Airbnb, VRBO, FlipKey....other suggestions.
Flipper/Rehabber · Fort Lauderdale, FL · Member since 2015 · 12 posts · 1 vote
We will be putting one of our SFH's on the market for short term rental in a month. Do you suggest listing on all sites? Which company charges the most to list/rent?
Have you had experience with HomeToGo.com?
This will be our first experience with short term rentals, any advice is appreciated! Luckily, the property is in a city that has no short term rental restrictions. We are considering offering a minimum of 3 night stay but I need to check if our insurance policy allows that, most are 7 day min. We plan to manage the property ourselves and hire a cleaning company after each guest.
Last question, we are considering putting an electronic lockbox and the RING (camera/doorbell) at the front door. The property is 1.5 hrs from us so we don't plan to greet each guest. Do you recommend using the RING and do you have a suggestion for a electronic lockbox where we can change the code after each guest departs?
Thanks!
@Account Closed I have a short term vacation rental near Disney. We list almost exclusively with VacationRentals.com. This year, amidst all the chaos of them beginning to charge service fees, many disgruntled owners decided not to renew, but I did. I haven't seen an issue and most of my bookings come from there. It will pick up each year as you go along, as we have found that some guests come back, year after year, and they become returning guests. Those bookings are just handled directly with me.
We are long distance owners and have a property manager there locally that meets the guests, handles maintenance issues, schedules cleaning, pool care and lawn care. He is invaluable! I think that it is important to have someone meet the guests to confirm how many are staying and that they are who they say they are (unfortunately there are many scams out there. You rent to someone trusting their identity, only to find out they stole a wallet, used the ID and credit card on a last minute booking and then the cleaning lady finds they up and left with all the electronics. YIKES!)
But I also know of someone who self manages a condo in Myrtle Beach. He ships them the key, handles money through PayPal, and has a cleaning lady come in afterward and it seems to work out well for him.
So there are many things to consider. I self manage all the communications and bookings. The property manager handles everything while the guest is there. I works out great for us!
Something to keep in mind is who will handle the call-outs. Call-outs are those inevitable maintenance issues and concierge questions. Our property manager has handled calls like a clogged toilet, leaking pipe, a broken mini blind, broken shelf in the fridge, blender not working, A/C not working, the guests can't figure out how to operate the TV, meeting with repairmen, pool heat needs to be turned up/down/on/off, neighbor used our trash bins so now they are full and no room for the guests' trash so the PM has to go pick up their trash and haul it away, light bulbs are blown out, etc. Some of these calls, if an emergency can be made in the middle of the night or the weekend and need to be handled right away. You will need someone you can trust to call out who can be there quickly.
And in case you didn't know, it is part of Florida Law that they must register with the owner/manager within 48 hours of arrival and sign a form in which they agree that they are renting a "transient" facility. They confirm that no permanent residence is planned by them. If this form is not signed and they decide to just stay there and not leave on the date they provided, it is very difficult to get them removed. This form is a MUST and the importance of it has been greatly stressed by our PM. As a matter of fact, he goes to collect the form and meet them in person if possible, or at least checks the unit while he is there. So if you are self managing and not meeting them after arrival, you must make sure that it is included in your rental agreement.
I hope some of this info helps!
@Account Closed I have a short term vacation rental near Disney. We list almost exclusively with VacationRentals.com. This year, amidst all the chaos of them beginning to charge service fees, many disgruntled owners decided not to renew, but I did. I haven't seen an issue and most of my bookings come from there. It will pick up each year as you go along, as we have found that some guests come back, year after year, and they become returning guests. Those bookings are just handled directly with me.
We are long distance owners and have a property manager there locally that meets the guests, handles maintenance issues, schedules cleaning, pool care and lawn care. He is invaluable! I think that it is important to have someone meet the guests to confirm how many are staying and that they are who they say they are (unfortunately there are many scams out there. You rent to someone trusting their identity, only to find out they stole a wallet, used the ID and credit card on a last minute booking and then the cleaning lady finds they up and left with all the electronics. YIKES!)
