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Post by Carol on Mar 29, 2007 16:06:39 GMT 1
for those who have never learned to read croatian either, Croatian Holiday and Home have a booklet on this subject for £10.
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Post by Carol on Mar 29, 2007 20:57:45 GMT 1
is there any demand for a company who would sort out rental licences for people who wish to let out their homes to tourists? i.e. deal with the bureaucracy but not be responsible for cleaning or arranging lets?
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muttsnhahn
Full Member
I swear to drunk i'm not god!
Posts: 86
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Post by muttsnhahn on Mar 29, 2007 22:38:30 GMT 1
is there any demand for a company who would sort out rental licences for people who wish to let out their homes to tourists? i.e. deal with the bureaucracy but not be responsible for cleaning or arranging lets? Yes there is here!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Post by nikh on Mar 30, 2007 15:15:26 GMT 1
Are you applying for your licence via a company i.e did you buy the property via a company or through private purchase? In which municipality are you applying? Is the Croatain friend going to be an employee? The law has just changed and at the moment it is more than a bit tricky if you purchased via private route and if you are waiting for ministry approval. If you are a doo iys very straight forward but if you are an obert it gets tricky again.
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Post by darcy on Mar 30, 2007 15:42:27 GMT 1
Carol,
Your idea about "red tape busters" for eg. rental license is great. Small advance fee and the rest upon success could be a nice extension to your business, and non-CRO clients will be delighted.
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Post by nikh on Mar 30, 2007 16:20:13 GMT 1
Their are companies already offering this service and one English speaking bookeeper in split that I know helped her English clients . Some developers offer it as well especially if they are involved in the management . google property management in croatia and a list of companies in all the different areas will come up as it is the remit of a management compnay email them or ask your developer direct. You need a company to rent so go to www.Hitro.hr and find out how to do that first. A good bookeeper will be able to recomend someone offering the service of licencing and company set up locally and they are usually cheaper than lawyer. You can even do it yourself as it gives you step by step instruction .If you go to the inspectors office they will give you all the you need to apply for your licence but i strongly recommend you use someone that has been doing it a while and is registered so that they can explain all the other things taht go along with it!!!!
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Post by darcy on Mar 31, 2007 4:47:42 GMT 1
I cannot say about the others, but I would still prefer to deal with people with strong customer focus and I am not sure that English speaking accountant can help.
Without stronger involvment of the foreign companies bringing knowledge and building busienss relations, real estate cannot unlock its value.
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furio
Junior Member
Posts: 25
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Post by furio on Mar 31, 2007 12:45:37 GMT 1
From my short experience there is quite a big market for someone to sort rental license out at a reasonable price and offer a package deal for bookkeeping and property management beaurocracy that would be based upon a percentage of rental income but of course have a minimum fixed cost. The locked in "al a carte" pricing model I have seen so far from PMs is just too unreasonable and their contracts are so open ended I would never engage without a complete rewrite. Basically PMs take no risk, no liability and very limited but very expensive responsibility in a contract engagement with owners. All upside for PMs but for owners there is very limited upside and profit potential.
There is a huge need and opportunity for a person who understands how to do business.
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Post by Carol on Mar 31, 2007 12:56:50 GMT 1
I would never get into the part fo the job which involves offering a cleaning service, even if it meant i never had to actually do it myself. The reason is that I would not want to spend my time taking complaints that the beds were not properly made or a light bulb was not replaced and where do you find the perfect cleaner / handman? Some people will complain no matter what level of service they recieve and I don't think i'd have the patience for trying to meet expectations on such a micro level. i really admire the people who do this job.
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Post by Carol on Mar 31, 2007 13:02:30 GMT 1
Also I strongly suspect that it would take a big marketing budget to do justice to a property letting service. Plus I know from experience that it takes time to become established: you don't just design and launch a website and hey presto. To do this sort of thing well takes a lot of commitment and when a business tries to do everything, it usually means that they don't do anything well.
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furio
Junior Member
Posts: 25
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Post by furio on Mar 31, 2007 13:20:25 GMT 1
IMHO Letting in Croatia is quite easy actually. Everyone is looking for a decent place and owner to deal with. From simple word of mouth to friends about my purchase I have people requesting to rent my place this summer. From my experience as a renter the past few years flats are rented out by April except for the expensively priced ones but they go easily during the summer.
As for cleaning just get a local they make themselves known as soon as a flat is sold. If renting to acquaintences, used to holiday rentals, people will give feedback on problems and not get upset. Just charge a little less on rental fees in return for understanding and reduced services. All about relationships.
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Post by darcy on Mar 31, 2007 13:51:13 GMT 1
That is all sad to hear - nobody wants to do a cleaning business that is very simple in a country where prime export product is travel. There must be something wrong!
Carol, could you please explain me why cleaning is so big issue? But please, be honest.
Also, do you think property prices will go higher if you can tell to the buyer that return on the property is eg. 3-4% and you can provide the accountant's records if required (I do not know the terminology in the UK, return on property for me means: income minus expences (power, water, maintenance and rates) but before tax.
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Post by Carol on Mar 31, 2007 14:50:17 GMT 1
Its not that cleaning is a huge issue - its just that when people complain I take it tpersonally and I usually respond by trying to sort out the problem and ensure it never happens again. Some people take advantage of this and continually move the goal posts (basically hoping for some freebies) and so I spend a lot of time on what can be a small issue. Its just my personality but I need to make a living so if I do something like have responsibility for the tiny tasks which add up to cleaning an apartment, i'd end up stressed out over the definition of how many minutes you should scrub a floor to make it clean! It is just not how i want to live and i think i'd pretty much be working at a loss when my time was counted into the equation.
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Post by darcy on Apr 1, 2007 7:11:39 GMT 1
Who is after freebies? Croatianas or non-Croatians? Croatians might be a little bit "upset" in those circumstances and you give them freebies to calm the tension?
Are there any companies doing only cleaning - you know the phrase - do what you do best? You can make a fantastic business out of it! After all, who is cleaning shops, offices, hotels ...? I think cleaners do.
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Post by jill on Apr 1, 2007 12:28:49 GMT 1
Carol, you'll always get some people, who, give them and inch and they take a mile, but it's often difficult to recognise them! I wouldn't touch the cleaning/maintenance/letting game either. Spee in your one job, selling property and do it well.
Perhaps Darcy, now you have identified a gap in the market, you should start up a management cleaning company!
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