[Closed] Why's no one interested in this hoose.

Again, thanks all and eventually, yes I reckon I did answer my own question. The Isle of Skye Estate Agency is invisible to anyone not living there.

Will recommend that commercial site btbb. Got to be worth a try.

Just want them to be able to move back to Aberdeen at roughly the same time as I do. Wife and five year old are already there.

Rockape, I agree, but Devon is made of scones and cups of tea. Skye is going the same way but isn't quite there yet.

Therefore, there just won't be that many people interested. Trouble is...when someone comes along who is, they will see the time spent on the market and try their luck with [s]crap[/s] realistic offers.

Sorry.
My inlaws are currently trying to sell a steading conversion in Aberdeenshire at full on oil boom prices. Not a single call as yet.
They are in denial about the fact their house is worth the best part of £200,000 less than they imagine it is.

Also, the advice above about the brutal decluttering and better pics would be my first move. It just looks a bit fusty.

OTher advice above about letting repeat visitors know it is for sale is also good. They are likely to think a bit more with heart than head if considering it at all.
My folks have three cottages on the mainland next to Skye. They've had plenty enquiries from visitors over the years.

And my folks are taking a serious loss if it sells for the asking price, right or wrong.

You said something similar to this in the thread about your house.

Are they actually taking a loss, on money they have invested, or are they "losing" money against an unrealistic price an estate agent gave them, and they now think the place is worth? Two very different things.

Are there any restrictions on the useage of the cottages? Are they holiday let only or some such designation that would preclude anyone living in them permanently?

I'm planning to retire soon and buy or more likely build a house in western Scotland. My reactions:

Damned expensive for someone retiring who might be thinking of spending £300-400k to buy a dream house or buy land and build.

Old people decor and fittings, will probably need quite a lot of work to bring it up to scratch. We are still eliminating horrible decor from our present house after 13 years.

No retiree will be wanting the burden of the three cottages to run.

An investor will want a lot more detail on the likely turnover, costs etc.

From the pics of the cottages it looks as if they could do with some modernisation.

Finally it's an old-fashioned style of timber-framed house and people who have a wad of retirement cash to spend are looking for big windows and spectacular architecture with modern house technology.

I am guessing that whatever means it has to be a going concern also will make this hard to mortgage. So you are looking for a cash buyer, with 3/4 of a million to splash out, but not so much cash that they don't need the inconvenience of running the holiday business. And they will need to be interested in doing it on Skye, where as you've just said the rental market has changed in response to the day visitors doing the NC500 and the media hype has been rather negative.

How many people have seen the accounts and then not come back? The fact they don't rent in winter will be an alarm bell (it would tell me there is only a 6 month income at best), that might be just because they are getting on a bit, but you will really need to convince them.

If it's being sold as a business it should tell me 1. That it includes the website, domain name, good will, etc. 2. How many weeks are already let for 2018. Those two factors could be important for someone trying to make the first year affordable.

I'm not sure you are correct that your buyer will also be old with old fashioned taste. Anyone old will also see the negatives your parents have, which means they want to sell; and anyone with that sort of cash in their 60s or older likely has a pension plan that gives them a comfortable lifestyle so don't need the income. This might well appeal to a family who happen to have inherited a load of cash or made money "down souf" and be looking for a better place to bring up the kids, but who still need an income. On that front it would be worth including details about broadband in the ad (if it's not already) - it is one of the things that could make or break a particular property if one of the occupants is working remotely.

Is it a planning condition in the holiday status? I assume like most of the highlands there is a demand for affordable homes for "local" families. I wonder if the council could be persuaded to relax that criteria for that? Of course that might not help the value as such but would give alternatives.

One of the concerns the buyer should have is when they come to sell how easy will it be to do so. Your current experience suggests difficult. So if they do 5-10 years and then want to cash in are they going to find themselves stuck?

Another alternative would be to rent the main house too and run it all remotely with a local member of staff doing the changeovers etc. Would that bring enough to rent somewhere in Aberdeen - after all the property market in Aberdeen is a bit odd too...

The house is beautiful. The decor is fine and everything looks clean and fresh and tidy and well cared for - I'd rather that than a house that's been tarted up for sale with the cheapest of everything. I would add some more photos that capture the lifestyle that's up for grabs (details of the garden, the woodburner with the kettle, the front door with flowers round it ...). Whoever buys it will do so because they fall in love with the place not because the figures add up, make it easy for them. Good luck! (I left London and moved to Devon; my manager was made redundant and moved to Skye!)

