Local Sign Shop Near me

Tips To Help You Find Suitable Insurance

Source: Flickr

You are interested in learning more about insurance. With so much information available on the Internet, it is hard to narrow down what is legitimate and what is trash. In this article we will provide you with high quality tips and tricks that may just work for you.

Insurance is easy to find, no matter where you look. There are several options available and many times you can get several types with one company. This can save you so much money. The more policies you hold with one company, the more you will save on all your insurance needs.

Bundle your home owner’s or renter’s insurance with your car insurance and you should save on overall costs. Don’t buy insurance “a la carte.” Most major insurance companies will offer significant cost-savings when you bundle different insurance policies under their umbrella. Shop around for the best deals and then make your purchase from one provider.

If you rent a home or an apartment, it is always important to get your own renter’s insurance. Even if a landlord has home insurance, it doesn’t mean that you will receive compensation for your things. In many cases, the insurance your landlord carries only covers the building and immediate property, not what you had inside.

Repeat after me: you must always read the fine print when signing an insurance policy. In an insurance transaction, you typically will have to sign a large number of papers containing thousands of words in tiny print. You need to read – and understand – these forms before you sign any insurance policy. Do not allow the agent to blow through the forms and simply sign at the several places marked with an X. If you don’t understand the fine print, you will likely regret your purchase decision down the line.

Accidents are extremely unpredictable, and that’s why they’re called accidents. Whether we’re speaking about car insurance, home insurance or health insurance, having proper coverage is a must in an unpredictable world.

If you’re suddenly ill or injured while outside your country, will your health insurance allow you the leeway to determine whether, or how, you will get back home for treatment or surgery? To be abroad with a medical emergency is scary enough. Make it a priority to look through your health insurance policy and choose one that will cover your trip back home in the event of a health emergency.

To really price shop for insurance you need to get quotes from different sources of information. The Internet may seem easiest, but it may also be stacked towards a handful of providers. Also consult a local independent agent with some personal connections and relationships. There’s also no shame in making a few phone calls. These options may turn up numbers and leads that a website server won’t give you.

In summary, there is a lot of information on the Internet to sort through and determine what is legitimate. Hopefully you not only found this resource useful but you learned something new about insurance. With the tips that we provided and some self motivation, you should not be far off from being an expert.

Avoiding Credit Card Fraud

Source: Flickr

Imagine the following situations:

Someone rummages through your rubbish to find discarded receipts and then uses your account numbers illegally.

A shop keeper keeps a copy of your credit or debit card and then uses it to pay for other transactions.

A mailing asks you to call a long distance number to claim a free prize. You are told to provide your account number to sign up. You do so and are billed for transactions you never made.

Credit card fraud is a huge industry costing consumers and card issuers hundreds of millions of pounds each year. It is a form of theft that is much more discrete than traditional robbery. While it is difficult to completely prevent card fraud from occurring, there are steps you can take to minimize your chances of becoming a victim.

Guard Against Fraud

Here are some tips you can take to help protect yourself from card fraud.

Do:

Sign the back of your cards as soon as they arrive.
Carry your cards separately from your wallet.

Keep your account numbers, expiry dates and company phone numbers and addresses in a safe place.

Watch your card while it is out of your sight during a transaction and seek to get it back quickly.

Destroy incorrect receipts and all carbons.

Compare receipts with your monthly billing statements.

Open your bills and reconcile your account monthly.

Report suspicious activity or charges promptly and in writing to your card issuer.

Notify your card issuer in advance of a change of address.

Don’t:

Lend your card to anyone.

Leave your cards or your receipts lying around where others might find them.

Sign blank receipts. If there are blank spaces on a receipt, draw a line through them.

Write your account number on the outside of an envelope or on a postcard.

Give your account number over the phone, unless you have made a call to a company you trust. If you have a question regarding a company, check it out with your local consumer protection office.

Report Losses and Fraud

If your card is stolen or lost, report this immediately to the issuer immediately. Many companies have free emergency numbers specifically for such calls. By law, you have no further responsibility for unauthorized charges once you have reported it. Calling quickly will reduce your liability for unauthorised charges, and will help the card issuer to catch the fraudster or block the transactions, making life harder for the crooks.

