Furniture Packs - Furniture Direct Worldwide? - Page 7

cochranehanna · #61 06-04-2008, 09:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by David Graham 1000

Hi Guys. This is my first post on this forum to. In relation to furniture packs for Romania. I totally agree with Mick the property Guru on who he reccomends. I own 2 properties in Romania and they are handled by Property Management Romania. Admittedly I did buy them from them, but what I will say for them is they presented me with a bill for furnishings at the end and did not demand money up front. Both properties were then rented at the rate they told me and I have received my rent every 3 months after their commission. They may not be as big as the TV company spoken off here, but I have had no headaches and was also able to get references before using them. All in all I am very impressed with the service they provided and have no problem endorsing them to anyone at all so please feel free to message me

HI David
Could you send me the contact details of the company you have used, it all sounds very good.

Many thanks

David howe · #62 06-04-2008, 11:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by den

Hi
I Have purchased property in Topaz Development, and like other people I have had calls from Both Estate agent and Furniture Direct, When I traveled to Romania first, we were told that the property had a kitchen in the price , as we were one of the first to buy in this area, the agent would have told us anything to sell, and also their solicitors , we gave power of attorney ,d I get a call two days ago to say I need to sign another power , what idiots we are dealing with here,, so now I have to travel there again in a few weeks, I am in the kitchen industry and I am going to see about fitting kitchen there myself, and rent a van to get any other furniture from Ikea , and any other furniture supplier. If anyone has been there already to see about furniture, I would be grateful.
I Intent to stay for about ten Days or so , if I could get together with like minded people , we may be ble to help each other out , if we could travel at the same time.
If Interested , Please let me know

Den

Be very carful here, if you have to do another Power of Attorney you may not even yet have a valid contract? Please proceed with caution and have someone independant check the POA and be sure it covers all the additional aspects necessatated.

David Howe

Investment Romania - Property Romania, Invest Romania, Investment Romania

den · #63 08-04-2008, 12:53 PM

David
Would you suggest i get a Different Solisitor, or can i change at this late stage?

David howe · #64 08-04-2008, 04:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by den

David
Would you suggest i get a Different Solisitor, or can i change at this late stage?

Contact me direct if you wish.

Investment Romania - Property Romania, Invest Romania, Investment Romania

den · #65 08-04-2008, 08:54 PM

Hi David
As i am only new to this Forum, how do i contact you Direct

David howe · #66 09-04-2008, 06:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by den

Hi David
As i am only new to this Forum, how do i contact you Direct

I have sent you private message with details, you will get this when you log in and if you look at the top right hand corner.

Additionally

David Howe
LLB LLM
41 Antim Ivireanu Street
Investment Romania - Property Romania, Invest Romania, Investment Romania
david@investmentromania.com
Mob:00 40 720 338 357
Tel: 00 40 21 335 05 60
Fax:00 40 21 335 05 24

David howe · #67 15-05-2008, 10:30 AM

Please take the time to go out and look at this development and do your due dilligence now and not after purchase.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gigabyte

I have paid 6185 euros for my studio apt which includes everything, kitchen and delivery and installation, deep clean, new locks etc. My brother in law has used them in Bulgaria and was very happy with them.

When I bought the apt my estate agent told me to expect around 750 euros per month but having spoken with Southern Cross and GKP they are telling me to realistically expect around 500euros

Has anyone else had a better quote than this? or heard anything from their estate agent about rentals~?

geraldine · #68 24-06-2008, 12:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cochranehanna

Hi All

This is my first time on a forum. We am in the same boat as Greg100. However we have purchased in the Sydney Development around the same area. We too have been offered a furniture package from the TV company which is very very expensive and would like to find an alternatve company in Romania to use to furnish the house.
Is it just us are are you all finding the legal side of getting morgages, owning land and getting the place furnished and rented all very comfusing!!!???

Urs confused

Hi there,
I understand all too well the confusion and frustration of trying to get the best value all round, including furniture packs, good quotations for total renovation of apartments, not to mention the frustration of how time consuming all of it is when I do not speak Romanian myself. 1 year ago myself and my partner started buying some property, firstly in Brasov, subsequently 2 off-plan in Bucharest, and now again a renovation apartment in Brasov. We initially purchased through Investment Romania after being messed around by other people. We consulted a number of companies about furniture packs and subsequently decided to stay with Investment Romania for the following reasons. Firstly there attention to detail in dealing with us regarding purchase was second to none. We never had to worry about not speaking the language here or being left on our own to do stuff. Secondly, professionalism tells with this outfit in terms of the time they devoted to our needs as regards what the best way to furnish our apartment in Brasov was within our budget constraints. The apartment is a large 2 bedroomed apartment, and Silvia from Investment Romania took the burden of furnishing from us at a very realistic price, right down to candlesticks that I required. We have 2 studios coming onstream in Bucharest and have already booked Silvia at Investment Romania to handle the furniture pack, and Investment Romania to manage the rentals of same. We are at the moment renovating an office space on Republicii in Brasov, using a construction company owned by Investment Romania, again the work is being done to a superb finish as was the first one they did for us. We will be using Silvia again to choose office furniture suitable for the market here, and Investment Romania to rent and manage same. Overall, I can recommend Silvia at Investment Romania for exceptional quotes for furniture packs, professionalism, and meeting deadlines. My experience with them has been all good. If anyone wishes to ask me more, feel free to mail me. Larger companies have larger overheads, thus the person buying the furniture pack pays for this. Stress free dealings with any company is what the client wants, and again I must say I can highly recommend Silvia and the Investment Romania team, who have 8 years good track record in dealing with all aspects of client based needs.

