Two or three bedrooms

[happybee]

Thanks everyone for your advice and thoughtful comments. Lots to consider as we inch forward on the path to becoming holiday rental owners.

[happybee]

Thanks everyone for your advice and thoughtful comments. Lots to consider as we inch forward on the path to becoming holiday rental owners.

We got the final quote from our architect today - a three bed conversion will cost 180,000 euros. We might be able to cut back to 150k, if we let go of the bells and whistles, but cannot go lower than that.

We will have additional costs for the kitchen counters, electrical goods and general furnishing. Thanks to all the great feedback from LMH, we had steeled ourselves for 100K, but this is atleast one and a half times that! The architect is VERY good, and I have no doubt the design and standard of finish will be excellent.

The options I am going through are:
a) Go through the renovation for the outbuilding (architect can have it ready in 6 months on a fixed price, fixed time schedule contract) and start renting out late next year (at 1,200 euros peak, 600 non-peak). Note: outstanding views but no pool

b) low cost option - do minimal renovation (30,000 euros) and convert part of the outbuilding into a fairly big one-bed/one bath place - rent from early next year (at 500 euros peak and 300 non peak). Note: outstanding views but no pool


My OH is keen to go the architect route, but I like the low cost option for the moment. However, I am not sure if there is a 'couples' market in rural France.. does anyone have a one bed in rural Tarn (not inside a village) and does it rent out ...?

Many thanks for your help

[greenbarn]

My OH is keen to go the architect route, but I like the low cost option for the moment.

"For the moment" can be a biteyouonthebumlater option.....

I don't know your specifics, but as an example we knew we had to have most of the roof on our barn conversion re-done, but the rest seemed to have been done in living memory. Our roofers were very good, very honest and snowed under with work as a result - they were not looking for more! However, they had a very good look at the way the rest of the roof had been done and weren't too impressed. They reckoned it would last another five years.
So we were faced with the option of closing what we hope will be a thriving business in five years' time to get the roof sorted, or get it done with the rest and forget about it. Initial low(er) cost option v high cost option. To me it was a no-brainer - given the scale of the disruption further down the line, it had to be done before we started.

So far we reckon that every decision we made in favour of spending more at the outset to reduce expenditure/maintenance later has been a good one. Any decision we made to go for a lower cost option has been in a couple of areas of furnishing, which we can - and already are - change easily, but hindsight might suggest we should've blown the budget even further at the start.

Difficult innit?

ps thanks for the tip on the Scooba......

[happybee]

Thanks Greenbarn,

Maybe it is worth it to get the three bed done...The thing is, I read somewhere that the future of holiday lets is going to be dominated by the 'grey' market (i.e. 50+ folks who travel alone or in couples - I didn't coin the awful name for them).

So wondering if we should test the market by first having a one bed let, and then if it works, instead of expanding to a three bed place, have two units - one bed and a two bed. There is plenty of space and we could still keep it all very comfortable and upscale. I would be very comfortable doing this if we were in Provence or Languedoc...not sure about Tarn, though...

PS - I loved your story about the Roomba on the vacuum cleaner thread