TV chef Nigella Lawson has been chosen people’s ideal flatmate in a poll to celebrate the 40^th birthday of Oxfordshire letting agent, Finders Keepers. In a survey of Oxfordshire’s most famous residents, past and present Nigella won 25.1% of the vote with Albert Einstein second and Winston Churchill third. Over 1947 votes were cast and the public could choose from a shortlist of 12 famous Oxfordshire residents and ex-residents or nominate their own.  

Nigella’s victory was driven not just by her vibrant personality and ability to cook like a goddess, but also due to her popularity with women. Female voters elected her as the ideal flatmate due to her natural style, good sense of humour and fun persona.

“Nigella clearly strikes a chord with people, particularly with women. She is glamorous, witty and good company,“ said Dan Channer, Commercial Director of Finders Keepers. “A good flatmate transforms a home and it is to Nigella’s credit that she has triumphed over legendary names such as Oscar Wilde and Winston Churchill. Many famous people have lived in Oxfordshire and we have loved our 40 years here so far.”

Nigella studied Medieval and Modern Languages at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University in the 1970s. She worked as a restaurant critic and freelance journalist before her cookbooks and TV shows placed her firmly in the public’s consciousness.

Albert Einstein stayed at Christ Church College in the 1930s and voters were drawn to his brilliance, creativity and philosophical humour. One voter remarked that “He seemed to have life in perspective more than most.” He won 11.8% of the vote.

Winston Churchill was born at Blenheim Palace and his story-telling, biting observations and penchant for the odd tipple compelled people to choose him. One comment read: “Wit, repartee and champagne for breakfast – how cool would that be!” He polled 10.4% of entries.

After 1947 votes.

After hours of reading all the comments.

We have our winners.

We have the winner of the £2000 towards a holiday – drawn at random.

We have the winner of an iPad – drawn at random.

We have the 5 winners of 6 bottles of Chablis each for the best comments – chosen at our discretion.

So, drum roll:

£2000 towards a holiday

This has been won by Claire Evans from Bicester. She now has the tough task of choosing how, where and when to go on holiday. Claire has the rare distinction of being both a landlord and a tenant of ours – what great taste she has. And to complete the circle, Claire’s husband Andrew is 40 next month.

She voted for JRR Tolkien, with her comment being a lovely rhyme – a deserving winner:

“There would be a fabulous adventure in every room, hobbits in the cupboards and orcs next door, Gandalf in the bathroom and many more!!”

The iPad

The second prize in our competition is an iPad from that low profile fruit company in California. The winner is one Catherine Chester. As fate would have it she has her own birthday on Monday 21st May and so the iPad becomes a double bonus birthday treat.

She voted for Agatha Chrisie and the reason was:

“Because I’d simply die without Poirot!”

The 5 half cases of Chablis

Here are five comments which we liked. We hope you do too. Each receives 6 bottles of high quality Chablis and our thanks for entering:

NIGELLA LAWSON: Because …. my Husband would never be late home from work EVER again . Lynne Upton

ALBERT EINSTEIN: It would be absolutely fascinating to live with Albert (or bertie as we like to call him in our flat!!), As we are cooking our fry ups in the morning Bertie could explain to us all of the complicated goings on that’s happening and we could then go on a quest to make the perfect fry up brekkie! Then sitting back with our cups of tea waiting for the mail, Bertie could devise theories to explain just WHY it is that the postman is always late in the morning. Then in the evenings Bertie and I would take in a music concert….watching the likes of the Killers or Greenday because it’s a little known fact that Bertie was actually a bit of a mosher and loved rock music….I mean just check out that hair – that could only come from some serious head banging!! All in all it would just be good times with Bertie (Or Baz as we like to call him when we are gigging!!) . Christopher Bell

OSCAR WILDE: Who wouldn’t want a flatmate who was witty, intelligent, a great conversationalist, and created a great and decorative living environment. Why wouldn’t anyone want to live with someone who was not afraid to live the life he thought fit, regardless to the congenital views of others. As a flatmate he could point out your follies and make you laugh at them. As a highly successful writer he earned a good income and could afford his share of the rent; what more do you want? Chris Williams

WINSTON CHURCHILL: Oxfordshire born and bred and without Churchill’s leadership, Oxfordshire, the UK and arguably the western world may well have not enjoyed the freedoms and liberty that we cherish so much today. Clearly there are many that qualify but without Churchill\’s leadership so many of the others may not have been able to flourish and in some cases may not even be alive.  In short without Churchill this list would have been very different. David Hawkins

BORIS JOHNSON:

He speaks his mind, he’s off the wall,

He’d break the ice at parties.