Share this:

• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Home Owner And Car Insurance Quote

Are you looking for both a home owner and car insurance quote? There’s good news! Many insurance companies specialize in offering both homeowner insurance policies and car insurance policies.

Below are three reasons why you should get a quote your home owner insurance policy and car insurance policy from the same insurance company.

You won’t have to deal with as many people as you would if you used two different insurance companies. This may sound antisocial, but it’s actually not. If you have one insurance agent who can take care of both your home owner and car insurance policies, you’ll be less likely to get confused; and, if you do get confused about one or both of your policies, you’ll only have to contact one insurance agent to straighten things out for you.

You’ll have less paperwork to deal with. This goes right along with the above reason. If you do all of your business with one insurance company, you’re obviously going to have less forms to read through and sign. This also reduces the risk of signing papers dealing with your home owner insurance policy when you mean to sign papers dealing with your car insurance policy. Plus, your single insurance agent will keep you organized!

Discounts, discounts, discounts! Most insurance companies that offer multiple kinds of insurance policies, such as home owner insurance policies and car insurance policies, offer discounts to those policyholders who purchase more than one kind of insurance policy. Aside from getting insurance policies that offer the exact coverage you and your family needs, what can beat getting a few discounts along the way?

When you set out to look for an insurance company that offers both home owner and car insurance quotes, don’t settle on the first one you find. Do some research: check out their ratings, talk to friends, family members, and co-workers who use the insurance company. Shop smart and begin saving!

Web Hosting In Layman’s Terms

Source: Flickr

A web hosting company is like the gateway to having your website published on the Internet. Without a hosting company, it would be very costly and nearly impossible to have a website. There are many reasons people want to have a website of their own. Some of these reasons include wanting a business, showcasing and teaching hobbies or wanting to share information with those in the worldwide community.

More and more traditional businesses are realizing that it is important to have a website to complement their business. Many customers turn to the web for information before they will visit a traditional shop. Websites and traditional businesses are a lot alike in the way they are set up. Once you understand the basics of business, then you will understand how web-hosting works.

When you think of a web-hosting company, it is a lot like a real-estate agent. When you want to open a shop in the traditional sense, you see a real-estate agent, find a suitable shop, sign some forms that say you agree to the rental terms and conditions, then you are given the key to your shop. Once you have the key to your shop, you can begin setting up your business just the way you like it.

Web-hosting companies are a lot like that. They require you to sign up and agree to terms and conditions. Once you have signed up, you are provided with your “keys” or login information to access your own piece of cyber space. With the login information, you can then begin to upload or transfer the things you need to make your website viable, whether it is data or pictures.

Another thing that you will need from a web hosting company is an address. Just like a conventional business, you will need a way for your customers to find you. These addresses are known as domain names and always begin with www. The important thing to remember about a domain name is that, if you don’t pay a yearly fee on it, it could get sold to someone else.

Web-hosting companies also provide their customers with email access from their website, a lot like having your own fax machine or message bank in a traditional business setting. Email servers will allow you to communicate and receive information or requests from customers or people interested in getting more information about your website.

For businesses, web-hosting companies can also provide Eftpos facilities or a place for your customers to order goods or services from your website. Customers can pay on the spot and the website owner can have the goods or service delivered to them.

If you were planning to rent a building for your business, you would want to shop around and not take the first place that you saw or go with the first real estate agent you spoke with. Web-hosting companies are the same. There are thousands of different companies out there and each one varies in price and in the services that they provide. The cheapest hosting company is not always best for your business.

