69 Magazine - Style Feature - Spring 10

Editorial - regional fashion and lifestyle magazine (readership now in excess of 350,000 throughout the midlands and north)

Sector - lifestyle

Select Magazine - Feb10

Editorial - regional magazine (Merseyside 25,000 monthly distribution, main contributor)

Sector - property and lifestyle

My Life in Property – Dave Blackman

By Gill Torres

Dave Blackman is director of property management firm Venmore and a well-known face on the Liverpool property scene. Interviewing Dave it became apparent that to be an experienced property agent is to have a privileged insight into the way people live. So as we as we profile Dave’s life in property we reflect on how city life has changed throughout the past 30 years; the opinion of a man who has helped many local people find homes during this time is an interesting one indeed.

Obviously a person able to spot ‘the next big thing’ Dave began life at Venmore working as a computer operator back in 1981 ‘The computer didn’t have a screen,’ begins Dave ‘it filled a room and was probably about as powerful as a calculator, ’ he laughs. At that time of course, it was an innovation and Vemore was one of the first local agents to begin issuing clients with printed statements. Now with Dave at the helm, cutting edge communication is something Venmore remains committed to.

When Dave initially worked his way up to property manager Venmore’s main stock in trade was terraced houses. These days they are more likely to be found managing city centre penthouse apartments in large developments and Dave believes that this is the reflection of a cultural shift, as well as the result of successful business strategies. The city centre has seen an influx of residents in the past two decades, as more of us choose rentals and apartment living.

‘The Housing Act 1988 had a huge impact on how and why people buy property,’ Dave explains. This Act allowed landlords to let on short-term tenancies for the first time and to charge a rental amount that reflected the market value of their property. In short, it made it potentially lucrative to invest in and let property. Where in the 1960’s and 1970’s there were city centre tenements, there are now luxury apartments, many of which are owned and let by private landlords.

Our choice to rent – to choose a short-term housing option living with friends, partners or alone – Dave believes is the result of a more prosperous nation in which we have more freedom to move and change our circumstances than we did in the 1970s. Of course much of this prosperity is a result of the property market.

There have been low points in this market, as we well know. Dave has worked for Venmore through 3 recessions, though he believes the recent one has been the most global. Through the recessions in the 80s and 90s banks continued to lend and their cease to do so has had the biggest impact recently. ‘Our management division remained strong throughout,’ states Dave, who puts the company’s success down to knowledge and integrity ‘when the sales market dipped lots of agents decided to start managing property… they realised that it’s not just a case of finding a tenant and taking the money. Management can be a legal minefield and you need infrastructure and experience. We are always looking to acquire the management departments of firms who are turning back to sales. Venmore has been in Liverpool since 1849 - we’ve grown and changed with the city.’

Before I leave Dave states ‘Liverpool is a big city but it feels like a village. You couldn’t maintain a career for as long as I have if you didn’t operate with integrity - you’d soon get found out,’ and I couldn’t agree more.

69 Magazine - Culture Section - Winter 09

Editorial - regional fashion and lifestyle magazine (readership now in excess of 350,000 throughout the midlands and north)

Sector - lifestyle

Select Magazine - Dec09

Editorial - regional magazine (Merseyside 2nd edition)

Extract (was also accompanied by '5 Steps to Buying Your New Home')

Sector - property and construction / lifestyle

69 Magazine - 'We Love' Section - May 2009

Editorial - regional magazine (Northwest and Midlands, readership 300,000)
Sector - Lifestyle

Eminence Group

Flyer
Sector - Lifestyle

Live From Liverpool

Press Release
Sector - Leisure / Lifestyle
Writer credits - company name and copy

Some might think that Liverpool had its heyday in the 1960’s. Others believe that the place was never the same before Cream. Well now, whatever your taste, you can experience the best of both worlds courtesy of LiveFromLiverpool.

Second Life is a global phenomenon. It attracts eight and a half million users globally, every day. LiveFromLiverpool have created this city, within Second Life and made it the most visited city in the whole of this virtual world. LiveFromLiverpool have cherry picked the very best that Liverpool has to offer, so virtual tourists from all over the globe can get closer than ever before to the Liverpool experience.

And this isn’t a website. It is an experience. There are art galleries, bars, luxury apartments for sale (even in virtual reality nobody buys plain old flats any more). They are all built to scale and ready to be explored.

You can buy clothing for your virtual self - and the same for you actual self, as long as the shopkeeper has an e-commerce sight linked up – and this is the driving force. Money makes the virtual world go around as well.

Visitors to LiveFromLiverpool buy Beatles merchandise, pay to attend gigs in The Barfly and see their favourite DJs at Cream. LiveFromLiverpool are already clocking up around 200,000 visitor minutes every day so the opportunities for local organisations are huge.

69 Magazine - 'We Love' Section - Feb09

Editorial - regional magazine (Northwest and Midlands, readership 300,000)
Sector - Fashion / Lifestyle

Corinthian Furniture

Brochure
Sector - Lifestyle

Handcrafting the Heart of the Home
At Corinthian we design fine quality kitchens and furniture to the unique specifications of each individual client, using only the best materials.

Based in the North West of England, our team of experienced cabinet makers design and build each piece of furniture on-site in our workshop. The same team of craftsmen go on to hand-paint and fit every kitchen, ensuring unparalleled standards of service and the highest quality finish.