David J Redmond Associates are an independent real estate firm operating in the eponymous David Redmond’s hometown of Birmingham. They are an interesting company because of their take on property investment.

The company is dedicated to ethics and so their attitude to investment is a little different to most real estate agents. Rather than simply seeing property as a financial nest egg (which it can be), they think it is important not to just see property as money, but to see it for what it is as well.

What does this mean? Well, when an estate agent shows you a property of questionable standards, they may well try and sell it to you on the basis that if you do it up, you will make an enormous profit on it. This much is true, but at David Redmond Associates they think it is important not to forget that often that very same property will also be serving as your home for next few years. Promises of future riches can often make people forget themselves and take on a property that they don’t want as a home.

The same goes for commercial or industrial property. Yes, you may be able to use it and do it up to make a profit, to use it as an investment. But primarily, property needs to serve whatever purpose you need it for. Although the value of that cannot necessarily be quantified, it is just as important, if not more important, than the monetary value you can expect to get from selling the property in the future.

As such, although David Redmond Associates don’t shy away from property as an investment, they advise their clients not to lose sight of the purpose of the building in their pursuit for profit. Often people get so caught up with the investment that they forget they will have to use the property for a long time before they can sell it.

Of course, if the property is purely an investment (such as buy-to-let) then it is a different matter. And David Redmond Associates won’t shy away from this type of investment, they just advise their clients to remember there are two sides to every property purchase.