All Forum Posts by: Maura Paler

Sign up and read the HomeAway community forums, do a search for pets, lots of pro and con info there and suggestions on how to prepare for pets. 

We considered turning one of our 4 rentals to pet friendly, but after reading up on it chose not to. Our reasons were that we keep immaculate homes (and advertise as such), pet hair is tough to remove, one jump on a sofa or a bed cover after a muddy day and that piece of furniture or linen is ruined for the next guest. We simply do not have the resources to deal with that kind of damage right away. Guests use our lawns for sitting and enjoying the view, would be a real drag to have someone step in doggy doo, and a bigger drag if they brought it into the house. A barking dog would not go over well with our neighbors. We've also read that dogs like to mark their territory in new surroundings - can't even imagine asking our housekeepers to clean up that kind of thing, don't think we could keep them too long, we do all we can to keep housekeeping happy as we cannot do this without them. 

On the positive side - you will open yourself up to way more rentals. Even though we advertise no pets, no exceptions, we get a ton of people asking us to make an exception for their pet, so we figure it must be tough finding nice places that are pet friendly in our area. 

Yes some banks will allow mortgages on vacation rental investment properties. 

We have 4 VR homes, mortgages for 3 of them. The first we paid cash, the second was financed as a vacation home, the last 2 were purchased as investment properties and approved based on our reported VR rental income from currently owned VR's, along with our day job income, so it can be done. 

The mortgages are with TD Bank. They do not charge higher interest for investment properties (vs residential) which is great, but the down payment must be 30%. 

Like the idea of a portfolio bank who gets to know you and you have a more personal relationship with. Rates may be higher, but the process will be smoother. The stress level getting the last 2 mortgages thru the impersonal process with TD was almost not worth the great (under 4%!) rate. Also - with VR properties we are always competing against cash buyers (retirees looking for their second home) so quick approval is key. We literally bid asking or over asking as incentive for owners to sell to us contingent on financing. 

Did some more research, there are two regulators here: 

ADA (American Disabilities Act) 800-514-0301 www.ada.gov

FHA (Fair Housing Act)

I called ADA. In NY, most lodging, including short term furnished, are covered by the law which means we MUST accept service dogs. The law does not cover emotional or comfort animals, only those specifically trained for a disability. By law you cannot ask the person about their disability, but you can ask these two questions only: 

1. Is your dog required due to a disability

2. What are the tasks that your dog is specifically trained to do

So what does "most lodging" mean? That is murky. I was referred to Title 3 regulation,  section 36.104, paragraph A, didn't understand it. Need a lawyer to interpret it for me. Sigh. 

If we are meant to comply with this law, we are not allowed to advertise as allergen free. We are allowed to advertise as Pet Free, but Service Animals are not considered Pets, so we need to take them. No added cleaning or other pet fees may be charged. However if an animal does damage, that may be charged to the security deposit. 

Thanks for the response Robert. Very curious to hear about your pest control, what pests and how you keep them under control with a monthly service. We are in the Adirondack Mts., the pest infestations vary every year, with mice, red squirrels, ants, moles, deer and bear being the most frequent problems. 

We have 5 properties in the mountains, upstate NY that we rent by the night and week, year round. We live 4 hours from these properties. 

We are FINALLY ready to hire someone to Caretake them all - we're not calling it Property Management because they will not be renting them, I will continue to be responsible for that. We want someone to take the responsibility for maintenance, emergency plumbing calls, guest problems, pest control, stocking guest supplies and management of the people who do lawn care, plowing, housekeeping, etc. off our hands. 

So, my question is, has anyone done this for the Vacation Rental properties? Do you have a formula for how to pay, list of responsibilities, etc? 

We are thinking a monthly retainer (such as $150-200) that will cover 7.5-10 hours of whatever they do. Anything over that we will pay $20 per hour. This is in an area where the average job pays $8 hr. There will be some months where very little will be required of the Caretaker, but to keep them on call we feel a retainer is necessary. 

We have a woman who is also a friend who we trust that would really like the job - we're just not sure how to compensate and want to make sure we are clear on the responsibilities. 

Any suggestions would be helpful. 

Does anyone know how to find out what housing and non-discrimination regulations apply to vacation rentals vs long term rentals? 

Had a potential 4 night renter tell me I must accept his wife's dog because it was a service dog, even though we advertise as an allergen free, no pet household? 

We are in NY. 

I've Googled it to death, can't find the answer. But did find something that says if we own more than 3 rental properties (we do) the rules are different, i.e. worse. 

Thanks for all the ideas...we are reading up on them! 

@Liam Weld

Hi Liam,

My business was exactly what you are proposing, and it was (still is!) GREAT! I assist homeowners in renting out their properties, posted all the ads, answered inquiries, managed the rates, leases and payments. It is not possible for me to manage housekeeping and maintenance, that was up to the owners. 

I did this for about 50 properties over the years - my most steady clients being in Manhattan and Miami, both year round destinations. Without owning a thing, my income was well over $100K, my only expenses were my ads...my time was my own, I could (and still do) work from anywhere.   

Strict new regulations put the kibosh on both Miami and Manhattan. It is now illegal to rent by the week. I managed a building in downtown South Beach of 8 condos for 10 years that I rented by the night....aahhh...those were the days! I still have a few clients, and have started investing in properties myself in VR friendly areas - we now own 4. 

So - what do you do? Find an area where it is legal to rent by the week. Find owners who are simply too busy to do all that it takes to stay on top of weekly/nightly rentals (and it DOES take a lot of attention!), and offer to take it over for a commission to see how it goes. Then simply do a better job than they were able to do. So many people are investing in VR's now, they are out there. 

Also - Airbnb is not the only (or the best) way to get renters. HomeAway, Flipkey (my #1!), VRBO and others are out there too. 

We live 4 hours from our vacation rentals, we could not do what we do without our dedicated housekeepers. My biggest fear is losing them and not being able to replace them...truly. We are in a remote town, so options are limited. So we pay well ($20 per hour where the going rate is $15), we pay a flat rate for each rental (example: $80 for expected 4 hours in a 3 bedroom, even if just one bedroom was used and it took just 2.5 hours to clean, she gets paid for four) and that of course is paid by the guest. We do provide steady, year round work as we do get a lot of rentals, which is key to keeping housekeepers happy, and we offer extra work to them, their husbands, etc when it is available - such as planting, plowing, mowing, spring yard clean up, errands, we buy eggs for our guests from one of our housekeepers, that kind of thing. 

I have been a vacation rental reservation agent for 12 years - my experience with small vs large is that there is way LESS DAMAGE in small rentals. Damage can be a real buzz kill in this industry - no time to fix stuff between rentals if you are booking them fully, and who will do this for you unless you live nearby? So when we started buying VR properties (we now own 4) we buy small, rent to mostly couples and have just about zero damage or hassles. Even our 3 bedroom we allow just 4 persons to keep wear and damage down. As far as bathrooms, it's nice to have more, but I have to say it has never come up as a deterrent in our houses that have only 1 bathroom. That's not to say people simply are skipping over our listing because of it, in which case I'd never know...but we do get FULLY booked 6 months of the year and our peak season is only about 4 months. Way more important than space, in my humble opinion, is location, view, style and comfort.