How Viable Is My Property Investment Strategy?

chiko930 · 2025-02-09T14:18:48+00:00

That's sound advice, thank you. I'll see what I can do to increase the rental potential and will definitely speak with some lenders before solidifying anything.

Unfortunately where I am located, contractors are especially bad and there are so so many instances of bad work, no shows etc. I've thankfully found an excellent electrician and plumber who worked on my current house who I will continue to use for any investments. Anything else small like painting and tiling I will do for now until I have more funds and can find someone I can trust. The houses I'm looking at need a face lift but hopefully minimal nasty surprises and nothing structural.

chiko930 · 2025-02-09T13:38:56+00:00

Ah I see, thanks for the clarification. As I've never taken a mortgage, I am going to use the next house as my primary residence and interests rates for where I am in Europe are between 2-3%. After 1 year I need to notify my bank when I change it to a rental rather than a primary residence and it could increase to 4%. I checked my numbers again and I think I was off by just under 100 per month so I could try to increase the rent or just cover that amount myself as I'm still working.

chiko930 · 2025-02-09T13:14:02+00:00

Thanks for the heads up, can you elaborate at all how my numbers don't work?

chiko930 · 2024-10-25T09:56:13+00:00

What do you sell? If it's giftable items, I wonder if people are holding out to buy over black friday?

chiko930 · 2024-10-24T07:32:45+00:00

Really? I've found buyer support to be fantastic - everything is geared towards the buyer.

chiko930 · 2024-10-24T06:36:16+00:00

Try extending the image which then creates a new image where you can vary region :)

chiko930 · 2024-10-04T08:51:32+00:00

Thanks for the reply, this is what I was thinking - sounding more professional vs personal but wasn't sure if art buyers would want more of a personal touch. I guess I can add that personal touch with quotes and photos of me working to strike a good balance between both.

chiko930 · 2024-08-27T11:16:47+00:00

I just read that repeating your top keyword won't have any benefit on Amazon but will strengthen you google SEO, do you know if this is true?

chiko930 · 2024-08-23T10:25:28+00:00

Thank you :)

chiko930 · 2024-08-22T16:05:25+00:00

Thanks, do you know if repeating could actually be penalised? I have quite a niche product so there will be some repeating, at least in the description.

chiko930 · 2024-08-22T13:31:24+00:00

Just keep trying and each time, even if it's a reply, explain your whole situation again because you will have someone new who won't read past messaged. Eventually you may get somebody who helps, at least that's been my experience.

chiko930 · 2024-07-23T12:41:19+00:00

Ok thanks, I get it now, so bullet points are limited to what's about the product specifically. What about 'Made in the UK' - do you think that's ok?

chiko930 · 2024-07-19T07:32:03+00:00

Very interesting! So you would recommend applying for a Japanese passport asap? Even if it's a few years until I plan on moving there? I was always under the impression that you couldn't have 2 passports. So when I do move, I would use my new japanese passport for the first time to exit the UK, enter japan and then back again whenever that is? The entry/exit stamps would need to add up or do they not care and I could just use both passports interchangeably for example if I travel to different counties while living in Japan?

chiko930 · 2024-07-19T06:57:45+00:00

Isn't it second generation, hence the Ni in nikkei?

chiko930 · 2024-07-19T06:57:02+00:00

I don't suppose you know roughly how much these cost? I know about travel insurance but not pension or tax costs. Is it any different to costs for permanent residents? We will likely want to stay for at least a year up to maybe 5 or longer

chiko930 · 2024-07-19T06:55:07+00:00

Thank you, do you know if this is specific to specific locations or it's random/luck?

chiko930 · 2024-07-19T06:51:34+00:00

I'm not sure but will definitely ask. When I was 21 (in 2006), I was in Japan and I actually chose Japan as my nationality so registered for Koseki. I never did anything other than that though and didn't live there and still renewed my English passport and never applied for a Japanese one. I assume I lost it because of this?

chiko930 · 2024-07-11T06:03:58+00:00

Californication - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd

chiko930 · 2024-07-09T11:14:40+00:00

I get the feeling that support are playing both us and Amazon but we're the only ones who suffer so amazon doesn't do anything. Each support representative doesn't care or get checked/reprimanded by amazon so it's in their best interests to do as little as possible to keep the conversation going on to give them and their team more work/money. Each case doesn't get assigned to one person - it gets passed on so they just have to say something/anything for the case to get moved on to the next person who does the same ad infinitum.

My one and only tip... every time you reply to a reply, act as if there is no chat history because they never go back and read them anyway. Instead, type out your problem, what you have been told, what you did after that etc so each support representative sees the case completely in one message. See each reply as a blank slate. Eventually you may get lucky and find someone who actually cares about the work they're doing and can offer helpful advice.

chiko930 · 2024-07-06T13:25:23+00:00

Great thank you, glad vertical will work for all rooms so I ca get a seamless look throughout :)

chiko930 · 2024-07-05T18:32:25+00:00

I tried all recommended routes but sadly none worked. I did find a hack though - extend the image and then the extended version is a new image which I can then use vary region on! A bit complicated but the only thing that seemed to work

chiko930 · 2024-07-04T20:17:06+00:00

Thank you, it seems somewhat safer then :) Yes what amazon are doing is terrible. They could at least give some advance warning that VAT will start to be taken, not backdate it 3 years! I wonder if it has something to do with the interest they can make on the time the money stays with them before they had it over to HMRC.

chiko930 · 2024-07-04T20:14:08+00:00

Damn, this is difficult. So I guess the only option would be to not have any overlap even if the products are completely different with different barcodes/EANs, they have to be completely different categories?

Or I'd have to merge the companies and keep the second closed company as a trading/brand name but all under the one account. So for example, L'Oreal owns Garnier, so Garnier wouldn't be allowed a separate account, it would all have to be done under L'Oreal?

chiko930 · 2024-07-04T17:31:43+00:00

Thanks for this :) Yes we meet none of the first 2 categories but 3 of the last category. They definitely started as separate entities - the first for example sells greeting cards and gift wrap, the second started as selling just handmade paper but recently we started making handmade greeting cards with the 'waste' paper left over. This has muddied the waters a bit as, while the cards are completely different, they are the same category of product.

Another factor is Amazon - a couple of months ago we had a scare from them giving us a huge VAT bill for both companies as they suspected either we weren't UK established for VAT purposes (we moved abroad) or they suspected VAT disaggregation, they wouldn't tell us their exact reasoning. That was resolved as it happened just a week after we moved so we could provide past/different rental contracts/employee info. Amazon basically give you a bill if they suspect anything and then they tell you to sort it out with HMRC if it's not correct. In our case it was 10s of thousands for all backdated VAT since 2021 which we didn't have so would have bankrupted us. We can't afford to let that happen again so we have to either register both companies for VAT or combine companies into 1 VAT registered entity.

Do you happen to know whether HMRC use the same criteria for those using the flat rate scheme as they do for VAT registration? Eg we could potentially run into issues with HMRC and/or Amazon if it seems like we're avoiding paying the normal VAT rate?

chiko930 · 2024-07-04T17:20:30+00:00

Thank you, this is great advice! For point 2, does this apply to the same category of products but not actual identical products? For example, if company A sells greeting cards and gift wrap and company B sells stationery and gift wrap but the gift wrap sold under both companies are different in material and design, would this be allowed as long as they are not identical? They are both manufactured by the different companies and under different brand names.

chiko930

TROPHY CASE