Wolf Pack Inc

One great reason for buying beach front property is that you can fairly easy turn it into a revenue stream by turning it into a vacation rental property.  However, before you start collecting those rent checks, you need to decide how you are going to manage it.  You’ll have two main options.  You can either use a realtor or other vacation rental company to manage the property for you or you can manage the property yourself.  Managing it yourself requires a little bit more work, but if you know the local property market and how to advertise, you won’t have to share any commissions.

The first option that you have is to go through a vacation rental company.  These rental companies or realtors act as middlemen, bringing together property owners and renters.  However, like middlemen the world over, they take a cut of the money for their services.  This can be anywhere between 12 and thirty percent depending on the company and how aggressively they advertise your property.  Make sure you always shop around to find the best price.

However, even though they take a cut, going through a vacation rental company many times makes sense.  They usually know the local market pretty intimately, so they can set your weekly prices high enough to make money, but not so high that you have no tenants.  With most of these companies, you also get exposure to a huge pool of loyal customers.  All this results in your investment property being occupied more, which means more money in your pocket.

However, if you can advertise your beach investment property yourself, know the local market, and don’t mind putting in time and effort, you can effectively manage your property yourself and keep all of the profits.  You might even be able to charge less on rent because there’s not realtor’s fees involved, which will make your property more competitive on the open market.

There’s pros and cons to each way of managing your investment property.  Make sure you have all the details before you decide which route to take.