Own Shares in Letting Supermarket

Reply to the comment left by "Badger " at "20/02/2015 - 16:31":

Yes it includes tenant find.

It also covers everything else on the list below. If you can think of anything that is not on this list then you may reasonably assume that it is not included.

• Visiting your property, taking particulars.
• Setting up a system to store your documentation securely, preferably online so that it can be accessed at any time wherever you are
• Advertising your property on the major property portals, Rightmove, Zoopla etc.
• Organising viewings at times which are convenient for prospective tenants
• Referencing tenants and guarantors
• Getting an inventory and schedule of condition prepared by an AIIC or APIP qualified inventory professional
• Using the correct Tenancy and Guarantor Agreements
• Taking meter readings on check in and check out and informing utility companies of tenancy change over
• Protecting deposits and serving prescribed information and tenancy deposit certificates within 30 days of the commencement of each new tenancy
• Arranging annual Gas Safety Certificates
• Checking rental payments are received on the due date and taking appropriate action if they are not
• Issuing the correct notices at the correct time and in the correct way as necessary
• Responding to and dealing with maintenance issues quickly
• Performing periodic inspections of your properties
• Organising Rent Guarantee insurance
• Check Out at the end of the tenancy
• Timely return of tenants deposit
• Negotiating with tenants and dealing with ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution) or Court cases if necessary

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Reply to the comment left by "Mark Alexander" at "20/02/2015 - 16:41":

An impressive list.

What if the company is ultimately sold - what safeguards would be in place to guarantee the free for life aspect of the deal?

(I have been stung rather badly on a number of occasions in recent years as a result of accepting well meaning reassurances from others so I am now cultivating an air of total scepticism / cynicism in a (probably doomed) attempt to protect myself going forward.)

Reply to the comment left by "Badger " at "20/02/2015 - 16:46":

I can assure you that this is dealt with in the prospectus, which for legal reasons I can't go into much detail about.

However, what I can tell you is that "lifetime" relates to the life of share ownership. If company is sold you would be quids in but the free for life arrangement would end at that point because you would no longer hold shares. Before you ask, no there wouldn't be an option to continue to hold shares if the majority of the shareholders were to vote to sell the company. It would have to be a majority decision though.
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Is there a firm ETA on the publishing of the prospectus?
If no firm ETA, can you say if won't be over the weekend? (have a 16 hr flight)

Thanks.

Reply to the comment left by "Amit Chada" at "20/02/2015 - 18:30":

Hi Amit

There is no ETA, it's still in compliance.

I very much doubt it will go live at a weekend though.
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Interesting to see that estatesdirect.com is pitching on crowdcube as well at the same time.

They are looking to raise £1.25M in return for 5% of the equity.

How would you say that Letting Supermarket differs from Estates Direct?

(As an aside - it is quite fascinating to take a look at the list of businesses pitching on the crowdcube platform. I imagine Vanessa over at PT would be quite interested to see the Property TV pitch for example.)

Reply to the comment left by "Badger " at "23/02/2015 - 19:47":

Yes I saw the Estates Direct pitch and fell about laughing. I can't see them funding that in a million years. Having said that, it will be very clear to investors how much better the LS pitch is when they compare the two so I suppose that's a good thing. When I last looked they had £50k of commitment which is a lot of money but not even 5% of their target after more than a week!
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Reply to the comment left by "Badger " at "23/02/2015 - 19:47":

Hi Badger,

Many thanks for your enquiry. I agree it is interesting that estates direct are also searching for funding, which I personally will be surprised if they achieve as there is quite a high risk to the way in which there model works and they are spending nearly the entire investment of £1.25 million in the first year and leaving only £115,000 cash at bank having spent £600,000 last year and lost £500,000. I think it is interesting because it shows how the online sector is growing and consumer trends are moving towards this sector where the same service can be offered at a significantly reduced price and maintaining a similar profit margin to a high street agent but with the added bonus of covering a significantly larger area.

I think estates direct figures are optimistic where as we have forecast a much more realistic set of figures, as an example the 1.25 mil investment for 5% values the company at £25 million having made a loss of £500,000 last year. We wouldn’t want to be in a situation where we had promised the earth to the members of property118 for them to be disappointed with their investment so we have every intention of exceeding our forecasts.

Estates direct is a franchise based model, whereby they expect to take on 29 agents and train them in the coming 12 months. We already have over 100 people working with us throughout the country, our services are cheaper and our profit margin is higher.

They are also offering 5% equity to our 20% and we are exclusively specialising in residential lettings and property management

Estatesdirect letting listing take a back seat to their estate agency figures and I believe this is to be there primary focus.

I think the one thing of note to come out of the recent increase in crowdfunding opportunities to invest in online letting and estate agencies is that the market sector is growing and from an investors point of view this can only be an advantage.

We are working very hard to get the pitch live so you can look at the opportunity in more detail.

Many thanks

Chris

Our pitch is now live and we have raised £95,570 in the last 24 hours, many thanks to all our investors so far. To visit the the crowd funding platform please follow the link:

https://www.crowdcube.com/investment/lettingsupermarket-com-17579