How to Rent Out a Vacation Home
Maybe you have bought a vacation hideaway to rent it out, or you have owned it awhile and have chosen to rent it for the first time. According to the National Association of Realtors, people who bought second homes in 2008 were about 40% more likely to rent their places than they were about two years earlier. So, the market for rental homes has grown large, but so have the ways to do it.
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Instructions
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Check the laws where your rental property is located, because a license may be required before you can rent the property. Also, certain places require your renters to pay sales tax on the rental if it is short term, and some locales impose a stiff tourism tax on property that is rented. They will affect the rent that you will charge.
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Outfit your vacation property to meet the requirements of the types of renters you are targeting. For example, families will be attracted by things like video game systems, movies and kiddie pools for the youngsters, or you might work out a deal at the local golf course to let your guests play.
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Prepare a list of all items within the walls of your rental property. It's a smart thing to do for insurance purposes, and you will be able to assign a value to anything that renters destroy or take from the property. You should ask your renters for a security deposit, regardless of whether the rental is for a day or two or longer.
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Decide on the rent for a variety of rental lengths. A place to start is with the real estate agent who sold you the property, because he might know about comparable rates in the area. Don't forget to tell prospective renters if there will be sales and rental taxes due in addition to the rent.
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Have a lawyer draw up a simple rental agreement for your renters to sign.
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Decide if you will be maintaining the property yourself. If you live close to the property and are so inclined, give your telephone number to each renter if something needs to be repaired and do it yourself, including cleaning up the place for renters that are arriving. Or engage the services of a property manager to oversee the rental. In addition to the costs associated with the repairs and maid service, you can expect a management company to charge about 10 percent of the rental income to oversee the property. Expect additional charges if the maintenance company is responsible for rentals and collections.
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Sign up with websites that get the word out that your unit is available. Those websites call for you to describe the unit in detail, as well as provide for pictures of your unit. Take a lot of digital pictures of the interior of your unit, as well as pictures of what a renter will see from the balcony or out the window if the view is spectacular (see Resources section).
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