A vacation rental?
Posted on July 9, 2008 - Filed Under Business |
The creativity of people never, ever ceases to amaze me. While this concept is by no means new I do have to chuckle when I realize how easy it is to earn an income. And how many options are available.
The olympics are descending on Beijing. In High-Definition no less. This couple is doing the old “rent my house” tactic and are probably going to make a few nice pennies along the way.
Renting out vacation rentals is nothing new. Some chick-flick emerged a few years back, glorifying the use of such website as VacationHomeRentals.com or even House and Home Exchange. Since most are landlords, this may be an alternate option to generating cash in the short run.
My mentor and I were discussing an upcoming situation: Project#2 will be vacant soon. The tenant chose not to renew their lease. With the houses going on the market, it may be difficult to find a replacement tenant.
But utilizing the house as a vacation rental . . . .
A lady I know is doing this. She has 4 rental properties, located in sunny Huntington Beach. One particular property, four blocks from the ocean, was converted into a vacation rental. Utilizing a furniture rental business, cheap furniture was used to furnish the house. Some simple advertising on the internet and the phone starting ringing.
Normally for this house, she could clear $3000/month in rent. As a vacation rental, it generates $2000 per week. And its booked solid for the next four months. You do the math. At any time she could shut the service off and return to having tenants. But listening to her talk, I don’t think that will happen.
| I’m giving this some serious thought. Some research would be needed, to find out how much furniture rental would cost. Preliminary research shows this could be as low as $350/month. And the furniture selection isn’t anything to sneeze at either.
The water and electricity would have to be guesstimated. I wonder if my router would hit the main house as wireless internet . . . washer and dryer included . . . full kitchen . . . . |
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On the surface, the idea looks good.
I guess I could put some ads out there, just to see if there is any interest.
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2 Responses to “A vacation rental?”
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It’s not a bad idea to have the houses “staged” with some rental furnture. However, you then have the problem of showing the houses with tenants in place. Short term vacationers will not want their relaxation time interrupted by strangers looking at the houses. You could arrange showings when there are no renters,but that makes the property difficult to show. As any real estate agent will tell you, houses that are difficult to show are much harder to sell.
The other question is location. Are you close enough to the beach and other amenities (and far enough away from the less attractive areas of Long Beach) to attract vacationers?
Also, you could run into problems with the City over very short term rentals. They may not be permitted, or you may have to be licensed and collect an occupancy tax, similar to a hotel.
But, hey, if you are successful, this property might actually cash flow. It’s certainly worth looking onto the idea for that reason alone.
See what the guests in this rapidly growing market want in the post, “Too Good To Be True Vacation Rentals.”
http://vacationrentaltraveldeals.blogspot.com/