Did the question about selling the cottages individually get answered? Its certainly worth looking at breaking everything up and selling in lots of 1 at a time. £175k per cottage with land and parking etc.

[quote=user-removed ]Lots more interesting comments, thanks. We've always had family links to the highlands and islands although admittedly not directly to Skye. But we've been going there since it was like Raasay is now. Lots of us still live up there.
Can't reply to all of you but no, [b]the house can't be sold separately to the cottages - it's got to go as a going concern.[/b]
If it's overpriced at the asking price, it was massively overpriced the last time it was on the market
It's purpose built and the positioning of the main house means that it's easier to get down to the cottages on Saturday morning, clean them, check the inventory etc.

And my folks are taking a serious loss if it sells for the asking price, right or wrong.

Rightly or wrongly it's not profitable then?

Stick the numbers on the advert and let people judge for themselves. The philanthropic london millionaire couple with money to burn you're holding out for doesn't exist, they'd have to be idiots if it the holiday let's don't pay for themselves, and the problem with idiots with loads of money is idiots tend not to have loads of money.

Stick an overview of the accounts on the advert, it's no different to an asking price which anyone with half a business brain could work back from and deduce the profit anyway [b]IF[/b] it's priced accurately.

Can't reply to all of you but no, the house can't be sold separately to the cottages - it's got to go as a going concern.

Ah okay.....shame! Lets face it, when something doesn't sell, you can dance around the facts as long as you want, but unless something radically important is missing from the details, then its overpriced.

Why cant they be sold separately? Legal reasons?

How much would they fetch separately?

I' don't know if its a planning reason or some other legal covenant, but I'd say your best bet is to spend some money challenging that and trying to get it overturned - particularly if you can demonstrate that it's been on the market and is unsellable as a going concern

You may well find there's already someone on the island who would happily buy one or more cottages as an investment, equally there are likely to be loads of people from the mainland who would want to buy one as a holiday retreat rather than as a business. I would reckon there are also quite a few who would want to buy the main house as a place to live in with no interest in running several holiday cottages at all.

the one kilo pointed out almost had me looking for a business loan till i realised it was in Breakish,

Last few times I've been cycling through there its been a ghost town !

This thread is very similar to the other one the OP started:

OP - "Why won't this sell"

STWr - "It's because of ..."

OP - "No it's not"

Another STWr - "It's because of ..."

OP - "No it's not"

Another STWr - "It's because of ..."

OP - "No it's not"

Another STWr - "It's because of ..."

OP - "No it's not"

🙄

Again, loads of good info ta! Especially

40% repeat business seems good have you tried marketing the opportunity to turn their holiday into a lifestyle to one of the repeat customers ?

Great idea - my mum deals with the bookings which come from all over the place (different sites) so it may be tough to collate email addies but at this point she has plenty of time...

They really are keen to sell the whole lot in one go - as I've recently discovered, selling just one house is an expensive nightmare so going for four at once isn't going to happen.

[i]going for four at once isn't going to happen[/i]

neither's going for one at once, currently?

It might be worth investigating, people may buy them as holiday homes and then employ the main house owner to manage them as let properties when they're not required by the new owner?

Don't know what to tell you - I do appreciate there's a good argument for splitting the sale but part of the reason it's a successful business is that the owners can run down and greet guests, fix problems, replace broken things etc.

All guests get a welcome basket of home made cakes, shortbread and the like. Having the house so nearby is a boon and a curse I reckon 😀

The big Saturday morning clean is so much easier too - quick walk down the hill when the local lady arrives, easy to pop back up for a cuppa and retrieve stuff from the store - you'd be amazed how much stuff people steal / break.

Makes a lot of sense to sell it in a oner imho.

My sister finally sold her hokiday let in Devon. 20-% less than asking price / vakue in 2006

AirBnB is really hurting small hotels and B&B's as you say OP running the B&B is hard work. My sister eventually gave up with holiday lets and rented it for 12 months. Have a neighbour who used to run a Gites business in Brittany (main house and 4 properties to let). He closed it down as loss making and whole site worth less than main house only as new buyer would have to demolish the lets

Also £740 sounds a hell of a lot for Skye. Devon cottahe went for £240. New Scottish stamp duty is very high at that price no ?

