Vacation Home Rental How To Make It Successful

The mortgage is putting a crater in your wallet even though you love having a second home. To help defray the cost of ownership, a lot of second home owners turn to renting their property as a vacation rental. How do you price a vacation home rental without overcharging but making enough to cover your costs? It's time to do your research.

Try to find out what the other owners of similar sized homes in the area are charging. Try asking a local real estate agent for a price range or you scan the local papers or even go online. eVaca.com is an example of one of the many vacation rental sites you can check out. These types of sites have advertisements from owners around the world and weekly rates for the properties are listed.

The time of year you rent out a property is important as well. January will be your high time of the year instead of the month of August if you want to rent out a ski lodge in Vermont. You will not be able to charge as much as if you were renting the property in a peak time if you are going to rent the property in an off time of the year.

You also want to figure out what lengths you want to rent your property for. In July, a Florida property near the beach will go for top dollar for a week. But that same property during the month of January might only attract the snowbirds who want to rent at a lower price and rent it out on a monthly basis. You would need to figure out things such as whether or not you want to mess around with nightly or weekend rentals and if it's worth the hassle.

The number of weeks you need to rent your property in order to make a profit or at least pay the bills is what you need to figure out. What if you need to make $12,000 a year in rental income? If, after looking at other rentals, a rate of maybe $1,000 a week seems reasonable than you know you need to rent the property out for at least 12 weeks a year. Renting out for a few more weeks at a lower rate is what you might want to do in order to make up for the off peak times or if you are unable to get someone to fill every vacant period.

Most important, do not forget to spend time in your own vacation home. The purpose of having a second home is defeated if you own the property but you are not able to enjoy it.

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