House Dressing

I went to the Park Central apartment again yesterday and spoke to Andrew Kay from Arkade Properties. He gave us some useful tips about making the property seem a bit more attractive in order to distingush it from the others that were being let.














We rearranged the furniture and added some simple touches like cushions, bowls and lightshades over the bare lightbulbs.














In the kitchen area we added some tea towels, cups, bowls, tea, coffee, sugar pots etc















In the bedroom we put some pillows and sheets on the bed and added a bedside table lamp















It made a quite a difference and it certainly looks a lot more "homely" now!

Currently being let by:
Arkade Property - Danni 0121 236 9918
Stirling Akroyd Lindsay 0121 616 3535
City Life - Farhad 0121 456 3334
Fleetmilne - Ben 0121 643 6996

Take The Virtual Tour of the Park Central Apartment

Park Central

Had a good look round the Park Central property today. Its just off Bath Row near the Five ways roundabout in Birmigham city centre. Approx 5 minutes walk to the nearest railway station, about 10 minutes to the main Birmingham New Street Station and about 5 minutes to Broad Street for entertainment and shops. The property is accessed through this pretty impressive door (Well it took me ages to find the right key!). It is on the first floor and has an entry phone which is a nice security feature and there is a lift close to the apartment door.















The first room I went in was the kitchen. It is very modern and has a decent size cooker, a washing machine/dryer, plenty of cupboard space and power points.

and a very large fridge freezer!

The lounge itself is functional and simple but I guess that you have to be careful not to impose your own standards on potential customers, I like to think of it as a "Blank Canvas" :-) It also has a well locked entrance on to the balacany

Next I went in the bathroom (just for a look!) there is a wc, a separate shower and bath and a wash basin with a heated towel rail

Next the I went into the bedroom, like the lounge it is quite simple but functional, it has the bed, a set of drawers and a large wardrobe.

I also went out on the balacany for a look round, its quite secure, not overlooked by any larger buildings and as the end apartment its not sandwiched between anyone elses balacany.

Currently being let for me by Four letting agencies

• Arkade Property - Danni 0121 236 9918
• Stirling Akroyd Lindsay 0121 616 3535
• City Life - Farhad 0121 456 3334
• Fleetmilne - Ben 0121 643 6996

Getting paid for paying the bills

One of the things that I learned during the whole Park Central property buying process was that you are regularly asked for quite large amounts of money! Not only for the property purchase itself but for the various sundries that accompany it. Solicitors fees -£1200, Brokers fees £600, Furniture - £900, Blinds - £250 etc.

I decided that I would use my credit cards to extend the amount of time before I had to pay the money and so increase the amount of interest before I had to retrieve the money from my savings account. Then I came across the website run by Martin Lewis called www.moneysavingexpert.com Martin suggested a way to generate extra cash by getting 2 particular credit cards: MorganStanley (Mastercard) and Conran (Visa).

These are 2 of the best moneyback credit cards on the UK market today and should pay back between 0.5%-3% of your total credit card purchases. Its not a fortune but if you have to spend the money anyway why not get a couple of hundred pounds a year back for what you would have to have spent anyway!