Best income strategy for ski resort tow home

[Catherine Lacey]

Hi! I'm under contract to purchase a home in a ski resort town. The place needs a ton of updating but is quite large (7 bedrooms/5 baths) and I see incredible potential. It has a separate 1-bedroom  apartment attached, as well. My goal is to fully update and rent out the apartment as a ski/summer vacation rental, as well as use this portion for my family occasionally. I'm less sure how to manage the house, which itself has been turned into two separate units. The current owners rent each room on an annual basis...and wow do they need maintenance/updating. The other option is to list those rooms as vacation rentals (shared kitchen / private bathrooms). There's a strong rental market up there for both.

I have a full time job and live hours from this area so I can't manage it myself. Vacation rental income could be much greater but maybe  not so much if I have to pay a rental management company their 40-50%. Plus, I won't yet have the cash to update the larger house so not sure how many vacationers want a dated place. I'm thinking that sticking to annual leases is best until updated as they'd alone at least cover mortgage. Other ideas or suggestions?

Happy to provide more details. Thanks for any help