Marcus Richards
Cambridge Property Investments Ltd are an award winning letting agents in Cambridge that not only charge zero tenant fees but also zero landlord fees! Meaning that both our landlords and tenants have literally nothing to lose and everything to gain by letting with C.P.I.
C.P.I London Property Lettings is our latest branch covering High End Properties in London – So London Landlords can also benefit from our award winning ways in the beautiful capital city where we specialise in high end Lettings.
C.P.I Luxury Lettings are a team of specialists that deal specifically with high end lets throughout the UK – If you have something special that you wish to let and want to know that its safe in the right hands then thats exactly what we do, helping our landlords feel safe knowing that their property is with with a luxury letting specialist.
We aim to work at extremely high letting standards at all times.
Tell us about yourself?
I am a child of Tich and Dorrie Maltby, parents of 12 children and I am the youngest. Having a father that worked every hour to take care of his children was a true inspiration and indeed the driving force behind my personal work ethic, the work ethic was there but where to apply it was not, my father owned a painting and decorating company so perhaps thats where the eye for detail came from and my mother was a self employed child minder so perhaps thats where the caring nature of CPI came from. Being a caring agent with an eye for detail can only be a good thing right?
I started as a letting agent within a company and very quickly moved up to branch managed, putting myself through qualifications to get to where I wanted to be however even as branch manager there are certain things you still don’t have control over, things i knew were not being done right and it frustrated me as the branch manager is always the front of the the business when actually the director holds the cards.
With that in mind and wanting to be the letting agency that made a difference and always got it right there was only one thing to do! And CPI was bourn, since then we have gone from strength to strength and collected many awards along the way being know as the go to agency in Cambridge, London and for Luxury Lettings nationwide.
If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
Have a day off now and again and learn to trust others to excel too. At 1st I worked non stop and rarely had a day off as i wanted to get everything 100% all the time, Whilst the work ethic is great I now know that the break mentally is required to keep you on top of your game. Also trusting people to live to my standards was hard, I always wanted the very best for our landlords and tenants and didn’t trust anyone else to be as good as me?
Often we have to realise that new ideas can be better than yours initially but trusting individuals to have the same high standards was hard. Now of course I know and understand that others given the chance can have fresh and initiative ideas that really do make a difference.
What problem does your business solve?
CPI creates the perfect relationship councillor between landlords and tenants, we are able to ensure high quality lettings are created whilst finding perfect tenants that appreciate how to look after the quality they are living in.
Sometimes landlords and tenants can be difficult but here at CPI we have fantastic landlords and tenants who listen and understand the importance of high quality lettings ensuring the properties are created correctly and looked after correctly at all times we have a blue print that is tried, tested and really does work.
What is the inspiration behind your business?
Our inspiration is the world we live in! quite simple really and the answer is the question; Would I like to live here?
Too often as a letting agent I got to see either sub standard landlords that wanted tenants to live in sub standard properties or i see struggling tenants living in poor conditions with nobody doing anything about it?
The only way to change the face of lettings in Cambridge & London was to take control, obtain landlords that wanted to do it right (because there are a lot of great landlords out there) and then create better lettings where tenants can get exactly what there paying for, A lovely place to be able to call home. In content my inspiration and drive perhaps were all those bad landlords, strangely they inspired me to be nothing like them. At CPI we only want the best.
What is your magic sauce?
We’re completely different as no other agency offers what we do! quite simply we live off commission only, Our landlord set up is completely FREE of charge, we will offer all advice for free until the property is to our standards, we market for free, we find the tenant for free, we do all of the background work again for free and then once a fantastic tenant is found, moved in and paying rent do we start to earn our living from the rent.
This means if our landlords are saving a set up fee then they can put a little extra back into the property to ensure its one step above the rest, meaning were creating the perfect letting environment because guess who then gets to reap the benefits?
Correct: our tenants, meaning we have found the key to the perfect letting chain. We have many other keys to our success but those keys quite simply remain under lock and key, if you want to be successful letting you will become part of the CPI family and let through us where you will remain looked after and stress free.
What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?
Luxury lettings is our latest venture nationwide, we want to provide the very best of lettings throughout the country whilst maintaining Cambridge and London. Over the next 5 years we hope to see all 3 grow further and encourage other landlords to embrace the lifestyle of better quality properties. We hope to see rogue landlords and below par properties become a thing of the past and hope that legislations are passed to enforce this. Everybody and i mean everybody deserves to have a loving home.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?
Growth is the only challenge we have faced and finding the right members of staff to embrace our work ethic, when you grow you have to ensure you have the right team to be able to sustain and manage what you already have 1st.
You quite simply cannot grow until you have that next step already in place as too many agencies grow big fast but then lose sight of what landlords and tenants want and deserve and thats where other agencies fail.
Typically its greed and our biggest challenge was how not to be a greedy letting agency, how to wait and grow organically. Patience is a virtue and at CPI we never grow without having the right staff in to always ensure every single landlord, tenant and property is looked after.
How do people get involved/buy into your vision?
We would like Landlords to come across to CPI Cambridge, CPI London or CPI Luxury lettings, not just any old landlords but landlords that care!
We want to work with landlords that have great properties or will allow us to make their properties great to be able to attract tenants that want to live in comfort and take care of our landlords investments creating the perfect relationship between us all.
A Home is a home, it should be loved and resected and at CPI we firmly believe a great property breeds a great tenant so on that note Landlords please contact CPI because without us your never going to be the best landlord you can be and with us you become the best of the best but happy and stress free too and thats your key to being a happy landlord.
