There are many factors which need to be considered when calculating how much rent to charge. Choosing the correct price means you get the most rent for your home without scaring away potential tenants by overpricing. Factors to consider when determining the correct price include: Location: The real estate adage "location, location, location" applies equally to rental values as to selling values. In other words where your property is located will, to a large extent, determine how much you can realistically ask in rent. Its proximity to desirable venues such as waterfront, downtown, universities/colleges or sporting/special events will impact on the demand and therefore the rental value. Check the rantal prices at holidayhomes.ca
Condition: Obviously the condition and level of upkeep of your property will have a considerable impact. (Perhaps this is a good time to reiterate the importance of describing and presenting your property in a truthful and honest way. The implications of not doing so can be far-reaching and costly). How much wear and tear do items such as carpet and vinyl have? Do the walls need to be painted? Is the lawn and yard mowed and free of weeds? Is the property neat and free of unnecessary clutter? Time of the year: Demand varies with the time of the year and it may be entirely possible that you will establish not one rental rate but several. The highest rate for the high or peak season, a lower rate for the "shoulder" seasons and the lowest for the off-season. In most areas of Canada the peak season would be considered the summer months (often preferred because families with children generally go on holiday while school is closed); the off-season would be considered the winter months. One exception to this would be ski areas.
Competition: How much are other houses in your neighborhood renting for? No matter what your house is worth, if other similar homes in the area are under priced, tenants will generally rent that home first. Formulas and rules-of-thumb for calculating rents are plentiful. We have found none which are foolproof. However, to give someone contemplating entering the fully furnished property rental business something to work with we offer the following very general rule-of-thumb. The monthly rent a property may attract on a "normal" long-term tenancy rental may be similar to the rent that could be achieved on a "vacation" rental for one week. E.g. A 2 bedroom condo, which may rent for $500.00 per month with a tenancy agreement in place, may rent for $500.00 per week on a shorter-term "vacation" rental.
Remember that you will be incurring expenses on the "vacation" rental that you would not normally incur on the other. Expenses such as electricity, gas, basic 'phone, cable, cleaning, etc. and other, less tangible, costs like wear and tear on the appliances and furniture.
This may be a good time to mention that there is a lot to be said for being flexible about rental rates and terms. Some owners fix a rate, and if they can't find a renter who will pay it, the rental stays empty! Far better to get something rather than nothing.
They can make considerably more money since they don't have to give 50% (or more) of the gross rental to a management company. Even if they offer substantial discounts to the renter they still make more money (and the renter can save a significant amount as well). Owners typically advertise their properties on vacation rental sites. Most of these sites require the owner to answer several questions about their property and then the site advertises the property in a cookie cutter style format.
This is OK but it really does not allow an owner to advertise what is unique about his or her property. However, now most ISP (Internet Service Providers) allow their customers free web space for their own home page and the fact that creating attractive web pages requires very little skill these days more and more owners are creating a web page just for their property.
When an owner has their own web page they can design it in a manner which really highlights the key features of their property or the area that the property is in. In addition, an owner can put many photos on their own web page for virtually no cost. Many vacation rental sites limit the number of photos and/or charge an extra fee (which can add up to hundreds of dollars) for extra photos. For example, if you own a condo in the Disney World area you might want to have pictures of Disney World, Epcot, and Universal Studios. The same goes for owners whose properties are in the mountains of Colorado (or any resort for that matter).
They could have photos of skiing at the resorts in the area (e.g., Vail, Steamboat, Breckenridge, Keystone, etc.). Of course, if it is summer time, you would be wise to substitute the skiing photos with photos of golf, fishing, biking, and rafting in the mountains. If you really want to do it right, you can reserve a .com name for as little as $10 a year with the discount domain registrars that are out there.
If you decide to do this be sure to pick a name that describes the location of your condo. Some vacation rental sites allow you to have a link to your property web page from the page that is on their site that describes your property. This is very important and should be one of the criteria you use when selecting a vacation rental listing site.
In addition to allowing you to provide a link to your web page you should count how many clicks it takes to get to your listing from the vacation rental listing site. The FEWER the better. The reason this is so important is that the more links you have to your property AND the closer it is to a site home page (i.e., the fewer number of clicks required to get to it) the more likely search engines will pick it up and have it show up in search queries. Ideally you would like YOUR web page come up when people are searching. If people go directly to your web page then it is more likely they will book the unit.
However, that is just one small piece of how search engines do their job. If you are a property owner of a rental vacation property and don't have your own personal web site you might consider getting one. It is inexpensive and does not require a great deal of effort. You might want to visit some vacation rental listing sites and compare the calendars of properties who do have a dedicated web page and those who don't. You might be surprised at the results.
Both Aoureliou Televko & Dalvin Rumsey are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Aoureliou Televko has sinced written about articles on various topics from Travel and Leisure, Beach Front Home and Travel and Leisure. Business owner of holidayhomes.ca vacation rentals directory worldwide.. Aoureliou Televko's top article generates over 201000 views. to your Favourites.