He needs only space to park his bike,

Is there more about living with him to like?

He can pay the rent, he’s good for a loan,

He’d be good to fight my corner.

He needs only minutes to get ready each day,

Giving me more time to shower and go my own way

He knows many people, He likes to have fun,

He could be trusted as a tenant.

So why choose Winston, Edwina or Waugh,

For Boris would certainly never be a bore!

Mark Bedford

Will it be Winston? Oscar or Nigella? Agatha or Boris? Will it be…

…a surprise. Tomorrow we’ll find out as the Best Flatmate Competition ends at 2pm on Friday May 18th.

We’ve been blown away with the response – at the time of writing we’ve had just over 1700 entries which is far more than we’d hoped for.

A few favourites are emerging:

• Albert Einstein – admired for his creativity and humility
• Winston Churchill – seen as the raconteur to top all raconteurs
• Nigella Lawson – Good fun, a great cook
• Oscar Wilde – flamboyance and a good party around every corner
• Boris Johnson – high profile with the Mayoral elections and ex-Henley MP

Lots of further people have been nominated:

• Roger Bannister – a total legend and breaker of the 4-minute mile record at Iffley Road
• Ian Hislop – Private Eye editor and TV comedy panellist
• George Orwell – arguably Britain’s greatest 20th Century author  and now buried in Sutton Courtenay
• Thom Yorke – the lead singer of Radiohead
• Hugh Laurie – comedian, actor, jazz singer

For the full list click here

We’ll pick the winners tomorrow and stick them here on the blog at 3pm.

Watch this space.

Witney Office have been delighted to sponsor two local horsetrials recently, The Elmwood Equestrian Horsetrials in Bampton and The Ascott-under-Wychwood Horse Trials at Crown Farm. Our new banners and boards were on display, and any concerns that the bright new colours of our logo would upset the horses were unfounded!

Thanks to our corporate membership of the Oxford Preservation Trust I was invited to a private tour of the former Radcliffe Hospital development which is one of the most significant building projects the University of Oxford has undertaken for more than a century. 

This 10-acre site in central Oxford between the Woodstock Road, Walton Street and Green Templeton College, is the last remaining large plot of land available for development in the historic heart of the city.

The complete refurbishment of the Radcliffe Infirmary building, including the courtyard and the fountain, is due to be completed later this year. The building will be occupied by the Humanities Divisional Office, the Faculty of Philosophy and the Philosophy and Theology Libraries. It was fascinating to re-visit this huge building which I last entered when visiting a staff member some 4 years ago who was one of the last patients to be treated there. I also recall going to the A&E department there as a young lad requiring treatment for an infection following a deep cut on some rusty metal.

It was amazing to see inside the restored hospital and to see the historic panels with the names of the original benefactors still preserved for all to see and to look at one of the largest excavations I have ever seen – a vast crater -  which will be the underground car park and footings of the forthcoming buildings for the maths departments due to be completed in 2013.

The Jericho Health Centre will open later this year and will accommodate three GP surgeries. The first buildings to open on the site were new accommodation blocks at Somerville College which opened in September 2011. The Oxford University Press will take up additional space on the Walton Street side of the scheme later this summer.

The masterplan for the site was agreed following consultation within the collegiate University and the local community, as well as with interest groups and statutory bodies such as English Heritage.

7 days into the competition and we’ve had over 600 entries 

This has more than exceeded our expectations. So far it is true to say that a certain female celebrity chef and author is proving very popular, as is the Prime Minister from World War 2 and a flamboyant playwright.

The competition runs until 18th May at 2pm. Get voting now!

We’ve had a bit of feedback on two issues:

First, people are unnerved that there is no cost to enter – well, there isn’t so don’t worry, there are no strings.

Second, some people are worried that we’ll take their email address and spam them forever. This is not quite the Finders Keepers way and unless you opt-in to communication, you won’t receive anything from us.

The best of luck.

