Distinct Ways to Make Money off Your Vacation Home

Beach Homes Panama City Beach Vacation Rentals

Do you have a vacation home? Other then having an alternative place to stay in your seasonal getaway, you may also have a great opportunity to make some extra income.

Here are great ways you can profit from your vacation home.

Rent It Out to Apartment Dwellers

If you use your vacation home for a couple of months throughout the year, you may thinking about 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 chance that it’ll get broken into–unless you employ a live-in caretaker. But you have to pay the caretaker every month–why spend money when you can make money?

Recall three crucial things.

First, when you rent out your home to tenants, you become a landlord, which means you are 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 make certain to conduct 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 residing in your vacation home who always pay their rent on time.

Third, be sure to only sign tenants into 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 the seasonal vacation!

Rent out it Vacationers

Thanks to vacation rental sites, 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 site and list your vacation home (make sure you 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.

In addition, 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 through the year, renting it out to vacationers is definitely the way to go.

Rent it Out for Special Occasions

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
  • Brunch parties
  • 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 think about 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).

Rent it Out to Filmmakers

If you live in an area where there’s lots of manufacturing companies, you can make a good amount of income by renting out your vacation home to filmmakers. Oftentimes, it is much more affordable for a film crew to rent out a home than to create an whole 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 take 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 much more respectful of your home than a bunch of drunk partiers).

Sell It

If you find that you’re not using your vacation home quite often, it might be time to sell your home. 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 costs, 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 place 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 must always be searching for ways to use it to grow money.