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This is a common issue with many Vacation Condo owners. They bought their
vacation condo and assumed that it would cash flow or at least break even for them.
First of all I want to say - Please do your own due diligence when it comes to what expected income you expect to receive on a real estate rental property. Too often do I hear people say my friend said,
my agent said, the on site "sales office" said, who ever said, my condo will fully support itself and I won't have to do anything but pay the mortgage. All you have to do is request financial estimates
from the on-site property management office, they can show you real numbers, from real vacation condo rentals just like the one you are wanting to buy.
I know, you are reading this because you want to actually make money with your vacation condo.
The first thing you need to do to make money is rent your vacation condo. That's pretty much a no brain er.
Below you will see a few tips to maximize you Vacation rental income and increase the number of rented weeks you get.
Many times the on-site rental management is a great place to start but they are often very expensive and charge upwards of 50% of your gross rental income.
But in every Vacation resort area there are off-site management companies that show very competitive rental numbers and often charge half of what on-site management offices charge. Many of these offices
will allow you to rent your Vacation Condo out yourself and they will handle cleaning, keys and maintenance for a discounted rate. If possible, this is what you will want to have the option of doing.
The second thing is look for ways to rent your condo yourself.
Of course the first thing you want to do is consider renting to friends, family, neighbors or people you work with. Many people avoid this because they don't want to charge friend and family. But all
you have to say is "Yes you can use my condo, ($$$ enter amount) is how much it will cost me for you to be able to use it that week". Practice that line a few times, and use it.
There are also tons of classified websites like www.VRBO.com, www.craigslist.com etc you can post ads for your
vacation condo on and once you receive payment you can let the management company take care of it from there.
Local news papers are a great source of vacation condo renters. Often an ad in your local newspaper will be
reasonably priced and will pay for itself.
Travel Agents can be a great source of bookings. Let your local travel agents know that you have a property available. Many travel agents will work out a booking fee with you and you just have to set up
everything with your management company to let them know who is coming in.
Also keep records of previous renters you have rented to and people who have inquired about renting. Often if the people liked your Vacation Condo and the area they will want to go back next year. I've
saw many times where people vacationed at the same resort, in the SAME CONDO the same WEEK for 10 to 12 years straight. Many of your previous renters and potential renters are great for offering rent
specials to fill in unrented weeks you have.
You can also use Myspace, Digg and other social networking site but that will have to be in Part 2 of Making money with your Vacation Condo
Use these tips to make more money with your Vacation Condo in 2008. |
