Serina Williams and her daughter Charlotte have decided to set up their own lettings’ agency in Well Street, Porthcawl, after losing their jobs at The Grand Pavilion Theatre located nearby.
The pair are looking to bounce back from being made redundant due to Covid-19 by setting up the Avenue Property agency.
Mother of two, Serina, said: “I had worked at the Pavilion for 19 years as a marketing officer and was devastated when we were told the news. Charlotte also worked there part-time around her university commitments.
“After an initial period of shock, sadness, and anxiety, we thought what are we going to do to make a living?
“Charlotte has recently graduated from university, and the job market isn’t great at the moment for graduates.
“I’ve been a part-time landlord for more than 15 years, so we decided to start Avenue Property and use my experience and Charlotte’s enthusiasm to treat our clients the way we’d like to be treated.
“We feel we can offer a high level of customer service because of our background and that we’re a small, family-run business which wants to help local people.
“Our goal is to do things differently. I know a lot of challenges that landlords face and can also empathise with the problem’s tenants have.
“We’re set up to embrace technology and make everything a lot easier for landlords and tenants.
“Losing our jobs because of Covid-19 was horrible, but we’re excited about the future.”
Congratulations and good luck!
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Best of luck with it.
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The industry needs serious regulation. Good luck to cold starts but with no experience, qualifications and membership to regulatory bodies is an absolute must.
maybe they are both highly qualified. If so the very best of luck because the jobs hard enough when you know what you’re doing!!
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Agreed. I wish them every success but I hope they realise how technical lettings is. And how quickly you can find yourself in a world of pain if you mess up and it goes badly wrong.
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Don’t forget this is in Wales where they have to have training and pass a test to prove basic competence and they have to be a member of a regulatory body, Rent Smart Wales. This won’t make it easy to make a success of it but there are certainly more hoops to starting in Wales than in England.
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Quick search of the Rent Smart Wales public register shows that they are indeed licensed agents in Wales.
Date of search
2 Febuary 2021
Search Undertaken
AgentAvenue Property Management
Licences connected to this Agent
Licence Holder
Status
Type
Expiry date
Avenue Property Management & Lettings Ltd
Licensed
Agent
21/09/2025
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I wish them all the success possible but this proves that ROPA is now long overdue
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It may be me, but I cannot even find a website for them. Obviously they do have a Rent Smart Wales licence since Serina is a landlord herself.
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Yes they do have a website which, despite saying they offer simple transparent fees, there are no actual fees displayed – Good start? No, I didn’t think so either.
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You must have spent longer searching than I did. Well done.
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Best of luck, you are going to need it. No experience …. wow, in this field you have stepped into the lions mouth. No manner of books and licence requirements can teach how street wise you need to be and can only come from experience.
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No experience? You seem to have missed this sentence from Seina, “I’ve been a part-time landlord for more than 15 years”
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Part-time landlord is not agency management … so many landlords haven’t a clue and think it is easy money. A part-time landlord implies not having much experience and only with her own property. Looking after other peoples and the increase in volume of challenging scenarios WILL happen. Just like sales agents, many people think it was easy money, only to discover the hard and challenging environment and property management is full on 24/7 harder business and regulatory pitfalls.
Lettings Agents need to have eyes in all directions, you are a permanent target of law, disgruntled landlords and tenants. Welcome to the world of rogue landlords and tenants.
Taking the RSW test only gives you an insight into the regulatory framework. They do not tell you how do regulatory things, that they want you to do, not how to run a business. Many lettings agents have experienced the pitfalls that no training manual can ever cover.
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Not just experience, but from memory the gap between start and paying costs can be many months, let alone paying 1 persons wage. or 2 peoples wages. With no tenant fees and a fiercely competitive market i suggest you swoop on one of your rivals PDQ to get that kickstart that will otherwise take forever. I hate to say it but from what I can see there is very little prospect of a new start making a good go nowadays without acquiring stock. Good luck you will need it.
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You are correct without stock a start-up today could be near impossible or a healthy bank account until it grows. No stock = no income and continuing overheads. Many a start-up letting agency has failed. Good luck to them and hopefully they won’t end up with poor quality landlords/properties.
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Good to luck them but once again, it seems that opening a Letting Business is seen as an easy buck. Being a “Part-time Landlord” – not too sure what that means?.
Perhaps for me the pertinent point for me is the standard of licensing. Surely, there should be some practical evaluation of the required skills and knowledge rather than the reading of a syllabus.
I might be able to read a recipe but that doesn’t mean I can cook.
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