Getting your money back.

Most new property investors are aware of the need to buy BMV (below market value) but many are not prepared for the additional costs that can come out of the woodwork just when you think its all done. Its not only the usual things like Solicitor, stamp duty, mortgage fee but if you are providing a furnished property then bed, sofa, furniture, and perhaps a microwave to reduce the wear and tear on the cooker, also unexpected things like travel and hotels if the property is a long distance from where you live and you need to visit it.

I have been investigating ways to not only get the lowest possible price for this additional expenditure but also get a percentage of your money back once the item has been purchased. My method is simply this:

1/ Use a price comparison site such as Pricerunner or Kelkoo to compare prices and establish the lowest cost retailer.
2/ Use a cash back referrer site such as Rpoints to get up to 10% of your low cost purchase refunded.
3/ Pay for the item with a cash back credit card (Amex Platinum and MorganStanley offer up to 3% for the first 3 months)

Obviously you need to exercise some common sense, don't buy an item you don't really need or use a more expensive retailer just to get the referral points. Identify the item, make sure you've got the lowest price, then see if you can obtain any cash back.

Bottom line is that it is good business sense if you have to buy the item to get the lowest price you can achieve.

Completing the Mortgage Application -Yawn

We received a pack for the application for the mortgage on Adelaide Wharf last Saturday and I've been putting off doing it because even though they make it as simple as possible its still a lot of digging to find out all the pieces of information they need to make the offer.

The documents to be completed included
1/ Mortgage application form
2/ Proof of Id (photo id such as passports or drivers licence)
3/ 2 * proof of current address (bit difficult as most of my utilities bills are online these days)
4/ Fee agreement
5/ B2Let fact find
6/ Terms of business letter.

Finally got it off today after ringing round Savills and Serliana for some help with the finer points of some of the questions..

A lot of stuff of in the press lately regarding mortgage interest rates. It seems that opinion is divided, one lot saying get a fixed rate at any costs and another lot saying stick with the variable rate as the interest rate will come down over the next year or so, so don't tie yourself in to high fixed. I will probably go with the variable, just hope I don't regret it!