Signs -Ultimate Sales Tools

Source: Flickr

A well-designed signage program can instantly and effectively communicate the style, professionalism and overall presence of your business, it conveys to people who you are, where you are and what you do.
Vehicle signs are one of the most cost-effective advertising tools available to maximize the potential of your business. With unique and effective design, your shop car becomes a moving billboard and connects with your customers in a way that no other advertising medium can. It sends the message to potential customers that your company is expert and professional and is also established and reputable. Vehicle advertising is long lasting and works 365 days a year.
Exterior and interior signs are also important marketing assets in promoting your business and enhancing its representation. How your directional and informational signs are presented and function together with attractive storefront or forecourt signage are important to a positive customer shopping experience which will in turn create more sales and leads.
Advertising banners and displays can be used to announce new products, promote special events, advertise sales, generate excitement or attract and motivate customers.
One of the initial things to do when choosing a sign company is to find one that specializes in the sort of sign you want. Although the majority of companies will not refer to any specialty in their advertising, many will actually be mainly proficient at making a certain type of sign. You will often find faster turnaround and better pricing when working with such a company.
Working with people who are on the whole informed about the details surrounding a given project can significantly impact the type of signs that are created. If you are not using your own designer, you may want to think about the completed projects of graphic designers working at the sign company. This may well be your best investment.

Out door Sign

Many business organizations that needs to disseminate late-breaking information to a large number of people. Out door sign boards are the perfect solution for them that command the attention of all who pass underneath.
Out door sign boards utilize LED lights, which is immensely more efficient and brighter than standard incandescent lighting. Fluorescent lamps give off heat as a waster by-product, while out door sign boards do not. In fact, they are considered a “cold light” technology, which means that all of the energy going to the lamp is directed to making light, without any wasted heat. Out door sign boards are thus very energy efficient as well as very bright.
Traffic management system, passenger information system, advertising, public notices, health and safety, time and temperature displays, company promotion are some the areas where outdoor sign boards are used most efficiently.
The out door sign boards come in multi-lingual and in one line, bi-line or multi-line versions up to around 40 characters per line, which one colour, two colours or multi colours options and full colours in addition.
Out door sign boards are connected to local power supply and can switch on and off automatically at pre-programmed times. The specially used “anti-reflective acrylic” allows the displays to be read clearly by passers-by, even through a shop window on a sunny day. These sign boards can be mounted anywhere and manufacturing department of Jayex Technology also takes very much attention on the buyers need for mounting the sign board and its related accessories.
These out door sign boards are easy to set up and operate as they can be operated remotely, they allow the outlet to simply and clearly present the content; these contents are changeable and/or updateable.
Dynamic presentation of information, effective public communications, rapid and easy updating of information, enhancing company image, low maintenance are the features provided by the leading manufacturer of Outdoor sign boards – Jayex Technology, a pioneer company in manufacturing LED signs even offers customized options all along having large range of out door signs.

Spousal Support

Source: Flickr

Couples who run home based businesses together can enjoy big benefits, but all marriages pack a potential for problems. Add a homebased business partnership to the mix, and sparks can fly. Scott Gregory and Shirley Siluk Gregory, co-authors of The Home Team: How Couples Can Make a Life and Living by Working at Home (Panda Publishing, $22.95, 888-447-2632), say to avoid these five potential traps to help both your marriage and your business thrive:
Misplaced priorities. Your relationship should always take priority over your business. If the company becomes more important than your marriage, you could be headed for big trouble.
Overworking. It takes hard to work to make a business succeed, but be sure to take time for non- work activities.
Poor communication. Couples must talk openly and frequently about issues affecting the marriage, home and business. It helps if partners clearly define family and business roles, divvying both up fairly to avoid hurt feelings.
Forgetting the big picture. It’s easy to get bogged down in the crisis du iour. Couples must agree on goals for both family and business.
Conflicting personality styles. Diverging points of view can bring creativity and growth to both marriage and business. Think of your differences as opportunities, not roadblocks, and you’ll find working together to iron them out brings great rewards
Something To Hide
While homebased businesses have mushroomed in recent years, some clients still question the professionalism of a homebased office. So should you reveal you’re homebased?
It depends. In many cases, the nature of the business determines whether you should trumpet your homebased status. Customers also play a role: Consumers tend to be less concerned about working with homebased firms, while large companies may find it disturbing. Beatriz T. Halbert, co-owner of The Sequoia Group Inc., an Atlanta facility operations and maintenance company, worked from home for three years. During that time, she never revealed her company’s location. ,”My research indicated [my clients] were interested in outsourcing to small companies, but they were uncomfortable outsourcing to a [homebased business],” Halbert says. Parents of young children often find revealing the nature of their site is unavoidable. “Clients may call when a child is nagging me, so I always tell them I have a home office,” says Judith Lederman, owner of TSL Publicity and Marketing Inc. in Irvington, New York. Many entrepreneurs take the middle ground. “The larger businesses I work for mayor may not know I work from home,” says Pam Paris, owner of Paris Graphics, a computer graphic design firm in Hanover, Maryland. “I don’t hide it, but if it doesn’t come up, I don’t broadcast it, either. “
Card Tricks
You’ve already paid for them, and they don’t do any good stashed in a drawer. Here are some ways to capitalize on your business cards: Post your business cards anywhere they’re allowed-libraries, colleges, supermarkets. Get creative with your cards. If you’re a private eye, for instance, how about slipping them between the pages of books in the local law library?
Never pass up a chance to pass out your cards. Whenever you pay for gas or make a purchase in store, if you think the salesperson could use your product or service or might know someone who could, give him or her your card. -Include business cards when you pay bills by mail. You never know whether the person opening your bill might need your service. You can benefit from potential customers’ business cards, too. Here’s how: Contact a local restaurant or business that complements yours. Ask if you can place a fishbowl near the cash register. (If necessary, barter your service or product in exchange.) Post a sign on the fishbowl inviting customers to drop in their business cards to be included in a weekly (or daily) drawing for a prize. If you run a catering service, for example; the grand prize winner could get 50 percent off a catered dinner party. Offer 15 percent off the first order to anyone who enters. Once you collect the cards, start calling to remind participants about the discount.

