About Suzanne Smith

Hello there!

I’m Suzanne Smith, aka The Independent Landlord, or indie_landlord on social media. If you’re looking advice and insights about investing in property, you’ve come to the right place!

My experience as a lawyer and landlord

I’m a landlord with a portfolio of Victorian houses in Maidstone, which I manage and let myself. Also, I’m an Accredited Landlord Member of the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA). For more information on my property portfolio, see my other website, Suzanne Smith Properties.

Before becoming a landlord, I qualified as a solicitor in a City law firm in 1994, and worked as a business lawyer in the life sciences industry for 25 years, reaching the level of General Counsel and Company Secretary of a listed company.

When I left the corporate world to get more balance in my life after turning 50, I needed to earn an independent income. So I decided to decided to invest in property and started out as a landlord.

As well as being a landlord and a qualified solicitor, I have an MBA, and spent many years advising management teams on creating successful and sustainable businesses.

During my legal career, I saw how successful businesses have the needs of their customers at the heart everything they do.

It’s no different for landlords. We also need to have the interests of our customers at the centre of what we do, our renters. Being a good landlord is good business. Even when times are difficult.

This approach is also part of being ethical, and I was delighted when I was accepted as an official member of Ethical Influencers in April 2023. Click here to find out what being an Ethical Influencer means. Here’s my profile on Ethical Influencers.

I’m also a member of the Landlord Leaders Community, which is a membership group of individuals and organisations organised by lender OSB Group, focused on creating a fairer and more sustainable private rented sector.

The Independent Landlord’s mission and publishing principles

I set up this blog in August 2022 with a mission to provide free, reliable, independent tips and advice about both practical and legal topics that affect landlords and property related businesses. The sort of things I wish I’d been able to find out about when I first started.

I’ve been blown away by the success of my blog since then. I think it’s because landlords are looking for independent, reliable, high quality content, during what is a huge period of change for the private rented sector.

The advice and insights I share on The Independent Landlord are well-researched and impartial. The fact I’m not part a lettings agency and am not looking for investors or mentees, means landlords and property businesses can be assured that the advice I share is independent. There’s no ulterior motive; I do it to pay forward and help other landlords.

I write all of the content on this website and I do not accept guest posts on The Independent Landlord. Here is a link to my Affiliate Policy.

Subscribe to The Independent Landlord newsletter

I send out a free weekly newsletter on Friday mornings to over 1,500 subscribers, who are a mix of property investors, landlords, lawyers, estate agents, service providers and mortgage brokers. It has an open rate of over 60%.

As well as including links to any new content on the website, there’s an exclusive news round-up that I don’t publish anywhere else. In the news round-up, I share what caught my eye in the week, and why it matters to property investors. I also include the latest on the Renters Reform Bill.

I’ve got a good track record of flagging things before the larger property websites. I guess is an advantage of being a one-person band, and writing the newsletter first thing on the day it goes out.

If you’d like to sign up, you can subscribe by clicking here. I won’t spam you and don’t pass on any email addresses. You’ll also receive my free Manual for New Landlords ebook in your welcome email.

Follow indie_landlord on social media

The alter ego of The Independent Landlord on social media is indie_landlord.

Here are direct links to indie_landlord on Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest.

I post regularly on Instagram and Twitter. Every blog post usually has a pin on Pinterest. I also post and comment regularly on LinkedIn under my actual name, Suzanne Smith.

You can click here for the story about how indie_landlord came about.

Supporting The Independent Landlord

All my content is free, even the newsletter. There’s no catch. I run the blog on a shoe-string and do it all myself, from the building of the website to the on-going SEO and content creation.

It’s a deliberate decision of mine to bring no-strings, reliable information free of charge to property investors. Running this blog is my part of helping others in what are challenging times in the private rented sector. I also enjoy it enormously.

Although the website is entirely free, you can support The Independent Landlord in a couple of ways. However, there’s no obligation. I don’t have Google ads on the website as I find them a bit creepy and distracting. I do have some affiliate links for specific products and services that I think are useful and high quality. If you buy something after clicking on an affiliate link, you’ll be supporting the website as I’ll receive a small commission.

Another way of supporting the website is to make a small contribution towards the running costs of this website via my Buy Me a Coffee page. 😊

Creating content and providing training for businesses

Although all of my content on this website is free, I do charge businesses if they would like me to write content for them or provide training to their team or customers.

I offer a range of bespoke content creation and training services for property-related businesses. To find out more, click through to my Q&A on collaborations and my policy on quoting The Independent Landlord. You can also contact me direct here.

*****

I hope you enjoy the The Independent Landlord!

Thank you.

Suzanne

PropertyHub September 2022 feature article