How To Rent Vacation Properties by Owner Third Edition: The Complete Guide to Buy, Manage, Furnish, Rent, Maintain and Advertise Your Vacation Rental Investment
Author and speaker Christine Hrib Karpinski takes readers through all the steps necessary to purchase and rent out a vacation home. This book contains practical, hands-on advice that shows the reader how to do it without property management companies, and keep 100 percent of the profits. It offers realistic strategies to create a situation in which renters pay the mortgage, while still allowing the owner several weeks a year in that little slice of paradise.
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10 star winner!,
This is the first (literally) book I (and my family and friends) have found that tackles all the hard questions, worries and various ‘what ifs’ on the subject.
Beginning with the ‘before’ you buy questions, which is something I know a lot of people never really give much thought to, since many assume renting it out during off season etc will be a breeze. I especially liked the chapter dealing with ‘why self management makes sense’ since this is an issue I know something about. How many prospective rental owners know that a management company who handles rentals for clients can take 30% or more as a commission? Or that using a rental manager doesn’t assure your property will be safe, or repaired in a timely way without gouging your bank account?
The author deals extensively with the how to of finding clients to rent your property, including which websites are the best and what to have on your website as well. This includes good and accurate digital photos of all the rooms, yard, as well as Mapquest.com links so people can see how close they are to stores, beaches, rivers etc, that would be a draw as well as a drawback. A place may look nice on the website but how many owners show photos of the neighborhood so that clients can see that its safe and clean?
The author covers how to screen clients, pet clauses, smoking, and party issues and issues of liability in general. Will you use PayPal, credit cards, checks etc? What about the phone in the property and the agreement on use and charges? This is why I like the call anywhere in the country one fee programs phone providers now offer. If you have DishNetwork will there be an extra fee for use or will that be included in the rental fee?
Will you provide bed linens and basic kitchen items? What about those few people whom you can never please? How will you handle them and how should you, legally? These are also covered in-depth.
Does the state where the rental property is require you to pay state or local taxes like some hotel, motels charge a fee or tax for? These are all things you need to think about before you even buy a vacation rental.
The back two ‘chapters’ or index’s offer a lot of Internet sites for valuable information that makes the price of the book worth every penny.
Ms. Hrib Karpinski deserves a lot of thanks for finally writing a book that is easy to read and understand as well as recommendations of those she trusts who might provide the reader with even more information.
And I am buying a copy for my local library as well! Also check out her website by the same name […]
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|WARNING! This book is a 300 page advertisment for the author’s employer,
Although that was annoying it was not as infuriating as finding out that the author works for a company called HomeAway Inc. She fully disclosed the fact that she worked for them, which is fine, but she must have forgotten that almost all of the portal sites she mentioned are owned by HomeAway Inc, a small little fact that must have slipped her mind when her company was lining her pocketbook. In one passage on page 142 she recommends that you sign up for all 4 of the portal sites she `recommends’ and only puts and asterisk by HomeAway, failing to state that HomeAway owns the other 3 that she ‘recommends’ you sign up for. Nice Christine, thanks for the full disclosure. After she recommends you don’t go with a rental management company (in Chapter 9 she has a personal crusade against property management companies) because they take too much money, she turns around and `recommends’ sending $1500 to her parent company. Wow, the hypocrisy!!! She certainly has chutzpah.
She peppers the books with ‘recommendations’ of websites that are either owned or affiliated with the company that employs her. I would recommend buying a book on how to rent vacation homes from someone who is not in the pocket of a company whose job it is to take a percentage of your vacation rental income. Maybe someone with at least some degree of ethics and objectivity.
For full disclosure’s sake, I am not affiliated with any rental management company or any company that directly or indirectly competes with Home Away Inc. In fact, I am not even in the real estate industry in any capacity. It is just very aggravating to find out that I spent $20 to get a 300 page advertisement for HomeAway Inc.
It turns out that Mrs. Karpinski is just an arm of the HomeAway Inc marketing machine. I do not think that the author is the `expert’ that she claims to be, just a huckster trying to sell the wares of HomeAway Inc. I hope in her next edition she does the ethical thing and decides to fully disclose her relationship with what she is trying to sell you on.
If you think I am just some crazy loon who likes to rant, just do a little internet research and you will quickly find out that HomeAway Inc owns most, if not all of the `recommendations’ by the author.
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|Some good info buried in a too folksy style,
The folksy nature and the rhetorical questions being asked and self-answered is not complementary to the topic and the intent of the book. I’m sure the author is excited about the topic, but I’ve never seen so many explanation points in a business/real estate book….
The author is very against management companies and goes to extremes to tell why one shouldn’t be hired. She says a management company will keep 50 – 60% of gross profit. The mgmt companies I spoke to in my beach town charge 15 – 20% and by reputation are very different the the typical management company described here.
So, overall some good, useful information but you have to weed through alot of… Why??? Yes!!! The author could have benefited from an editor.
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