Full time through winter in search of new life
- Thread starter dawsey
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But then same as a house, our house was up for 43k when we bought it, I offered 37 they said no do I left it.It’s what had to be offered to get the owners to agree to sell. We just now see all the problems more clearly because we are living on the site. Folk don’t see all the little issues with their new house until they move in, then grumble about how feckless/lazy/tight the previous owners were, and also grumble about how if they had known about all the little concealed and non-declared issues they would have negotiated a discount…
We are just getting to grumble before we take ownership
No changes to price or deal - we have exchanged. The owners wouldn’t let us move onsite until we had exchanged. Despite being feckless/lazy/tight - he clearly isn’t stupid
A month later I got a call to say they would accept 37k
I can see you have vision and ideas, the potential you envisage, but that’s why you should have loads of visits etc
We’re they making a good profit each year to get to that price tag?
Just a thought - are you planning to completely rebrand the place once you’ve made enough changes?
A complete name change (online and on the ground) would help erase the negative reviews, and relaunch the place - you’d lose the google history but that would only be a good thing
A complete name change (online and on the ground) would help erase the negative reviews, and relaunch the place - you’d lose the google history but that would only be a good thing
Sorry I’ve not read all the posts I didn’t realise the sale had already gone through I thought it wasn’t a totally done deal yet.
The very best of luck with it.
The very best of luck with it.
Minxy
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I just don't understand why you want to do this, seriously I can't. I've not posted much because I didn't want to rain on your parade but regardless of how magical etc it 'could' be, it isn't and might never be.
Personally I think you're setting yourself up for a lot of heartache and stress, not to mention financial disaster.
You may want the challenge and the reward of turning the site around but I still feel that your head is being overruled by your heart.
As you are so far down the road now it seems that the only escape route would be if you couldn't get the loan rate to that which you've agreed to contractually buy it, it may seem cruel but I hope you can't as I really think you'll regret buying it, sorry.
Personally I think you're setting yourself up for a lot of heartache and stress, not to mention financial disaster.
You may want the challenge and the reward of turning the site around but I still feel that your head is being overruled by your heart.
As you are so far down the road now it seems that the only escape route would be if you couldn't get the loan rate to that which you've agreed to contractually buy it, it may seem cruel but I hope you can't as I really think you'll regret buying it, sorry.
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Minxy
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Just to add I was typing the above whilst you and others were posting, I'll say no more about the sense or not of buying it.
If it smells like a duck!
The only redeeming feature I can see is you will still have the ground when it goes tits up, or at least the bank will.
Seeing how it's in an industrial area you could possibly get planning permission for an estate and get your money back.
Seeing how it's in an industrial area you could possibly get planning permission for an estate and get your money back.
Possibly unlike yourselves, we have stayed on many (three figures) camp sites over the years.
I've seen all types of security.
If it was me I'd do the following:
Bookings made in advance:
Set up a decent website, the best one I have seen is this one
produced by a company called Campmanager who are based in Northern Ireland
I'll bet it's expensive, but in the long term will save you money
(5 Itinerant unpaid vans for a week will cover the cost)
This means all booking made in advance you will have a card payment
Arrivals who just turn up.
Payment by card only. On arrival.
Strictly No Cash for pitch usage.
If they have no card, then no entry
Take a copy of proper photo ID of all adult arrivals.
(You may still need to do this for legal purposes in France, it certainly still needs to be done in countries like Italy, Slovenia, Croatia)
No ID, No entry.
You will probably need to redesign the entry drive into the campsite.
What is needed is a wide roadway, or a 'pull through' car park, so that several mega caravans can park up BEFORE the entry gate and reception.
It also needs a turning area so if they are refused entry they can turn around.
The entry gates (not barriers) need to be an airlock type, where you drive the vehicle in, the gate behind must be close before the decent quality, but cheaper, fob controlled barrier in front then opens.
Same applies to the exit gate, fob controlled barrier up and down before exit gate opens.
Fob needs to know if you are 'in' or 'out' so that the fob can not be used for multiple entry.
I know this level of security and software is expensive, but given the choice of rebuilding the swimming pool or rebuilding the front entrance security I know which one I'd be choosing.
Yes, much of this is how we are thinking. I’ve developed some very advanced industrial software in my tune so none of the IT stuff will be an issue. It’s the cost of some of the hardware changes that need to be considered, we are budget limited.
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The possibility of this was fully considered early doors. If permits can be obtained for conversion to estate the land value is €2-2.5m. Given the site is already one half of a village, is surrounded by public communal roads, is directly on the main sewer, is next to the terminal of the local DNO and is in a regeneration region it is a genuine ‘all else fails, gone tits up’ option….
ah, ye of so little faith
It will be interesting to hear the changes in thoughts when it is actually seen..
Some may be a tad surprised by this little ‘oasis’.It hasn’t completed, we have merely done the French equivalent of ‘exchange’. A condition of it was that we could move onto the site and see if any staff are any good, and watch how the season goes, to help us develop our thinking and plan, and it’s working. We now know our extra jobs are a lot of gardening, to chop down a load of trees, to plant more plants, to set up defences against gens de voyage (especially those animal Irish/english travellers) and to pull down and rebuild all the shower blocks. This is in addition to rebuild the external walls, remodel the manor house, build a grocer, build a bar/cafe/restaurant, make a new swim pool, replace most of the statics, resow all the grass, level all the pitches, and remodel the other stone accommodations.
