Vacation Rental vs Traditional Rental

[Patrick R Morrison]

Hi All,

I'm a newbie here with some questions regarding vacation rental.  My family owns a secluded private "apartment" (3 bed, 2 bath, 1900 Sq.Ft.) on a private lake, sitting on a 40 acre parcel in the middle of a forest with plenty of room to hike, fish, kayak, relax in the sun, or cozy up in the rain, or even visit the nearby public lands, the next parcel over, for deer, bear or turkey hunting. It is located about 25 minutes ouside of Eugene Oregon. They have been renting it out for $1250 a month, but have had some difficulty finding good tenants. The last tenant was evicted, and the current one while so far so good, keeps wanting to trade maintenance for lower rent. The main house is nearby, so keeping an eye on tenants is easy, however my in-laws are elderly, and would need to farm out much of the upkeep, cleaning, maintenance, etc. 

I would like to try and analyze this as a vacation rental, given the location, and recreational opportunities, and see if the place is more valuable as a vacation rental than a traditional rental. Does anyone know of any resources to help do that? What factors should we be considering when making that kind of strategy change? What is the best way to evaluate such a place, as far as weekly rent / daily rent? Any comments, or help would be most appreciated.

Thanks for your time!

Pat Morrison

[Andrea Cole]

What @John Underwood said. I've also used data from AirDNA before. If there are enough rentals in your market, I've found the data to be OK from a benchmarking standpoint. For me, it has underestimated performance, which is good. Always nice to exceed your monthly goals.