Working out occpuancy/ what I will get from this.. HOW?

[French Cricket]

Nemo, an interesting question to ask you (as queen of park ownership ) might be this: if you were starting out now but knew everything you've learned (the hard way) over your past 8 years, would you do it again? Or would you do something different?

[HPD]

A professional landlord bought 5 or 6 properties on our site and left them for the park to manage. He never visited himself. It didn't work out; when an owner doesn't care then it shows, as no-one picks up on issues and faults better than an owner and with holiday lets the guests won't always tell you of issues like a live in tenant might. So he put them on to AST, awful for the park as a holiday park doesn't want tenants living among holiday guests. Broke the rules of planning permission but no-one cares about that apart from the people on the park who are affected.

Upshot? That didn't work out either, so they have now all been sold.

Of course they can work as a business, mine do, very successfully, but I manage it all myself, maintain them, visit them regularly and give 100% of myself into the process. It is not for the faint hearted although I can see that you want this to work. Don't base any figures about what may happen in the future, base it on what you are realistic in achieving now. If the sums work out then maybe it's worth exploring. Otherwise the best advice I can give is to walk away if it's not about buying a property that you will use yourself at least some of the time. Do you want to go to the IOW for much of your spare time? Sorry, I'm clearly jaded by park ownership 8 years down the line.

Ha ha that's okay you know far more than I do! I would love to have one but wouldn't be able to go there every weekend.

So he hasn't replied but another one has:
Hi. Yes the site does have an owner at the moment and that is Lloyds bank. The site went into receivership some years ago and is owned by Lloyds and managed by a company called Daniel Harrison's.
At the moment the site has had 3 bids put in to buy it when it went up for sale 2 years ago. One of the bidders was us the chalet owners and apparently there are higher bidders that want to buy but there are to many liabilities in the sale of site. As in the previous owner before it went into receivership owed money to the chalet owners and they never got that money back so there is a court action going on now.
Site fees can only be put up if a club house/activities are put on site and then as well prices can be put up to guests to cover such costs because of activities put on.
Planning permission has been put in at the council 3 times since I have been there (5 yrs) and been rejected every time as the site is built on national heritage.
The site is in a beautiful setting with cliff paths to the beaches and bars and up to culver downs. The only thing that some thing is a bad point (myself not included) is there is no club house or activities. The 'owners' of the site get 1% of price chalet has sold for should you decide to sell. But are not entitled to a penny of your earnings at all while you own it.
My personal experience of selling my chalet. I bought it 3 years ago for £24k and sold it 2 years ago for £48.500. Prices are now between £30k-£43k so if location and decor are right you could make a profit of £5k-£10k profit upon selling and the chalets are capable of making £5-£6k per year.
I don't think the leases can be extended and I would not want them to be as with new leases new rules will come. If you decide to buy then I feel the leases are long enough myself personally.
The chalets are in a bit of a mess but it depends who you buy from and what your prepared to do to it when you buy it. My partner is a builder and will gladly take a look and tell you a price for any work needing done. To give you an idea if you should buy or leave. And I run my own cleaning company on the site so could maintain it for you.
The chalets are selling like hot cakes and that is no lie but you onlyy can decide

[HPD]

A professional landlord bought 5 or 6 properties on our site and left them for the park to manage. He never visited himself. It didn't work out; when an owner doesn't care then it shows, as no-one picks up on issues and faults better than an owner and with holiday lets the guests won't always tell you of issues like a live in tenant might. So he put them on to AST, awful for the park as a holiday park doesn't want tenants living among holiday guests. Broke the rules of planning permission but no-one cares about that apart from the people on the park who are affected.

Upshot? That didn't work out either, so they have now all been sold.

Of course they can work as a business, mine do, very successfully, but I manage it all myself, maintain them, visit them regularly and give 100% of myself into the process. It is not for the faint hearted although I can see that you want this to work. Don't base any figures about what may happen in the future, base it on what you are realistic in achieving now. If the sums work out then maybe it's worth exploring. Otherwise the best advice I can give is to walk away if it's not about buying a property that you will use yourself at least some of the time. Do you want to go to the IOW for much of your spare time? Sorry, I'm clearly jaded by park ownership 8 years down the line.