There’s a bit to do…
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on the upside due to the current political situation I've no doubt you've access to plenty of cheap labour
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We thought deeply about this. We decided against it for now, we seriously considered going back to the original name which sounds grander but until the work is done we would be at serious risk of overselling.
In the end, we made it a contractual obligation for the current owner to protect the reputation best he can and we are monitoring the reviews. In this, in our view, he is trying but failing. It’s a bit irritating but not enough to dampen our enthusiasm. He isn’t able to manage his shockingly useless, devious, lazy (and in one case, likely certifiable sex pest) staff, his wife is not interested in helping him at all, his health issues are a challenge for him. We do have sympathy for him so we are helping, cleaning showers after the travellers have shat in them, helping him to identify them, we have even started quietly doing bits of gardening, though it has to be invisible to the gardener.
?
Nothing is cheap here, not food, not services and definitely not labour. With the high minimum wage all the charges and employment costs it will cost us exactly double to employ some arrogant, entitled, bone idle, gitane chomping bad attitude frenchie than it would a Brit in UK.
That’s the one thing that concerns us.
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For your sake I really hope it does.
Ahh, 37k for a house, those were the days! I wish I’d bought then but I was probably a teen (80s?) when that was what a house cost. I have twice spent 3 times that amount on a car
Profit, not so much, but turnover, surprisingly high. He spends an absolute fortune on staff.
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Nanniemate
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How much is the going rate for a set pest
Assuming that is one cost that will be illiminated on hand over
First funster rally could be in the planning ?
Total required funding is €3m. Roughly half is total purchase costs, half to fund an 8yr program of investment which will be funded 50% through additional borrowing and half through profits resulting from additional turnover, all being considered as I write by four French banks.
It must be a very tricky pill for the banks to swallow, as we have been brutally honest about the current condition of the site, copying all the very worst 50 1 and 2 star reviews into a 3 page document for them to digest at their leisure as part of the business plan…
To sweeten the pill (otherwise of course there is no chance of it being swallowed) we are are putting in a million Euro, all the money we have, assuming the pound doesn’t collapse even further and we can sell the camper plus my very fancy gold watch (which needs to go as of now to make the numbers add up due to the currency movement of this morning).
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I've never heard of stink trees before but a little research. . . . .
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ailanthus_altissima
They are going to be hugely difficult to eradicate not to mention expensive.
Your going to need much more than keen gardeners.
As I've said before I wish you well in your endeavors and I'll look forward to visiting your campsite in the future.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ailanthus_altissima
They are going to be hugely difficult to eradicate not to mention expensive.
Your going to need much more than keen gardeners.
As I've said before I wish you well in your endeavors and I'll look forward to visiting your campsite in the future.
- Feb 22, 2011
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Wow, if currency fluctuations now require the selling of personal belongings it doesn't bode well for the future, but I'm sure you know that from the down to earth, honest appraisals you've had from funsters.
I don't mind saying, your a braver man that I.
I don't mind saying, your a braver man that I.
Assume u mean sex pest?How much is the going rate for a set pest
Assuming that is one cost that will be illiminated on hand over
First funster rally could be in the planning ?
Joking aside, the rate seems to be €25 euro per hour, 15min breaks every hour, the pick of the young girlies on reception, 80% social charges, 3 pizzas per day, and half a dozen bottles of beer from the fridge, and ‘carte blanche’ to tell customers, to their face, to piss off if they don’t like the fact that he likes to put a raw egg on his pizzas, or to haughtily and grinningly say ‘non’ to even a sandwich to all those people arriving from UK/Holland/Germany after 7pm after they have done a 12hr drive ‘because they didn’t book’. He’s quite masterful as carrying the beers and pizzas back to his caravan pitched outside the site (on a bit of agricultural land I have a vague plan to plant vines on) His noisy generator, running from 10am to midnight might be driving folk off the site, but at least it keeps his beer and pizza cool
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expensive no, hard work and take 2-3 years, yes. And it’s true, they really do stink.
Nanniemate
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I can do all that for half the price except the harassment bit or the generator. But there is one for sale in the classifiedsAssume u mean sex pest?
Joking aside, the rate seems to be €25 euro per hour, 15min breaks every hour, the pick of the young girlies on reception, 80% social charges, 3 pizzas per day, and half a dozen bottles of beer from the fridge, and ‘carte blanche’ to tell customers, to their face, to piss off if they don’t like the fact that he likes to put a raw egg on his pizzas, or to haughtily and grinningly say ‘non’ to even a sandwich to all those people arriving from UK/Holland/Germany after 7pm after they have done a 12hr drive ‘because they didn’t book’. He’s quite masterful as carrying the beers and pizzas back to his caravan pitched outside the site (on a bit of agricultural land I have a vague plan to plant vines on) His noisy generator, running from 10am to midnight might be driving folk off the site, but at least it keeps his beer and pizza cool
If it gets worse I will need to sell more stuff. In any financial plan you have to boundary the estimates based on assumptions and risk. We have boundaried the fx risk to the ‘apport’ fairly conservatively, and always knew we might need to liquidate other assets
Some of you guys do tend to assume we have just ‘fallen to earth’ - I assure you this isn’t the case…
Yes we are taking big risks, for there is no reward without any risk, but there is a lot of calculation going in.
As has been said, he who dares, Rodders!
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Exactly this.
The business is solvent despite the current owners best efforts, and camping and motorhoming is not going to go out of fashion any time soon. You will be able to pick and choose which bits to improve to suit, and you understand your customer having lived full time in a van.
Its about as good as it gets - looking forward to seeing this place fly
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