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My husband and I are at a point in our lives that we would like to venture out into the vacation rentals. We live in Atlanta area (originally from Florida) and to be honest, I just get way too hot in the summers now. I'd like to have a place that we can go to, at least a few weeks every summer, to get cooled off and relax, then rent the rest of the time. I would like to find a realtor who specializes in these types of situations (mortgage and upkeep and how long we'd have to rent to pay yearly fees, etc.)
I'm not even familiar with all the little towns that are good for this type of thing. I do know I just paid a small fortune to rent for a week in Newport, RI. We'd like a very walkable town within walking distance of the ocean or a port. Thank you in advance.
If you can narrow it down to a general area you'd like to investigate, I'd go through vacation rental listings for that area and see what agents/firms come up the most and call him/her/them.
Do you want to rent or buy? We've used VBRO and HomeAway several times and been very happy with the properties we've rented.
Those sites are for people who already own property and want to rent it out as a vacation rental. OP is looking for someone to help them purchase a property which they will use as a vacation rental.
There are quite a few vacation destinations throughout New England. Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, the Berkshires, Nantasket Beach in Hull are all in MA. Plus, various lake/Mountain areas in New Hampshire and Vermont, and also plenty of places in Maine as well. Even Connecticut and Rhode Island have vacation destinations.
What kind of budget do you want to stick to and what kind of house are you looking for?
Agree with everyone who has said a budget and area are important. We have a number of neighbors who rent their homes by various means. It seems those who rent weekly have homes that are under a $1 mil valuation. They use VRBO or similar and manage the rentals themselves. They do have cleaning services between. Those whose homes exceed that amount only rent monthly, only do so if they get their number and get final approval of the renters aftet they are vetted by the realtor who handles it all.
I work in real estate on Cape Cod and it is a very desirable area to live and vacation at. The only trouble is when buying a house in a desirable area the prices are usually higher due to the fact that people want to come.
I don't know what your budget is but as an example we have a 3 bedroom cottage on the beach for $950,000. It rents for $3000-$4000 per week.
We have sold regular year round houses for around $400,000 and those rent for $2000 but you need to drive to the beach.
Rentals are all about how desirable they are and that is all about location location location.
On the Cape we generally have a 8 week rental period, most rentals are to families with school age kids so their vacations work around the school schedule.
There is also a shoulder season in the Spring and Fall, September is the best time on Cape Cod, the weather is still excellent and most of the crowds are gone. It is a good time to rent but you won't get the most money like in the prime summer time.
We know people who actually move out of their house in the Summer to rent theirs out and make extra money.
Having a rental is great but you need ot have the right team to keep them turning over smoothly.
I don't know if it still exists but there used to be a place in Framingham called Rent A Wreck. With a name like that I'm thinking it has to be cheap.
That is for cheap car rental, not vacation homes.
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