5 Tips for Buying Custom Vinyl Decals Online

It’s never been easier to purchase custom vinyl decals and other types of custom signage. From custom wall lettering and magnetic signs to boat lettering and registration numbers, you can design your own signage or have a team of designers do it for you with a few simple clicks of the mouse. Here are five tips for buying vinyl graphics online:

1. Look for Versatility

A good online custom sign shop should be able to fill a variety of types of orders. When it comes to custom vinyl decals, for example, they should provide everything from auto decals and bumper stickers to rear window decals and custom wall graphics. Using a full-service online sign company will enable you to get all of your signage needs met, including those for custom signs, custom banners, vehicle lettering, and digital decals.

2. Timeliness is Key

The most reputable online sources for custom signage will make a commitment to providing the fastest on-demand printing at the best prices. An online sign shop should be able to ship your order within three days of your acceptance of the final proof. For large orders, the shop should be willing to give you a shipping date and work with you to accommodate your needs.

3. Guarantees are a Must

There are many inferior products in the marketplace, so the sign shop you choose should stand behind what they sell. Although the lifespan of custom vinyl decals and other signage can shortened by adverse weather conditions, you should receive at least a limited one-year warranty against peeling, fading, or failure.

4. Simple Design Steps

The sign company you select should make it easy for you to design your own custom vinyl decals. They should have a friendly user interface that you can use to enter text and choose options like fonts, sizing, spacing, color, border, shadow, and other effects. You should also be able to upload your logo, images, and other graphic elements within the interface. As you’re creating your design, you should be able to preview it to make sure it’s exactly what you want.

5. Straightforward Installation

When you receive your custom vinyl decals, you should also receive easy-to-follow installation instructions. The best online companies provide you with some of the materials you need when your order exceeds $30 or so. Similarly, the company should provide you with instructions on how to remove custom vinyl decals, as well as how to care for your vehicle lettering.

Using custom vinyl decals and other forms of signage are a terrific way to advertise your business, express your personality while accessorizing your vehicle, and give friends and family members personalized gifts. Once you find a reputable sign company, you can take advantage of the latest technology and use their online tools to create your own masterpiece from the comfort of your home or office.

Intelliflix – The Online Dvd Rental Company To Avoid

I remember when signing up with Intelliflix for $188 a year thinking what a great deal I just gotten, and how much money I was saving compared to the competition. Intelliflix claims to have over sixty thousand movie titles, rent video games, and also rent adult titles. I sincerely doubt that they have anywhere close to sixty thousand movie titles, and they have recently suspended their online game rentals. They still claim to rent other movie titles, but a couple of movies every few months, and it hardly seems like they even do that anymore.

