I was weeping over the latest problems in this fucking house when I thought there might be some merit / learning / amusement in recording what's happened since purchasing the property in Aviemore in October 2017.
Those of you that have laughed at my DIY misfortunes will know some of it, but if you've ever thought about taking on an FHL, pay attention!
Aviemore in the Cairngorms, a lovely village with an amazing array of activities in the local and outlying areas. Well serviced for those with an outdoor bent or for those who just like having somewhere quiet to come, it's not a bad wee place. It's had it's up and downs over the last few decades with a boom during the 80's followed by a bit of an arse over tit crash in the 90's as it basically turned into a shit hole.
Back then it was relying on the skiing, which in Scotland has got decidedly worse with every passing year. Thankfully into the mid 90's and beyond it started to diversify and now has a huge range of activities other than the white pistes to draw people in.
I've been coming to Aviemore for years, and in 2017 I was up for the Cairngorms Adventure Triathalon again. Had a great time, didn't do too badly in the placings, and myself and MrsB returned back home to Glasgow at the end of it. An idle chat on the Sunday made us look at Rightmove.com to see what properties were available in Aviemore, and lo, a new listing had come on that day!
A detached, two bedroom bungalow in what used to be known as the Silverglades estate. It belonged to a company called Silverglades who in their hey-day, were the largest holiday let company in Aviemore, with the majority of the Silverglades estate under their belt.
The owners had decided that in their 70's, enough was enough and it was time to shut down and sell up; so they'd began to release chunks of property as they wound the company down.
This property was one of what had been their premium properties. Big garden, backed onto the steam railway and quiet. What wasn't to love? Built in the early 1990's as the final stage of the original development by Barratt, it wasn't in that sense, particularly old although it was acknowledged that the houses were put up quickly.
Having read about it on the Sunday, got the Home Report on the Monday (In Scotland a property for sale must have an HR with it, don't know if it's the same in England), drove up on the Tuesday to view it and by the Thursday had an offer in which was accepted by the Friday.
Rash? Possibly you might say, but the HR had no issues and houses in Aviemore don't stay on for long, so you've got to be quick.
At this point, the intent wasn't for it to be an FHL, but we knew we wanted to try and generate some income from it. We did the maths, and to keep the house just for us and empty would cost around £6k per year in mortgage, council tax, heating, etc, so we decided to go down the FHL route.
The plan was simple:
- Let the house out
- House earns money
- Put money back into house
- End up with a better house
What could possibly go wrong?
Aye, well....
We agree a price for contents (or should I say, we game the system with the agent because the SNP are cunts) and so we end up with an FHL which is fully furnished and ready to start earning money. Silverglades were making about £30k a year from the property, but we had no idea what we'd get as we had far greater overheads (they had in-house staff for cleaning, etc).
First bit of investment was a new fence between us and the neighbours to the east, as it was still a Silverglades FHL, so that was £1400 gone.
We also decided to make the house more attractive, so in goes a Serenity NS7 hot tub, another £5500 down.
The rest of the house could carry on normal jogging for a bit.
We identified a local booking agent who managed a number of properties in the Aviemore area, and went with them, as well as a local cleaning / maintenance company.
Our first guests came in at the end of October - our friends. They helped us smooth out some creases and got us ready for the real guests who were due in directly behind them.
Four bookings in, and all was going well with lovely feedback left. This of course was setting me up for a fall and gave me a false sense of security.
I went up after the first four to do a damage check and make sure everything was still in good order - the next guests were our penultimate guests before the Christmas booking, and I wanted to make sure everything was okay. Turns out I made a few mistakes.
There was a switch in the kitchen which I wasn't quite familiar with, but which I was pretty sure had to do with the hot water. I turned it off to save on the bills, thinking that it could be turned on by the property team prior to guest arrival. I also checked that the storage heaters were working and job jobbed, left.
The guest booked in, and in came the first complaint. Apparently, the house was freezing cold and there was no hot water. The boiler had never been turned back on and the storage heaters had been set too low. Fuck a duck. Property team go round with a bottle of wine and put the right settings on.
Then the internet stops working. I'd instructed the telco to block outgoing calls. They being biff cunts, had blocked everything, including the internet. In comes another complaint.
Spend hours on phone to telco in Indistan trying to sort this out. A small hamper sent round.
Then it just starts getting fucking silly. Complaint after complaint after complaint. Culminating in the potato peeler not being good enough. By this time, I've had about an hour in telephone calls with the guest who's all nice on the phone then a cunt to my agent and property team. So I send the girls round with four peelers for him to pick from. Another complaint about lack of roasting trays, apparently one isn't enough. Round they go again with another tin.
Then extractor fan stops working in bathroom, and another complaint, so round goes electrician.
