Lifestyle Business....

[Fromage Frais]

You have to love my area even when you think something has sold years ago it comes back.... at a higher price.  Really feels like a scam given the volume of SSTC and the resulting completions. 

My favourite listings are the "lifestyle businesses" where you need to spend the best of a million £ to buy a home with a business attached which if successful should remove all of the fun of living in the said home, Norfolk is full of them. 

I am in the hospitality trade and although its more stressful overall I do not miss the smaller time days of not having a staff working overnight (unless covid closed) and waiting till 2am for folk whom either do not turn up or never answer the phone. 

My problem with such listings is for a house say 300K having a nice business attached is a boon as maybe you could use the extra money.....

But when you get to near or over a million £ either the business should make you real money or you will be rich enough that the job you had that allowed you to pay 1 million for the house is a better use of your time and/or relaxation is paramount.

https://www.propertyclassifieds.co.uk/properties/4-bedroom-detached-house-214

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/77136513#/

The only difference I see here is that the business has been COVID closed on and off over the last year = must be worth another £200K

Edited January 15, 2021 by Fromage Frais

[Fromage Frais]

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/85503736#/

How about a ******ing hulking windmill (that actually turns yey) which will leave you shitting yourself every time there is a storm.

https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/business/stow-mill-paston-near-north-walsham-for-sale-6405048

Not to worry though I am sure the holiday let inside will cover 20% of the annual maintenance.

900k+ has got to be worth having get in there.
 

Edited January 15, 2021 by Fromage Frais

[A17]

My advice to anybody who is looking to buy and run one of these home-based bed-and-breakfasts:

• For a year beforehand in your regular home, get up in the morning and cook X numbers of breakfasts perfectly. If it isn't perfect, throw it in the bin.
• Similarly, change your bed sheets X number of times every day to reflect the proposed occupancy.
• Invite strangers into your house. If you want an easier start, invite friends and relatives to stay all year round.
• Get used to paperwork by completing every junkmail application through your door (no need to send it off, just to get in practice of dealing with whatever turns up each day) 

Edited January 15, 2021 by A17
Spelling

[14stFlyer]

And deliberately “dirty” and clean your loos five times a day too!

[A17]

18 minutes ago, 14stFlyer said:

And deliberately “dirty” and clean your loos five times a day too!

Yep. Clean the entire house properly each day.

[sammersmith]

1 hour ago, A17 said:

My advice to anybody who is looking to buy and run one of these home-based bed-and-breakfasts:

• For a year beforehand in your regular home, get up in the morning and cook X numbers of breakfasts perfectly. If it isn't perfect, throw it in the bin.
• Similarly, change your bed sheets X number of times every day to reflect the proposed occupancy.
• Invite strangers into your house. If you want an easier start, invite friends and relatives to stay all year round.
• Get used to paperwork by completing every junkmail application through your door (no need to send it off, just to get in practice of dealing with whatever turns up each day) 

In the escape the country episodes you often, as in almost always, get a 50's couple with around 700K who want to set up a BnB. What is wrong with these people? I can think of no worst things i would do in my 50's (or at any age) If i had that much money to hand. i'd be more interested in enjoying life with myself / family. It'll take a lot of £100 overnight stays to break even and make it worth the hassle. 

[PeanutButter]

2 hours ago, Fromage Frais said:

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/85503736#/

How about a ******ing hulking windmill (that actually turns yey) which will leave you shitting yourself every time there is a storm.

I shit myself during storms anyway, sounds an ideal cover personally.

[GregBowman]

8 hours ago, sammersmith said:

In the escape the country episodes you often, as in almost always, get a 50's couple with around 700K who want to set up a BnB. What is wrong with these people? I can think of no worst things i would do in my 50's (or at any age) If i had that much money to hand. i'd be more interested in enjoying life with myself / family. It'll take a lot of £100 overnight stays to break even and make it worth the hassle. 

What fascinates me with this sort of lifestyle change is the fact that very few have had any experience of running a business or even more critically a service business.

There is a sort of arrogance about the fact that I have been working in a non customer facing role all my life as an employee in a so called professional job - a sort of how hard can it be to run a service business I can use a spreadsheet attitude ?

 

 

 

Edited January 15, 2021 by GregBowman

[spyguy]

1 hour ago, sammersmith said:

In the escape the country episodes you often, as in almost always, get a 50's couple with around 700K who want to set up a BnB. What is wrong with these people? I can think of no worst things i would do in my 50's (or at any age) If i had that much money to hand. i'd be more interested in enjoying life with myself / family. It'll take a lot of £100 overnight stays to break even and make it worth the hassle. 

 

54 minutes ago, GregBowman said:

What fascinates me with this sort of lifestyle change is the fact that very few have had any experience of running a business or even more critically a service business.

