R&L Properties – which made up part of Robert Tchenguiz’s business empire – was placed into administration in January of this year.

The 126 pubs, which are located mainly across the north of the UK – with 76 in Scotland, 10 in England’s north west and 12 in the north east – are being sold by Christie & Co.

The majority of the pubs for sale – which were mainly acquired from Enterprise Inns and Scottish & Newcastle – are listed as being ‘investments with long-term tenants in place,’ although a few of them are vacant.

Director at Christie & Co, James Shorthouse, said, “The almost exclusively freehold R&L portfolio includes many successful, high volume outlets located across the UK, including city centre bars, community pubs and destination inns.

“We know these will be attractive both to PubCo investors, attracted by the geographical spread and high quality of the pubs, and to tenants looking to make the transition to owning their freehold,” he added.

In 2009, 421 Tchenguiz pubs were sold to Heineken in a pre-pack deal following the receivership of Tchenguiz’s Globe Pub Company.

See more UK leisure businesses for sale. Download the pub for sale prospectus.

Mortgages are increasingly hard to come by, especially for first time buyers who struggle to scrape together the growing deposits necessary to secure one. As a result of this, the average age of an unassisted first time buyer is now 37.

It’s not surprising that landlords are seeing the dollar signs in front of their eyes in light of this news. However, caution is wise when thinking about becoming a landlords and let property insurance is an absolute must.

According to new research, many people think that landlords are able to ask tenants to leave with just a month’s notice. It is worth remembering that this isn’t the case and that two months notice must be provided. This is done by issuing a Section 21 notice.

As a landlord, you are not allowed to come and go as you please from your property when it is let. It is amazing how many landlords think they have the right to enter their property when they choose. In fact, the law stipulates that landlords must acquire the tenant’s permission before entering the premises. This permission must also be sought with at least 24 hours notice, so no last minute phone calls from the front door!

As a landlord, it is worth bearing in mind that if a tenant does not pay their rent, they can only be evicted through the courts if the eviction is happening before the end of a fixed-term tenancy. The process usually takes around four to five months.

It is clear that becoming a landlord does not come without risks. These can be minimised with a good landlord insurance policy.

There are several stages to the process but they centre around analysing where spending can be cut and where spending needs to increase in order to gain ‘quick wins’.  These enhance how your business looks on paper and help you optimise the business’ strength in order to fetch the highest possible sale price.  Profitability is important when selling a business. Therefore, do what it takes to show that your business can make money for the prospective buyer, and you never know, you may even reap the benefits in the short-term as well. Once you are confident that the value of your business has been maximised, the next step is to seek the help of a solicitor or an accountant who can advise on the most appropriate valuation technique to use for your business. Marketing the business as up for sale is the next step and listing your business in a ‘businesses for sale’ publication can be an effective way to target genuine prospective buyers saving you time and money.

The drop in sign-ups is partly due to prospective sellers concerns about the lack of buyers with access to funds. And fewer buyers means lower transaction values.

Carl Cusano of the New York Business Brokers Association offers the following advice to sellers: “If you’re serious about selling, you have to consider seller financing because the banks aren’t handing money out as they were in years past.”

Cusano added that business brokers were feeling the pinch across the US and he knew several that were about to go to the wall.

Businesses for sale website bizbuysell.com have reported a 20% reduction in the number of completed transactions in the last quarter of 2008.

Across the pond in the United Kingdom, Business-sale.com, the leading provider of information on medium to large businesses for sale, also reports a downturn in transactions as reported by buyers.

Information director, Robert Moore, said that it is hard to get a real fix on the industry figures because so many deals are private and there is a reticence to divulging transaction details in the UK.

But Moore said, “this is a remarkable period of opportunity for many entrepreneurs. There are low interest rates and low inflation forecasts. Hundreds of businesses are going under because they simply cannot service their debt commitments, even though their underlying fundamental business is sound. Smart operators with cash are mopping up, buying these distressed business and either paying off the debtors or using a pre-pack administration order to create a clean company.

“They are left with some great businesses producing returns far in excess of what is achievable on the stock market or in bonds or other savings accounts.

Here are my resolutions:

Update the business plan and forecasts
Transfer the plan from Excel to one of the cool new web-based, multi-user business plan wikis like planhq.com
Re-evalulate short, medium and long term personal and business objectives. Make sure they synchronise!
Trim unnecessary expenses
Really focus on our competitive advantage
Buy a business – there are are some real opportunities in distressed business sales right now

What are yours?