Eventually guest holiday comes to an end and they leave.
In comes the email for compensation and a threat of small claims court for a ruined holiday.
What the utter fuck? Nothing was ruined, the above all happened within two days of a seven day break and everything was resolved. I tell my agent to tell him to jog on, and he stands firm on a small claims court. I read the details of a small claim and it seems it can be made in any part of the country for anywhere else and that I would have to attend that court to present a defence. Confident I'd win, but still incur costs regardless, I pay out £200 to shut them the fuck up and they without knowing it, get blacklisted from a huge number of properties in the Aviemore area.
So, the cold hard reality of FHL has hit home. You can do everything in your power to make it a nice house with nice stuff, but if things go wrong, or if the guest's a cunt, you're fucked.
Thankfully the big spends of my Christmas and New Year guests all have a lovely time. Huge, ridiculous welcome hampers help detract from any issues that may exist.
Bookings are coming in thick and fast, with an occupancy of 87% for the 2017/2018 period.
During that, I get the patio door upgraded - the old aluminium frame one is burst and fucked. There's quite a high level of humidity in the house too, though we're not sure why.
The storage heaters continue to cause problems because they're shit, and the electricity bill sits at about £3500 per year - because it's storage and guests are fucking retards, you've got to leave them on overnight to charge up, and the guests inevitably empty the fuckers by 3pm. I start researching alternative power sources, all of which prove to be absolute no-go's for a variety of reasons such as cost, sustainability, etc.
I also started to have issues with my property team, as they're fucking up various things (wrong filter in hot tub so water doesn't get cleaned) and the cleaning isn't to the standard it should be. I have words with the boss and things get back on track for a bit, but there's still issues.
Everything ticks a long for a bit, no major issues but a couple of complaints about dog hairs. The property is pet friendly and for some reason, fucking idiots who have dog allergies book to stay, find a hair and complain that they could've died.
I find it hard trying to reason out the fact they're morons for picking a pet friendly place to stay. I also have two other complaints which are all small, niggly things. I adopt the trick of offering £100 off a return stay (where the complaint really is just a niggly one) which the three complaints I had for 2017-2018 cuntychops excluded, all take up the offer of. Which means ha, I win as I get more money from them.
My booking agent begs me to stop doing this. Apparently it's bad business, but I don't give a shit, I'm fighting to keep a decent reputation as the first review left on the Google Business listing for the property is from the pre-Christmas cuntychops and has words like "awful" in it.
Those of you that have laughed at my DIY misfortunes will know some of it, but if you've ever thought about taking on an FHL, pay attention!
Aviemore in the Cairngorms, a lovely village with an amazing array of activities in the local and outlying areas. Well serviced for those with an outdoor bent or for those who just like having somewhere quiet to come, it's not a bad wee place. It's had it's up and downs over the last few decades with a boom during the 80's followed by a bit of an arse over tit crash in the 90's as it basically turned into a shit hole.
Back then it was relying on the skiing, which in Scotland has got decidedly worse with every passing year. Thankfully into the mid 90's and beyond it started to diversify and now has a huge range of activities other than the white pistes to draw people in.
I've been coming to Aviemore for years, and in 2017 I was up for the Cairngorms Adventure Triathalon again. Had a great time, didn't do too badly in the placings, and myself and MrsB returned back home to Glasgow at the end of it. An idle chat on the Sunday made us look at Rightmove.com to see what properties were available in Aviemore, and lo, a new listing had come on that day!
A detached, two bedroom bungalow in what used to be known as the Silverglades estate. It belonged to a company called Silverglades who in their hey-day, were the largest holiday let company in Aviemore, with the majority of the Silverglades estate under their belt.
The owners had decided that in their 70's, enough was enough and it was time to shut down and sell up; so they'd began to release chunks of property as they wound the company down.
This property was one of what had been their premium properties. Big garden, backed onto the steam railway and quiet. What wasn't to love? Built in the early 1990's as the final stage of the original development by Barratt, it wasn't in that sense, particularly old although it was acknowledged that the houses were put up quickly.
Having read about it on the Sunday, got the Home Report on the Monday (In Scotland a property for sale must have an HR with it, don't know if it's the same in England), drove up on the Tuesday to view it and by the Thursday had an offer in which was accepted by the Friday.
Rash? Possibly you might say, but the HR had no issues and houses in Aviemore don't stay on for long, so you've got to be quick.
At this point, the intent wasn't for it to be an FHL, but we knew we wanted to try and generate some income from it. We did the maths, and to keep the house just for us and empty would cost around £6k per year in mortgage, council tax, heating, etc, so we decided to go down the FHL route.
The plan was simple:
- Let the house out
- House earns money
- Put money back into house
- End up with a better house
What could possibly go wrong?