Ha ha that's okay you know far more than I do! I would love to have one but wouldn't be able to go there every weekend.

So he hasn't replied but another one has:
Hi. Yes the site does have an owner at the moment and that is Lloyds bank. The site went into receivership some years ago and is owned by Lloyds and managed by a company called Daniel Harrison's.
At the moment the site has had 3 bids put in to buy it when it went up for sale 2 years ago. One of the bidders was us the chalet owners and apparently there are higher bidders that want to buy but there are to many liabilities in the sale of site. As in the previous owner before it went into receivership owed money to the chalet owners and they never got that money back so there is a court action going on now.
Site fees can only be put up if a club house/activities are put on site and then as well prices can be put up to guests to cover such costs because of activities put on.
Planning permission has been put in at the council 3 times since I have been there (5 yrs) and been rejected every time as the site is built on national heritage.
The site is in a beautiful setting with cliff paths to the beaches and bars and up to culver downs. The only thing that some thing is a bad point (myself not included) is there is no club house or activities. The 'owners' of the site get 1% of price chalet has sold for should you decide to sell. But are not entitled to a penny of your earnings at all while you own it.
My personal experience of selling my chalet. I bought it 3 years ago for £24k and sold it 2 years ago for £48.500. Prices are now between £30k-£43k so if location and decor are right you could make a profit of £5k-£10k profit upon selling and the chalets are capable of making £5-£6k per year.
I don't think the leases can be extended and I would not want them to be as with new leases new rules will come. If you decide to buy then I feel the leases are long enough myself personally.
The chalets are in a bit of a mess but it depends who you buy from and what your prepared to do to it when you buy it. My partner is a builder and will gladly take a look and tell you a price for any work needing done. To give you an idea if you should buy or leave. And I run my own cleaning company on the site so could maintain it for you.
The chalets are selling like hot cakes and that is no lie but you onlyy can decide

[Nemo]

Nemo, an interesting question to ask you (as queen of park ownership ) might be this: if you were starting out now but knew everything you've learned (the hard way) over your past 8 years, would you do it again? Or would you do something different?

Ah well that's an interesting one. I cannot regret the purchases from a business perspective. The figures have more than surpassed what I thought possible, but then I didn't know it would become my career! I also love the business of holiday letting so those are the two positives. The two things I dislike now are being leasehold and the power the landlord has over what happens on site, plus the way the park is managed. New properties have been built which have also taken the seaview from one property. Unforgivable! Having learned the various murkier side of parks and their management I would never buy from this company again. They have somewhat coloured my view of park owners.

So given a choice now, I'd prefer to invest in bricks and mortar and freehold properties, it just costs double the amount of what I actually invested with very little extra return.

[Giraffe]

Hello HPD. I have followed this topic out of general interest. I have no knowledge of park homes - you have some fantastic experts here to help you.

I am an offsite owner of a holiday cottage, 220 miles away. I suggest you really need to consider the additional costs and the type/amount of work for yourself that this incurs.

Re costs, you will have to find the right people and pay them to undertake cleaning and preparation of chalet, key access, towels/linen, storage of spare linen/towels, gardening (?), ongoing maintenance, emergency repairs, emergency replacements, ad hoc requests from visitors, problem visitors, ad hoc issues with the site....

You will either have to find the time to coordinate this yourself, or pay a manager, with the appropriate authority, to do it for you.

Eg. On my birthday last month the BT Internet at my holiday let was not working. Spent most of the morning a) talking to guests, b) on the phone to India, c) a 3 way phone discussion with India, my guests and myself to diagnose what needed to be done and d)arrange for an engineer, and e) follow up calls later that week to ensure everything was working.

Another this weekend. Cooker oven isn't working. Have arranged for a check. Then via my housekeeper either have it repaired, or I've sourced a replacement cooker as a last resort. Has taken a fair amount of my time, and will cost. An onsite OH with electrical knowledge would probably have sorted it by now!

These are examples of unplanned events which have to be addressed immediately. If you are off site and working full time you will need a process in place to manage these.

If you are thinking of doing your own advertising and dealing with guests, then you need to factor in your time for this. Unless you get an agent, which again will cost you.

In summary. As an offsite owner think a) additional costs, b) your own time and c) ability to respond.

Good luck if you go ahead.