If you have a home in Calvert County on the Western Shore and you decide you would like to rent your home out as a vacation rental you can choose to do it yourself or use a property management company. There are several advantages to using a property management company because the management of a vacation rental is time consuming. You will have to perform the following duties yourself:
Advertising: most vacation rental sites charge $250 and more per site to advertise. This is necessary to keep your vacation rental in Calvert County booked if you are managing the property yourself. Western Shore Realty advertises on all of these sites for you. This is an $800/year value.
Website: Customers expect you to have a website to trust you. This could cost you up to $500 and you will have to maintain it.
Handle inquiries: If you have a job this could be a problem and if you don’t answer the phone the customer goes to another rental and you lost them.
Take Reservations: You have to have a way to take reservations so you don’t double book. You should have a software program. This will cost at least $300.
Update Your Calendar: You must keep your calendars up to date so customers know when your vacation rental is available and to increase bookings.
Process Credit Cards: Most renters want to pay by credit card. This is an additional monthly fee plus set up fee. The fees vary but you will pay about $20/month at least.
Collect Sales Tax: You will have to collect tax, keep up with how much is owed and fill out required reports .
Hire a maid service: If you don’t have the right maid service you will suffer with unhappy customer calls.
Hire a contractor: You need to have someone on call to handle problems that may arise at you vacation rental.
Handle Problem Calls: You will have problems with checking in, directions, lost keys, plumbing problems and many others.
As you can see there is a lot to managing a vacation rental property in Calvert County on the Western Shore. That is why I decided to open my own property management service that handles these problems.
If you are interested in renting your second home out as a vacation rental in Calvert County, Western Shore Maryland find out how much you could get renting it out as a vacation rental at: http://westernshorevacationrentals.com/FreeVacationRental%20Evaluation.htm
Phyllis Minik, Western Shore Realty, LLC, (443) 295 7030
