Where To Buy A Vacation Rental Home
So youve made up your mind to get into the vacation rental business. Where should you buy a property?
Christine Karpinski author of the books How to Rent Vacation Properties by Owner and Profit from Your Vacation Home Dream suggests that anywhere in the US is a good place to buy. This is because within almost every major metropolitan city there is a vacation spot within a two hour drive.
Karpinski says If you live in Atlanta you can go to the North Georgia Mountains you can go to Tennessee maybe even Florida. If you live in New York City you can go to Cape Cod the Poconos or Upstate New York. If you live in LA you can go to Big Bear maybe even Palm Desert. So pretty much if you buy property in a vacation area thats within two hours of a big city youll probably be making a sound investment.
In her podcast Intro to Vacation Rentals Karpinski gives the example of Chicago. People know about the lakes as a vacation spot she says. But dont realize that there are vacation homes for rent in the more remote locations Illinois and Indiana.
Often owners of second homes in remote locations dont think that anyone would want to rent their home. To that Karpinski replies Well you bought it and enjoy it so why wouldnt someone else? Its a refuge from the city so dont automatically assume that somebodys not going to want to rent it.
The one thing that you definitely need to check into before buying a vacation rental home is whether or not there are shortterm or vacation rental bans effective in the area.
So the gist is: Choose a vacation property in a location that you enjoy and there will likely be a pool of renters wholl enjoy it as well.
About the writer: Kristin Dorsett is the Assistant Editor of the Owner Community for Vacation Rental Owners at HomeAway.com a great resource for vacation rental home owners featuring educational articles vacation rental news owner polls monthly newsletters and a weekly internet radio show/podcast by bestselling author Christine Karpinski.
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