Without question, the most important decision you'll need to make when entering the vacation rental industry is the location for your new venture. So where should you purchase your vacation home? Maybe you already own a property that you are thinking about converting to a short-term rental. Will it work? Choosing the location for a vacation rental home is quite different that choosing the location for your primary residence. There are rules and regulations and many other factors to consider. In this five-part blog series, I'll discuss five tips to help you choose your location wisely.
Tip #1: Choose a location where you'll want to vacation regularly and build memories.
Everyone has his or her favorite places to visit and spend time with family and friends. It could be a lake where you go every summer, or a cabin you visit each Thanksgiving or Christmas. Living in Florida, we have friends that literally go to Disney or Universal once a month. Definitely not for me, but to each his own. Maybe for you, that special place is somewhere at the beach. Since we already live near the beach, we were looking for something different. Somewhere to make our special getaway place whenever we felt like escaping form our hectic life at home.
Choose a place you hate to leave.
We ultimately chose the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina and a small resort town called Sapphire. We love the slower and relaxed pace of the mountain lifestyle. Well, that and the amazing food and craft beer, but I digress. It's our special home away from home and I dare say that one day I may not return home to Florida. I half-jokingly tell my friends that one day I'm going to sell everything, move to Sapphire, and open a fruit stand or do handyman work while my wife instructs yoga at one of the swanky hotels nearby. One of our marketing tag lines is "Escape From the Ordinary" because that's exactly what we do. For us, the mountains are where we like to retreat from the stress and busyness of our ordinary everyday lives.
Make sure that the location you choose can mature along with you and the needs of your family.
I can't tell you where that special place is or will be for you. Only you and your family can decide that. But what I can say is that when you do find it, you'll know it, and it will just feel right. Picture yourself going to your special getaway spot for years and even decades to come. Will the kids still want to go there as they get older? If you're about to be an empty-nester, will you still want to go there when the kids are gone? Buying that vacation rental near Disney may be attractive now, but what about later? Will your vacation home draw the family back together when your kids have kids? Wherever you choose to setup your vacation home, make sure the area will continue to be appealing throughout your family lifecycle.
Choose a place that you can get to easily.
With that said, it's important to also be realistic about the location for your future home away from home. Maybe you're dreaming of a beach bungalow in Fiji or Tahiti. I'll admit, that sounds pretty nice right about now as I write this on a cold 60-degree winter day in Florida (the struggle is real, folks)! Seriously though, how often could you possibly get there to enjoy it? My advice is to choose a place where you can just drop everything and go. Literally just load up the family and dog in the Suburban and take off for a long weekend or however long you wish to escape from reality. Choose a place within a half-day drive or so. If it's too far, too difficult, or too expensive to get to your vacation home, you'll never get there. Save those pipe-dream vacations for when you start collecting rental revenue and let someone else pay for it! I promise you'll enjoy it even more.
If you've already decided on the perfect location for you and your family to plant vacation roots, congrats! Thats a very big first step. If not yet decided, you probably at least have the wheels in motion. But this is merely the first step in the process. There are many other factors to consider before setting up shop in the vacation rental industry. In Part Two of this five-part blog series, we'll talk about identifying your target guest profile. In other words, to whom do you plan on renting and will their interests align with yours? Will other people actually be willing to pay you money to vacation in your house? As always, thanks for reading and please don't forget to subscribe! I welcome your comments and questions below.
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