myHomeAdvise.com

It is great having a summer home, where you can retreat from the world as and when you please, isn’t it? But unfortunately all this comes at a price. If you too are finding the upkeep of your vacation home difficult, you should think of renting your summer home.

1) Where to begin: In order to rent your summer home, it is necessary that you list it with various agencies. Some of

these are:

• Your state tourism bureau
• Local travel agencies
• Area newspaper
• Area and accommodation guides

In addition to the above, you can also list your rental summer home on the Internet and learn about such property issues. There are various websites for rental summer homes where you can list your vacation home. These websites typically offer you two options for listing your summer home for rent. You can either go in for a text based listing where you are allowed to put up a two line description about your summer home, or you can go in for a photo page where you can describe your summer home fully and also upload few pictures of your vacation home.

2) Prepare a contract: If you want to rent your vacation home, you should prepare a contract specifying the terms of rental. This contract should include:

• The duration of the rental
• The rent for the specified period
• The amount of deposit, if any
• Maximum occupancy in the vacation home

Any other individual terms that you may have should be included in the contract.

3) Accepting an offer: If you have received some offers for renting your summer home, you should not pick the first one. Here are some things to watch out for:

• Do the renter’s look trustworthy?
• Are they willing to care for your plants, if any?
• Have they agreed to pay the deposit?
• Are they willing to give you advance rent?

Once you get satisfactory answers to these questions, only then should you agree to rent your vacation home.

4) Offering tips and suggestions: In order to get your summer home on the most wanted list for rentals, you should provide some helpful tips and suggestions to prospective renters. You can make a small book that lists the various places to see around the area. You should list all the activities that are available to people. You can also tell them what temperatures and climactic conditions to expect at different times of the year, and how best to enjoy renting your summer home. You even need to list down all emergency numbers such as the plumber, electrician, etc.

5) End of rental period: Once the period for rental of your summer home has ended, you should ensure that the renters have not caused any damage to your home and leave it exactly as they found it. Any damages can be deducted from their deposit.

David O Connor M Kumar