Considering a Vacation Rental

[Bernie Tobin]

After doing some research and listening to a great podcast from this site, I am thinking the vacation rental may be a good option for me.

Here is my situation, I am wondering if anyone has advise or thoughts on this.

• My wife and I are currently paying off student loans
• I live in Michigan at make about $90k a year
• We are owner-occupiers with a duplex (about $100k left to pay)
• I reached out to my mortgage guy for pre-financing
• What I'm looking at:  A cottage on a lake, near a ski resort, and casino

Any advice is welcome... I am nervous about taking out a large loan to begin investing but I realize that there are no rewards without risk.

[Scott Wilcox]

I manage the property through VRBO and have a handyman who is local if there is an emergency.  The cleaners will let me know if there was any damage.  They will get the place ready for the next guest so I am hands off in the process.  It is expensive so the rents have to be good.  We are in Lexington MI so there is a lot of demand and strong rental rates.  

Vacation rentals with short seasons are not great money makers, especially if you plan to take a few weekends for yourself.  A place that could be rented all year long would be a much better investment.  Due to the fact that my family uses the cottage a few weeks out of the season, renting has become more of a way to defer the cost rather than make money.  The season in MI is 3-4 months and we take up about 4 weeks of that.