[MarkP]

If I need premises in order to join ARLA or NAEA and I don't intend to have premises in the near future because my aim is to operate from home, is there any point in taking a qualification?

[johnboy]

It would be a good selling point when you are druming up buisness. A first time LL might be put off from you working from home and might opt for a high street LA thinking they know more and are more professional. (We all know that might not be true)

[PdV]

I've had the Southcourt manual and can honestly say that it probably covers everything you need to get up and running.

What the manual doesn't include, however, is the determination and sheer willpower to get things moving.

Depending on your geographical location, you will be up against varying levels of competition, making your job harder or easier depending on the number and their competitiveness. When I started my agency, most agents in my area were in the 12%-15% fees area with all sorts of additional costs for things like agreement renewals etc. so, using the advice in the manual, I pitched my fees substantially lower, but the sheer number of other agents eventually wore me down, and the final nail in the coffin was when many of the more prominent agencies started advertising rates as low as 5%. Without the volume of existing business, there was no way I could compete at that level.

That's just my experience, and I'm sure that there are many Southcourt-founded agencies successfully operating up and down the country, but I have to give a wry smile every time a see a new advert in my local paper quoting word for word one of the advets in the Southcourt manual.

In short - don't underestimate the sheer amount of work it will take to get your agency off the ground and paying for itself.

Good luck though.
Paul.

[lorenzo]

I've had the Southcourt manual and can honestly say that it probably covers everything you need to get up and running.

What the manual doesn't include, however, is the determination and sheer willpower to get things moving.

Depending on your geographical location, you will be up against varying levels of competition, making your job harder or easier depending on the number and their competitiveness. When I started my agency, most agents in my area were in the 12%-15% fees area with all sorts of additional costs for things like agreement renewals etc. so, using the advice in the manual, I pitched my fees substantially lower, but the sheer number of other agents eventually wore me down, and the final nail in the coffin was when many of the more prominent agencies started advertising rates as low as 5%. Without the volume of existing business, there was no way I could compete at that level.

That's just my experience, and I'm sure that there are many Southcourt-founded agencies successfully operating up and down the country, but I have to give a wry smile every time a see a new advert in my local paper quoting word for word one of the advets in the Southcourt manual.

In short - don't underestimate the sheer amount of work it will take to get your agency off the ground and paying for itself.

Good luck though.
Paul.
Paul,

A hypothetical question: What do you think would have happened if you pitched your prices AT the same level as your competition?

As an aside, I think first order of business for a Southcourt Graduate would be to differentiate themselves from the rest of them. FWIW

That cookie-cutter website is also a dead giveaway.

[MarkP]

Paul

It sounds as if you don't recommend starting a letting agent business?
There must be some rewarding times?
I don't expect it to be an easy ride but I will listen to advice and if the general opinion is that it is not a good line of business to be in, I will seriously reconsider my plans.

Mark