But I also know of someone who self manages a condo in Myrtle Beach. He ships them the key, handles money through PayPal, and has a cleaning lady come in afterward and it seems to work out well for him.
So there are many things to consider. I self manage all the communications and bookings. The property manager handles everything while the guest is there. I works out great for us!
Something to keep in mind is who will handle the call-outs. Call-outs are those inevitable maintenance issues and concierge questions. Our property manager has handled calls like a clogged toilet, leaking pipe, a broken mini blind, broken shelf in the fridge, blender not working, A/C not working, the guests can't figure out how to operate the TV, meeting with repairmen, pool heat needs to be turned up/down/on/off, neighbor used our trash bins so now they are full and no room for the guests' trash so the PM has to go pick up their trash and haul it away, light bulbs are blown out, etc. Some of these calls, if an emergency can be made in the middle of the night or the weekend and need to be handled right away. You will need someone you can trust to call out who can be there quickly.
And in case you didn't know, it is part of Florida Law that they must register with the owner/manager within 48 hours of arrival and sign a form in which they agree that they are renting a "transient" facility. They confirm that no permanent residence is planned by them. If this form is not signed and they decide to just stay there and not leave on the date they provided, it is very difficult to get them removed. This form is a MUST and the importance of it has been greatly stressed by our PM. As a matter of fact, he goes to collect the form and meet them in person if possible, or at least checks the unit while he is there. So if you are self managing and not meeting them after arrival, you must make sure that it is included in your rental agreement.
I hope some of this info helps!
@Account Closed
Set you min night stay so that you make more money than your cleaning costs. Turnover is really expensive.
I haven't found a good electronic keybox yet. If your cleaner updated the lockbox code then you would be made in the shade.
Be careful about your startup expenses. The goal is to net a profit.
Best to you.
@Beth L. - Thank you so much for you in depth reply. I didn't even consider an addendum to be added stating that the tenant is renting from a transient facility. I will look into more, a squatter would be detrimental! I should have added in the original post that my in-laws live 6 miles away. They have agreed to help out in case of emergency's but I'm not sure if it's a very good long term plan. A property manager will definitely give us better peace of mind and hold tenants more accountable if they see that the property has "eyes and ears" on it.
@Al Williamson - I was planning on charging the cleaning cost directly to the tenant but if someone is staying only for a few nights they may not want to pay $100 cleaning fee. Great idea to have the cleaning company change the lockbox code each time. We are trying to be very mindful of our startup costs, we are still within budget...so far;-)
I just recently started renting our vacation home through HomeAway and have been very happy with the results. I would recommend reading some of the posts on the HomeAway community page for tips and tricks. Communication is key to making it work well. As for the insurance, I would recommend a policy that allow shorter stays as that will help you fill the unit in the off peak season for less than the cost of a night's rental or so. I am looking at adding ring to our property now to guard against over occupancy issues and CC chargebacks. I also use a Schlage combination deadbolt for the front door so no keys are needed for the guest.
@Account Closed I would stick to the popular sites. Avoid any site that has only a few listings, or you have really never heard of and they have no online presence. The "free trials" are not worth it. A great asset will be your own personal website for your rental.
Avoid the electronic lockbox and just get an electronic lock. If you set it up correctly you can control it all remotely. You won't have to worry about missing keys, keys being copied, anything like that. I don't know anything about RING but be careful about the technology you use as this is a growing industry and you want products that will integrate with other Home automation systems in the future.
IF you have a property management company doing the turn overs then it will more likely be more expensive to set your minimum stay to one night, however, if you do the cleaning yourself then set the minimum stay to one night and set a cleaning fee of 50-75$ (assuming about 1200sqft). That cleaning fees could in theory be equivalent to $1-1.5K if you rented multiple one night stays per month, but its a lot of work. In my opinion if you are willing to do the hard work then you will make the good money. Prop management charges really high rates for that stuff (25-50% in my area). @Account Closed
@Account Closed the "hide a key" is what we use. We manage properties in our neighborhood so its easy for us to control entry. Works like a champ.