Annoyingly, I can't find the article I read the other day about how hard airb&b is hitting those who own hotels along the north500 route.

Skye hasn't had quite the same problems but there does seem to be a hit 'n' run mentality amongst today's tourists. It's a daft way to go on holiday, be it Brittany or Peru. See the top three places and move on, with no sense of the place or people.

Makes a lot of sense to sell it in a oner imho.

You mean apart from the fact that nobody appears to want to buy it as a oner?

Without an figures as to profitability I go and look at the advance bookings on their website, then run away.

So there is no legal reason why they cant be sold separately?

I would say overpriced then. I'm sure somebody would have bought them and sold them for a quick profit otherwise.

From a buyers P.O.V there are 2 ways of looking at it

a) as a going concern- more effort needs to be made on the part of the seller to show this IMO.

b) as bricks and mortar in a good location- must be priced to the value of the 4 buildings.

Basically nobody wants to buy something for more than its worth! Whatever the lifestyle that is offered. You could buy a cottage in Skye for £250k and have £500k to live on and not have to clean bogs!

If there is little interest in the four buildings as a group, I would be inclined to test the water by putting the cottage furthest away from the main house for sale individually.

If it sells and no interest in the remaining three, put the middle cottage on the market individually.

etc.

If I had that sort of money I'd buy this:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/overseas-property/property-39242332.html

Stop dreaming Nico....this is serious! 👿

Nice find BTW! 😀

If I had that sort of money I'd buy this:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/overseas-property/property-39242332.html
br />

😯

Great Scott! So would I! Depends what you want out of life I suppose. Mountains, midges and solitude or sunshine and croissants...

[i]solitude[/i]

in close proximity to 3 other couples or families looking for the same 😉

When I googled for businesses for sale on Skye I got punted straight on to Righmove and immediately saw this:

[url= http://www.rightmove.co.uk/commercial-property-for-sale/property-49990539.html ]http://www.rightmove.co.uk/commercial-property-for-sale/property-49990539.html[/url]

Two things struck me. Firstly, your folks house isn't find-able or on Righmove. Secondly, this property / business seems much better value (even taking into account the difference in size)

My in-laws just sold their small house on Skye for a little more than they paid for it 1 year ago. They let out the spare rooms over airbnb. The sale took less than 3 months.

1) as said by others, it needs to go on a dedicated business selling website - with accounts for the past 3 years listed
2) I know nothing about buying a business, but to my mind it does seem a touch expensive. Some relatives are selling a [url= http://www.huntleyandpartners.com/properties/download/G1989 ]village shop[/url] come b&b in a pretty part of Devon for the smae price, which makes a turnover of £750k per year with 20% profit. I can't imagine you parents' b&b makes those sort of numbers?

I'd wager the place it Brittany will only sell for much less. It's on Rightmove as they are hoping a Brit buyer will overpay. Make no mistake the house is lovely and Gulf du Morbihan is too but its very easy and cheap to build in France and with 10% unemployment local business is weak. I susoect the Gites business is breakeven at best.

You can buy a house or very nice beach aide apartment in Deauville for £300k. Stunning beaches, restaurants, countryside and 3hrs from Calais, 30 mins from Caen/Le Havre with a local airport RyanAir etc fly into

In a nutshel this is it

You could buy a cottage in Skye for £250k and have £500k to live on and not have to clean bogs!

Also the £500k could be invested in a variety of income prodicing assets. How about another propertiy elsewhere (France / Spain ...) which can be rented out 10 montha of the year and lived in by owner the other 2

I'd wager the place it Brittany will only sell for much less. It's on Rightmove as they are hoping a Brit buyer will overpay. Make no mistake the house is lovely and Gulf du Morbihan is too but its very easy and cheap to build in France and with 10% unemployment local business is weak. I susoect the Gites business is breakeven at best.

You can buy a house or very nice beach aide apartment in Deauville for £300k. Stunning beaches, restaurants, countryside and 3hrs from Calais, 30 mins from Caen/Le Havre with a local airport RyanAir etc fly into

Well yes, but I was merely illustrating with a like for like price that you don't have to go wet cold, and dark to get prices that look cheap to a Londoner. As has been said elsewhere there are ways to make money other than holiday lets, and there are probably better ways to live somewhere rural and lovely than running such a business (I suppose I should say "said business" seeing as this is STW ;-)). Me, I'm just thinking of my retirement :-). Salut!