There is a sort of arrogance about the fact that I have been working in a non customer facing role all my life as an employee in a so called professional job - a sort of hard can it be to run a service business I can use a spreadsheet ?

 

 

 

Its not just the gormless assumption of how easy it is to ru na business -chronic amongst public sector early retirees.

Youve just got the insanity and size of the numbers involved -

Oh me and Jean have bought a BnB for £1m. Itll give us something to do and give us an income ...

So, letting sparerooms for ~70/night, cooking greasy breakfast for salesmen and contract builders, scrapping the skidmarks of the crapper everyday????

Mental.

Get a normal house. Then get a job in tesco or something. Youll make more money.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[erat_forte]

3 hours ago, A17 said:

My advice to anybody who is looking to buy and run one of these home-based bed-and-breakfasts:

• For a year beforehand in your regular home, get up in the morning and cook X numbers of breakfasts perfectly. If it isn't perfect, through it in the bin.
• Similarly, change your bed sheets X number of times every day to reflect the proposed occupancy.
• Invite strangers into your house. If you want an easier start, invite friends and relatives to stay all year round.
• Get used to paperwork by completing every junkmail application through your door (no need to send it off, just to get in practice of dealing with whatever turns up each day) 

Maybe there are people whose daily home life is like this anyway, so turning home into a B&B is no extra effort/

[winkie]

What facinates me are people that buy a place with three or four spare bedrooms and ensuites for all the friends and family they expect to want to stay.......when in reality they very rarely visit, if they do they are quite happy to stay on the put-you-up or stay the night in a comfortable b&b down the road...

[Insane]

16 minutes ago, winkie said:

What facinates me are people that buy a place with three or four spare bedrooms and ensuites for all the friends and family they expect to want to stay.......when in reality they very rarely visit, if they do they are quite happy to stay on the put-you-up or stay the night in a comfortable b&b down the road...

Agreed , have heard it said many times if you move away and out as they call it if your within the M25 if you want to see your old friends and family you have to travel back to where you came from to see them. They very rarely come out to see you.  

[Insane]

5 hours ago, A17 said:

My advice to anybody who is looking to buy and run one of these home-based bed-and-breakfasts:

• For a year beforehand in your regular home, get up in the morning and cook X numbers of breakfasts perfectly. If it isn't perfect, throw it in the bin.
• Similarly, change your bed sheets X number of times every day to reflect the proposed occupancy.
• Invite strangers into your house. If you want an easier start, invite friends and relatives to stay all year round.
• Get used to paperwork by completing every junkmail application through your door (no need to send it off, just to get in practice of dealing with whatever turns up each day) 

I could not think of anything worse than having a B&B.

I watch four in a bed sometimes and see how fussy people are on there. These are obviously the owners picking holes in the competitions  venues but I bet they pull them up on issues that they have been pulled up on by the general public in their own B&B's.

The days of no en-suite and putting up with Mrs Nickols swirly carpet and non matching bed spreads are long gone the public demands much higher standards now and can be a right pain when they don't get what they think they should. 

[ForGreatLager...]

5 hours ago, A17 said:

My advice to anybody who is looking to buy and run one of these home-based bed-and-breakfasts:

• For a year beforehand in your regular home, get up in the morning and cook X numbers of breakfasts perfectly. If it isn't perfect, throw it in the bin.
• Similarly, change your bed sheets X number of times every day to reflect the proposed occupancy.
• Invite strangers into your house. If you want an easier start, invite friends and relatives to stay all year round.
• Get used to paperwork by completing every junkmail application through your door (no need to send it off, just to get in practice of dealing with whatever turns up each day) 

😂 Excellent. I’ve had a 5hit day, and that made me laugh. 

[spyguy]

2 hours ago, erat_forte said:

Maybe there are people whose daily home life is like this anyway, so turning home into a B&B is no extra effort/

No extra effort.....

Yes... just 0ut an extra sausage in the pan, more toast in the toaster.... kerching. Money for nothing.

Except it isnt.

One, you've the stress of strange people in your house - unless it's totally seperate.

Two, you are hanging around waiting for people to turn up.

 

 

[steve99]

14 hours ago, A17 said:

My advice to anybody who is looking to buy and run one of these home-based bed-and-breakfasts:

• For a year beforehand in your regular home, get up in the morning and cook X numbers of breakfasts perfectly. If it isn't perfect, throw it in the bin.
• Similarly, change your bed sheets X number of times every day to reflect the proposed occupancy.
• Invite strangers into your house. If you want an easier start, invite friends and relatives to stay all year round.
• Get used to paperwork by completing every junkmail application through your door (no need to send it off, just to get in practice of dealing with whatever turns up each day) 

Airbnb, be somewhat hands off, get mrs Mopp from the village to come in and pay her/him the cleaning fee that they put on the price of  each let. 

