Attracting Tenants For A Seasonal Rental Property
By JD Esajian on October 6, 2014
If you own a seasonal or vacation rental property, you need to treat it almost as its own business. With a traditional rental property, you have a tenant in place for nine months to a year. Accordingly, you will only have to worry about tenant turnover when the end of the lease approaches. A seasonal property is different in that you need to constantly stay on top of the property and all of its nuances. Most of the leases are only a week or two, so it becomes a challenge to constantly keep it booked. There are great profits to be made with these properties, but only if you have the right systems in place.
Whether your property is located steps from the beach or near a ski resort, keeping it occupied is the name of the game. You need to stay on top of everything associated with it. One of the ways to do this is to hire a booking company or property manager. Depending on the cash flow, it may be in your best interest to hire a third party. Instead of having to devote hours to showings, negotiation and maintaining the property, you can have someone take care of it for you. The downside is that these services are not cheap and unless there is a big enough spread, they may not be realistic. There is plenty of money to be saved in doing these tasks yourself, but there is also plenty of work. If this becomes overwhelming, you need to consider where your time is best spent and if the property is worth devoting most of your time to.
To get to the point that you can consider a property manager, you need to maximize the rent coming in. Keeping the property occupied is one way, but to do that there are a number of things to consider. The most important thing is to make sure your promotion and advertising of the property is updated. Update photos on your website and stay active on Craigslist. Promote your property as much as you can on social media platforms. The bottom line is that many renters will find your seasonal property online or in local print publications. What they see when they find it must have as much information as possible about the house. You need to have dozens of pictures of the house, descriptions of the surrounding area and a detailed breakdown of all costs. The more a prospective renter knows about the house and the bottom line, the more comfortable they will be and the more likely they will want to rent.
In addition to updating any photos or descriptions, you also need to update your property. Many owners will keep the same furniture in a seasonal rental property for years without considering a change. The location may be perfect, but there are always other options if the house looks and feels dated. If the property is located in a cold area, you should have a working fireplace stocked with wood and plenty of extra blankets. If you are near the beach, you could consider an outdoor shower and light colors in the interior. Old appliances can save you money in the short term but you will lose it when renters go elsewhere. If they are renting a house, they will spend a lot of time there, which means cooking and relaxing at night. A new flat screen TV or an updated stove will cost you some money, but you will get it back when word travels that your house feels like a hotel.
Most seasonal renters will continue renting in the same area for many years. Think about how easy managing the property would be if you knew months in advance that your house would be rented. This means staying on top of any previous and current renters. After they agree to rent the property, you should have an email address on file for them and stay in contact every few months before their last rental date. If you took care of the property and they were satisfied, there is no reason they shouldn’t want to rent again the next year. You can’t just assume that they know how to get in touch with you or haven’t started looking elsewhere. If you save their information and follow up with them, you will have a much easier time keep your rental constantly occupied.
If you have a good house in a good location, you may be tempted to increase your rental price with the demand. Maximizing cash flow can yield you extra money, but it may also turn away past loyal renters. One of the reasons they may have picked your property was because of the price. Raising the rent $50 or $100 can turn these people away and leave you scrambling. If you have constant demand, you should keep things status quo until that demand is so high you are confident that an increase wouldn’t have an impact. Squeezing every last dollar out of the property is not as important as have return business from good tenants.
Rental properties can be a real home run, but only if they are run the right way. This means staying on top of everything with your property from how it looks to following up with past tenants. It could take months to develop a good system, but once you do you will quickly see the benefits.