How to Buy Vacation Rentals on a Budget
An article in the Miami Herald reports on the two books authored by Christine Karpinski, the foremost advocate of do-it- yourself vacation rental management. She has done a great job in showing ordinary people how they can afford to buy a second home and then more second homes if they are willing to spend the time it takes to handle all the details of vacation rental management themselves. She is a strong advocate of avoiding the high management fees of property management companies.
Ms Karpinski points out that you should plan to rent your second home for at least 17 weeks a year to pay the bills. I have read her first book, but not the second one. Her books tend to be a good manual for the beginning vacation rental owner, with lots of good tips on how to manage from afar.
We agree with most if not all of her advice. She recommends that vacation properties accept pets, a policy that will increase occupancy. While we are great pet lovers, we don’t agree that this is consistent with a luxury rental. All too often, you barely have time to get a property cleaned before the next guest is ready to check in. The odor of a pet cannot be eliminated in that period of time. Moreover many gests will tell you that they are allergic to pets, and this creates a real problem
Nevertheless, Ms. Karpinski’s first book was a good read and we plan to read her second book. She is a good evangelist of the vacation rental industry.
