If you are looking for some extra money, it may be as easy as renting out your unoccupied summer home this season. Right now, families are prepping for their summer vacations, and will be buying plane tickets and renting rooms so that they can enjoy some quality time together. Why not rent out your unused home to bring that extra cash? According to the New York Times, the summer rental industry is growing, and competition is starting to become fierce. Back in the day, people would advertise their rental homes in magazines, local publications, or school newsletters. Now, web sites have made it easy for people to locate homes in almost every city, and they can book a stay without ever leaving the couch.
Renting is a great way to get some extra funds to pay off a mortgage on your second home. You can use the income you receive from your tenants to go towards paying all the housing costs. Many real estate agents will suggest buying a summer home that appeals to the rental market, so that you can use this option if money is tight. To choose a rentable summer home, you will want to find a place that is not hard to travel to. You will also want to keep the home up, including the outside landscaping. Make sure that all utilities are working and that appliances do not malfunction; furnish the home properly and keep it clean.
If your summer home is far away from your normal residency, you may want to hire a weekly cleaning crew to come and tend to the property. It might also be wise to hire a landscaping or gardening group as well. Decorate the space pleasantly, so that people enjoy their stay there and will praise your home on rating sites and by word of mouth. If you want to rent out your home, there are a lot of options that you will be going up against. One renter, R.J., says that he added a terrace, an Italian coffee maker and a brand new fridge to his quaint two-bedroom farmhouse in Southern France. Still, he doesn't always get the business that he wants.
In a competitive rental world, price, quality, and location are everything. R.J. rents out his French cottage for $900 a week. Places that are closer to Paris that are listed at the same price may have a better chance of getting renters. Also, some people may want a home with more bedrooms so that they can split the rental fee with friends and family. The variety of rental sites that allow people to put their homes up for rent online has skyrocketed recently, so the rental market has grown drastically. On one site, Homeaway.com, there are more than 300,000 rental homes worldwide.
All of these renters have begun using special strategies to help make their home seem appealing. People try optimization to get their home higher on the listings, and will jump through hoops to secure good customer-reviews. In a New York Times review, one family said that they had renters who did some damage to their home. When they contacted the tenants, they denied ever breaking items in the house. Rather than press the issue and risk a bad review, the homeowners financed the repairs themselves. In most locations, the amount of homes for rent has doubled.
People are using technology to secure this side-income, which can then go to paying a mortgage or another financial obligation. A lot of people are purchasing vacation homes for their own benefit, and then renting them out to people on the weekends or days that they are not there. The National Association of Realtors says that 22 percent of all vacation-home buyers intend to rent their homes. As well, people are purchasing homes in primary areas solely for the purpose of renting them and collecting the money. Talk to a real estate lawyer if you have more questions about rental homes, or if you have a lawsuit regarding a rental.