Anyone have vacation rental experience/advice?

[gsganzer]

As my wife and I start to think about our transition to retirement in a few years, we're starting to contemplate some different options.

One of them is the idea of buying a vacation rental property, that we'd live in during the off-rental season. An idea is a place in/near Angel Fire NM that we'd stay during the spring/summer/fall and then go back to TX for the winters, renting out the AF place for the ski season.

Anyone do something similar? Any recommendations for other places to consider? Any specific pitfalls we need to be aware off?

 

[EddieWalker]

Cost of repairs. I have had quite a few clients that bought rental property to retire off of that just about went broke paying for repairs to those homes. They where not able to do the repairs themselves, so it was all done half way until it got to the point they needed to hire me. Then it got really expensive with costs being well over what they gross in a year on the property. This happens so often that they end up selling the place instead of fixing them. If you can do the repairs yourself, it might work.

 

[MossRoad]

Are you going to manage it yourself or hire/contract with a rental company? If a rental company, how much do they charge, what services do they provide, etc. should be asked.

We've rented a few vacation houses and always dealt with an agency. I've often wondered how much they charge, and how much profit the owners get. Is it positive income or just enough to cover mortgage, taxes and utilities. Things like that.

 

[jaydee325]

As a former neighbor to one of these it really sucked and drove us to move. We had the owners number on speed dial and called him at all hours of the day or night due to noise and other disrespectful behavior by the "guests".

 

[caver]

Youtubers Keep Your Daydream have done this. They bought a rental in Flagstaff and now are working on another in Florida. Often they are on the road creating RV travel videos for their channel but do stay for periods in the Flagstaff home.

 

[gsganzer]

As a former neighbor to one of these it really sucked and drove us to move. We had the owners number on speed dial and called him at all hours of the day or night due to noise and other disrespectful behavior by the "guests".

Afraid of that too. My in-laws had a couple of rentals on N. Padre Island and they dealt with some of that.

 

[gsganzer]

Are you going to manage it yourself or hire/contract with a rental company? If a rental company, how much do they charge, what services do they provide, etc. should be asked.

We've rented a few vacation houses and always dealt with an agency. I've often wondered how much they charge, and how much profit the owners get. Is it positive income or just enough to cover mortgage, taxes and utilities. Things like that.

Not sure yet. My in-laws rental properties on N. Padre Island could either be put in the "rental pool" with the property management taking a 40% cut, or they could rent it out themselves via VRBO and their phone app. They chose to do VRBO, but they were full-time RV'ers and became a hassle for them. They eventually sold the properties after about 10 years (made a handy profit).

Just playing around with ideas.

 

[gsganzer]

So let me ask another question. How many have dealt with having a seasonal home, whereby they move between locations at different parts of the year? Obviously, security of a vacant structure is an issue, as-is winterizing etc.

 

[MossRoad]

So let me ask another question. How many have dealt with having a seasonal home, whereby they move between locations at different parts of the year? Obviously, security of a vacant structure is an issue, as-is winterizing etc.

My grandparents had 3 duplexes in town. They lived in one of them.
They had a 3 season cottage on and island with about 65 other homes in SW lower Michigan.
They had a trailer in Lakeland, FL.

In the spring, they'd come home, plant a garden at the duplex, then spend weekdays at the lake cottage. On Friday night they'd take the ferry and come home to town to the duplex to tend the garden and check/repair the other duplexes, pick up mail, get any groceries, go to church, visit us, etc. They'd head back to the island cottage on Sunday afternoon, take the ferry and spend the week. Repeat all summer.

In the fall, they'd winterize the island cottage, turn over the garden at the duplex, then drive to Florida. They'd open the trailer, turn on the heat, have a rental TV delivered and set up, then party all winter with the other people in the trailer park.

In spring, they'd close up the trailer in Florida, return the rental TV, drive up here. Repeat.

The issues they had were they had to winterize the cottage for freezing. Sometimes people would walk/snowmobile/drive across the ice and vandalize/burglarize the cottages, as no one lived on the island all winter becasue the ferry stopped running due to frozen lake. The only time they'd find out about it is if an owner would trek across the ice to have a look and notice. Security was non-existent. I recall several instances of wanted people hiding out on the island in cottages that they broke into.

They had to turn down the heat and such at their duplex apartment, and my father had to check on the other units for them all winter and either make repairs himself or call a contractor. So you had to have some sort of apartment management company when you're not around. In this case, my father. There was no security other than a big fence with a lock.

They had on-site security at the Florida trailer, as some people lived there year-round and that was never an issue.

 

[crashz]

My friend bought a new cabin last year in Maine. Built to their spec as a sledding spot for themselves and vacation rental spot for the summer and fall. They furnished it nicely, set up a cleaning person and maintenance person, and rented it out through Airbnb. I work with him so I was getting regular updates. It was horrible. He was traveling for work and spending 2-3 hours per day on the phone. In one summer the following happened:
- A group stole all of the linens and pillows.
- Another stole the old artifacts (his father was a carpenter, so he put old tools on the walls) that were the decorations.
- One group ran the well dry.
- Another demanded a refund because they didn't have fast wifi.
- The TV went missing.
- It seemed like every renter wanted something unreasonable and demanded money back.
- This was a brand new cabin. Very nice. I think it was aged 10 years before my friend even had a chance to stay in it.

They recently sold it. I don't know what the financials were, but the hassle could not have been worth it.