Realtor · New Buffalo, MI · Member since 2017 · 1 post · 0 votes
I am an Illinois Realtor exploring ideas on starting a vacation rental management company for Chicagoland clients who have second second homes located in Michigan. I already have a home in west Michigan and have given advice to clients regarding this. I would like to start my own vacation management company. Looking for ideas to either partner with an existing company, or to start my own from scratch.
Some municipalities require the rental management agent live within a 50 mile radius. Mine does. If your area does, get a map and draw a 50 mile circle around your house. That's your target market.
We self manage STRs in Michigan, and we have had other STR owners in our city call us and ask if we would manage their rental property, so I think there is some demand. We always have declined and referred them to the local property management company, but have thought that would be a good way to make money if we had more time and energy to get it all organized.
Our city requires a "local agent" as mentioned above. We already knew someone local to assign as our local agent, but I believe the city gives a list of people you can "employ" as your local agent (which is more or less a local emergency contact).