[NobodyInParticular]

Where I used to work a colleague said "don't you sometimes want to give all this up and run your own little farm?". I pointed out my grandfather had a small farm and was still getting up at 5am to milk the cows in his 80s, so no. Many of these businesses will be as fun... 

My grandfather didn't work into his 90s, at least, but that's because he dropped dead one morning in his 80s. He was still working. 

Edited January 16, 2021 by NobodyInParticular

[A17]

2 minutes ago, NobodyInParticular said:

Where I used to work a colleague said "don't you sometimes want to give all this up and run your pen little farm?". I pointed out my grandfather had a small farm and was still getting up at 5am to milk the cows in his 80s, so no. Many of these businesses will be as fun... 

My grandfather didn't work into his 90s, at least, but that's because he dropped dead one morning in his 80s. He was still working. 

Yep. Like my recommendations for people considering running a B&B, I suggest to people who want to keep hobby livestock that they walk around outside in the mud from 5am to 6am every morning, whatever the weather and time of year, in order to prepare somewhat.

[A17]

31 minutes ago, steve99 said:

Airbnb, be somewhat hands off, get mrs Mopp from the village to come in and pay her/him the cleaning fee that they put on the price of  each let. 

Sounds awfully close to being a BTL landlord. In my experience, the best AirBNBs are the ones where they are very much hands off, as a dedicated, neutrally finished rental place. Nobody likes to see family photos, multiple locked cupboards, or a list of rules as long as your arm.

[GregBowman]

3 hours ago, A17 said:

Yep. Like my recommendations for people considering running a B&B, I suggest to people who want to keep hobby livestock that they walk around outside in the mud from 5am to 6am every morning, whatever the weather and time of year, in order to prepare somewhat.

My line is tech support - the abuse my 1st line techs get from stressed users has to be recorded to be believed - not an everyday occurrence but on more than a few occasions we have had to talk to middle aged execs to say would you like someone to talk to your son or daughter like that ?

Then you hear I know my way round a pc I will start a little business see how that goes when a client gets a virus or they forget to do a backup and try and sue you to cover their **** 

[winkie]

15 hours ago, Insane said:

Agreed , have heard it said many times if you move away and out as they call it if your within the M25 if you want to see your old friends and family you have to travel back to where you came from to see them. They very rarely come out to see you.  

At the moment nobody much moving to visit anyone anywhere.......if anything the reverse with covid, where best to rideout lockdown if fortune enough to have a choice. But otherwise would tend to agree.

[NobodyInParticular]

13 hours ago, A17 said:

Yep. Like my recommendations for people considering running a B&B, I suggest to people who want to keep hobby livestock that they walk around outside in the mud from 5am to 6am every morning, whatever the weather and time of year, in order to prepare somewhat.

And also learn to chase after the dairy herd when a small child has left the gate open 😕

There's also a lot of paperwork - subsidy forms, animal passports, inspections, etc. That's more if you want to make money at it.

Then you have to worry about whether trees on your land have the latest disease and might fall on something, rights if way, maintaining fences, gates, buildings, controlling vermin.

Only one of my cousins stayed in farming! 

It's romantic, maybe, but not an easy life. It might be rewarding if you like all the elements even in driving rain. 

[Pop321]

It’s like buying a job....why would anyone ‘buy a job’ when most of us want a job to get paid to buy other stuff.

We viewed a B&B about 25 years ago when work was starting to get harder albeit with better pay. 

I was naive, ill informed, unresearched and looking for a change. And I was a whizz on computers😉

We viewed, thought about it for 2 minutes and I then knuckled down at work because it seemed a whole lot easier. I had paid holidays, weekends off and was better paid. 

Running a B&B is fine if it is what you love. I question why anyone would love it but we are all different. 

As for those in the mid 50’s wanting the idyllic lifestyle....hmmm, perhaps they haven’t had a hard enough job in the past to know what hard work is really like. 

[satsuma]

I tried telling a friends husband that a move to the country needed some thought.  Made the mistake of saying everything takes longer and costs more when you have several acres to look after.  They don’t speak to me now and I don’t offer advice anymore:). 

[GregBowman]

2 hours ago, Pop321 said:

It’s like buying a job....why would anyone ‘buy a job’ when most of us want a job to get paid to buy other stuff.

In that respect the same as the vast majority of people who run a business. 3.5 million sole traders (59% of total)

Of the rest:

1-9 employees	1,155,385
10-49 employees	211,295
50-249 employees	35,585
250 or more employees	7,685

 

Therefore if you add in the 1-9 employees and assume many have far less than employees than 9 ( also add in many have the wife and or kids on the books)

Nearly 95% have created a job not a business 

 

Edited January 16, 2021 by GregBowman