I recently purchased a cottage in Old Florida Village. I am interested in renting it via my own contacts and the internet. Does anyone know of a company that I can contract that will just do management ie: cleaning, maintenance, checking the place out, but no rentals. Help!!! I am new to this!!!
Management company
- Thread starter soozie58
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We use Beach Rentals of South Walton and they have been pretty good to work with. I book the majority of the rentals myself.
Beach Rentals of South Walton will do this for you; however, I just had an absolutely horrible experience with them. Long story, which I won't get into as I'm considering pursuing criminal actions with them - but on my experience I severed my contract with them and won't recommend them to anyone. Check out their BBB record if you want an unbiased opinion. I can tell you its NOT good.
I'd recommend that you at least explore doing this without a management company. There is a thread on here that lists several quality cleaning companies (that will be your hard part) and there is a company here that will check on your house for you and also be the goto person for maintenance issues for a small fee, Sunburst if I remember right.
Marketing wise, get a website up and advertise on vrbo.com. That will get you started.
FYI I found this book quite effective --
Amazon.com: How To Rent Vacation Properties By Owner: The Complete Guide to Buy, Manage, Furnish, Rent, Maintain and Advertise Your Vacation Rental Investment: Christine Hrib-Karpinski: Books
I'd recommend that you at least explore doing this without a management company. There is a thread on here that lists several quality cleaning companies (that will be your hard part) and there is a company here that will check on your house for you and also be the goto person for maintenance issues for a small fee, Sunburst if I remember right.
Marketing wise, get a website up and advertise on vrbo.com. That will get you started.
FYI I found this book quite effective --
Amazon.com: How To Rent Vacation Properties By Owner: The Complete Guide to Buy, Manage, Furnish, Rent, Maintain and Advertise Your Vacation Rental Investment: Christine Hrib-Karpinski: Books
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I would recommend Christine Karpinski's book as well - she owns a condo in Miramar Beach and lives in the Atlanta area. She can also be contacted via http://www.howtorentbyowner.com/ (no, I don't get a kickback)!
However, I do work with collection of the bed tax / sales tax, which you will need to do if you manage your own rentals. Don't worry; it is not as daunting as it sounds. Our web site is http://clerkofcourts.co.walton.fl.us/default.aspx?id=40.
Good luck!
However, I do work with collection of the bed tax / sales tax, which you will need to do if you manage your own rentals. Don't worry; it is not as daunting as it sounds. Our web site is http://clerkofcourts.co.walton.fl.us/default.aspx?id=40.
Good luck!
soozie58 said:
I used Beach Rentals of South Walton for the first year that we owned a house down there. I was very disappointed in their service. It seemed I was making all the rentals and paying them $$$ to hand out a key. I had Kurt do a virtual tour of the property and pictures, set up a listing on vrbo.com and was in business. I obtained a rental agreement from another friend, got set up to accept credit cards and found a cleaning service. Then, I needed someone to check on the property after renters left, or during off season. I found a wonderful property manager who would make weekly inspections and put out keys for me and be on call for any maintenance issue, etc. BUT, he just moved!! He has passed his business on to Charles and Cindy Wilson. I have just started working with them, but my previous manager was VERY picky, so I feel that they will do a wonderful job since he recommended. If you would like any more info, or telephone #s, send me an email. I'd be happy to help.
This is a great and helpful thread.
Can I ask what percentage Beach Rentals of SoWal charges for this 'basic' service (i.e where owner finds renters and they simply clean/check up, etc).
Also, for more typical full blown mgt, can I ask what are people paying for full mgt with various different agencies? For the record, I have a gulf front rental in TX and pay 25% in peak season plus expenses (and 20% +exp off peak). With expenses this is averaging about 30% or so.
Can I ask what percentage Beach Rentals of SoWal charges for this 'basic' service (i.e where owner finds renters and they simply clean/check up, etc).
Also, for more typical full blown mgt, can I ask what are people paying for full mgt with various different agencies? For the record, I have a gulf front rental in TX and pay 25% in peak season plus expenses (and 20% +exp off peak). With expenses this is averaging about 30% or so.
Regarding Beach Rentals 's of SW, I *almost* used them for a recent "Gulf Front" rental on 30-A. The staff was very nice and professional. However, the property was *not* as advertised and I was extremely fortunate enough to have another unbiased member of this board who was familiar with the property tell me the real deal - that it was in shabby condition/not the gulf front we expected, etc. (THANK YOU again, you know who you are, and you had a huge positive impact on our recent family vacation). We had this BRofSW property resereved and were about to send in the deposit but for this 411. (And for the record, this person had nothing to gain with the info shared with me).
We found another great truly gulf front property in Dune Allen through an alternate agency, but, while we were there, I stopped by that BRofSW property that we had almost rented and it was NOT as advertised for sure. It was a shambles, was NOT gulf front as advertised and was in a not so great location (if there is such a thing in SoWal!).
We found another great truly gulf front property in Dune Allen through an alternate agency, but, while we were there, I stopped by that BRofSW property that we had almost rented and it was NOT as advertised for sure. It was a shambles, was NOT gulf front as advertised and was in a not so great location (if there is such a thing in SoWal!).
Carter,
Were you on loon lake drive?
Were you on loon lake drive?
Carter said:
Beach Rentals of SoWal offered me a "first year" deal wherein I paid 20% management fee if they rented it; 10% if I rented it and handled the money. I know there are some agencies in the area that charge 30%.
We use Beach Rentals of South Walton for our rentals and have been happy overall with their service so far. We live quite far up north, so we have to have someone a few miles away to check on our cottages and I felt a larger business would have more resources. Overall, we've been happy with their cleaning (we used a different agency before and the cleaning was significantly inferior), their repairs (they're proactive in identifying and responding to repairs), their treatment of customers, and their monthly statements/follow-up. For example, I found a $5.00 charge on my monthly Sprint telephone bill from a renter who took a collect call using our rental phone. I called BRSW and they took care of it immediately (charged it to the renter) and I had the $5.00 back on my next monthly statement. A very small concern, but it did suggest their record keeping and follow-up was good. As for getting rentals, I can't say because I advertise our properties on my own as well, and I think the majority of rentals come from my advertising. But I do know that I don't get all of my rentals from my own advertising, so it has been an advantage having BRSW (I have several rentals this fall that I don't believe I got through my advertising, so I'm happy for that since fall tends to be slower).
As for how well they describe different properties to renters, I haven't had any complaints at all saying that our properties were advertised in a misleading way at all, although we do keep them in top shape and they're in a great community so there's probably nothing to complain about.
In short, I'm happy with Beach Rentals of South Walton. They charge 20% for bookings that they get through their advertising and 17 or 18% for bookings I bring in. So far, I feel I've gotten my money's worth and I've had peace of mind while I'm far away (especially having seen a few of the repairs they've made without my having to follow-up - for example, my dining room table was getting wobbly and they fixed the legs on the table before there was a more serious problem -- I thought that was very proactive.).
Hope this is helpful.
As for how well they describe different properties to renters, I haven't had any complaints at all saying that our properties were advertised in a misleading way at all, although we do keep them in top shape and they're in a great community so there's probably nothing to complain about.
In short, I'm happy with Beach Rentals of South Walton. They charge 20% for bookings that they get through their advertising and 17 or 18% for bookings I bring in. So far, I feel I've gotten my money's worth and I've had peace of mind while I'm far away (especially having seen a few of the repairs they've made without my having to follow-up - for example, my dining room table was getting wobbly and they fixed the legs on the table before there was a more serious problem -- I thought that was very proactive.).
Hope this is helpful.