50% of Property Investors Under Pressure
I have experimented with owning holiday homes over the years, but have never gone pro. Yet even I am conscious of the pressure many property investors are under to give family ‘special’ deals…
When I owned one last year, I had friends begging me to give them ‘freebie’ holidays which at a couple of days at a time was fine, but it does make you wonder – when does it stop being fine? When are the boundaries being pushed too far?
I was reading a survey by Post Office Travel Insurance the other day, and in it they revealed that 50% of property investors actually felt pressured by their friends and family to let them stay in their property lets.
And it is easy to see where this pressure comes from…
In their survey they found that 58% of friends/family felt they should be allowed to stay at a discounted rate whilst 22% wanted to stay for free. But like I mentioned before, when does this become too much?
For instance, if you have 3 lots of friends wanting to stay in your holiday let for free for 2 weeks at a time (each) – that is a financial loss of over 6 weeks rental income!
And if no one is paying the rent for the property, it is you, the property investor, who has got to cover the cost instead!
Now don’t get me wrong. I am all for helping your friends and family if they are in a tight financial situation and cannot afford to go on a good holiday, but there has to be a limit, as at the end of the day most people own a holiday home for a reason – to supplement their income…
After reading this story I definitely think some boundaries have got to be put up to stop property investors from being taken advantage of. Plus there needs to be more sensitivity from friends about broaching this subject.
After all, what they are fundamentally asking – and need to appreciate – when they are asking for this ‘freebie’ holiday is for YOU to pay for their stay. Like I mentioned before, it they are not paying the rental cost for this property, you will…
Wendy xx
