CoastRentals Beach Vacation Blog

I just finished talking to one of our listers who is in Hawaii (lovely area by the way, she is on Maui) and had been working recently with a property manager.  Now, I’ve mentioned some of the negatives of dealing with property managers before in this space - their lack of good online marketing, their high fees, etc.  I strongly believe that managing your vacation rental “by owner” is the way to go, and not just because I own LakeRentals and CoastRentals, but also because it was a decision I had to make many years ago myself.

This person in particular had come across something I never ran into when dealing with property managers - her property management firm only paid her 4 times per year!  They would rent out her vacation home, collect the money and then only send her checks at the end of each quarter.  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

Depending on how savvy the property manager is, I can foresee a few different reasons for wanting to do this.  One being that they like to have the cash on hand from all their rentals for their operating costs, etc.  Another, more cynical one, is that they are taking the money collected from these properties and investing it for a return.  Vacation rental owners are having their profits diminished for one, now they only get their money 4x per year?

I’m sure that doesn’t align with the ‘dream’ situation most people have in mind when they purchase their vacation home or condo, especially in a hotspot like Maui.  Maui vacation house?  That should be raking in the dough as long as you market it effectively online.  Don’t let a property manager take 30-45% of your income, and especially do not let them hold your money and earn returns off of it.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 6th, 2007 at 10:21 am and is filed under Beach Vacations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.