I often get asked if it makes sense to convert a long term Tampa rental to a short term vacation rental. I can say it definitely does make sense, and that answer comes from personal experience.

About five years ago, I started leasing my own properties to short term vacationers. The results I’ve had from these rentals far surpassed my greatest expectations. This took me by surprise because these are ordinary, every day blue collar family homes that I was renting for $800 a month. Now that I have converted them to vacation rentals, I get around $800 a week for the same properties.

Short term rentals take a lot of work, and these are not easy properties to manage. There are sales taxes and bed taxes you have to pay every month. Inquiries come in every single day and you need to respond to them right away. But, you can’t go wrong by doing it.

The size of the market is different than it is with long term rentals. As a long term rental, the marketplace for your property is only as big as your city. As a vacation rental, the marketplace is as big as the whole world. Half of our guests come from overseas and a lot of our visitors are also local and from out of town. Some of our short term tenants are looking to relocate or they might be nurses coming into the area for training or teachers arriving to get a degree. We rent short term to doctors at the university as well.

From personal experience, I can tell you that converting to short term vacation rentals works. I am 100 percent booked up and now I find myself turning away nearly everyone who inquires because I don’t have any inventory. If you want to double or triple your income, consider converting your long term rental to short term vacation housing. Contact us at HomeSeekers, and we can help you do this.

When you’re choosing a management company to take care of your vacation rental, I think the most important thing is experience. You want to know how many units they manage and how long have they been in business. It’s important to take a look at their statistics so you can measure the kind of success they have renting out vacation properties. This is visible to you just by looking at the occupancy calendars of the properties they manage. Find out how booked up they are. There’s a big difference in management companies that have a 25 percent occupancy rate and companies that are at 100 percent.

You also want to know if the management company is licensed. It’s not a good idea to have someone who is unlicensed handling your property. Look for a property manager who is fully covered with the right insurance. You want someone with an errors and omissions plan as well as general liability coverage. Make sure the company’s employees and vendors are also properly licensed and insured. You need to know this in case there is an accident on your property. You don’t want to be responsible for it and you don’t want your own insurance policy to have to cover someone else’s blunder.

To check out the vacancy and occupancy rates of a particular management company, simply click on the button that says “see all my rental vacancies” on VRBO. Look at each calendar and you’ll see the professional status of the rental company you’re considering hiring. If they have 300 units and they’re only 50 percent full, you know your property has a good chance of being in that same situation – empty.

It can be tough to make an intelligent decision on this matter. If you have questions, or you’d like some help, please contact us at Home Seekers.

At HomeSeekers, we have managed single family homes since 1977. Today we are talking about finding a tenant, which is the most important and often the most difficult thing for a property manager to do. It’s too easy to be a nice guy or to trust someone because you want to believe their story. Everyone likes helping other people but in this business, you can’t do that. It’s hard to tell people no, but it’s often required.

Credit History

The most important tool we use when screening to find the best tenant is an applicant’s credit history. A fast rule we have in place is that a credit score of at least 600 is required in order to rent one of our homes. Sometimes, an owner can talk us into accepting someone who has a score of less than 600 if they pay the first month’s rent, last month’s rent and a security deposit. Otherwise, tenants with poor credit scores often create problems. If someone is not interested in maintaining good credit, chances are good that person is not going to be the best tenant.

Criminal Background

We also collect a criminal and civil history nationwide. If someone has been evicted before, we know that person is not going to be a good tenant for us. We are very clear that we won’t accept pedophiles or people with extensive criminality in their backgrounds. We look closely when we’re making a decision.

Selecting a tenant isn’t strictly a science. You cannot make a decision based only upon written criteria. It’s somewhat of an art form. We like to get a feel for tenants and then make a decision. Sometimes, the best tenants maybe had a foreclosure or their credit was less than perfect because of a divorce, an accident or an injury. These are tough decisions that need to be made, and we’re good at it. We’ve been doing this for many years and a lot of our tenants have been with us for years. We love our tenants and we believe in maintaining long term, mutually respectful relationships with them.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at Home Seekers. We’d be happy to tell you more.