Image source: Getty Images
Renting out a vacation property isn’t right for everyone.
Key points
- My husband and I purchased a vacation property many years ago.
- Initially, we planned to rent out the property to help cover costs.
- Ultimately, we decided renting out the home wasn’t worth the effort.
Many years ago, my husband and I decided to buy a vacation house. We initially intended to purchase a home we could rent for part of the time and visit for part of the time. Our goal in doing this was so the rental income could help us cover the costs of owning the home — and perhaps even help us make a small profit.
Ultimately, though, once we started looking for properties seriously and considered our goals and financial situation, we decided that renting it out wasn’t really the right move. Here are four reasons why that’s the case.
1. We didn’t want to deal with problems tenants could cause
The single biggest reason why we decided against renting out the house was because we didn’t want to cope with potential damage to our property.
We visited numerous homes with our realtor that were used as vacation rentals. All of the properties had a lot of wear-and-tear on them, even though they were very nice and commanded a premium price. The neighborhoods where the rentals were located also weren’t very clean, despite being upscale areas with roving security. And when we visited one home before the cleaners had come, it was apparent the tenants had left it very dirty.
We realized that even rental properties that were relatively expensive were not necessarily well taken care of by vacationers. And we didn’t want to have to constantly be repairing or replacing items in our home because they were damaged by mistreatment.
2. We wouldn’t make enough money to justify the hassle
When we did the math on how much we could make by renting out a property, we decided it simply wasn’t worth it.
See, buying properties in areas that allowed short-term rentals was significantly more expensive than purchasing comparable homes in a neighborhood where vacation rentals weren’t allowed. Once we took added mortgage costs and extra home insurance costs into account, along with property management fees, marketing costs, and taxes, we would hardly make any money at all …….