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Sell Your Vacation Rental Tips To Do It Quickly & Easily

Sell Your Vacation Rental Tips.  Since the economy has steadily improved over the past couple of years, many vacation home owners here in Orlando are putting their vacation homes on the market. In today’s article, I thought I would share with you a few tips you should use in order to sell your vacation home quickly and for the best price.

5 Smart Tips to Sell Your Vacation Rental Quickly & Easily

1. Focus on curb appeal and first impressions.

A buyer’s first impression of your house is vitally important to you selling your property, so you should make sure that the exterior of your property is in great condition. Make sure you pay extra attention to the landscaping of the property.

You will also want to stage your vacation home interior decor to match the type vacation property activities there are for people to enjoy. For example, if your vacation home is on or near a beach, then you would want to have the interior decor be that of a beach theme. If your vacation home is near Disney World, then you would want a Disney World or theme park feel throughout the property.

Related: In the Market For a Vacation Rental? First, Take a Look at the Pros & Cons!

2. Disclose rental history.

If you have rented your property out, then you will want to supply your real estate agent with the rental history of the property. Some buyers might be interested in renting the property, while others might want just use it for their own personal use, but all buyers would be interested in seeing the rental history of the property. Here are a few things that you will want to include:

  • Websites: List all the websites that your vacation home is listed on, as well as the name of the property or the property code for the potential buyer to look at the listing.
  • Name of the Property Manager: List the name of the property manager and their phone number.
  • Rental Income: You should be able to supply the new buyers with rental income and the number of nights your house was booked for the previous 12 months.
  • Rental Income for the Upcoming 3 to 6 Months: Most sellers do not do a great job of showing the potential buyer the rental income the property is projecting to make in the immediate future. Most people who buy vacation homes are investors who want to know if they buy this property today that it will make them money the very first month after they close on it.

3.  Keep the vacation home in the rental pool.

It has been my experience in the past, real estate agents prefer vacation home owners take their property out of the rental pool while the house is listed for sale. While I understand why the real estate agents prefer this — they find that it is too difficult to schedule showings when vacationers are staying in the property — most home owners still have bills to pay and mortgage payments to make while they are waiting on an offer, and the rental income is a great way to offset those payments.

Additionally, most buyers, especially if they are investors, like the idea of a turnkey investments. What is a turnkey investment? Simply put, this means that the property already has future bookings and a management company who is already looking after the property. There is nothing that the investor would have to do in the immediate future.

4. Get an appraisal done.

An appraisal should run you $300 to $500, and you should have this appraisal done before you list your property. This way you can make sure you are pricing your property fairly and accurately. By getting the appraisal to potential buyers, you are showing them that you have done your homework and you know what your property is worth.

Related: 3 Alternative Ways to Enjoy a Vacation Property Without Owning One

5. Have an inspection performed.

Whenever I sell a property, I always have a property inspection done on it prior to listing. Why? Simple — I want to know what issues the property has that I will need to fix before closing. I want to make sure that I don’t have any major surprises come up after we get a contract on the house. I also do not think you should fix every issue on your inspection report, as the new buyer will get his/her own inspection done and the inspector has to find some issues so I usually just fix the ones that the ordinary person could see.

Selling a vacation home is a little tougher than selling a home that potential buyers are going to move into as their permanent residence. Most vacation home buyers are not in town that long looking at properties, so they are trying to cram as many viewings into a day as possible. This tends to make buyers not remember properties as well, and that is why I am a big proponent of giving the potential buyer as much information as possible. Most of the time potential vacation home buyers are not able to see the property more than once, and the more information you supply them with, the more secure they feel in purchasing the property.

BY TREY DULING ON LANDLORDING AND RENTAL PROPERTIES

 

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