The first of two NAPSA Webinars for this month took place on Wednesday 24th, when NAPSA hosted Peter Habert from The Property Ombudsman, who covered some of the recent upcoming changes in regulations, along with changes that had happened internally at TPO, providing an insight into how TPO worked and a look at their new website; as well as sharing an example complaint against a property sourcing agent and the outcome; which was very interesting!
An important learning from the webinar, was that despite the recent changes around ‘material information’ TPO still consider what information is provided to buyers, as incredibly important and should be one of the key focuses for all property sourcing agents. They are also still very keen to continue their working relationship with NAPSA to better understand the sector and be a part of the ‘clean up’ of the ‘wild west’.
Tina, our CEO attended a 2-hour legal support call, which answered a submitted questions on specific legal issues that we may be facing at this time. From someone else’s current issue, there were a couple important lessons:
1. Don’t be dragged into someone else’s drama, don’t be pulled into responding to tons of emails. When you have a strong process in place to deal with a situation, follow it to the letter, don’t deviate. Never be afraid to say, I will not be responding to any more communication from you on this topic, this is now closed.
2. How much do you value your business and making it sustainable and a success? This was a question posed by the legal advisor on the call to someone who had turned down their support, due to the cost of the quote provided to them and instead went with a ‘free’ agreement template shared by a friend to do a job in their business that was the key legal document for it. There were now issues around the quality (or not) of that document which help was being asked for.
A key learning is to ensure that you value the core set up of your business, cutting costs for the sake of it may not save you cash in the beginning, but in the end, in fact it may well cost you a lot more in lessons learned and professional advice to fix it!
Also, this week, the NAPSA Team have had a number of informal meetings (with a coffee of course and chatting), about the fact that it’s now time that we acknowledge, that despite the wide array of skillsets each of the team have, we have reached the limit of what we can achieve in one area of the business, we can’t do everything ourselves and to get to the next level we will need expert help.
Sarah, our Business Development & Communications Director, has packed her case and gone on holiday to warmer sunnier climes, but fear not she will be back with us again the first week of October!
Back to ‘Acknowledging Your Limitations’
A quick Google search defines ‘acknowledging your limitations’ something similar to:
‘Acknowledging your limitations means recognising your boundaries, weaknesses and what you can’t do…’
This is important because:
As a sourcing agent, you will likely be working on your own and so reliant on your own skill set and experience. Regardless of who you are, those skills and experience will be restricted and specific to you; they will only take you so far.
Company owners have to wear many hats, marketing, sales, finance, accounts, legal, contracts, admin, there are so many hats that no one person can be really good at all of them and whilst to begin with we have to wear and accept responsibility for them all; to achieve your goals you will likely at some stage have to admit that you have taken your business as far as you can with your skill set, experience and the time that you have.
Sometimes this extra level of expertise is needed right at the start, an accountant may be for advice on how best to set your business up. As a sourcing agent, getting in place all of those required documents that you must have to operate legally.
At some point, you will have to ‘acknowledged Your Limitations’, accept them and look for expert support. That expert advice will come at a cost. The expert has put many years into honing their skills and so it is only right that their help should come at a cost to you.
Let’s take a look at a part of business which may be inevitable, a website. Most businesses will feel that they will need a website, but not all websites are built equally:
- Basic website – 3 or 4 pages – May be through a site such as ‘fiverr’ – £500 – £1,000 dependent on the specifications.
- Average UK website – 6-10 pages – More usability built in – Call to action link – £6,00 to £10,000
- All singing all dancing website – £50,000+ (I have heard as much as £150,000)
So why is there a difference in the price for these?
The difference is in the experience and skill set of the person or company that you get to design and build it for you. The higher price is usually linked to their experience and skill set as well as the size, quality and design levels of the site.
The same can be said for any expert guidance and advice, generally the more experienced the expert, the more knowledgeable, the higher the fee will be to access what they offer; the old saying stands the test of time, “you inevitably get what you pay for”.
At NAPSA we have realised that we need those next level skills and to be able to free up some of our time to focus on other key aspects of the business. From those meetings we have put a plan in place to reach out to experts who may be able to support us in:
- Advice and guidance in taking one aspect of our business to the next level, using their specific expertise.
- Setting everything up and monitoring.
- Testing for a fixed period.
- Adapting as required after the testing period.
We know that this will cost us, but in order to develop and progress this has to be done. We have to hand over to people who have a much higher level of expertise than we have, we could attempt to learn and expand our knowledge but that would take time, and great knowledge takes a lot of time to build.
After all, no one becomes an expert overnight, it takes time to research, learn and fine tune skills, often over 10, 15 or event 20+ years.
Have you had to do this in your business?
Upcoming Events
NAPSA Member Webinar
Tuesday, 30th September, 7pm (Live and recorded – (Open to everyone)
Topic: Property Redress
Featuring Sean Hooker, Head of Redress at Property Redress.
This one-hour webinar will cover:
- The Renters Rights Bill and How It Will Affect Property Sourcers and the Sourcing Sector
A live Q&A session will follow the presentation, and a full recording will be available for all to re-watch later..
The NAPSA Team will be attending the National Landlord Investment Show
At: Manchester United Football Stadium, Old Trafford
Tuesday 14th October 2025 – Event runs from 9am to 3:30pm
NAPSA supports its members not just with setting up and running your sourcing business and compliance, but about everything business, finance and marketing as well.
Wishing everyone a peaceful and stress-free week ahead.
Tina Walsh
CEO, NAPSA
Like a sourcing consultation call with Tina?
We offer a number of free calls each week to discuss your property sourcing or deal packaging business, to assess any gaps and provide guidance on recommended next steps.
