Marketing Your Holiday Home
If you want to rent out your property at sometime in the future you will need to take the following factors into account before you go ahead with the purchase of your holiday home;
- Do I want to start lets immediately or delay arrangements for 12 months ?
- How much time do you plan to spend at the property and when? You may want to stay most weekends at the property and only let it out occasionally to holiday guests. Remember that the more school holiday weeks you reserve for yourself, the lower your annual income. Letting agents will also require a minimum number of weeks each year to make it a economically viable business proposition for them.
- How important is the rental income as a component in your property investment decision? If you have taken out a large mortgage to fund the purchase you will be under greater pressure to maximise occupancy to service the repayments.
- How much local competition is there from other holiday rentals and what rents do properties of a similar size command?
- What rent should I charge ?
- When are the peak periods for letting?
- Would it be better to set lower rents to achieve a higher occupancy?
- How much spare time do I have to get involved with managing the bookings and do I want to expend the effort? This will determine whether you sent up your own web site to market the property or hand it over to a holiday lettings agency.
- Which holiday cottage agency, if any, should I chose ? Local or national?
- How do I find a good housekeeper to service the accommodation? Should I use a cleaning agency? If you do not live locally you will be very dependant on this person or company to protect your property investment and to look after the guests.
- What are the rules for minimising my tax liability?
Call Nick on 01386 881121 to help you answer these questions and any others you may have