For the first couple of months I received movies regularly, but then they stopped sending me movies. I went almost sixty days with well over a hundred movies in my queue without receiving one movie! They do not provide a customer service number and you have to open tickets through their email system. Of course when you get a response it will be about hoe they understand your frustration and will try to do better, but they still do not send movies on any timetable that could be considered regular. I go weeks without getting movies. I requested a refund more than once, but they claim they cannot refund annual memberships for any reason whatsoever. If it was not past the ninety-day mark I would dispute it with my credit card company. I even emailed the President of the company who boasted about publishing his email so regular customers could contact him. I received no response.

I have recently joined two other Online DVD Rental companies to see which one would work for me. I only will join at a monthly rate; I learned my lesson with annual plans. They are both excellent companies and actually sent me movies, and carried a wide variety of titles.

First let us look at Blockbuster Online. They have a tremendous amount of movie and television tiles and always have the newest releases. I usually received my movies in one business day. They also allow you to turn in your movies at local Blockbuster stores and give you free in store movie rental coupons every month. Their site is easy to navigate, and they also offer a trial period at a reduced fee. I took advantage of this offer to try them out.

The second company Netflix has just about everything put on DVD available for rental and all the new releases. One unique option they have is instant viewing online, and they are adding new titles to this service every month. I usually get my movies in one to two days. They also recently announced they will be offering a new service to play movies directly to people’s televisions at home through the Internet in the near future. Their site also has easy navigation and they also have the American Film Institute all time movie list which is great for movie buffs.

In summary look around at all the plans available, and do not sign up for an annual plan. Avoid Intelliflix at all cost. Both Blockbuster and Netflix are great companies, but in the end I stayed with Blockbuster simply because of their speed in sending me movies.

