Holiday lets

Tell us about your experience of letting your property and what advice would you give to others? Share your concerns about letting your property short term.

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Before I bought my property I was told that it would be easy to rent it out. But despite placing ads in several places I have yet to rent it out. I guess supply is greater than demand! I would welcome any suggestions.

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Hi

Rented property is still in demand in certain areas of Costa Del Sol, what area is your property?

 

 

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A friend of ours started by renting to friends and then people she knew at the golf club she uses in the UK, they tell their friends and family which has then increased her lettings.  She has kept her prices reasonable and has the benefit of usually knowing the people staying in her place, she has a good relationship with her neighbours who keep an eye on the apartment and also clean it for her in between rentals. I only know of one problem she has and that was one of the independent letting agent she used who had a key started using it for her own use, not realising the neighbours where reporting this back to the owner!

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My area is La Herrada Los Montesinos near Torrevieja. Not had any success yet in renting but perhaps next year it may take off more. Reluctant to put it with a letting agency as I can see it will be just one amongst hundreds

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For the first yearafter taking advise from our selling agents, we let through 'property solutions'.My advise is don't. They did not find us any bookings and were not particularly interested. We did not renew.

If you have a  few hours to spare, surf the web. There are many sites who offer 2-3 months free advertising.We advertise on a total of 8 sites(plus own web site) and only pay for 3, 2 magazines, which are not cheap, but have given us good returns.

Advertise using 'business cards'. Look for special deals. Managed to get 500 cards for £9!!!! great to leave in Dr's/dentist etc

Its very time consuming but we have managed to ger 11 weeks booked this year which is 11 more than last year when we did nothing but rely on agents.

 

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Hi everyone.

I've just registered and this is my first posting so bare with me if my queary has been covered somewhere else on this site

Thanks for the info lewjan62

I have seen quite a few sites on the net offering to advertise properties for holiday lets but none of those I've seen is offering one or two months advertising free. Are you able to share with us who you would suggest using? I've also put together my own web ste.

I am completing at the begining of January and naturally want to start renting the property out as often as possible. The developer/agents naturally calim you can rent the property out for around 30 weeks of the year but I'm thinking that it's more likely to be between 10 - 15 weeks in the first year at a push.

Also, is there a rule of thumb of the amount you should be able to rent the proeprty out for. Again the develper / agent make great claims but I'm not convinced.

Any help or suggestion that anyone can give would be appreciated

Thanks

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Hi Holdam,

since we registered with the free sites some of them are now charging but there are still a couple of freebies.

I take it you have registered your property with 'eye on spain'. As a member you can advertise for free.

www.espanabreaks.com offer a free period. If you end up renewing your subscription you also get advertised on www.kyero.com for no extra cost.

Villarenters offer a very good,comprehensive, free advertising site www.rentalsystems.com from which they take a commission if they get you a booking.  We just added a bit extra on the price to cover this.

All of the above sites allow you to advertise your own web site. If I remember correctly this was at no extra cost.

Good luck!

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short term letting or holday lets.

Does anybody have any experience of advertising on line. With the security situation in Spain is it not better to trust your proerty to an agent who will check in and out and for breakages ,theft etc? 

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Has anybody had any experience of short-term rentals with MacAnthony Realty?When we purchased through them off -plan they assured us that they could get us 20 weeks minimum of rentals on the western CDS. Have they achieved this level of rental in anyone else's case, anywhere?  Is it worth taking out membership of their lifetime aftersales club, and at what stage should this be done? If they cannot deliver the level of rentals promised, would it still be worthwhile. So, any I would appreciate it if anybody could give me some info re. this matter.

Thanks,

MCK

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Hi   

20 weeks seems high. Would bank on 10 weeks once settled, then increasing to a max of 20. Think you need many options to let. Try a few websites, do one of your own (be careful with security), and let to friends/family. Would suggest you keep all options open, keep in touch with this website and others and then decide what after sales you need.

Good luck!

 

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Hi

Have read the other posts about rentals, and I can only go on our experience.

I advertise our property on 5 different websites 2 are free. As this is our first year of marketing our apartment,  I keep a folder of all the rental enquiries as to which are the most popular websites giving me the most booking.  I have found that Owners Direct have given us the most bookings, this year. (we only signed for our property in December 2005, but did not launch our advertising campain until we took our furniture over in March of this year.  We started to advertise in April, and have had quite a successful year so far.

When we bought our property 3 years ago off plan, we were also lead to believe that the rental market was at least 30 weeks of the year, sadly we have not reached that target just yet.  We were also advised by the estate agents on what kind of money we were looking at, this was over rated.

My suggestion is, do your research first, look as various different websites who are advertising properties like your own on their websites, and then you will get a feel of what to charge.

I was talking to an owner who rented their property out through an agent, and wondered why they had several booking in the first year, then they seemed to fall off on the second year. The agent said that bookings had dropped off for various reason.  On investigating the reasons why, they went to Spain to stay at their apartment without telling the agents beforehand, only to find they had guests staying there to which the agents had forgotten to tell them about !!!! When asking a neighbour, they were told that their apartment had been rent out for several weeks, which didn't tally up with what they were told.  The agents were pocketing the money only paying for a few rentals to keep the owners happy. 

