Transactions are where a portfolio is shaped. They are also where the most value is lost, usually in the six weeks after the price is agreed.
Acquisitions
We act for the buyer. Our interest is in what the building will do for you.
- Search and shortlisting against a written brief covering location, lot size, income profile, tenure and works appetite
- Appraisal of each candidate on the same basis, so that comparison is real
- Offer strategy and negotiation, including the terms that are not price: exclusivity, conditionality, timing, what is included
- Due diligence coordination across title, survey, planning history, tenancy documentation, service charge history and statutory compliance
- Management of the transaction through to completion, keeping solicitors, surveyors and lenders moving in the same direction
Due diligence is where we are most useful. A property that manages badly rarely looks different in the particulars. It looks different in the service charge accounts, the compliance file and the arrears history, which are documents we read every week.
Disposals
- Timing and method advice: open market, off-market, or as part of a portfolio
- Preparation, which means resolving the compliance, tenancy and title issues that a buyer’s solicitor will otherwise find at a moment when they have leverage and you do not
- Marketing and buyer qualification
- Negotiation and management through to exchange and completion
Preparation is the whole job
Most disposals lose money in the gap between agreeing a price and exchanging contracts, when something surfaces that the seller could have dealt with months earlier at no cost and now deals with under time pressure at a discount. Where we manage the asset, that preparation has been running all along.