A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by an executor to let me know that a recently passed relative (semi-estranged) had bequeathed to me her holiday house in Switzerland, specifically the Canton of Bern.
My problem is I currently can't afford to travel there to sort things out (I'm on a contract job in Australia and only have a small buffer of savings in the bank), and I'm literally at a loss to know what my next steps should be. I can't really ask my family for advice as they're not financially literate.
Ideally I would like to rent it out, as it is in the Alps and it looks like holiday lettings there can provide a lucrative long-term income stream which I could really do with right now. However, it does seem like it would be a bit of a hassle - I wouldn't be able to afford to engage a property manager right now due to lack of cash, and I'm guessing there would be lots of bureaucracy/tax implications from being a non-resident landlord in another country?
The alternative would be to sell it. A quick Google suggests the chalet is worth about $800,000, which would obviously be life-changing for me - even after paying whatever costs would be involved - as I'm originally from a low-income background. What should I actually do in this case? Do I just call a random estate agent in Bern and ask them to put it on the market? Or given how lucrative the sale will be should I engage a professional to help me out and pay them on commission?
What would you do in this situation?
Edit: Just to clarify I am 100% sure this is not a scam, and it has already gone through probate
Submitted December 08, 2017 at 09:25PM by jimmythemini http://ift.tt/2AH1d7x
