What You Need To Know About Vacation Homes and Short Term Rentals

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What You Need To Know About Vacation Homes

(Short Term Rentals)

Before you buy that next property for short term rental purposes you need to fully consider all the cost, legalities and tasks that are involved.

Setting up the home for vacationing

Let's think this through.

If you plan to vacation there then it needs to be furnished.  This means not just furniture but also towels, linens and pots, pans, plates & utensils. 

Then you need a tenant that will be there for the times you are not. So unless your tenant is going to take vacation the exact same time you do each year ... you will need multiple tenants to take up the "empty" time at your property. 

Thus you need someone to:

  • Advertise the property
  • Follow up on the ad responses
  • Send out leases
  • Deposit the money
  • Check each tenant in
  • Review the property for any damage or missing items after they move out
  • Return the deposit
  • Pay the taxes on the short term rental

The Normal Short Term Rental Period

You can get someone for a long term rental (7+ months) but then you will most likely have the property rented out during the time you would like to use it.  And you will never make the same money as you can if you rented out fully week by week or month by month. So you would be considering a short term rental (6 months or less). 

Now, it is not that easy to get someone for a 4 month to 6 month rental.   Most people want it from a week to three months max.

Your Property Has To Appeal To Someone Who Is Going On Vacation


Here in Florida short term rentals tend to be in a nice golf course community and/or the property is near the waterfront. These rental periods tend to be for the February - July time frame here in Florida. (The locals call these people "Snowbirds"). You can get people interested at other times of the year but it is usually around the holidays and for a week max.


Check With Your Condo Association or Home Owners Association to See If Short Term Rentals Are Allowed

 Does your property allow short term rentals?

If it is a single family home then you can most likely rent it short term but you should check your covenants & restrictions of the community.

But if it is a condo then you probably have a problem. The majority of condos I have come across from have minimum rental terms of 6 months or more. So definitely review the condominium documents to see what there restrictions are. (FYI: You can ask for the Question & Answer sheet and Rules & Restrictions for the condo and it should answer most the questions you have instead of thumbing through 150+ pages of the condo documents.)

We at the Phyllis Frankel Realty Group specialize in helping our clients invest and can point you toward the homes & condos that would work for a vacation property. Please contact us to get more information.