Geraldine.

wmp · #69 24-06-2008, 10:08 PM

Greetings. If you are furnishing your property in Bucharest, there are several options, & some of them have been discussed in this Forum. Ideally, what you want is a 'Personal Shopper' type service with a team who can assemble it. Much as you would do back at home with your own home. Using a Furniture supplier may restrict your choice slightly. For example, lights can be very affordable if bought from the right place, not a lighting boutique. Ditto Kitchens, bedroom furniture etc. So, a one-stop-shop might not always be the best option, though it can be sometimes of course.

There are many to chose from, but as an example, I have just returned to Brasov from Bucharest (IKEA, Bricostore etc) with an estate car & trailer full to the brim with a kitchen-complete, curtains & rails, & lighting for a large 1 bed (70m) apartment. That will take a basic apartment from its current shell status to being usable as an unfurnished aparment, in 2 or 3 days, for 2450 Euros, fitting, delviery, & electrical work included. Eg, 3m of integrated, fitted kitchen units, stainless steel oven, hob & extractor, 8 modern, halogen type lights, aluminium curtain rails covering 8m of various windows, plus 2 blinds for hte kitchen.

If you want full furnishing, add another 600 fro fridge & washing machine, Bedrooms should cost around 1000e or so to furnish each, a lounge would need circa 2500-3000 including electrical goods, & a bathroom, around 100e for fittings.

I will have before & after videos by this weekend, if you want to see an example.

We have 4 apartments to furnish in the same developement (Avant Gardens), for different UK/ Romanian selling agents' clients.

Regards

Damian

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gregs100

Hi,

1st time purchaser who's due to complete in Bucharest in the next couple of months and am after any feed-back on the above company or if anyone has had any dealings with them?

We need to funish our appartment for letting purposes and have been contacted by the above company offering to do this on our behalf. We've checked their web-site which looks fine, but I can't find anything else on the web about them...which in this day and age is slightly unusual. We've also got concerns that they won't take payment by card, want payment to a spanish bank a/c and contact is made via e-mail unless they call us etc.

Compared to the package being offered to us by our agent...who shall we say is one of the biggest names in the business and on our TV's....the package from Furniture Direct works out about EUR4000 cheaper.....but we are just worried about how genuine they are etc?

Has anyone had any dealings with them in the past or with my agent *** who are are charging through the nose.

Any advice regarding this or furniture packs would be appreciated.

Cheers

wmp · #70 24-06-2008, 10:36 PM

As a supplier/ fitter of furniture packs, I'd offer you the following piece of advice to get soemthing like value for money. Ikea Bucharest is indeed officially the most expensive Ikea store in the whole group. It can work out very expensive if you take it at face value, but the mid-range kitchens for example, are mostly very good value, if you buy them incomplete.

The trick it to buy the worktop elsewhere (stick to 38-40mm though, not the cheap crap Romanian's seem to love, 25mm thick), chose simple door adornments (handles range from 0.5euros each, to 5e each, therefor, when buying 18 handles, it makes a difference). Metro or Selgros often have good deals on Ovens & Hobs (350e for a set), Candy for example, reasonable quality.

(Do however, make certain you buy an IKEA tap, even if you don't get the sink. The are simple, & they work well. Your only alternatives, after expensive German boutique taps, are Romanian, Turkish or Chinese. If you are balckmailed, threatened, bribed, or even given prizemoney to fit one of the latter, walk away quickly. A faulty tap will trash your newly fitted worktop & base units, not to mention bigger problems if left unchecked. Never take the risk with local market sink taps. The best ones, oare utter tosh. Due to poor tolerancing etc & poor machine tools, threads & bosses leak internally, leading to weeping at the base or hoses. Bit too much detail for this forum, so just trust me on this!)

Also, curtain poles & tracks are very cheap in Ikea, but the curtains are not cheap, though convenient. Ditto lighting, some of the basic lighting is ultra cheap, & the trendy stuff is very expensive. The best solution is to set a budget for each room, based on some elementary benchmarking, & then go or have someone go to Ikea, Metro-Cosntrcution, Pracktika, etc etc to piece it all toghether.

Regards
Damian
White Mountain

Quote:

Originally Posted by David howe

I am sure that the address in the message above is a flat, and not a business address.

[u]2A Dimitrie Cantemir Street, Block P2, Clients Entrance A, Floor 3, Ap. 8, Sector 3
Bucharest
ROMANIA

Thank you
Shell

Dear Shell

The above address is in fact a business address. Being as familiar as you are with Bucharest you will already know that probably 95% + of downtown offices are in fact in converted apartments. In some cases whole blocks converted into office as is the case in buildings such as Stiracco. I have attached a link of the location and perhaps if you visit you will have a different opinion. Many investors in Romania with several well known companies with flash offices, fountains and BMWs have been duped by flash not realising they are the ones who are paying for it.

It will be interesting to see how confident those of you who bought some of the off plans 12-18 months ago fare out. Personally I think if you get 6% rental return on them you will be doing exceptionally well, However, as a company operating from an old Comunist block (The same build quality as Unirii Bvld & built in 1992) that has now a current value of in the region of 3,500-4000 per meter and a potential rental yield of 8% we do stand to be corrected.

Good luck to all seeking furniture pack, IKEA is probably the most expensive IKEA Branch in Europe. They will charge you an additional 10% for assembling the furniture and realistically another 10% to deliver it or more dependant on what floor you are on. As for your electricals and gas, are you aware you need to be there when qualified person comes to fit them. That a washing machine guarantee is not valid unless the company supplying fits it?

Romania is not a market that can be looked at through Anglo Celtic Binoculars. There are many variances to that what investors are accustomed to. We look forward to hearing from you.

Sorry unable to add link[/quote]