Destin FL vacation rental

[Jon Hilfiger]

We are close to buying a 4 bed 3 bath single family home in Destin FL. It’s in a great neighborhood with a pool 20 yards away and the beach is a 50 yard walk. Anyone have any recommendations on buying and renting out? House is pricey but neighborhood values are high and Destin is a top vacation spot. Should we use a mgt co? (we will be 8 hours away) should we just find a on call handyman? Thanks for any input.

[Valerie Rogers]

Congratulations @Jon Hilfiger on your new purchase! Destin is a great vacation destination. My husband & I have a couple of condos on Okaloosa Island just next door to Destin.

If you are going to rent the house out on the short term market there are three options:

1. Manage the house and the bookings yourself ("by owner"). This is the most profitable route since you won't have to pay anyone else to help you with it...but it is also the most time consuming and perhaps stressful option. You'll have to build a great, reliable team in Destin to manage things like housekeeping and any maintenance issues that might (and will!) come up.
2. Hire a booking service (like mine!) to handle the very time consuming tasks like responding to every inquiry, communicating with interested travelers and guests, communicating with housekeeping, making sure rental agreements are sent & signed, providing check-in information to the guests, making sure everything is going well during their stay, following up after their visit and solicit reviews, handling payments, keeping good records for the homeowner, and more. You take care of the property and let the booking service take care of the rest. You'd have to pay for this service of course, but not near as much as you would a full-service property manager.
3. Hire a full-service property manager who will take care of everything. The only thing you'll need to do is pay the bill and collect the revenue from the PM each month. This is the most expensive option and oftentimes is what turns what could be a revenue-generating venture into a wash (or less).

If you decide to go with option 3 I can highly recommend Sugar Palm Vacation Rentals PM company in Destin. They are a small company owned by business partners Jeff & Christine (VR owners themselves) and they take care of their clients' properties the same way they take care of their own. The principal partners used to work with me at VRBO & Homeaway "back in the good old days" (before Expedia) so they know their stuff. Christine actually wrote the book on how to rent your home "by owner" back when the industry was just beginning to take off. You can't get any more expert than that!

Best of luck!