Bulgarian Property Market Insight

The phenomenal interest in Bulgarian property shown by shrewd buyers during the last two years has been compounded by a sudden surge in golf course development.
At the present time there are only three golf courses in the whole of Bulgaria: one at Elin Pelin, near the capital, Sofia, and two owned by Air Sofia. These are located at Ihtiman, opened in 2000, 40km from Sofia, and at Sliven, opened in 2004, 90km from the Black Sea.
Because of the increasingly rapid rise in foreign interest in Bulgaria recently, several more golf courses are proposed. One of these will be located at Razgrad, in the north-east, about 90km from the Black Sea. More are scheduled to open in the next few years: two at Kavarna and one at Primorsko, near Sozopol.
Mountain and ski areas will be represented by a golf course in the ski town of Bansko this year, and a very large golf complex between Kostenets and Borovets, the country’s foremost ski resort. This is scheduled for 2007, the year of Bulgaria’s entry into the European Union, and will be located at Dolna Banya, already near Bulgaria’s first golf course at Ihtiman.
BulgariaProperties.net Ltd has purchased almost 6 acres of prime development land adjacent to the proposed golf course at Dolna Banya. The plans are to construct about 220 apartments around a comprehensive sports complex, with access to the golf course by a short footpath. The amenities on site are to include tennis, volleyball, squash, badminton, lawn bowls, boules (boccia), shooting, archery, croquet, mountain biking, and fishing nearby. Indoor facilities will include a 140-seat main restaurant and cabaret stage, a huge main bar (perhaps the largest in Bulgaria), a sports bar with projection TV, snooker, pool, table football, table tennis, a Chinese restaurant, Indian restaurant, fast food cafeteria, pizzeria, gymnasium, sauna, massage parlour, clinic, chemist, sports shop and minimarket.
Steve Avery, a Director of BulgariaProperties.net Ltd, said, “It may sound like a cliché, but we really were in the right place at the right time! After two years in this business, I just couldn’t believe my luck to find such a gem. Anyone involved in this project should make a serious return on their investment.”
On Borovets and Bansko generally, Steve had this to say: “Apart from having ski lifts and ski runs, these two towns are quite different from each other, and appeal to different groups of people. Bansko is an old, traditional residential town with lots of character and no fewer than 180 quaint taverns full of local people singing and dancing to a typical Bulgarian folk band. Borovets, by contrast, is purely a resort, with hotels, modern west European-style bars and night-clubs, cafés and restaurants. Residential property and holiday homes are therefore readily available in Bansko, but not in Borovets, where the closest you can get is usually in one of the surrounding villages.
‘As for property values, Bansko went mad for a period of three months at the end of 2003, with land prices doubling, and then calmed down. Many poor goatherders suddenly found that they were rich. Nothing wrong with that, I say. Since then values have been pretty steady there until now, when they’re starting to creep up again. The reason for this is that the sudden surge in foreign tourists to Bansko has left the supply of holiday accommodation woefully short of the demand. And this trend shows no sign of abating. To try to cope with it, there have sprung up many hotels and apartment projects, but it seems unlikely that even these will be able to satisfy the demand for accommodation for several years yet. As a result, the prices for such apartments range from 1,000 Euros per sq.m. for a ground-floor unit facing away from the mountains, to 1,350 Euros per sq.m. for a top-floor example with a mountain view. Yet, people buy them. I guess, because a 1 bedroom 60sq.m. apartment for £41,000 is still a far better deal than you’d get in Spain. I’ve heard developers claim that 90% of their apartments are sold within 3 weeks! I only hope that we have such luck when ours are released in April!
‘In this respect Borovets, again, is different. Although it’s Bulgaria’s first and best-known ski resort, it stagnated for years… until now. The ‘Super Borovets’ project, funded by EU, governmental, foreign and local business sources, is scheduled to run from 2005 to 2009, and will revitalise the whole region around the town to a radius of 10-12km. This has already started to affect property values in the surrounding areas. To give an example, in March 2004 we bought, unseen, a half-acre plot in a village 15km from Borovets. When I visited it, I discovered that it wasn’t suitable for building apartments; so, I put it on the market in August. By November it was sold at an 80% profit – after all costs were deducted!
‘I am personally of the opinion that the ‘Bansko effect’ could strike around Borovets at any moment. That’s the reason why BulgariaProperties.net Ltd is developing four projects here, and only two in Bansko. We can sell these apartments about 15% cheaper – at the moment, anyway. Borovets must surely offer a better return on investment, regardless of the type of property bought: land, a shack, whatever. You won’t find new apartments easily, though. As far as we know, BulgariaProperties.net Ltd is the only developer building them. I don’t, however, expect this monopoly to last for long.
‘Bulgaria’s third ski region is at Pamporovo, which, like Borovets, is purely a resort. Funding is starting to come in, but full development, if it happens at all, is likely to follow several years behind Borovets. Its distance from Sofia (a day’s drive) makes it less attractive to visitors from north and west Europe. It is, however, popular with Greeks, because of its proximity to the frontier. One of Bulgaria’s major motorway routes to Greece will pass very close to Pamporovo, and this should boost its popularity, as well as making the Mediterranean Sea more accessible.
‘Property values are lower here than in Bansko and Borovets, but are creeping up gradually. I reckon that Pamporovo is a good long-term prospect; say five to ten years. The only reason why BulgariaProperties.net Ltd has no developments here is because I’ll probably have retired before the boom happens.”
How does a mountain area investment compare with coastal properties?