PS Apart from the big prizes of £2000 and an iPad, 5 people will win 6 bottles of Chablis for the best ‘reasons for voting’. We’ve had some crackers so far.

Bob Diamond presenting the Premiership trophy to John Terry in years gone by

Had an interesting day yesterday. Started with breakfast at 7.30 am with Bob Diamond Chief Executive of Barclays Bank at Blenheim Palace.  Not just me of course, but a select number of invited commercial customers ranging from college bursars to local architects to farmers and accountants.   

He spent 20 minutes on each table. Enough to hear his thoughts on the economy (outlook good in the long run but says the public need to feel positive and that is really difficult at the moment). He agreed it was inexcusable that tax payers had to bail out the banks (not Barclays though) and explained that great customer service was in part why his bank is showing such bumper results (first-quarter profits are forecast to jump 20% to about £2 billion!).

Neither he nor we ventured to discuss his bonus (reportedly 5.7 million) but the conversation did touch on the forthcoming change at the Bank of England and who the new Governor might be (he says the Chancellor of the Exchequer does listen to the various banking ‘Heads’ – but we’ll have to wait and see) and then moved swiftly on to his passion for sport generally but especially football (Chelsea) – well you would I guess if you sponsor the world’s most watched Premier Football League.

Staff at the MINI plant during a previous visit by Peter Mandleson

If that was not enough, the day ended with the Annual Members Meeting of The Oxfordshire Institute of Directors, which I have recently joined, which was held at the amazing BMW Mini Plant here in Oxford. Ian Wenman handed over the Chairmanship to Michael Collett of Wila for his 3 year stint,  who re-enforced what those of us who work in Oxfordshire know, but often take too much for granted, namely that Oxfordshire is an outstanding place to live, work and grow your business.

We then had a tour of the Mini plant, which I have been lucky enough to see once before, but it still amazes me to see such incredible technology working in harmony with human beings to produce the mini car. Another Oxfordshire success story and long may it continue.

1^st session – Why do people hate estate agents?

Andrew Neil = host

Christopher Hamer, The Property Ombudsman

Mark Hayward, NFoPP

David Dalby, RICS

Liya Fateh, MeetMyAgent.co.uk

[First half of this session not recorded for chronological reasons – I was late]

AN: do we need regulation?

- The public think we are regulated. In fact we’re the only part of the house sale transaction which isn’t (vs. lawyers, banks, surveyors)

AN: is there one gold standard qualification or licence which marks an agent out as top drawer

- We have the Ombudsman Scheme which is rigorous and protects customers….
- …but this scheme is too reactive to people complaining, it’s not proactive enough
- The public don’t care; they want the agent with the most boards, they’re less interested in what qualifications people have
- The industry has done a very poor job of articulating what ‘professional’ service is…and how much value should be attached to it…
- …most people just want the agent who promises the highest price and the lowest fee, that’s the unfortunate position we find ourselves in

AN: we don’t have consensus on what to do next…what do we do next?

- We want people to aspire to estate / letting agency as a good career – compare it to Majestic wine where all the staff have degrees, I doubt we could all say this about our staff in our estate agency offices

2^nd session – Do we have enough regulation or too much?

Ian Fletcher, Director of Policy, British Property Federation

- Effective regulation = Policymaking >> Communication >> Enforcement
- The Communication bit is the most neglected and the Govt / public service broadcasters  should be spending a lot more informing the public and property legislation
- EG: The Govt. spent £144K on communications about property legislation in a busy year, which is 3p per household. Yet it spent £200million on Digital Switchover, which is £8 per household?!
- Best idea I’ve seen in last 10 years for regulating landlords: Julie Rugg’s: give one ‘landlord’ number to each landlord which they need to access courts, tax reliefs or social housing
- Self-regulation, lots of bodies currently:  NLA, RLA, SPF, ARLA, NALS, NAEA, RICS, Local Authority Accreditation, SafeAgent, Property Ombudsman & several others
- Do landlords know what protection they have from these voluntary schemes? On the whole, no
- Regulation = our industry’s Achilles heel
- Self-regulation in the rental sector is complex and face challenges

AN: What regulation would you most like to get rid of?

- IanF: landlord licensing is being used too disparately by local authorities – we need consistency

AN: What is the mood of Govt. towards the industry?