 I am not saying this goes for every agent, but I have herd several people warn me of this happening.

Not everyone is a bad egg.

My last tip is if you are renting out your property on a holiday basis, find out if there are any people on your complex who live there, and offer a meet and greet service and who are prepared to look after your property.

We have a fantastic couple who do this for us, and I am proud of their business, knowing that our guests are met, shown around the apartment, and generaly looked after.  The apartment is well looked after whilst we are not there, they check it every week, but not only that, we get to know all that happens on our complex.

Good luck and hope this helps

 

 

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Hi MCK

I would advise not to take out the MRI membership,till you have completed on the property.Even then I would look very closley if you will need the membership,before completion not worth the extra cost.

I hope this helps,if you need any more info let me know.

 

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A good property management company should be in a position to also welcome any tenants you generate yourself - without taking any commission although they may charge a meet and greet fee for antisocial arrivals/departures.

I would recommend that you enlist the help of a property management company in your area and then do as much free/cheap marketing on the web yourself as the market is very competitive at the moment. I always recommend www.ownersdirect.co.uk to my clients as their booking rate seems very good - especially in the first few weeks of subscription when your property will be on the new listings page.

 Depending on where your property is, think small for the first year of rentals. There is a lot of competition but if you can make the most of your property, tenants will return and recommend to their friends and family. Holiday makers are able to be very demanding at the moment, wanting to be walking distance to beach, restaurants and shops in particular. This can make it difficult for less accessible apartments but there's always a selling point that you can make the most of!

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I dont know if owners direct market to other countries than the UK - perhaps passion can confirm but I have clients who have completed in Elviria early this year who have had success generating clients from France and Germany. Whole summer occupancy and seems to be reasonable return. Its worth looking at sites that promote holiday lets to the emerging European countries as well, as there are more and more of these Nationalities taking an interest in Spain, especially the Russians. There are so many British and Irish owners in Spain now that to rely solely on that as a core market is likely to prove unreliable. The more muck you spread the more that will stick!

Rgds 

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From a renters perspective, I always search holiday-rentals.co.uk

I know it seems obvious, but with a lot of the websites, you have to trawl through each individual property to see if it's available.  What a waste of valuable time.  Anyway with holiday-rentals.co.uk , you enter your dates right at the start, and it only brings up the places that are definitely available.  Then you can sort by price etc etc.

I have booked several holidays through this website, and find it to be the most user-friendly.

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It is all well and good having someone on the urb to take care of the property or just to hold a key for emergencies but if they are not registered with tax office or you do not inform your insurance then this can cause problems no valid claim and the keyholder been investigated etc if there are any burglaries etc.

 I am not saying this because I want business or to scare anyone but just to warn you that this as happened I have a clipping from a newspaper if anyone would be interested in a copy of it then email me at info@holitots.com

 As for property managers etc Some companies in fact a lot of people are out here to make every penny possible in any way they can. I am living in rented property of which was going through an agent the house was to be cleaned before I went in with ny family. To my amazement the place was filthy and took me two exhausting weeks to clean. The owner of the property had no ayments from previous people staying at the property the property manager said that they did not pay etc. The owner took the property out of the management companies hands and we do it direct with each other. The property manager had taken my deposit and it took the  owner quite a while to get it from them.

 

As said before not all are like this try talking to people in the area or go on forums to gather information regarding management companies but just remember to ensure they are legal. The one of us which are honest will give you detailed information regarding the rentals cost and charges what we earn from them etc also what the chances are of letting etc.

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In answer to Smiley's query, I think they do. Certainly we have welcomed French, Scandinavian and German tenants this year who have found rentals through owners direct.

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It is best to trust a registered legal company ( ask to see their forms that show they are paying into the tax system) than a neighbour at least this way the property would be checked every month or more notify your insurance company that you have a keyholder. Make sure you gat checks for security, leaks, pest infestation and that they air the property through. Also if they give the outside areas a good sweep to keep it clean and tidy. It is also a goo idea to have them empty the mail box as junk mail will stack up and make it obvious that the property is empty. Ask the property agent to make an inventry on the property and check this on each visit writing in comments on things such as all well or leak contacted owner and rectified. If you are unsure that your agent is actually doing this ask neighbours each time you are out to your property and leave your number along with the property mangers number with the commitee for any emergancy.

 Check what they charge for emergancy call outs for alarms etc.

 

If I think of anything else I will let you know

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Hi To all

I have read your various articles abour renting out accommodation for holiday lets and as a booking agent myself I can only respond by saying not all of us are bad well I'm certainly not!!

As for a sales agents view of rentals well..........lets say they sometimes use and again not all are guilty of this some kind of mathematic rule regarding rentalble weeks per year that remains a mystery to me and probably a few other people on the coast.

Also remember that although trying to book your aartment for holdiay rentals yourself sound great they are problems with that as well especially if you dont have a management company here to take care of things like..........cleaning, emergencies,maintenance,handing keys over that sort of thing what happens if the air con breaks during your clients visit and you are lets say..........in Ireland not much help to the poor old soul here in 39C without air con!!

 

 

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