Buying a holiday home to rent out.

Kit1

Hi

We have been thinking for a while about buying a small flat/house and rent out for holidays when we can't use it. We are thinking Scotland near the sea.

We have never done anything like this before so have no knowledge on what we need to know.

Any advice would be great.

Wizzbang

You'll need to consider your costs- landlord insurance, gas safety certificates every year. How are you going to furnish it? Can be very expensive to furnish a house from scratch. If you buy second hand, will it meet your clients expectations? What about damage/ maintenance- all cost over time and you'll likely get more wear and tear on carpet, mattresses etc as people don't care when they don't own it. You'll need to pay full Council Tax on it as a second home. If you take out a mortgage, you'll have to make those payments regardless of whether it's occupied. Can you ensure you can cover that? How are you going to clean the property? Another potential payment each week.

If/ When are you going to use it? Peak times, if so you'll severely curtail your potential income.

Management- are you going to do it yourself, if so you'll need to live nearby. If not, you need to find a good agent and you'll have to pay them a percentage as fees. How are you going to advertise your property- this will cost. Will you need full management and what if a water pipe bursts for example, how are you going to fix this?

Will you be going for a star rating?

You'll also need to declare it all to the taxman. Consider if you have enough knowledge to do this yourself or if you'd be better paying an accountant (another cost), but they know all about deductibles. You may also have potential legal costs if you get a problem client/ damage etc.

You've also got all the costs associated with buying a property- solicitors, stamp duty and so on. Are you familiar with the Scottish legal system for conveyancing? It's totally different to the UK and you'd need to engage a Scottish solicitor.

SamsReturn

When i was little my Nan & Grandad had a few caravans in Rhyl. They gave one to my Mum and each of my Aunties. They were a lot of hard work and they didn't make money out of them. This is probably going back to the 1960s when cheap foreign holidays started to get popular and getting the full summer booked in a caravan in Wales got harder. People often left them of a Saturday morning like a dump, but they had to be cleaned for the next renter later in the day, so a trip from Liverpool to do that.Once you add-up the cost of the caravan (or flat); insurance; advertising etc etc etc , and all the work involved, not something i'd get into. On the bright side a house will more than likely go up in value.
And as kids growing up, it was great we always had plenty of holidays.

PasturesNew

There's a forum/website for people that do that:
- http://www.laymyhat.com/
- http://www.laymyhat.com/forum/ is the forum.

Read through that.

Bear in mind that holidaymakers don't tend to be "just like you and me" - many see it with an attitude of "I've paid for it" so will treat it badly, leave a mess and lots of small breakages. They'll tie their dogs to the radiators and go out, younger groups will invite all their mates back, BBQs will have an attendance of 20+ people and 6 dogs, even though you only rented to "a family, sleeps 6, will accept one small dog".

You wouldn't believe what holidaymakers can do.

Lots of younger men wet the bed when they're drunk, so stag parties and 40th birthdays etc can mean you instantly need to find/replace a new mattress onto a bed, while cleaning the place and having it ready for the next people (who actually turn up early).