Making money from your holiday villa: tip 3: don’t use a lettings agent

Why pay someone else to do what you can do yourself? There are several sites that let you advertise your property direct to the public, taking out the middleman. ‘Owner direct’ type sites will typically charge a relatively small amount (say, £100 per year) and then the enquiries come direct to you: you then deal directly with the customers. If you do it right, you save yourself a lot of money. If you do it wrong, you get no lettings or worse! Some tips

• Do consider professional photography. It makes a big difference. If you don’t go for a professional then make sure that your pictures are as good as they can be. Sites are full of amateurish rubbish pictures that make houses look tatty.
• Be realistic about pricing. This is the subject of the next post! I keep saying this, but in most parts of Southern Europe there is an oversupply so if your prices are too high, you will get no bookings at all. This really does happen, a lot.
• Dealing with the public is hell and many clever people prefer to get somebody else (an agent) to do it for them. Some problems you will encounter are people leaving a mess, people paying late, and people complaining, all of which are very stressful.
• Owner direct sites are starting to get a bad reputation in some quarters because some owners take liberties: they do not tell customers when there is building work nearby and allow the house to fall into disrepair. This is becoming a problem.

If you want to save the money and deal yourself then know that the role of the agent does add value to the deal: the agent will typically produce richer and better-behaved vetted customers, and will haggle with them for you, and will argue with them when they complain.

Some sites to look at and use:

• Owners Direct
• Holiday Rentals
•  VRBO