Running a holiday cottage: do finances stack up?

Voyager2002

scaredofdebt wrote: »

Good point - OP, if you are looking to invest over £200k then why limit the amount you can charge by having a 1 bedroom place when you might potentially get somewhere with more bedrooms for the same price, or thereabouts.

In this case there is no choice of properties: one property has been in the family for the last 100 years, and the only way to hold on to it is to earn a sensible return on its estimated sale value.

DigForVictory

Then unless it's within a short walk, it's had all the main utilities recently overhauled & you want to take on being landlord to a bunch of short term tenants whose ideals & standards may vary from yours wildly, I recommend letting it out of the family grasp.

You've had the benefit for 100 years - give another family a chance.

If they make a bundle out of renting it, likely as they're running a ruthlessly commercial venture, across a handful of locations & have the greying hairs to go with, let them. It's a rough game & holidays have a load of emotional freight that "simple" tenancy doesn't.

Tom99

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I looked into this twice over the past few years, once with a one bed flat and then with a three bed house, both literally on the shoreline.

[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]In both cases if you took a realistic view of the number of weeks it will be let and all the other costs, I could not get the figures to make a profit after mortgage costs. A letting agent will probably charge 20%-25% and the cleaning and laundry will probably be at least £50 each time on a 1 bed property.

[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]That might have been ok in back in the days when you could offest a loss against 40% tax on earned income.
[/FONT]

DonnaElmore

Hope everything went well with that. But I just want to say, in such kind of situation, it's always best to directly talk to an expert. You won't just get accurate answers from them, but they can actually guide you throughout the process of renting out a property. I've experienced working with this holiday home letting agency when my dad wanted me to rent out our old property. One thing I can say is that rental properties are a great investment (but only if you do it right of course). But just in case you don’t have any knowledge or experience about how this thing works, you can always seek the help of a home letting management agency. Reliable ones will surely guide you all throughout the process of renting out a property.

motorguy

DonnaElmore wrote: »

Hope everything went well with that. But I just want to say, in such kind of situation, it's always best to directly talk to an expert. You won't just get accurate answers from them, but they can actually guide you throughout the process of renting out a property. I've experienced working with this holiday home letting agency when my dad wanted me to rent out our old property. One thing I can say is that rental properties are a great investment (but only if you do it right of course). But just in case you don’t have any knowledge or experience about how this thing works, you can always seek the help of a home letting management agency. Reliable ones will surely guide you all throughout the process of renting out a property.

Odd you dredged up a very old post...

Irrespective though, i'm not sure i'd trust a letting agent to be objective?

00ec25

motorguy wrote: »

Odd you dredged up a very old post...

if you look at their posting history they typically reply in the wee small hours of a morning to posts 1 - 2 years old and make generic comments which have nothing wrong with them per se, but hardly advance the case