Bulgaria Ski discussion board

Kellie, I share your feelings on furniture packs, but also hear what Welshy is saying. A poster on another threaad on this site recommended "Furniture Box", i don't know them. When in Bansko a few weeks ago looking for furniture etc. we were quite impressed with Creative Interiors 75 Pirin St. junction of Glazne st.([email protected]) and will prob use them. One piont though, they did warn us that the people we bought our property from would not list our appartment for bookings if we didn't buy their furniture pack, but we , like you, did not like the rip=off price selling agent wanted to charge, so will prob go with C.I. and do our own bookings.

Good luck.
As for totally doing it yourself, remember delivery time is about 6 weeks for kitchen units and they will just turn up with it. Although I am a property developer in UK i will use the Bansko firm to project manage fitting out kitchen etc.

Ian

Thats exactly my concern - them not listing you and doing it all yourself will take a lot of time & hassle & I value my free time. Imagine customers turn up and your cleaner is off sick you have to rearrange it or if she quits etc what do you do? Its all issues that using the developer to manage it are fully absorbed.


Kelley - with regard to you popping over there to buy the items then another trip to await delivery of the white goods & kitchen units & weight issues of carrying tools for the fitting in you apt (or you buy them out there). And also what do you do if the delivery is delayed and you have booked your tickets at the cheapest price (and that usually means a 0% refund if you caairsncel).
Please take the advice as it is exceptionally difficult to manage even a small things over a long distance.

I have enough trouble managing my buy to lets in the UK all which are well within 1/2 a mile!!! Arranging taking time off work for deliveries, time off work for the Annual gas cert rolling repairs. To be honest its getting to the stage now that as I have so little free time its worth paying a letting agent in the UK the 12% to full manage it for you.

Again good luck in what you decide to do - and please stop the abusive name calling this is an advice site if you dont like what your hearing its worryig as you seem only prepared to accept a good news outlook and cannot contemplate the opposite.

Finally FYI I had just shy of 70% occupancy level 1st Dec - 31st Mar 08 and have this morning just received the rent from the agent associated with this period. Pleased with that + its boosted by the strong Euro to the £

Welshy, Good to swap pionts of view with you. I too have B-to-l in uk and all within 2 to 3 miles from home. infact this purchase broke my golden rule of "buy on the doorstep" for all the resons you mentioned.

While in Bansko the other week we met a management agent, an English couple, who for very resonable cost would look after cleaning and key change over, even at 3 am. I personaly asked that as i think WiZZ air have a lot to offer but land at SOF at 2355

Another poster on this bb recomended "Backup" (there are others), however my son (19) has just spent the season in Bansko and the management agent for the property they stayed in was useless, (no elec for 3 days because bill not paid, water cut off for same reason, swimming pool empty for entire time etc.) so it's a case of ask around i guess, and that's why i think a bb like this is useful.

We met a couple with 2 teenagers who owned in Bansko and enjoyed 70% occupancey this season, letting thru there developer BGhomes/ Balkan Holidays (I think), they had to rent an hotel for this visit as their flat was let (school Easter hols), so that's hopefull.

Our properties in St Ivan are not finished yet (should have been Dec07, but that's builders ) should now be about August (ish), so the jury is still out on the way to go.

As you have mentioned, we had thought of "binning " the cash already paid as opposed to chucking good money after bad, it is a bitter pill to swallow, but it has to be considered seriously given present economic conditions, lets face it, anyone renting in Bansko is going to face tough competition given the massive supply and downturn in economic conditions, already invetors are turning away from retail in fear of forthcoming personal cashflow squeeze. I must try and find a way to advertise in Greek!!

As a piont of interest, who is your developer/ letting agent?(if you choose not to say, i understand).
Good Luck to all, times could get difficult.
Ian

All,

We have an apartment in Bansko and are more than happy. We are getting a good return in rentals through our developers. They control and pay for our place 6 months of the year.
We opted out of their furniture package as it was too expensive and cheap looking. However in hindsight I wish I had stayed with them.
Reasons being, if its their stuff they can maintain it and because its semi corporate they may even take more care of it. Laundry etc we got around by buying their stuff and then bringing home the laundry supplied by the package we ended up going with.
Another problem was our developer and our furniture people didnt get on together. This meant they used each other to blame for delays. Delays that cost me money.
The furniture package was from orpheus who I warn everybody to stay away from. They are dishonest and cannot be trusted. I have had to swallow my loss with them but have a learnt a few lessons.
Kellie, I have had many doubts along the way in this venture, but I can honestly say I am glad we invested, and one way or the other we will get from our flat all we wanted in the first place.

Thanks for the insight, it certainly keeps coming up that the developers don't want to work with outside furniture people, Creative Interiors warned of this and more or less said that if we were intending to rent through MRI we would be wasting everyone's time buying anything other than MRI's furniture pack.

Whether we can rent out the appartments independentley as successufully as the developers can, is the question.

I don't think i would go around buying the furniture, inc kitchen, independently, for many reasons like brakage replacement as well as delivery and instalation. However I am tempted to use an independent packager after visiting them, and save a couple of grand. That does however seem to mean that we will have to rent independentley useing a management firm like Bamro.

The insight to other peoples experience is greatfully received and i would be good to read that of others.

Cheers Ian

Hi just like to comment on Bansko, we bought two years ago in a complex called mountain view, we looked at all the buiding going on everywhere, but that did not put us of. We bought a small studio of about 38 meters for our use but try and rent to. The furniture package is a rip of its a case of lots of greedy companys all trying to make loads of cash knowing its only a short time to make cash. But its a long time investment so dont worry kelley, when bansko is fully developed then the property will give you a good return, dont listen to welshy he is just full of gloom and doom, enjoy what you have got and sell in 10 years tim. Good luck to you!

Steve Im talking reality.
Not every investment turns out good - some turn out to be worthless some hardly show any growth above inflation and some make a fortune.

To invest while only seeing it from a 1 way angle is naive - maybe thats due to the property boom in the UK over the last 10 years when nothing has dropped.

I always say never put your eggs into one basket - but was concerned to hear the Kelleyhad used all of her savings and re mortgaged to get this place, to me that sounds like most of the eggs. If it works out well then we will all reap the rewards - but conversly what do we do if it doesnt?

I do have my eggs put over many baskets so in reality if it does go belly up it wont bankrupt me - for sure like anyone else I'd be angry but then just move on.

With any investment it has to make money else why invest - if its a home thats a different issue but even then noone want to p*ss money down the drain as in that case it could be cheaper to rent when ever you fancy going.

Clearly I have a vested interest for things to go well - but am keeping my sensible hat on.
We all see those holiday home nightmare shows on TV - being naive has cost those poor people big time some their life savings.