Aye, well....
We agree a price for contents (or should I say, we game the system with the agent because the SNP are cunts) and so we end up with an FHL which is fully furnished and ready to start earning money. Silverglades were making about £30k a year from the property, but we had no idea what we'd get as we had far greater overheads (they had in-house staff for cleaning, etc).
First bit of investment was a new fence between us and the neighbours to the east, as it was still a Silverglades FHL, so that was £1400 gone.
We also decided to make the house more attractive, so in goes a Serenity NS7 hot tub, another £5500 down.
The rest of the house could carry on normal jogging for a bit.
We identified a local booking agent who managed a number of properties in the Aviemore area, and went with them, as well as a local cleaning / maintenance company.
Our first guests came in at the end of October - our friends. They helped us smooth out some creases and got us ready for the real guests who were due in directly behind them.
Four bookings in, and all was going well with lovely feedback left. This of course was setting me up for a fall and gave me a false sense of security.
I went up after the first four to do a damage check and make sure everything was still in good order - the next guests were our penultimate guests before the Christmas booking, and I wanted to make sure everything was okay. Turns out I made a few mistakes.
There was a switch in the kitchen which I wasn't quite familiar with, but which I was pretty sure had to do with the hot water. I turned it off to save on the bills, thinking that it could be turned on by the property team prior to guest arrival. I also checked that the storage heaters were working and job jobbed, left.
The guest booked in, and in came the first complaint. Apparently, the house was freezing cold and there was no hot water. The boiler had never been turned back on and the storage heaters had been set too low. Fuck a duck. Property team go round with a bottle of wine and put the right settings on.
Then the internet stops working. I'd instructed the telco to block outgoing calls. They being biff cunts, had blocked everything, including the internet. In comes another complaint.
Spend hours on phone to telco in Indistan trying to sort this out. A small hamper sent round.
Then it just starts getting fucking silly. Complaint after complaint after complaint. Culminating in the potato peeler not being good enough. By this time, I've had about an hour in telephone calls with the guest who's all nice on the phone then a cunt to my agent and property team. So I send the girls round with four peelers for him to pick from. Another complaint about lack of roasting trays, apparently one isn't enough. Round they go again with another tin.
Then extractor fan stops working in bathroom, and another complaint, so round goes electrician.
Eventually guest holiday comes to an end and they leave.
In comes the email for compensation and a threat of small claims court for a ruined holiday.
What the utter fuck? Nothing was ruined, the above all happened within two days of a seven day break and everything was resolved. I tell my agent to tell him to jog on, and he stands firm on a small claims court. I read the details of a small claim and it seems it can be made in any part of the country for anywhere else and that I would have to attend that court to present a defence. Confident I'd win, but still incur costs regardless, I pay out £200 to shut them the fuck up and they without knowing it, get blacklisted from a huge number of properties in the Aviemore area.
So, the cold hard reality of FHL has hit home. You can do everything in your power to make it a nice house with nice stuff, but if things go wrong, or if the guest's a cunt, you're fucked.
Thankfully the big spends of my Christmas and New Year guests all have a lovely time. Huge, ridiculous welcome hampers help detract from any issues that may exist.
Bookings are coming in thick and fast, with an occupancy of 87% for the 2017/2018 period.
During that, I get the patio door upgraded - the old aluminium frame one is burst and fucked. There's quite a high level of humidity in the house too, though we're not sure why.
The storage heaters continue to cause problems because they're shit, and the electricity bill sits at about £3500 per year - because it's storage and guests are fucking retards, you've got to leave them on overnight to charge up, and the guests inevitably empty the fuckers by 3pm. I start researching alternative power sources, all of which prove to be absolute no-go's for a variety of reasons such as cost, sustainability, etc.
I also started to have issues with my property team, as they're fucking up various things (wrong filter in hot tub so water doesn't get cleaned) and the cleaning isn't to the standard it should be. I have words with the boss and things get back on track for a bit, but there's still issues.
Everything ticks a long for a bit, no major issues but a couple of complaints about dog hairs. The property is pet friendly and for some reason, fucking idiots who have dog allergies book to stay, find a hair and complain that they could've died.
I find it hard trying to reason out the fact they're morons for picking a pet friendly place to stay. I also have two other complaints which are all small, niggly things. I adopt the trick of offering £100 off a return stay (where the complaint really is just a niggly one) which the three complaints I had for 2017-2018 cuntychops excluded, all take up the offer of. Which means ha, I win as I get more money from them.
My booking agent begs me to stop doing this. Apparently it's bad business, but I don't give a shit, I'm fighting to keep a decent reputation as the first review left on the Google Business listing for the property is from the pre-Christmas cuntychops and has words like "awful" in it.