5 Unique Ways to Make Money off Your Vacation Home
/Do you have a vacation home? Aside from having an alternative place to stay during your seasonal getaway, you might also have a great opportunity to make some extra income. Here are 5 unique ways you can profit from your vacation home.
1. Rent it Out to Apartment Dwellers
If you only use your vacation home for a couple of months during the year, you might consider it renting it out as an apartment.
When you rent out your vacation home, you’ll keep your home occupied for a greater portion of the year. When a home goes unoccupied for months at a time, there’s a greater likelihood that it’ll get broken into—unless you hire a live-in caretaker. But you have to pay the caretaker every month—why spend money when you can make money?
Remember three important things. First, when you rent out your home to tenants, you become a landlord, which means you’re responsible for handling all maintenance issues on the property. If you don’t want to do that, consider hiring a property management company to handle those tasks for you (your rent money will definitely offset the property management costs).
Second, always be sure to run a tenant screening to make sure you’re not going to have any criminals living on the property, or tenants who have a history of evictions. You want honest people living in your vacation home who always pay their rent on time.
Lastly, be sure to only sign tenants to a six-month lease (perhaps followed by a month-to-month lease). That way, you can vacate the premises when it’s time to stay there for your seasonal vacation!
2. Rent it Out to Vacationers
Thanks to vacation rental websites, renting out your home to vacationers has become one of the most simple ways to make money online. Create an account on a vacation rental website and list your vacation home (be sure to include photos of the interior and exterior).
Renting your home to vacationers could be more advantageous than renting it out to tenants because you don’t have to act as a landlord. It’s also easier to ensure that your home will be vacant when you want to stay there—if you plan on using your vacation home intermittently throughout the year, renting it out to vacationers is definitely the way to go.
3. Rent it Out for Events
If you have a lovely and spacious vacation home, you may be able to rent it out for events. Vacation homes are commonly rented out for:
Weddings
Family reunions
Birthdays
Bridal showers
Most of these events include alcohol, which means there’s a greater risk that someone could cause damage to the property in some way. Always have your event planners sign a contract that requires them to pay for damages they cause and consider taking a security deposit before the event. While you want the attendees to enjoy the time they spend at your venue, you should in no way let anyone get away with causing significant damage to your property (with that being said, know that trampled grass or light spills may be inevitable).
4. Rent it Out to Filmmakers
If you live in an area where there’s lots of production companies (like in LA, Orange County, or Georgia), you can make a significant income by renting out your vacation home to filmmakers. Oftentimes, it’s much cheaper for a film crew to rent out a home than to create an entire house set. There are plenty of filmmakers shooting commercials, short films, music videos, or even major motion pictures that are more than happy to pay you a dividend to shoot in your home.
Just like with renting out your home for events, make sure you have the filmmakers sign a contract that ensures they’ll pay any damages caused to your property (most of the time, a film crew is more respectful of your home than a bunch of drunk partiers).
5. Sell It
If you find that you’re not using your vacation home very often, it might be time to sell your home. Remember, every month your vacation home goes vacant, it costs you money—whether that be from property taxes or caretaker expenses. When you account for those expenses, you might realize that it’s cheaper to rent a vacation home for your seasonal getaway than to own one. Again, it all depends on how often you use your vacation home. But if it’s sitting there gathering dust, it might be time for you to put it on the market. You can use the cash for retirement, for your vacation budget, or for other investments.
You probably get the most joy out of your vacation home when you stay there for the holidays or for summer. But remember, a vacation home is an investment property, so you should always be looking for ways to use it to grow money.
About Money & Mimosas: Money & Mimosas was started as a passion project by Danetha, a former NFL cheerleader turned entrepreneur and financial journalist. After a brunch conversation with girlfriends, Danetha was inspired to launch a blog to explore her journey of becoming rich, sexy and confident.
