A reader who resides on one of those lovely islands in the Vancouver, British Columbia area in Canada wrote in to say she’d been thinking lately about renting out her lovely secondary home six months of the year to vacationers because she and her boyfriend have spent the other six months of the year down near Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for the past few years. Every year, they lock the house down and then worry about it, even though neighbors keep an eye out. And she’s haunted by the potential income she’s losing by not renting it out. They had discussed this for some time now but had several concerns and asked me to talk about this.
It’s normal to have concerns… I know I did when I got into this business.
You’re attached to your vacation home, your hard-earned furniture and kitchen equipment, your garden – there’s the concern about breakage and wear-and-tear, about cleanliness. How you’re going to feel when you retake possession.
Most arrangements are made with strangers, over the phone. Even when you think you’ve got a good nose, you’re afraid of being wrong and having an unpleasant surprise to deal with when you get home.
I always remind people who are contemplating getting into the vacation rental business about two things. The first thing I tell them is this: “No risk, no reward!” Your secondary home can end up being a veritable cash cow, raking in good money which you will certainly know what to do with. Most owners I know – and this has been my personal experience – find that things normally go very well and that any minor inconveniences are quite easily dealt with. They’ve learned to operate in a professional manner, signing contracts, asking for deposits to guarantee the reservation and deposits for breakage, etc. They’ve adjusted quite well indeed to their new business: they’ve been able to use the rental income to cover a mortgage, take a wonderful trip, pay a child’s university tuition, plant that Mediterranean garden they’d been dreaming about for years…
The other thing I remind people about is this: Take a moment to think about the people on the other end – the vacationers who are thinking about renting your home. They see it listed on rentforyourvacation.com, it looks great, it smells great, it sounds great… but is it great? They turn the photos and video every which way – still looks great. They like their first phone conversation with you – friendly, informative, you seem honest… but what if they say yes, sign your contract and then the house turns out to be a big disappointment… and they feel they’ve been uh, well, screwed by you… What I’m trying to say is: This is a two-way street, a relationship built upon mutual trust. Both parties do everything possible to make themselves clear and inspire the other’s trust. And what’s reassuring is: 99% of the time, things work out just fine for both sides.
In the great majority of cases, the rewards of renting your secondary home far outweigh any inconveniences. The risk is well worth it. Most vacationers who prefer a vacation rental are decent people and quite conscious of the fact that they are staying in a personal home and they take measures to protect it. I’ve even had renters make little improvements to my garden or take care of a minor repair and leave me a cute note. I’ve found that a thorough cleaning between guests and prior to my taking repossession of the house means that I can quite quickly forget that, the day before, some other family was sitting at my dining room table. Every time that thought creeps into my mind, I quickly switch my thinking and say “Thank you Vacation Family – thank you for my trip to Rome! Thank you for the car repair or my son’s tuition.” And I can just hear them say, from their home many miles away in our Global Village: “Thank you for sharing your vacation home with us – it was ever so much nicer than a hotel vacation!”
