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Objection Overruled! Four Reasons Why Vacation Property Owners Should Put Their Rental Fears to Rest

by Christine Karpinski

Many vacation property owners would like to rent their home out when they’re not using it themselves. Problem is, they let their worry about the “what-ifs” override the benefits of collecting all that glorious rental income. Here, Christine Karpinski addresses some of the most common objections.

OBJECTION: I am uncomfortable with strangers staying at my house.
OVERRULED! Perhaps you’re worried about renters trashing your property or stealing from you. This almost never happens, asserts Karpinski. Even in the unlikely event that it did happen, that’s why you have insurance and ask for a security deposit up front. And if you rent by owner, you really decrease the likelihood that something bad will happen.

“When you rent by owner, you screen the people yourself,” she explains. “You quickly learn to trust your instincts. Often, you end up with a cadre of repeat renters you know and trust. Besides, vacation home renters tend to be high-caliber people who understand they’re staying in someone’s home and treat it with the utmost respect.”

OBJECTION: I want flexibility for personal use.
OVERRULED! You have complete control over when you rent your home out and when you don’t. You can rent it out during peak season and enjoy it yourself in the off-season. You can live in it during the winter and rent it out in the summer. You can reserve a few weeks out of the year for your own use and rent it out the rest of the time. You can even rent it out for two weeks without having to claim that income on your taxes (IRS Publication 527).
 
“Sometimes people say, ‘Well, I want to be able to drop everything and head to my beach house or mountain house, and I would resent not having that option,’” says Karpinski. “But realistically, how many people really do things that spontaneously? Very few, I’d say. For most people, having to work their own getaways around the desires of their paying guests is a small sacrifice to make when they consider the financial big picture.”
 
OBJECTION: Financially, I don’t need to rent.
OVERRULED! Think about it this way, says Karpinski: if you have stocks and they are paying dividends, do you say no, thanks to Microsoft? Of course not! So why would you leave real estate investment dividends on the table?
 
“When people really start adding up the costs of owning a vacation home – mortgage, property taxes, association dues, and so forth – they often reconsider their decision not to rent,” notes Karpinski. “They come to see that it just makes good financial sense. And of course, that’s even more true in a recession.”

OBJECTION: No one would want to rent my vacation home, anyway!
OVERRULED! If you just bought a far-from-luxurious suburban house for $150,000, you might assume that few people would want to rent it. Think again, says Karpinski. Look on HomeAway.com and you’ll see listings for homes that range from rustic cabins to majestic castles.
 
“We list homes at every price point, and people do rent them,” she asserts. “There are as many different types of travelers as there are vacation homes, and people seek out vacation homes in all kinds of locations for all kinds of reasons. In the same way that small roadside motels thrive in the same city as luxury hotels, modest vacation homes can attract plenty of renters. And in an economy when plenty of people are on a budget, this might be particularly true.”
 
Christine Karpinski is the director of Owner Community for HomeAway, Inc., and author of How to Rent Vacation Properties by Owner, Second Edition: The Complete Guide to Buy, Manage, Furnish, Rent, Maintain and Advertise Your Vacation Rental Investment (Kinney Pollack Press, 2007, ISBN: 978-0-9748249-9-4, $26.00)