To ask if anyone has any ideas how to make money from a large property

[Beyondourmeans]

Don't want this to be a 'my diamond shoes are too tight' kind of problem. But we are struggling as we live in a large property with high running costs, including an outdoor pool (here when we got here we never would have put one in).
Running costs for the house and pool are very high and that's without maintenance jobs/repairs/updating which we're not on top of so gradually it's all looking more unkempt.

I've thought of air b&b or a lodger but my husband isn't on board (would have to give up his 'music room') and we are a pretty messy and chaotic family so having someone here all the time like a lodger feels too intrusive.

We could fill in the pool - the kids would grumble a bit and we do have a couple of lovely parties per year but I'm not sure it would be that missed. Would it devalue the property though?

thought of offering the pool for swimming lessons but not sure how it would work with insurance etc and then it really would have to be spotlessly clean and chemicals always in perfect balance. It's also a bit heated but pretty chilly!

Does anyone know if you can hire out a room for daytime hire like for therapy or teaching? We do have a downstairs room with a separate door and bathroom next to it. (The aforementioned 'music room').

We have spare garden - does anyone know if you can rent out some like for an allotment? But then there's no shortage of allotments round here.

If anyone has any ideas I haven't thought of please share! Ultimately it may be best to move but want to see first if we can make it work.

Good point

It'd be a bit of an outlay, but could you look into installing some solar water heating on your roof? I'd guess you might be able to use it for the pool as well?

If your dps work is music it makes sense he has his 'own space'. Why not covert the current music room into either an air b&q or rent a room if your in an area where someone might be able to live Monday-Friday and commute to work.
To then give your dp his space build one of those fancy sheds and he can do whatever he does at the bottom of the garden.
If your likely to move in the next few years the pool may devalue your property, but if your not going to move for the next 20 years filling in the pool may not be too much of a bad plan if it's that expensive.

Have you got a big garden with wooded area or lots of trees?
Would a 'forest school' be interested in using the garden?
Without seeing the size/layout/age/style of your house, it's hard to say.

I don't think it's a good idea to leave pools empty for long periods, - they can collapse inwards.

Sounds like you have to somehow get your DH fully on board with the Air BnB, or else he has to suggest and implement something that can make money instead. You said he was a semi-professional musician. Does he make money form that - can he teach?

Language students or Air BnB seem the most viable things, given what you already have. You could also consider hiring it out to someone who does some sort of treatment thing eg reflexology/chiropractor etc.

Waiting & hoping isn't a long term plan.

Turn the pool into a sunken garden.

Someone I know did this, and it is lovely.

Quit heating the pool when you're not using it!

If you decide to get rid of the swimming pool, here is an idea of how to fill it in. Contact your local swimming pool dealer and let them know that if they are digging a new pool in the local area, they can fill yours in with the spoil. Friend of mine did this, you get your pool filled in for free, and the people building the new pool have reduced costs as they don't have to pay for disposal.
You could maybe ask the pool people about reducing the depth of the pool, and also make sure that your pool heater is the right size for the water volume. If the heater isn't man enough for the job, it will be running all the time and costing a lot more in electricity than it should be.

Otherwise - music rooom. There might be a local music teacher who would be willing to rent it and give lessons from there. My dh would be keen on this as he can't teach from our house, and at the moment he travels all over the place to his pupils' houses instead.

Ask the local WI or gardening club if anyone wants to use the spare garden area for a small rent.

How about keeping chickens and selling their eggs from a little stall by the gate? If you can make jam or grow tomatoes/runner beans all the better!

Do you live anywhere near an airport? If so, you could rent parking space.

B & B?

Are there any large international firms locally? Sometimes they will have overseas staff on short-term secondment who might prefer living in a house rather than a hotel.

Thank you for all the ideas. Some food for thought here.

My dh makes a small amount from playing and could teach but it's not his main job and that keeps him out of the house 7am - 8.30pm with commute & long hours

I've broached it again today and he is still completely opposed to renting out the room which is very frustrating. And he'd rather downsize than do that (totally illogical)

I've made enquiries about modifying the pool to make it shallower/smaller and we agreed we'll track the electricity use/spending on chemicals and note how many days the pool is used.

Agreed we'll see where things are in a year with his work and reassess.

I may explore some other things like exeat weekends (kids could share or go in loft room to free up a bedroom) or foreign students in school hols.

And we already only heat the pool from end of May to beginning September so a pretty short 'season' we can't turn on and off heating day to day as takes about a week for the water to warm up!

Why can't your husband play in the loft room? In addition to letting out annex I would also suggest renting out garden as camping space (you can do this on air bnb I think), investing in a shepherd's hut/caravan/yurt and rent that put (or use that as music room instead) on bnb (look for one second hand). Growing your own veg /keeping chickens can reduce your food bills and make money in a sense that way.

