If you have a vacation home, no doubt it is your little
piece of paradise that you escape to whenever you can. But if you’ve found the
ability to escape less and less, if you’d like to find a way to help pay for
the mortgage on it, then renting it out as a vacation rental property might be
a good idea. But how do you go about it? Here’s some landlord advice:
Set goals. First
you need to decide what your goals are for renting out your second home. How
many weeks a year are you willing to give it up to strangers? Do you hope to
just cover expenses, or make a profit? If your goal is to break even on your
expenses, use this as a guideline to calculate your break-even point:
If your monthly mortgage payment is less than or equal to 1
peak-week rental fee, and you rent approximately 17 weeks per year, your
property should come close to breaking even. Most rental markets average 12
peak weeks. Other costs (utilities, association dues, etc.) are paid by
earnings from approximately five weeks of off-peak rentals.
Check the rules. You’ll need to find
out whether renting out your home is acceptable under the terms of your
homeowner’s association, or whether there are certain rules regarding renting
out your home that you need to be in compliance with.
Pick a boss. Decide whether you want to
serve as the landlord and property manager, or whether you’d rather hire a
property management company to do it for you. Duties will include advertising
your property, responding to inquiries, taking reservations, obtaining the property rental agreement and payments
from guests, handling guest requests and problems, and providing cleaning and
maintenance services as needed.
Visit ATS Inc's homepage for more information about our Tenant Screening Services
