Naive Questions from Landlords?

Reply to the comment left by "One house Landlord" at "13/08/2014 - 10:57":

I agree with you OHLL, no need for anybody to get to upset about comments that we feel are negative towards Property 118 or us avid followers 😉 . Rather perhaps we can learn from this landlord.........? Hav'nt a clue what we can learn but its the thought that counts....... Stay cool

Gosh people can be harsh. All I hope is that it is not one of the more erudite landlords, whose opinions I value enormously. It may well be, as Mark has admitted it has made him sad and he is worried enough to reproduce some of the letter and get our thoughts. I wonder what exactly was the last straw for this landlord and I wonder which sites he will contribute to and read instead? (Whichever one, I am sure it was listed in the brilliant guide to landlord resources compiled on this site last month).

I am sure he did not mean to sound arrogant. He was evidently trying to make the site aware of some issues (otherwise he could merely have un-subscribed).

Sometimes, there can be a number of posts which are a bit too general - the "I have £20,000 for a deposit to buy a property to rent out and want to know whether there are any pitfalls" type of question, which can be too broad to produce any relevant debate. I too have noticed an increase in the number of product-led posts - but understand that money has to be made from somewhere. I also get nearly as many Property118 as Groupon emails!

At the other extreme, there has been an extremely detailed debate going on for ages about selective licensing and just about any difficult legal issue can be unearthed somewhere on the site. We can all wade in and contribute but suddenly someone will make a point that everyone has missed - it's great. I, for one, am sorry to see anyone go (except for a slightly deranged ex-tenant who stalks me on these things) and hope the landlord in question reappears to justify his decision to this seemingly enraged audience.

From this site I have learned how to do Prescribed Information...properly (thanks Industry Observer)....inventories....properly (thanks to Sian from The Metcalfe Partnership) ...and let my own properties and other peoples....properly ( thanks Mark) ....all from things that more experienced people than me have posted. Perhaps Mr Font of All Knowledge does all these things perfectly. Or does he "contract it out" because he" cannot be bothered to learn the job properly"

I have no doubt that some of the questions I have asked of the persons above seem "naive"...but as has been said by other persons posting...asking the naive question sometimes is not naivety at all...but insight and being pragmatic and innovative. How do we learn? By asking questions of those who know more than us.

Reply to the comment left by "Gilly " at "13/08/2014 - 18:58":

Hi Gilly

Fear not, to my knowledge the person who we are waiving goodbye to never posted a single comment. I too wonder why he didn't simply unsubscribe. Perhaps he couldn't work out how to do it and was too embarrassed to ask such a daft question? LOL

His comments did throw me into a bit of a wobbly for a while though, hence my decision to post this thread and seek the opinion of the wider Property118 community. I couldn't be more flattered and overjoyed at the supportive feedback heaped on myself, Neil and the sponsors and Property118 community as a whole today 😀 😀 😀

I am also very grateful for the questions that have been raised and the opportunity to address a few issues that haven't been raised before, e.g. sponsors.

Like you, Neil and I have also been concerned about the number of emails sent every day regarding new threads. Funnily enough, as of yesterday we decided to group all "Readers Questions" posted within the preceding 24 hours and send just one Newsletter to members. We will do our best to stick to that from now on.

There are a few other things that members can do if the number of emails from Property118 become overwhelming. If you log into your Member profile and click the Edit button it is possible to turn off daily article notifications. This will not stop you from getting the weekly round-up Newsletter which is sent at the weekend and you will still receive comment notifications instantly for any discussion threads you have contributed to or subscribed to.

If you want to stop receiving comment notifications from a particular discussion thread that's also easy to do. At the bottom of comment notification emails there is link to unsubscribe. This only unsubscribes you from receiving comment notifications from that particular post and doesn't turn of daily updates or the weekly Newsletters.

I hope that helps and addresses all the constructive feedback you have been very kind to provide 🙂
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Reply to the comment left by "CaZ " at "13/08/2014 - 18:48":

Thank you CaZ for your wonderful testimonials in respect of the Sponsors products and services you have utilised to save money and make you life that bit easier. I wish more people would post comments of this nature as this might help to attract more sponsors who will in turn provide more benefits to Property118 members in terms of advice on the forums, discounted/useful services and of course additional revenue to help us continue to develop Property118 😀
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Reply to the comment left by "Mark Alexander" at "13/08/2014 - 21:00":

Hi Mark,

Well I can't believe that - no postings at all? In which case he will not be missed and hasn't even contributed - so what the heck is he complaining about? I am very glad that all the usual suspects will still be here. I am glad you have had the support you deserve, but I thought I would just try to see it from his point of view. I could have understood it more had he posed a tricky question and just received banal replies, but that's evidently not the case. I hope he has taken one last look and read all this and takes the plunge and contributes - but I doubt he will somehow.

(By the way thanks for an amazing discount on my Landlord Insurance) and I had looked around.

Reply to the comment left by "Gilly " at "13/08/2014 - 21:17":

You are welcome Gilly.

I think what got him started is that he proposed a "Readers Question" asking for recommendations for a decent handyman in his area. Neil decided to email him personally instead of publishing his question and suggested a few websites which specialise in such things, e.g. Rated People.

We rarely post questions of this nature, especially when we a person has never contributed to the forum. For all we know, they could be trying to be clever and solicit for business in that area for themselves. That may not be the case but we have sadly caught a few people who have created two accounts and acted as a stooge for their own business as a back door way into getting business from Property118 members without sponsoring the website or being endorsed legitimately. We can spot these things because behind the scenes we can see IP addresses of all who post comments.

We can also ban people by IP address too and have done so on three occasions so far this year.

PS - I'm delighted to hear that our insurance contacts also saved you money.
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I was recommended a mortgage broker by 118 and he has been utterly excellent.... his service has been amazing, especially having to cope with my lack of numeric skills, and poor memory on occasions and his knowledge of the market is ace..... I could not recommend him highly enough......

Thanks Mark

I wonder if they lower themselves to speak to any of their tenants, but be so hard to deal with ordinary people, when one is so superior!!

Pompous twit!