“Significant differences yet again. Until recently, most of the investment was flooding into the northern Black Sea coast resorts, from Varna down to Sunny Beach. The area became very popular as a result of the Bulgarian government’s ‘Bulgaria the Beautiful’ TV campaign back in the ‘80s, and the subsequent interest of package tour operators. Now that the north is saturated with developments, the interest has begun to creep down the coast. This is causing a steep rise in property values. They are still lower than those in the north, but the gap is closing. An investment in the south should therefore offer a better ROI.
‘Don’t expect, though, the ambience of the south to become like that of the north. When I discussed the subject with the Chairman of the Bulgarian Foreign Investment Agency last year – an extremely intelligent and able young man, I must add – he told me in no uncertain terms that he did not want the south to become like the north. His very words were: “We don’t want another Benidorm.” So, prospective property purchasers need to bear this in mind, and balance their desire for more capital growth, or their willingness to accept less, with the different rental market appeal of the two regions, along with their own taste in holidays.
‘There is one highly significant factor, however, which very often goes unnoticed until it is too late; and it applies to the whole coast. Most people don’t know that it freezes on the coast in winter. When they see the coastal resorts basking in the hot summer sunshine, it’s difficult to imagine snow on the ground. The entire coast simply shuts down in the winter, and nothing happens. It’s a dead as a doornail. Therefore, rental income can be fairly assured for 15 weeks, possibly 20, plus some odd bits in the shoulder seasons of April and October. The coast has a five-month season from May to September, compared to nine months in the ski areas. Those people buying only for rental income, therefore, would find the mountains far more lucrative.
‘Rents vary greatly, and depend on many factors, most of which should be obvious: location, size, view, amenities. The standard of finish and the condition of the property can also determine your market quite radically. To appeal to west Europeans, and to command the highest rents, your property must be well finished and appointed, and be in tip-top condition. If it is not, you still have a market for east Europeans, who tolerate less salubrious surroundings because they pay much less, usually about half of the west European rates.
‘Generally, summer rental rates on the coast equate to winter rates in the ski resorts, both seasons being about five months. Remember that you also have about four months’ additional rent, though at lower rates, during the summer in the mountains. These rates should increase gradually, as the Government programmes to make the ski towns more popular for summer holidays make their mark.
‘There are several Bulgarian agencies willing to manage your rental properties for you. Expect to pay about 20% of the rent as a fee.”
What about properties in the countryside?
“Not a serious contender in the ROI stakes, I think. Not if you consider the effort involved. You can pick up property very cheaply indeed in the inland areas, away from the resorts. Almost always it’ll need some kind of work; anything from a face-lift to demolition. There’s often no inner staircase to the bedrooms, no bathroom, and the toilet is in a shed in the garden. This kind of property is great for buyers who want to get away from their homeland, and disappear in the beauty of nature permanently. As a business, it could appeal to self-builders or DIY enthusiasts, prepared to do it for fun, and accept a low return on their financial and physical investment. As for rental income, forget it!”
And the cities?
“Again, there are differences, even between cities. The prime city is, of course, Sofia, the capital. Buy the right apartment here, in the right area, and you can expect a guaranteed rental return of about 12% per annum. The flavour of the month is gated communities, particularly in the south of the city. The diplomatic residential district of Vitosha is one of the best bets. There is a ready demand for luxury accommodation from diplomatic staff and executives seconded by foreign companies, usually on a long-term basis, and this demand should increase as 2007, the year of Bulgaria’s accession to the European Union, approaches. Although you should expect to pay high for such properties by Bulgarian standards, it’s still only the price of a tarted-up Victorian terraced flat in a UK provincial town.
‘There’s virtually no market for tourist rentals in Sofia, as it’s probably the least interesting European capital city. It’s also very polluted, although they are trying to clean up their act, ready for EU entry in 2007.
‘Plovdiv, the country’s second city, is much more pleasant. It has a quaint old town, as well as modern business districts. It therefore bridges the gap between business and tourism, as far as rentals are concerned. Plovdiv is connected to Sofia by an excellent motorway, on which you can keep the pedal to the metal, if you’re prepared to risk an on-the-spot fine of 50 Leva (about £18).
‘Veliko Tarnovo is probably Bulgaria’s most touristic city, with its citadel and mediaeval ramparts. Most people who buy property here do so to make it their main home. The city itself is beautiful, and it has everything a townie needs. Drive a short distance, and you’re in some wonderful countryside. You couldn’t really make a good living from rentals, but it’s the perfect place to retire to.
‘There’s one more thing which is important enough to mention: Mineral baths. These exist all over Bulgaria, the most significant being at Narechen, south of Plovdiv, and Momin Prohod, near Kostenets. Scientific studies rank Bulgaria among the foremost in Europe for hydrothermal, bioclimatic and mud treatments, sea cures and other health resources. Bulgaria is a world leader with its exceptional diversity of medicinal herbs and the excellent curative properties of its apian products. Any property near a spa should attract a premium to its sales or rental value.”
Full details about the ‘Super Borovets’ project, price madness in Bansko, golf developments in Bulgaria, and new apartments in Bansko and Borovets can be seen at the BulgariaProperties.net Ltd web site www.BulgariaProperties.net. Or you can e-mail advice@BulgariaProperties.net, or call the company at +44 (0)871 226 2296 to order a free 28-page hand-out, or just for a chat, if you prefer. They always have time for you.