All Forum Posts by: Gerard Lester

Good time to buy in Vermont. Good opportunities in Killington. If you can close on a house soon, furnish and start marketing it, you can hit the high season this winter, but it does take time to "build a brand" for any vacation rental. I do work fo ra vacation rental management company. If you find a place you like, I can get you an income projection. 

Hi Jess,

I work with a property management company and we have seen growth and success in the area around Disney World. As you search for a home that will be a great vacation rental, determine first if there are any HOA restrictions on short term rentals before you move forward. If you're interested, I can create a projection for how much rental income to expect by operating a home as a vacation rental. We can connect offline if you like.

Hi Jody,

We can discuss further offline if you like, as I only have a minute right now, but what I am referring to is how to fine tune what is known as "yield management." Pricing algorithms should take into account a large number of factors that include the basic booking curve of any general city or region, holidays when traffic is normally heavy, times of day when guests usually book, historical pricing for any specific unit, etc. When you successfully sift the data, you will be able to approach the market value for your home on any given day, and even slice that up into smaller time increments. Hotels and airlines have been successful with this kind of technology for some time now. I will caution you there are a lot of services that claim they will offer yield management, but are really only dealing with advertised rates, not booked rates. Again, hit me up offline if you would like more discussion.

Jody, you have developed a very attractive property for the active types who travel through Bend. It sounds like one element that you might consider developing further is yield management. There are a lot of companies and products out there who will offer to build pricing structures for you, but most are based on advertised pricing, not booked pricing. The real goal is to approach the market rate for any instance that people book. I do work with a lot of vacation/ short term rental owners who want to maximize income. If interested, PM me and I can discuss some positive steps you can take in this direction.

Hi Mike,

I usually don't suggest Breckenridge as a great place to buy a short term rental because the list prices don't usually support a short term/vacation rental that will cash flow. However, I think you have a great idea for using a Breckenridge are property as a home share carrot for international travelers like yourself. If you work with a management company to market and manage the home, it should be easy to carve out time for your home share guests, but if you don't leave enough opportunity for the management company to book the home, it can be a difficult relationship. The company I work with does have a significant presence in Breck. If interested in more info, contact me offline.

VRBO and the Homeaway network is still a great marketing channel for short term/vacation rental homes, but it's true that the landscape is constantly shifting. It's a ton of work to stay on top of these changes. I've worked with many investors who are great at finding and financing deals but struggle when they get bogged down in the many touches it takes to successfully market and manage a vacation rental property. Done correctly, short term rentals in the right location with the right amenities can outperform an LTR, even though you need to factor in paying utilities. 

Great to hear about the meetup at Green Dragon next week. I work with a vacation and short term rental management company headquartered here in Portland and am always interested in helping investors explore the income options for their homes.

Vacation rentals can be a great investment or a great money pit. It's important to get a good idea of what kind of cash flow you can expect from any given home and any market. Air BnB and VRBO are great listing services, but there's still a ton of operational work to be done that they don't provide. I work with a company that offers full service marketing and management and attracts real estate investors who are more interested in developing a great ROI than in managing guest services calls and housekeeping.