Jason Honda-Lind

Recent Posts by Jason Honda-Lind

• Welcome to the Property Confessional
• My Corsican Love Affair

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Jason Honda-Lind's Property Confessional Blog

Are you a property marketing genius?

So I'm the proud owner of a beautiful ski-in, ski out apartment in Lapland. Floodlit slopes, husky rides, and winter trips to see Santa - surely an easy sell to tourists, making this an unbeatable investment? And when the countryside defrosts and the snow melts away, the immaculate development overlooks a remarkably picturesque golf course, giving the project the added bonus of a short summer season to bulk up the income.

Admittedly, it may have been a little bit overpriced at the time of purchase. Which, by the way, was right at the very, very top of the market before everything went a bit Lehman Brothers. And the cowboy company that sold it to me has long since disappeared, along with their vapour thin rental guarantee (that's a whole different story). But all the same, it really should be doing well, or at least better than it is. But it is doing badly. Spectacularly badly!

For a winter wonderland such as this, an occupancy rate that barely breaks into double digits for December is an absolute disaster. How could they get it so spectacularly wrong??

There is a very simple answer. Incompetence! Those people responsible for marketing the development to tourists clearly haven't got a clue what they're doing. Now I'm no genius, but surely the key to a successful advertising campaign revolves around having a compelling offer and positioning the right message in the media used by your target market?

Here's a little quiz on the subject to see whether you could do better than the numpties in charge of my investment:

Q1. You are responsible for a sizeable marketing budget to promote a magnificent property development in Finland. At your disposal is a piece of research that says travellers from Finland want to be in the town, whereas overseas tourists are just as happy to be in a self contained hotel/resort on the ski slopes. Do you:

A.    Identify how best to reach overseas tourists and put together a package of activity designed to maximise exposure to and bookings from them.

B.    Spend nearly 50% of your budget on local advertising only available once people are actually in the resort and therefore highly unlikely to want to book accommodation.

Q2. Year on year, your resort is losing market share to other towns in the region. Do you:

A.    Take control of your budget and put together a dedicated marketing plan to attract visitors directly to your resort.

B.       Continue to waste more than half your budget by paying for expensive central marketing by the tourist board, which is clearly proving completely ineffective.

Q3. Booking levels for last season were atrocious compared to industry averages. Do you focus your marketing spend on:

A. Going online, where all the tourists are, using a large scale programme of low cost, efficient online marketing, such as revenue-share distribution partnerships, lead generation and pay per click activity designed to stimulate direct bookings.

B. Focus on a package of low response, print advertising and trade shows, that seems remarkably similar to last year's failed plan.

How did you do?

If you answered A to all questions, you are blessed with a good degree of common sense and though not necessarily a shoe-in, could find yourself on a shortlist of candidates should you apply for work in property marketing.

However, if you answered B to any of the questions above, then it's unlikely that you are a property marketing genius and may want to consider other career opportunities that don't result in a financial loss for the people ultimately paying your salary.

My Corsican Love Affair

Corsica is a truly spellbinding place. The jagged mountain peaks are refreshingly wild and rugged, while the turquoise and white beaches would impress even the most ardent fan of the Caribbean. However, my property buying experience there has been anything but enchanting...

First of all, we didn't get back the VAT on the purchase price as we had been promised by the sales agent. "VAT of 19.6% will be refunded after purchase" apparently means something else entirely to the French.

Then there was the hugely inflated costs of the furniture pack, which only came to light after the contract had been signed. 8,000 unexpected Euros washed away somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea.

Thankfully, getting a mortgage was a walk in the park. At night. In the dark. With armed gangs walking around. Not something I wouldn't rush to repeat.

Then a mysterious 690 Euros of additional unspecified costs delayed completion on our unit by about 6 months, which somewhat suspiciously disqualified us from rental income for the first year of operation.

Getting over our already growing distaste for being a Corsican property owner, we eventually plucked up the courage to visit the Island. Shouldn't this be a legal requirement for all overseas buyers? When we arrived, we were directed to a 1 bedroom flat, rather than the 2 bedroom maisonette we thought we had bought. This was a genuine source of concern, but thankfully turned out to be an administrative error - it turns out that the numbers had been changed and on that one at least, we were in the clear.

So you'll understand then, that I wasn't entirely surprised when the French management company went bankrupt late last year, just over a month before the annual rent payment was due to be paid.

Now this could have been a real source of panic, prompting all sorts of questions to run around my head. Who would manage the property now? What would happen to my rent? Will the whole development fall into disrepair? Would I ever be able to sell the damn thing? Why did I buy it in the first place? Why doesn't anyone stop me doing these stupid things? Does anyone out there have a worse performing property portfolio than mine? Which property is going to go wrong next?

But for some reason, a tranquil ambivalence took over me and I decided to do what I felt was a very French solution to a typically French situation, and I shrugged my shoulders and ignored the problem.

Some weeks later I received note that an emergency meeting of owners had been convened to discuss the matter. In my newfound spirit of ignorance, I elected not to attend, trusting the fate of my property to the committee of other owners. Was this to be yet another mistake in my painful journey?

So far, it would seem not. Not only did the original builder (who has just finished a large extension to the development) step forward to manage the development going forward, he also agreed to stump up the missing rent in phases during the course of the first year. A right result and proof if it was needed that sometimes the best way forwards is to do nothing!

Welcome to the Property Confessional

I have a confession to make... I'm a little bit crap when it comes to investing in property!

I've read countless books, attended educational seminars, rubbed shoulders with hundreds of people working in the overseas property industry during the course of the past decade working in the sector.

Reasonably well-educated, I consider myself of above average intelligence and can understand both big picture macroeconomics and the workings of a property market on an extremely local level.

I have been fortunate enough to travel extensively, to popular mainstream destinations and also to some of the far flung emerging markets that have gained in popularity in recent times.

What's more, I've had early sight of countless developments being launched and the inside track on some of the people involved in the projects.

Yet despite all those factors in my favour, at times I have made the most rudimentary of errors - letting my heart rule my head, failing to conduct proper due diligence, buying from companies about whom I know nothing and worst of all, believing the sales spin without checking things out for myself.

So this blog will be the tale of my eclectic portfolio, warts and all. I will leave no aspect of my story untold and whether you benefit from my experience, laugh at my embarrassing mistakes or cringe at my naivety, I hope you enjoy reading!

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