Good thought about the loft room but he can't stand up in it unfortunately....! Not sure we have enough level garden for camping (whole plot including house is about an acre but one side is by a 40mph road) but worth bearing in mind, thank you.

See I would love to hire out a private pool for say an hour every evening/day!
I hate swimming at the local pool as it’s always heaving and you just cannot find space unless you want to swim in the super fast lane. They also make the lanes really narrow to try and get as many people crammed in as possible.

I would love to be able to hire a pool for just myself or a small number everyday.
Could you do something like that? I’m not sure about insurance, could you get round it by having your own insurance but also making clients sign a contract and have their own insurance too?

Otherwise do you have enough land to rent out for grazing?

Could you do a bit of work to the garden and hire that out for parties/weddings etc? (This obviously might be costly to begin with)

Or if you have a bit of space in the garden have a look at something like this:

itsallaboutdogs.org.uk/about-houndsville/

My friend lives near there. She told us all about it last weekend and we are seriously considering doing son similar in a small paddock we have.

How numerate are you? Matched betting (google it or search on MN!) could bring in £500 a month for a year or two.

That^ is actually not a bad idea. And you don't have to be particularly numerate if you sign up to odds monkey.

And it does not involve gambling.

We had a quote to fill in our pool last year (totally ridiculous pool that takes up 80% of the garden with a tiny 3 bed house!) and were quoted £10k to have it done properly.

Rent the room to music or singing teachers?

See if you can sell off half your garden? Get planning permission for a house on that bit and you’ll make more money ... but get close neighbours

Personally, I would continue trying to persuade him to give something like Airbnb a go. Could you do a bit of research about how much you could make from renting the room out on a short term basis and compare it with how much further into the red you're going to go if you keep the status quo? I think having students in the holidays/hiring out the pool etc would be far more intrusive than overnight guests who you will hardly see. And the beauty of Airbnb is that you can give it a go with little investment or commitment if it doesn't work out. I think pool or music room hire would make very little money and take ages to get enough people interested to make it worthwhile.

I have done matched betting as it happens. I would recommend it to anyone to try. I did it whilst on mat leave and did find that it was time consuming in terms of needing full attention at certain times - not easy now with the kids and working. I did it all myself rather than paying for a subscription service and did make a few £100 but that was altogether not per month - not sure how anyone makes £500pm! I also scared myself by making a silly error when I'd got more confident - ending up betting twice on the same outcome rather than counter bettinh myself - fate was kind and by pure luck (it was a horsey one I think) it went in my favour but I so easily could have lost a fair bit of money. I was also finding it harder to find good offers and harder to get favourable matching odds. But maybe I should resurrect it and dabble again - very cautiously!

You definitely need to subscribe! The daily offers and odds matcher are invaluable. That way you bet when convenient to you and don't have to be waiting till the off. Using cash back sites when you open new accounts also gives you cash for nothing.

I was doing it just before oddsmonkey introduced their subscription so I could use their odds calculator for free and keep all my winnings. If you sign up to a service I guess it's ok as long as you do it every month otherwise it ends up costing you money. But maybe I'll do the free trial.

Before "giving up" on the pool I'd look into how you could combine solar electric and ground source heat pumps, and how much it would cost to install. Is the pool kept covered when not in use?

If your husband is out of the house long hours, then letting the room to a music teacher could be very viable just for times he isn't at home anyway. (If we move, or possibly even if we don't, then finding other locations from which to teach is on my own list, currently only working at home). Or / as well other professionals eg allied health stuff / counsellors who might want daytime hours.

I wonder if your husband is a little like mine with a default reaction to new ideas that it "wouldn't work" - I have often been put off various things by a negative reaction, then when I've finally trusted my instinct that something is important or would work, and done it, I get a "isn't that working well" reaction ...

If your garden is big enough how about growing some thing to sell. My aunt used to do this. She found flowers, strawberries and runner beans to be the most profitable.

I'd see if your DH would prefer just a 4 day a week corporate let, so it's effectively vetted by being a company employee rather than a random AirBNB-er, and not for a full week at a time so you get the place empty for the weekend. I'd look around at local but large corporate companies particularly international ones, and drop a line to their HR department offering your self-contained music room annex as a Mon- Thurs let for any of their employees. You could look locally and see what's offered and come up with a similar price. 4 days out of 7 isn't that intrusive but plenty of people travel to another area for work and only want Mon- Thurs nights and go home the rest of the week. One of my daughter's freind's dad has been doing this for almost 2 years, he works 100 miles away in an intensive job and it saves him commuting and the cost of fuel saved goes against the rent he pays.