-  IanF: its focused on increasing supply. That’s the main problem. Need to get more funds into residential property

3^rd Session – Social Media – Tracey Falcke – StreetSmartSocial

- 22% of UK’s time on the internet is in social media
- If you’re not getting 20% of your web traffic from social media, you’re doing it wrong
- 3 parts to success, which overlap:

1. CONTENT
2. SEO
3. SOCIAL MEDIA

- Why should you care about Google+
- If /when you’re signed in, all your search results will be unique to YOU
- If someone +1’s you, forever they’ll have your firm on their listings
- Tracy’s manifesto: you need a crisis management strategy for social media, it can go very wrong
- You should sit down and think about the worst things which could happen and have a plan for that
- Social media….you need a strategy, you have to take it seriously, you need a plan
- You should only need to spend 15 minutes twice a day to check on your profiles

4^th session – Letting Panel: Profits and Pitfalls

Andrew Neil

Tim Hyatt, Knight Frank

Steve Harriott, TDS

Ian Wilson, Martin & co

AN, how is letting different from selling?

- Much more administration, more legislation, bigger risks relative to mandatory legal obligations
- Longer relationships in letting
- We’ve found that 60% of landlords use the selling agent to let their property

AN: what about social housing?

- We’re not involved in it but may well be going forward. The Govt. policies are moving more people into social housing. It looks like more people will be forced out of London.

AN: How big is the rental sector?

- At 2000 there were 4.5 million in Private Rental Sector. We expect that to go up to over 6 million
- We expect the rental sector to stay strong and long tenancies to be part of this
- The institutional landlord is on its way. The Olympic Village retrofit will start in September - the 2 owners will own 1500 units in 3 boroughs, and 1439 units into the private rental sector
- This is the first mass investment in the rental sectors, REIT-style
- There has been a structural change – buy to let is a natural thing for many more people now
- We see ‘Investment Clubs’ as being very active, particularly around £100K in north of UK
- Last boom was debt-funded – now its more cash buyers, lower gearing, buying for return on cash not huge price increases

AN: Home ownership in the USA is down, what about the UK?

- Last year, 15.3million homes in owner occupation, 3.8million in private rental sector [Ed: yes, this contradicts the stats given above]
- Financing is a worry – buy to let financers are down 2/3 from 5 years ago
- The size of the bill for local housing allowance is a problem – there will be a political gain from capping housing allowances and the govt. might want landlords to subsidise the renting experience

Q: What about larger scale investment into the rental sector?

- We see it coming, we know of 4 players strongly considering it, a bit like the American model
- It will only work if the developer can supply a large amount of affordable housing
- It will need very good property management which offers added value – they don’t want churn, they want 3-5 year tenancies

Misc
- A good buy to let landlord shouldn’t be gearing more than 75% at a 5% yield
- Factoring in inflation, rents have actually been static for the last few years
- In letting we fear economic slowdown – tenants pay for everything in the industry – and if this gets worse then we have a profound problem

5^th Session: Award Winning Strategies, Michael Day, Integra Property Services

- Only 3 things can be unique to an agency, the rest can be replicated:

1. Brand
2. People / culture
3. Database / property mgmt.

- 4 things create value for agencies:

1. Leadership

- “A man going nowhere usually gets there”
- Would your team follow you into a burning building? Or push you?

2.   Planning

- 80% of agencies don’t have a business plan = bad news
- A good plan = a route map, needs monitoring
- Only 4 growth strategies (FK: this is good old Ansoff matrix)
- Sell same product to same market
- Sell same product to new market
- Sell new product to same market
- Sell new product to new market
- 80% of what we do as agents is all the same – what is your 20%

3.   People

- “No ‘I’ in team” (FK:  the basketball player Michael Jordan, when accused of not passing the ball, would counter and say “There is in WIN”)
- High expectations define successful business people

4.    Promotion

- There are sheep-like herds of agents doing the same thing all over the country, don’t be one of them
- Always costs more to win a new customer than retain an existing one

6^th session: the role of the brand

Andrew Neil

Peter Rollings, Marsh & Parsons

Julia Wild, Iconic Brand Agency Ltd

Dan Channer, Finders Keepers

AN: How can Foxtons be successful if they’re not giving people a good experience

- As they have the stock, people have to go to them due to the volume of properties on their books
- It’s a bit like Ryanair – a brand almost with a negative definition but which makes money and people choose to use despite itself

AN: Do many agents have strong brands?

