Considering marketing current home as VRBO - Opinions?

[Kevin C.]

Anyone have any experience marketing a VRBO (Vacation Rental By Owner) property?

We're considering marketing our current home as a VRBO.
We really enjoy the place, don't want to sell it, but really don't need it either.

All our kids are gone and it would make sense financially to downsize to something smaller and less expensive than where we are now.

But.... hate to give this place up because it's a one of a kind property in a very desirable area and I'm thinking it could do well as a VRBO.

In a nutshell, it's a 4 Bed, 3 Bath home on a little over 2 acres with:
Indoor Pool and Spa with Retractable Roof.
Separate but connected Diner / Malt Shop with Fridge, TV and Stereo.
Huge Game Room off said Diner.
The Game Room is actually a oversize 4 car garage, but it's fully finished, fully insulated, has it's own central heat and air and a full bathroom.

Prior owner used this portion of the garages as a showroom for his car collection, we use it as a huge Gameroom.

This gameroom has a 65" HD TV, Stereo system, Regulation Pool Table, Professional Quality Fooseball Table, Professional Quality Ping Pong Table and a low end Air Hockey table in it.

House also has a 3 car attached garage and 4 more garage bays in addition to the 4 bay garage area we use as a gameroom.

There is also a horse barn on the property, but we use that just for storage.

Home is near major highways, major shopping, dining, entertainment etc. in the city of Lucas which is North of Dallas.

I've seen VRBO homes in Allen that are in the mid to upper 100's per night that look like they are doing fine - I'm basing that on pulling up their calendar and seeing the days they have booked into the future. We're just east of Allen, so basically the same area.

My initial guess would be we could get get mid to upper 200's per night, possibly into the 300's per night for this place. If we could in fact get those numbers, and get say 60%+ utilization, the place would throw off some nice cash.

Wife and I would manage it ourselves.
When it was not booked, we'd probably stay there.

Those of you that have experience with VRBO, what do you think? Are we crazy, or do you think we'd have a good shot at making it work?

Here's a link to some pics from when we bought the property. Pics are fairly small, but big enough to give you an idea of the property. These pictures don't really do it justice, but they're all I have handy.

http://s1187.photobucket.com/albums/z396/TXCav/Home%20on%20Acreage/