When I opened my first letting agency, a franchise, I spent what to me at the time was a fortune having performed what I thought was full research that covered all the bases. The franchise training was good, especially the legal section. There was a research pack from the franchisor, something I didnt receive until I opened for business (apparently an administration error), but Id already explored the market and sector in my own way for some months prior to purchasing the franchise. My background was in music and IT, two industries that were worlds apart from residential lettings, but being a landlord, a franchise in lettings seemed an obvious route.

I knew the neighbourhood well, having been born in North London and I drove around or pounded the streets counting the agents boards and shop fronts. I made many mystery shopper calls to my future competition and compiled lists of properties to let from the classifieds (this was in the days before the portals), analysing rent valuations and common streets for rented properties. I slowly gained a feel for the areas around my territory, which stretched from Mill Hill to South Hampstead, a region of thousands of chimney pots (common agency slang for an area of high residential occupation). With that many chimney pots, how could I fail to gain just 1% of the market?

I then rented a serviced office in Hampstead, just off the high street and on my first day, waited for tens of landlords and tenants to simply walk in and give me their business. Obviously I was in a prime location, near to the Hampstead tube, and it was the upper end of the market, therefore there must be high rental demand, surely? My advert was in the Ham and High newspaper and I was all set to go.

Well, the phone failed to ring and the door remained closed, aside from when I went to get some fresh air or lunch, or the friendly receptionist of the building popped in for a chat. I was slightly disappointed, but these were early days and my naivety was yet to become apparent. The franchisor had access to corporate stock and I was promised there would be many flats to let due to the number of corporate landlords in my territory, something that bolstered my confidence of success.