February Talk with James Harris

It's February and Valentine’s Day approaches, this is known as the month of love – or historically a month of ‘new beginnings’. Today we're talking to James Harris who is an associate with Swindon-based mortgage advisers TED Mortgages.

What I love about running my own business with TED Mortgages:
1.     The flexibility to offer my clients a service that works around them – for example, this may be appointments later in the evening or on a weekend.  I feel this really adds value.

2.     The ability to focus on my clients – The great thing about how my business is set up is purely client focused.  Of course there is always admin to complete, however I don’t need to report my stats to anyone or look at performance graphs. This allows me a lot more time getting the best result for my clients or discussing their options with them.  

3.     The freedom to be myself and allow people to buy into me – Although at TED Mortgages we structure ourselves to be the best that we can, setting this to one side, I am able to interact with my clients freely.  I feel if people like me, they will place their trust in me. 

What I love about my business community:

TED Mortgages have a great relationship with other local businesses.  We realise that this is not only to build on our business, but to also help them grow theirs.  This ranges from local estate agents, accountants, marketing consultants, photographers and many more!

Some of us also attend local networking events in order to recommend local, trusted businesses where we can.

What I love about my business that has changed over the last year

For me this is a tough one as so many things have changed – I think it has to be joining the TED Mortgages team!

I have been with TED for almost a year and so many positives have come out of this for me.

It has been great working as part of a wider team although I still work for myself.

The year has flown by with a large influx of business due to a very busy property market.

I have also been pleasantly surprised by the amount of recommendations and referrals I have had from existing clients with such positive feedback passed on – I would like to thank all of those who have supported me and my business!

What have been the main challenges in the last year:
For once, I think the answer is not Covid – in this respect we are now comfortably adapted to working remotely and for some people this has made life easier.

I think the main challenge has been clients being able to purchase a property as quickly as they used to be able to going back 12 months ago.

I think that any buyer will be used to viewing multiple properties and making several offers before they get an offer accepted.

Before the stamp duty holiday was introduced, it seemed that there was a steady flow of properties being bought and sold.
However as many people have taken advantage of the stamp duty relief up to October 2021, the supply of property coming to the market has slowed slightly with the same if not more demand for properties.

We haven’t needed to do anything differently from our point of view – we aim to put our clients in the best position possible from the first meeting in order to get their offer secured on the dream home.  

Feb 17 is Random Acts of Kindness Day? Who has been kind to you?
I would refer this back to the level of recommendations and referrals we have received from our existing clients – we are always humbled by the recommendations that we receive and are also very proud of the reviews that have been left on our Google profile.  

What level of business are you expecting this month? 
I certainly don’t see things slowing down that’s for sure.

With the festive period well out of the way and the new year in full flow, I would expect to see the property market increase in terms of properties going up for sale.

It’s that time of the year where some of us have realised that having the family round for Christmas that the home is becoming a bit too small!

February can be a good time for families to list their property for sale and get moved in time for the summer.

The company offers mortgage advice and support free of charge and more details can be found here - https://www.tedmortgages.co.uk