Channel Four recognises The Big Property List Blog

National UK broadcaster Channel 4 named The Big Property List Blog as one of their favourite Househunting Blogs this week, rating us alongside such great company as the House Historian and the Rat and Mouse property blogs.

Channel 4 said:

(The Big Property List’s) meaty blog covers big topics in an accessible way. Posts about conveyancing, planning permission and selling at auction sit amongst the more topical house price speculation and other snippets from the news.

Visit the channel 4 website here to see the original article.

Earlier this year Primelocation named The Big Property List Blog runner up in their 2010 Property Blog Awards and we are delighted to be recognised in this way by a national broadcaster.

We are especially delighted that the aims of the blog – information and accessibility are recognised as it has always been our intention to provide a great resource accessible to everyone.

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What does it mean to be an ethical property investor?

by Roberta Ward

When I was requested to write an article about ethics in property investment I was asked a few questions:

• Do ethics and property investment make easy bedfellows?
• Are there ethical dilemmas in property investment?
• What does it mean to be an ethical property investor?
To answer these questions properly would take much more than one article, so I’m going to tell you in particular how we choose to apply it to our business.

Dictionary definition of Ethical: ‘moral principles, morally correct’.

Dictionary definition of Morals: ‘a persons standards or behaviour, concerned with right and wrong’.

These are the guiding principles which drive our business. I am often asked – “What is ethical property investing?”  The three things it means to us are:

• Not getting involved with companies or individuals touting a ‘get rich quick’
methodology
• Teaching people the truth behind methods of investing- good and bad/ ‘warts and all’

• Being extremely careful who we link with – and by this I mean on any level-whether that is a text link out from our website to another company or literally the people we choose to work with and for.
In truth, it’s been a huge challenge keeping a moral compass within property
investing. There are many times when you are tempted by bribes or incentives to be part of something questionable. But, our own stance is to connect with and help people who have the same ethics as ourselves. We never directly recommend anyone we have not worked with personally. That way, if they prove to be not what they seem, then at least it’s just us and not any clients of ours who lose money. If we are not completely comfortable with them then we don’t work with them.

Our own code of ethics was developed over time because of the disgust we felt at the way property investing has been hijacked by marketing sharks who are really just chasing the quickest route to your money. The advent of huge ‘property networking’ events, which are little more than sales drives, has made the whole scenario very distasteful. It still amazes me why so many folks get sucked in by them.

As a company, we have to be very good judges of people, and we spend a lot of time examining those we do business with. The higher your profile becomes, the more people are keen to be seen working with you. This in itself presents a challenge and we have had to find ways to say ‘get lost’ politely! ( Not always easy-as those with poor reputations tend to be like a jack russell hanging on to a trouser leg!)

So back to the questions at the start of this article.

“Do ethics and property investment make easy bedfellows”- no not really, it’s complicated but it’s also very rewarding in the long term.

“Are there ethical dilemmas in property investment?” You betcha! Every day we come across new challenges, but business is about challenge after all.

“What does it mean to be an ‘ethical property investor?” It means having courage to stand up for how you believe business should be done and being prepared to weed out those who seek only to feather their own nest.

Roberta Ward is the owner of mypropertymentor.co.uk, a top 20 UK property blog, and teaches ethical property and wealth investment strategies for professionals via Joint Ventures, workshops and revolutionary collaborative events.

We are officially a Top 100 Real Estate Blog – Technorati

We were really pleased this week to discover that we’ve  made it in to Technorati’s top 100 Real Estate blogs – worldwide! As the name suggests Technorati is the Web’s leading  authority for blogs and attaining the upper ranks is no mean feat in the today’s rich blogosphere.

Thebigpropertylist.co.uk blog started out on Blogger nearly two years ago and has gone from strength to strength, attracting guest writers from all over the property blogosphere such as Ollie Cornes, professional Landlord and owner of Landlord software company Juicy Property and Sharon Crossland, tenancy expert and blogger of Leasehold Life.

Visitor numbers and contributions have continued to rise on a weekly basis and we have been really pleased by the positive and supportive emails we’ve received from readers in that time.

Our aim is to continue to bring you the latest UK property news as well as property articles on a range of useful and entertaining subjects.  We will shortly be moving the blog to the prettier design that we employ on the main website as the property portal is finally getting close to launch (horaah!).  Originally planned to be a ‘For Sale by Owner’ property sales portal thebigpropertylist.co.uk will offer an altogether different type of property search. The website has been delayed whilst we surveyed the market (especially in the wake of the Tepilo launch and while we finished other projects) and planned our next move.  So, you will just have to wait and see what the final site brings!

In celebration of making it to the top 100 Real Estate blogs and as a nod in the direction of our fellow property keyboard tappers, here’s a list of our favourite property blogs elesewhere on the web:

• Housing Dabble –  Property Marketing, Brand Building and Social Media from Ben Harris
• Agent’s Diary The weary musings of a time-served estate agent (realtor) somewhere in the UK
• Modern Estate Agent –  Brain food for the modern estate agent
• Facts Not Headlines –  Kate Faulkner, author of Which? property books and consultant to the industry tells the REAL stories in the property market
• Landlord Law Blog – Tessa Shepperson, a solicitor and specialist in residential landlord and tenant law

Happy reading…