Apartment in Bulgaria

[fionah]

Hi there.
I have a fully furnished studio apartment available to rent in Nessebar Bulgaria. Seeing as im a overseas property virgin i was very much misled. And now I have to rent it out obviously to try make a couple bucks back on it. But I dont have a clue who can manage this for me. I would be absolutly lost doing it myself. So can anyone recommend a company that could do this for me. I have e mailed quite a few and have received only couple replies.
I would be forever grateful.
Thanks a lot.
Fiona Howe.

[Topcat]

In what way were you misled, Fionah? That can mean a number of things. Will any of them impact on the rentability of your place?

What sort of management are you looking for? Are you wanting someone to take it off your hands completely, or just a cleaner?

If you're scared of doing the rentals yourself, you don't need to be. Most of us on here do it ourselves, and many of us from a different country to our property. It isn't that difficult, and there's lots of help on here if you scan the threads.

Give us a bit more detail and we'll try and advise you.

TC

[fionah]

no tc its a beautiful place and all ready to go, they just said it wouldn't cost as much and they would handle the renting of it. i suppose its my fault really for jumping in and not doing enough research on it.
anyway its good to go now. i think im looking for someone just to manage it but im also open to finding just a cleaning company. at this moment im open to all sugestions.
thanks for replying. im so ignorant regarding this so im pretty grateful for any help whatsoever.
fiona

[vrooje]

Fiona,

Welcome to the forum!

I can sympathize -- starting to manage a rental can be incredibly intimidating. I was so pleased when I found this forum, as it is a gold mine of information.

I would imagine you probably have about a thousand questions; have a look through the forum threads, or use the search function, and I'll bet at least 900 of them have been answered here!

Of course, feel free to ask any questions you haven't found an answer to; we'll be happy to answer/discuss them!

[Topcat]

Well the first thing you need to do is to take some pictures and write a description. Then you can start listing it on three or four of the various listing sites. You really need to choose a couple of the biggies, as the free ones (apart from Travel Library) don't really get much traffic to them.

You don't have to have your own website to begin with, if that's a step too far at the moment - some people do perfectly well without them altogether.

Then you need to find a reliable cleaner in the area. Do you speak any of the language? Are there any English speakers there that you know or could meet up with?

Mind you, I have stayed in an apartment in france and several cottages in England where there was no cleaner. You had to take your own linen and towels, and were told to leave the property clean for the next tenants. So that's always another way of doing it, but personally (and I suspect everyone on here will agree) I think that's a bit risky.

Getting an agency to do it all for you is certainly an option, but it will be much more expensive for you, and you need to know you can rely on them not to use the place for their own ends without telling you. At least if you're the one taking the bookings you know who is supposed to be in there.

I suggest you scrutinise the threads on here and then you'll be able to ask some more specific questions, and gradually you'll get a feel for what you need to do.

Good luck.

TC

[Topcat]

I forgot - you also need to look at the competition and see what they are charging, so that you can get an idea of how to pitch it.

It looks a lovely area.

TC

[Mouse]

hi Fionah

I'm assuming your estate agent spoke english - could you ask their advise on cleaners, or contacts that might be able to help you?
Was it in a complex that you bought somwhere? If so where there any other 'foreign' owners you could be put in touch with?

Or perhaps ask at the local bars/restaurants where someone may speak english? They may have a cleaner who would be interested in taking on another job.

Do they teach english at the local schools or have language schools nearby - perhaps they could help you draft an advert or there may be an ex-pat working there who could help.

In the meantime could you aim your rental place at family, friends, work collegues etc and as TC suggests, ask them to leave it clean on departure?
When we first rented our apartment out here (in the days before the internet ) that is exactly what we did and it worked OK in the main...but we knew everyone who stayed

Mousie (hoping you manage to get something sorted)
x

[Topcat]

One difficulty with just asking people to leave it clean on departure is what to do about linen. If you ask people to bring their own, then that's quite a lot extra in a suitcase. having dragged bedlinen and towels out to France I swore I'd never do it again. It's different if people are driving. But if you don't then you need a goodly pile in the airing cupboard for people to make up beds with clean linen, and what to do with the soiled stuff? I can't remember what happened with the cottages - I don't remember dirty linen lying around, but I do remember masses of clean stuff in cupboards for us to use.

TC

[Mouse]

we used to ask people to wash the bedding & towels; as it was only a 2 bed apartment in a hot country the sheets dried pretty fast. Anything still damp on departure was left inside on an airer for the next people.
There was a local laundrette people could use - but never did, prefering to do it themselves.

As I say it did work out OK as I knew everyone staying and they knew the price was based on 'self-cleaning'. Plus as it was a holiday place for us we made regular trips inbetween.

In the days before internet and managing agents it was a different kettle of fish when renting out. We did eventually find a cleaner after a couple of summers.

Mouse
x

[Topcat]

There was a local laundrette people could use - but never did, prefering to do it themselves.

I've just remembered, we had to do that once in Nerja as well, and it didn't work out too badly. But of course, it will only work if guests are not leaving on a very early flight.

But have you got a washing machine, Fiona? Guests could stick the linen and towels in the washer, and the next guests could take them out and put them out to dry (only assuming very early flights), but it does mean you need at least 3 sets of clean dry stuff just in case somebody doesn't do what you ask them.

You could make this work if you plan it out carefully. You wouldn't be able to charge so much, but then you wouldn't be paying anybody, either.

TC