Miss Thrifty

Here in Yorkshire there are plenty of entrepreneurs, plenty of people with big ideas and plenty of enthusiasm for saving cash. That’s a winning combination, in my book. It gives rise to super-thrifty initiatives such as BeTheMiddleman.com, a new property “portal” that is already attracting a good deal of attention. The online service, which aims to cut down on estate agents’ and letting agents’ eye-watering fees, is aimed at buyers, sellers, landlords, tenants and lodgers.

I asked Zoe Piper, Yorkshire entrepreneur and one of the founders of BeTheMiddleman.com, to give Miss Thrifty readers her best elevator pitch and provide five good reasons why they should buy and sell their homes online. Over to Zoe…

If you want to sell your house or buy a new one it’s going to cost an arm and a leg, right? Wrong! You can do it on the internet for free.

Free?

Yep. BeTheMiddleman.com lets you list your property for sale, completely free. There are no upfront costs (apart from buying your HIP), no monthly costs, and no commission costs when you complete the sale. (more…)

Before I begin, I’d like to remind you that I live in Yorkshire. I would add that I live in a mid-terrace on a former council estate with semi-retired, salt-of-the-earth couples on either side. So I’m sure you won’t be surprised when I tell you that I have the thriftiest neighbours ever. How fitting!

They are also extremely kind and generous. Colin, who lives to my right, is a TV repairman. One day he brought round an old Sky box and remote control, and fixed us up with Freeview. Another time he got annoyed after I paid a roofer to replace a couple of tiles and detach the broken TV aerial from the chimney. Our neighbour told us that we had only to ask, and he was perfectly happy to go up there for us. (”Why not? Two words, Colin.  Rod.  Hull.”) When we moved in he let me borrow his garden equipment so that I could try and tackle our bombsite of a back garden. (more…)

I have a bad feeling about the mortgage market. Yes, yes: I know there is a lot of talk right now about budding recoveries, attractive deals and unmissable rates, but I am not comfortable.

As you may recall, I have (or had) a devilish Mortgage Masterplan. We came off our fixed-rate deal in February and since then, I’ve been making overpayments to the tune of £500 per month. If this overpayment could be maintained, we could pay off the entire mortgage in ten years. Since that is unlikely, the real-life plan has been to pay off a hefty chunk of capital before the interest rates go skywards again.

Since then I’ve been getting itchy feet. There is still some equity in the property, which is a good start. However, I have become nervous about what we will do if/when the rates shoot up and we’re suddenly scrambling for a nice, tidy mortgage solution. We both run our own companies, which probably puts us on some kind of bank auto-blacklist. (more…)

There’s another “win a house” competition on the block: this one (left) is a Grade II* listed cottage in the Cotswolds.

The 350-year-old stone property, located in Broadway village, is located 20 minutes drive from Cheltenham and Stratford-upon-Avon. It comes with three bedrooms, solid oak furniture and a walled garden.

The competition, organised by the cottage’s owners, runs between now and 30 September 2009. The winner will snag a four-week hoiday at the cottage; the holiday can be taken in one go, or spread across multiple visits. (more…)

Thanks to Miss Thrifty reader Meg, over at the funkyncheap blog, who got in touch after reading the recent post about ways to make money from your house.

She writes:

One thing I wanted to mention – and am encouraging those who live in and around London to do – is to get the house sorted and be ready to rent rooms out for the 2012 Olympics. Kids can double up for a couple weeks – or if you are really frugal, get everyone to camp in one room and rent out the others.

I figure you can rent a double room for £150 a night. You could provide a breakfast: fresh fruit, muffins, juice, tea, coffee, or homemade granola. It wouldn’t break the bank! Think about it: if you have three rooms that you can rent, that amounts to £6,300 for two weeks. That is what some make in a year! It would take some arranging, such as a posted shower timetable. I would also charge extra to do laundry – say £5 a load… Maybe it would cost you £500 for water, electricity etc. – but heck, that is still £5,800 profit! Slap that down on your mortgage and watch the principle tumble.

Bah! I live 250 miles out of London. But it’s certainly an idea for the super-organised amongst us…

Update: This post was selected for the 185th Carnival of Debt Reduction.

Image credit: Meagan.

In a couple of posts last autumn, I wrote about the challenges of trying to remortgage when you are, well, anyone right now. I found that as the weeks passed, lenders’ demands of their mortgage customers became increasingly unrealistic.

Firstdirect wouldn’t lend to us because there are three people listed on our mortgage. Abbey, our current provider, would only offer us a new fixed rate deal with an interest rate of 6.99 per cent, plus a £724 arrangement fee. (Erm, no thanks.) Right now only those with lots and lots and lots of equity in their homes are able to claw the few fixed rate deals that remain.

In the end we decided to sit it out and allow our mortgage to slip onto the standard variable rate once our fixed rate expired last month. This has turned out to be an interesting move: back then (September 2008) Abbey’s SVR was 7.04 per cent. Now it’s 4.51%. In real terms, our monthly mortgage payments have fallen by nearly £200. (more…)

Let’s just make this clear: I don’t love all debts. I don’t love yours; you can keep them! But in truth, mine will always have a special place in my heart. This is why.

It’s fair to say that over the past few years, our marital finances have had a rollercoaster ride. The timeline goes roughly like this:

2002 - Student loans finally paid off. Hurrah! At their highest, my student debts amounted to £1,604 exactly. I thought this was the earth! My now-husband graduated about £4,000 in debt. (Note: these sound like paltry figures now, don’t they? They were normal for the UK at this time.)

2002-2005 - Minted & living in London. Fancypants jobs, rented flat, lots of expensive nights out and regular food deliveries from Ocado. Ah, those were the days! But we can’t know what lies just round the corner… (more…)

 With property prices falling faster than Gordon Brown’s facial expression, I’ve been thinking about ways to make money from your house. Three ideas spring to mind: (more…)

Now then. Yesterday I mentioned that I had come across some exciting win a house “raffles” and competitions – and here they are!

They are holiday homes – and they’re sweet.

The first one (above) is in Florida, not far from Disney. The property’s British owners are running the competition, and the website is here. It has lots of photographs. According to the site, the first prize “package” is worth more than $1.25 million and included a fully-furnished home with five bedrooms, four bathrooms, a swimming pool and a hot tub, set in 5 acres of land. A brand new family car is thrown in, as is the first year of property tax and maintenance bills (not sure what the amounts involved are, though), plus one year’s membership of a local health club. (more…)

Posts about house “raffles” continue to attract a lot of visitors to this blog, so I’ve been keeping tabs on this niche area of the property market.

That lovely fishing estate in Devon is still up in the air, by the looks of things: Brian and Wendy Wilshaw, who organised the Devon competition, do not wish to proceed with the draw while the Gambling Commission is breathing down their necks (which is fair enough). They are currently consulting with a barrister, in a bid to get the situation resolved. All monies are being held in a Paypal account and will be refunded if the draw is cancelled. I will pass on any new information as I get it; in the meantime, you can keep tabs of the couple’s progress via the news page on their website.

The competition to win that big house in Ingleby Barwick is on – or is it? A snazzy website, featuring competition details and photography is now up and running. (Check out the kitchen; it looks like something out of Footballers’ Wives!) (more…)