By Asli Theobald, MS
Did you know that most 30A homes, which are vacation rentals, are sold within the first year they’re bought, ending up right back on the MLS repeatedly. This is why there are so many realtors in the area as you may have noticed, with most locals having acquired real estate agent licenses. Many vacation rental investments can’t make enough profit to justify their exorbitant holding and maintenance costs, creating constant income for the countless realtors.
Those desiring to own luxury homes are often shown vacation rental profit portfolios too good to be true, being promised they can easily afford to repay multi-million-dollar loans with the help of the short-term renters attracted to 30A. You take out your loan, sign up with one of the most popular big 30A vacation rental companies managing hundreds of other luxury homes just like yours, believing this is all you need to do to rake in the promised profits without lifting a finger. The biggest vacation rental companies would surely know what they’re doing, right? What on earth could go wrong with this approach?
By letting your home become just another vacation rental not managed any better than the thousands of other rentals competing for profits, you’re following the recipe that’s likely to get you too to join the ranks of the homeowners wanting to get rid of their luxury homes in a jiffy, letting them end right back on the MLS.
The successful homeowners of 30A guarantee that their investment performs better than the competition by either managing it themselves or doing their research and seeking out those managers who manage only a few select luxury homes. These managers the successful homeowners find are highly rated on the booking platforms due to the way they don’t try to grow “big” by taking on too many homes and employees, risking becoming unable to give every home all the attention it deserves to consistently create satisfied renters and repeat customers. Part 1 of this series emphasized the importance of utilizing the trust factor with a large number of great reviews from actual guests on the biggest booking platforms. This is the main determining factor in ensuring your rental stays booked at high enough rates.
The unsuccessful homeowners who fail to outperform their competition allow their homes to get inspected by often different big company employees after each guest check-out. These employees are often paid by the hour instead of being the same highly-rated person who keeps all the profits from her own business, who inspects and prepares your home for the next guests with great care knowing that even a single bad review can drop her ratings and lower the rankings of her listings on the search results of the booking platforms (the higher you rank, the more the booking platform algorithms feature you).
So, if your rental has not been performing well, before calling your realtor to put it back on the MLS, try the right way to invest on 30A by going for a manager focused on quality rather than quantity, letting your home operate at its maximum potential for maximum returns on investment.
Asli Theobald is the owner / operator of Dream Home 30A, call 850-867-5449 or visit www.DreamHome30A.com to learn more.
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