- I think not, that’s a problem for both the agents and the consumers who don’t know who to choose and why – it’s almost becoming commoditised
- If we’re a commodity, we’ve failed

AN: are people actually the brand?

- Of course, they’re the ones bringing it to life. It’s the same for any service: business, lawyers, accountants
- That’s why recruitment it so important – getting the right people, it’s that simple and that complicated. It’s cheesy to talk about values but any business needs to find people who align with at least some of its values

AN: do agents need to do more to differentiate themselves and make themselves stronger?

- The agents who have strong brands will hope not – that way they will stand out more
- Inevitably with consolidation and a market which is becoming more competitive, having an easily understood ‘brand’ is only going to be more important

7^th session: Technology in the modern day industry

Andrew Neil

Tracey Falke, Streetsmart Social

Ian Laverty, Intelligent Mobile

David Murray-Hundley, Webdadi

James Wyatt, Barton Wyatt

AN: what is the most important piece of technology in an agent today?

- The mobile phone – a mobile computer, in touch
- Most people don’t walk into agents more, they search online, find the property and then contact the agent
- There is the chance to understand the consumer and know a lot about them without them realising it – you’ll know people’s decision before they do

AN: how will technology make us money?

- Content and the user experience is the goal, not the technology, so the question is how to use technology to offer people something novel and interesting
- Content must be appropriate to the device they’re using – mobile vs tablet  vs standard website
- 50% of facebook is mobile activity

AN: will we see agents being disintermediated?

- That’s a risk if agents stop providing a useful service
- You should be asking ‘how is this an opportunity?’, ‘how can we use this to generate income?’
- All technology is disruptive, eg classified ads in the Sunday Times has gone from 64 pages in the 80s to 6 pages now
- Social proof = 3^rd parties other than you talking about your business

Now the madness of May Day morning in Oxford is over, we take a look at what is happening the rest of this month…

• Winston Churchill is well-known for his political career, but The Oxfordshire museum has an exhibition showing Churchill’s less well-known military life. It examines why he joined the Queen’s Own Oxfordshire Hussars and his lifelong interest in the regiment. Admission is free and the exhibition is on all year, but why not make plans to pop along this month?
• Running until 7^th May, Banbury Museum has an exhibition of fantastical creatures by artist Michaela Bayley, who has worked in TV and film including the Bond film ‘Die Another Day’. Definitely one for kids and teenagers too! Admission is free so head along this weekend before the exhibition ends.
• On 19^th May, the Cogges Church Hall in Witney is hosting a workshop on ‘Making a Mosaic’. Tickets are £71 and the workshop will allow you to produce a 20 x 20cm mosaic and take home something unique and hand made. During the course, you’ll also learn a history of the art of mosaic, some design skills and tile cutting techniques as well as the grouting process. Even better, the ticket price includes refreshments and home made cake!
• On that same weekend, Fringford will have at least 10 gardens on show offering a range of styles and sizes. St Michaels & All Angels Church will feature floral displays and local historian Martin Greenwood will be on hand to answer any questions about the history of the church and the village. Admission is £5 (and under 16s go free)
• Finally, the Sunningwell Festival of Music and Arts starts on 26^th May and takes place at various venues across Sunningwell. This is a biennial event which takes place in a rather unique location – on a floating stage on the village pond! Organised and supported by the local community, it brings together an eclectic programme of music over ten days. Both professional performers and local talent take part, offering something for all the family and every music taste imaginable.

We hope you have an enjoyable May!

The recent heavy rain and high winds meant the Banbury staff were very busy on call right across the weekend. On the Hanwell Fields development on the North side of Banbury various houses were affected by rain water getting under the roof tiles and pouring through the bathroom extractor fans. The five call outs on Sunday alone were dealt with smoothly and efficiently to minimise the damage to the property and ensure the occupant’s disruption was minimised.

Our dedicated property management staff are on call 24 hours a day 7 days a week to help resolve issues and minimise damage to the property. The Emergency Line is available to all tenants of our managed properties and it is our staff who attend to the issues – not a call centre miled away. Our experienced Property Managers are armed with a list of dedicated local sub-contractors who give us priority to ensure that emergencies are attended to without delay.