You’ve decided to sell your secondary home. But for any number of reasons, you believe that selling conditions at this time are not favorable. That’s fine, you’re right to wait and watch for the right moment. But why just let your property sit there idle when you could be bringing in some cash while you’re waiting.
It’s true that when you want to get into the vacation rental business in a serious way, you have to invest quite a bit of time and energy at the beginning, and maybe some cash, to get things going. But when you only intend to rent your home for a short period of time, while waiting to sell, you can keep things simple – it’s not really necessary to get all those ducks lined up.
Here are a few things, however, that you do need to do:
- Register your home on rentforyourvacation.com. The listing is free and the site offers multiple marketing and promotional opportunities that you should take advantage of if you want to draw renters in quickly.
- Since you don’t intend to rent long term, you might want to consider setting a rental rate that will ensure full occupancy – review the rental calculator section on rentforyourvacation.com and use the calculator tool to help you calculate your rate.
- Just as you will want to do when you start selling your home, make sure your home is properly maintained during this period – you may want to hire a cleaning person and do certain repairs.
- Prepare a list of simple rules and regulations – you want to make sure your guests take good care of your home during this period so that eventual buyers will find it in top shape. The fact that your home is occupied, as opposed to idle, may even be a plus-point for potential buyers – they know the home is functional, heated, etc.
- Prepare a simple contract form to be signed by both parties. Add a clause that will allow you to show the house to an eventual buyer.
- Take good care of your guests and encourage them to post a property review on rentforyourvacation.com. You could refer potential buyers to those reviews to demonstrate the appreciation guests have for you, your home and your area.
We wish you good luck. And who knows – we’ve seen it happen before: You just might be able to sell your home to a rentforyourvacation.com visitor or to one of your guests or to someone they know.
