Whether you own a beach house on 30A, a villa in Destin, or a condo in Panama City Beach, there are many things to consider before putting your vacation rental on the rental market. Does your unit need to be updated with newer furniture? Do I have to update the electronics? Fresh paint? The list goes on. You will also need to determine if you will hire a professional management company or manage your vacation rental yourself. Self-management has its pros and cons, and it’s not for everyone. Vacation rental listing websites like Flipkey provide many self-management tools for your vacation rental, but they don’t mention the day-to-day tasks that go into managing a property. To help you determine if you want to manage your property yourself or hire a professional management company, consider this list of pros and cons of self-management.
Advantages of self-management
Managing the property yourself can save you fees. Some management companies charge up to 40% commission to manage your vacation rental.
You have full control of who enters your property.
Cons of self-management
You must find and manage your own cleaning crew.. – A professional management company will inspect after a unit has been cleaned to ensure that the cleaning staff is cleaning the property to the expectations of their guests. Nothing ruins a rental faster than an uncleaned unit.
You have to have a good list of contacts for maintenance and repairs.. When the air conditioning goes out or the garbage disposal is clogged, who will you call? Most management companies have maintenance staff and a list of preferred service providers to fix problems quickly and minimize disruption to your guests’ vacations.
Must be available after hours for air conditioning issues or guests left out of condo (etc.). The phone rings at 2:00 am and you discover that the guest left the key in the condo before leaving for the night on the town. How will you get them into the property? A management company will have after-hours attendants who can issue new codes or retrieve existing codes to help guests return to the property.
You will spend a lot of time doing marketing.. Do you have a website for your property? Where will you market your property? Who answers your rental inquiry emails while you’re at work or spending time with family? Do you want to answer calls related to your property and the proximity of restaurants or shops? A professional management company does all of that for you with professional marketing, websites, and knowledgeable, professional customer service.
Execution of rental contracts via fax or email. Your rental agreement should be written to ensure the safety of your guests, as well as the safety of others, and to protect your investment. Will you hire a lawyer to draw up your rental agreement? Will you pick them up by mail or email? How will you enforce the terms if a guest violates them? A management company will execute all rental agreements electronically at the time of booking and have already done the legwork of putting together a rental agreement so you can rest easy knowing these things are taken care of.
You will have to collect rent payments. Accepting rental deposits by check is sometimes risky, especially when a guest books a stay 5 days prior to arrival. Will you mail a key before you receive a check and have given it time to cash? You can set up a merchant account to accept credit card payments over the phone, but you’ll also have to pay monthly fees and a percentage of each transaction to do so. Also, if you collect damage deposits, you will have to refund them after verifying that there was no damage to your property. A professional management company already has a merchant account and can get paid on time before allowing access to your investment.
You will have to do your own evictions if a guest goes rogue. There are many factors involved in making a legal eviction if a guest becomes unruly or violates occupancy or age restrictions. A professional management company knows the ins and outs of this process and will take care of these matters for you.
You will have to pay your monthly taxes. It is a time consuming process and needs to be done on a monthly basis to ensure that you are legally renting out your property. Depending on where your property is located, there could also be local tourist taxes that need to be taken into account. Not knowing all the required taxes could cost you money in the long run.
You will need to obtain your own license to rent your property. This is also very important. The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation requires all temporary rentals to be licensed pursuant to Section 509. A professional management company will license your property for legal temporary vacation rentals.
Managing your own property is time consuming. Managing a vacation rental is not a hobby, it’s a part-time job at less demanding times and a full-time job during peak seasons. Take a look at your current schedule and ask yourself if you can take on extra responsibility right now.
A vacation rental management company makes owning a vacation rental property pretty easy by taking care of all the non-glamorous chores of owning a beach property. If you decide to self-manage, I only wish you success and that all your guests are great people.
