Whether through poor planning or unfortunate dealings with rogue traders, it’s estimated that people in the UK waste over £4 billion on failed property projects every year - a staggering sum that can lead many to financial ruin.
SubHub customer Kate Faulkner runs PropertyChecklists.co.uk, a site which aims to help would-be property developers and industry professionals alike.
Kate explains: “It’s a simple concept. Whether you’re planning to buy or sell a property, lay new flooring or find a plot of land to build your own grand design, we will have a checklist to help you through the key steps, link you to essential information and find the best companies to work with. If people get stuck, they just email us and we’ll help solve the problem.”
Expert Advice
Kate regularly appears on BBC Breakfast, ITV news, Radio 4 and 5Live, while also writing for Period Ideas, Moneywise and Which? Magazine. She has also been the Daily Telegraph’s buy-to-let expert, and the idea behind launching the site was to enable people to get individual advice from Kate and her team. This is all provided free of charge, with the aim simply being to help people carry out their property project successfully.
She continues: “The main issue, as for many websites, was getting the design right. It is important to keep it simple and easy to navigate without the site looking cheap, but SubHub helped us with this from the start. Next was how to maximise traffic to the site. We realised using social networks, collecting email addresses to send out newsletters, and constantly appearing in the media was a powerful combination to drive this traffic.
“If people sign up to our website they do so for help with their property project. We regularly ask them what information they need, encourage feedback and interaction and our twice weekly mailings focus on residential property. Members have signed up for property content and we always give them unique, independent, up-to-date information to help their project. We don’t send them anything else we are asked to promote, we don’t advertise things which aren’t relevant and we don’t sell their data.”
Watch this space
Kate gives over 50 presentations a year, so regularly interacts with industry people and members of the public. After each seminar she offers 10-20 ‘top tips’ or ‘steps,’ which are always well received, and it was this positive feedback that inspired the idea for the website. In order to reach more people it was decided to replicate these checklists online, supported by the top property companies in their area of expertise.
The plan for 2014, though, is the world of video and online seminars.
Kate signs off with effusive praise of ourselves (we promise we haven’t paid for this,) saying: “Quite simply, we couldn’t exist without SubHub as the start-up costs and the need to run an in-house IT department would prohibit us from being able to build the business from scratch. The content management system is so simple to use. Whether it’s selling books through the ‘shop’ or using the forum, it can all be done by pressing a few buttons and is very intuitive.
“The support and help we have from the team is second to none – they’re always there for you. It’s a great way to get your business up-and-running quickly, and cost effectively.”
If you’re looking for inspiration or tips for you own site, take a moment to have a browse of Property Checklist and they might even save you a small fortune on your property.
www.propertychecklists.co.uk/
