Sell, Rent, Holiday lets?

Poodlecrazy

Hi

Not sure about the selling bit but thought I would pitch in as I have a holiday let in its second season. We have marketted it through our own website and then also through a local directory. Check to see if there is someone who does something similar in your area.

The only thing I would say about holiday letting is that it is actually quite expensive to set up by the time you have got all of the linen, any additional furniture etc. We have been doing this for several seasons and the first season really only broke even for us (but we did have to buy furniture). You still have to pay bills in the meantime.

As of this winter we will be doing longer term lets so that we don't have to fork out on the bills etc and have a degree of security in terms of what is coming in etc. During the good months, holiday letting is extremely well paid but you can go weeks with nothing. If you are struggling financially, having the security may be better.

There are some negative tax implications on sale (i.e. sale of a let will attract capital gains at 18% whereas a furnished holiday let will fall within the entrepeneur relief and bring it down to 10%).

Hope that helps!

P
x

PasturesNew

soccernights wrote: »

The house was valued by sevaral estate agents at an average of £235k, for the past 2 months its been marketed at 215k which is the min i can accept for the property with the mortgages and loans needed to pay back, but yet nothing?

I am not over-enamoured of your agent. Go and mither them. Make sure they're doing their best for you. See if they think an Open Day might be worthwhile. But most of the agents aren't that hot round there. At least it's on the Team network so you also pick up some potential viewers from that.

With Easter just having been a wash out you didn't even get the chance of passing tourists thinking "wouldn't it be lovely to live here" because it was all so horrid and miserable.

soccernights wrote: »

I need either a quick sale (approached those waste of time as they offered £179k)

That is significantly lower than any other properties in the area have sold for recently. Even the derelict wreck if you go to the bottom of your road, turn left and go up 100 yards on the left sold for £187k last autumn.

You say you can't go lower than £215k because of what you owe, which is an unfortunate position to be in because how much you owe on a house is in no way connected to it's worth.

Without any debt on the house I'd probably be looking at £195k now to get rid.

soccernights wrote: »

rent the property and or do holiday lets as i live in newquay cornwall. I have knocked up a website to start promoting this www.newquayholidayhouse.com but dont know where to start advertising?

The problem with this is: everybody and his dog is doing this. The town is full of empty holiday lets. And, as you know, the season can be quite short unless you're established.

I think you'd just be pouring good money after bad and chasing a market that's long gone there too. And before you know it it'll be September and there's nothing more for another 6 months.

Also, does your property meet all the necessary regulations etc for renting it out? To reduce costs, you could try that cheat that a lot of 2nd home owners try - and register for business rates. Business rates, with low turnover box ticked can work out cheaper than your council tax (might be long-winded though and I've no idea how much that might save).

A better way to market your property rather than ploughing your own time/effort into it is to get out and network with local B&B owners etc. Others who rent theirs out. Offer them an "overflow facility". Approach the Headland Hotel - they look for accommodation for staff and you're close enough. I know Trebarwith Hotel also have rented out local holiday flats by taking bookings ... might be worth popping down there to see if they'd rent out your house, not sure how you'd word that but I know they used to put holidaymakers into a holiday flat round the corner.

Go and speak to the NATC, you can get hold of them down the Tourism Office. See what they think, can suggest.

It's a very very crowded market though. And most of the people round town are in business because they are all matey matey. So get matey matey with them.

soccernights wrote: »

obviously i feel the price of the house is a bargain but yet cant get rid quick, a couple of offers from people not in a position to buy as yet as they need to get rid of their chain. The house could sell as a commercial enterprise if people wanted the website also?? is there a place to advertise this?

That's always the way. Re selling it as a commercial enterprise, have a word with David Ball Commercial, see if they think it's viable. However, there are now quite a few similar commercial properties creeping onto the market.... just like there were in the early 90s when you could snap up 9-bed converted bungalows at the same price as a 3-bed.

soccernights wrote: »

My position is that i simply i can no longer afford to keep the house empty as it is. Normal pcm rental would not cover the expenses, holiday lets would but with it comes the hassle of running that, ideally i want to simplify my life not create more work.

Where have you moved to then? How did the house come to be just sitting there?

soccernights wrote: »

But as investors, money savers etc what would you do? any help and advice would be greatly appreciated.

Tricky one.

The truth is - NOTHING is shifting in that town. Virtually at any price. All that new build is grabbing any of the sales. There have been some small/£10k price drops occasionally, but I think everybody's been holding out for the "spring bounce" and Easter.

Things might start to reduce faster soon.

That town has always had a problem with slow sales. There are houses round the corner from you that I could point to that have literally sat For Sale for over 3 years and not moved.

Also - find out about auctions. Just because a property is at auction doesn't mean it will go for peanuts. And you can set a reserve.

Good luck

PasturesNew

soccernights wrote: »

Thanks for that link....anyone know what i can expect to fetch at auction and are there any costs if it does not sell at my reserve or above?

cheers

Carl

A house I was watching behind the Post Office went to auction 2 weeks ago. Guide £345k, achieved £376k.

PasturesNew

P.S. I just looked up the prices of houses sold in your road and only one house ever has sold higher than £215k

http://www.nethouseprices.com/index.php?con=sold_prices_street_detail&locality=NEWQUAY&town=NEWQUAY&street=ST+JOHNS+ROAD&year=All&house_style=All&house_age=All&house_type=All&land=&searchType=&postcode=&search_radius=&northingToSearch=&eastingToSearch=&cCode=EW&pcsaCode=TR7&order=priceDESC

Madmel

We're running a holiday cottage in Devon, so I can speak from some experience. There are actually 2 cottages here, but one is used by a relative, so he pays Council Tax. The Business rates we pay on the holiday cottage are about 60% of the cost of Council Tax on the same site.

We had a let this winter from one of the local caravan parks. They have people there who live ther for 9 months of the year. For the other 3 they have to vacate, so about May/June, the owners get twitchy & start booking cottages like ours for the 13 week stretch. There are plenty of holiday parks in Newquay - I imagine that they run similarly.

I also work closely with the Tourist Information people. My nearest office is about 3 miles away and they have a list of my prices and availability which I update regularly. They take 10% commission. I personally would start with them and go in for a chat to see how the land lies. They will know how availability looks in the local area and would know whether or not you would make money.

There are other groups who market holiday rentals. We use Stilwells who go under the name Cottages Direct. There are upfront charges for this, but they run bookings for you and you can choose how their commission works. There are disadvantages, but I'm sure it's the same with any company. PM me if you prefer.

PasturesNew

Sorry to resurrect this, but I think he's sold it now.
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-16082617.rsp?pa_n=29&tr_t=buy

I thought I'd post this as we rarely see the other end of an enquiry.

SquatNow

PasturesNew wrote: »

Sorry to resurrect this, but I think he's sold it now.
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-16082617.rsp?pa_n=29&tr_t=buy

I thought I'd post this as we rarely see the other end of an enquiry.

Sold SUBJECT TO CONTRACT.

He'll be back, you'll see.

PasturesNew

SquatNow wrote: »

Sold SUBJECT TO CONTRACT.

He'll be back, you'll see.

Which is why I really resurrected it .... it's "one to watch" so to speak.

PasturesNew

It's back on the market, reduced further.

21/08, status changed from "Sold STC" to "Available"

Now £199,950 down from £215k.

Wonder what went wrong for the OP.

BigDavy

Madmel - can you advise me what you do about tax on holiday let - do you self assess or have accountant - if so what are their fees - I tried one and he charged £500 to do tax returns for the 2 of us and we run at a loss anyway so even more out of pocket.