EUROBURO LTD
An English registered
company specialising in businesses for sale in Austria and Germany.
Property for sale in Austria, Slovenia, Slovakia, Croatia, Germany & Hungary
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So you want to buy a B & B, Apartment House or Hotel?
At the moment hardly a day passes without us receiving a request from families wanting to make a new life abroad by running a B & B, hotel or pension. There seems to be a mass exodus from the British Isles, Ireland and other densely populated countries. “We have houses, jobs and money – but no quality of Life” is the general theme. May we, therefore, offer you some sound advice? Generally, family businesses only come for sale for three reasons . . .
You are not going to find a small family pension for sale which has been making wonderful profits year on year, and which is in perfect order and run by the ideal couple who suddenly want to sell. It just doesn’t happen. We can usually ascertain the operating costs for you – water charges, sewage charges, electricity, heating costs etc., but you are going to have to say “OK. In my hands and with the marketing that I will do, this business can gross xxx”. Make those figures achievable.
Businesses on
the north side of the Alps and in popular ski areas are getting hard to find and it is worth turning your
attention to the businesses that we have in Carinthia or in Styria and Burgenland
– even though you may not be familiar with these areas. Property there is
generally cheaper anyway.
These are equally beautiful parts of Austria. We currently have lots of large
farmhouses and other attractive buildings to renovate which are well worth
thinking about. No, they are not in ski resorts but they are in a
'different' Austria to that which you might know. They are in "Thermenland"
an area with many Thermal Baths which attracted 7.5 million tourists last year
and where high season is 12 months of the year. It is better to have six
bedrooms occupied almost all the year round than 12 bedrooms with 40% occupancy
if you are lucky. Whilst the banks require a 40% deposit, that in no way implies that it is a good idea to borrow the whole of the other 60%. If you have ten bedrooms and it takes six of them to pay the bank, then you might as well have only four in the first place. You require a Konzession from the authorities. That is, permission to operate your business and show that you are qualified to do what you do. That said, no-one has so far been denied that we know of. However, your qualifications, a good CV, and a résumé of your commercial experience should be carefully prepared.
Prepare a
realistic business plan. Anyone can put figures on paper and prove almost
anything, but do it sensibly and realistically. Having agreed a mortgage with a
lender, keep to your budget and don’t get big ideas. If you need to
renovate, then do a couple of rooms first, and then a bit more next year once
you can see that the clients are happy and that your bookings are increasing.
We have seen clients who have torn up their plans and renovated the whole place,
put in saunas, bars and a host of other things before they could afford it. You have all seen the TV programme “No going back” – well they do! We also get egg on our face and a bad name for introducing bad business to the banks which makes it harder for us to help our more sensible clients. We don’t need problems like that. Most people think that their business will come from England or their country of origin. Some of it might, but most of it will come by car from Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Croatia, Italy, Slovakia, and Slovenia and so on. Thinking that they will only get ‘Brits’ or Irish families on Ryanair who need picking up from the airport the first thing they do is buy a mini-bus. Don’t do it ! You are running a hotel and you can’t do it properly whilst you are running people up and down to the airport. Maybe you can afford to do it later. Anyway, you need a separate Konzession to run a taxi firm. They speak German in Austria and you will have to learn – and quickly. The Austrians speak with a very strong dialect and it is difficult to understand them even if you have a smattering of German to begin with. Start learning the language right now. Make the most of the agent who sells you the property. Don’t approach vendors direct, or start negotiating behind the agents’ back. You will need support from the agent in matters such as electric connections, bank account opening, arranging insurance, dealing with the local authority and so on. Most of them will help you but not if you offend them. It us usual when a business changes hands for the local Bezirkshaupmannschaft to pay a visit and ensure that everything is OK. They are not as tight on such matters as fire regulations as they are in some countries but they usually ask for something or other to be done. Therefore, get the agent to speak to the authorities and see if there is anything important that is outstanding. Make sure too that there is nothing outstanding with the local Gemeindeamt – unpaid sewer connection charges – that sort of thing. The good news is that Austria is a lovely country and most of our business clients have done well. They have usually managed to fill the struggling hotel with a whole new crop of happy clients with an active approach to marketing – usually using the internet. We can also help you with that as we do a lot of websites for our hotel clients and are very experienced in that sector. The best thing to do is to meet us and our team at our offices in Bad Ischl . These are are about 40 minutes east of Salzburg by car. We can then talk everything through with you and answer all your questions. Our sister company is a properly registered estate agents in Austria and trades as Delta Immobilien GmbH and you will find their details here.
Delta Immobilien GmbH info@deltaimmo.com www.deltaimmo.com - this website is in German of course.
00 43 6132 26868 We are usually busy so please plan your visit in advance with us so that we can give you adequate time. Things are different in foreign countries. The laws are different and you need good advice to get it right. We strongly advise you not to do it on your own. Our contacts all speak both languages and we are in a unique position to advise you. We want you to succeed, and we will do our very best to help.
Euroburo Ltd
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