I live in an expensive, popular vacation spot in New England and when I go away in the summer I rent my entire house out to people in my professional community. We have a website that's a lot like 'sabbatical homes' and the benefit of this is that I know the type of people who will rent, they rent for the entire time (so no turnover) and in general our profession is small enough that everyone goes out of their way to be chill and friendly and agreeable because we'll all run into each other again. The price I pay for having great trust in my tenants is that I don't charge them the going tourist rate - I pretty much just charge them the actual cost of mortgage and utilities, with a few hundred extra on top that normally goes into replacing the microwave, new linens and other things that I get to use too once they're gone.
Now I'm thinking about expanding that to Airbnb and trying to offer my guest room for holiday weekends here. I don't think I want strangers in my house all the time - but on special weekends when I know I can get a good price, it seems like a great way to make some extra money.
Since I do rent out in the summer I'm not completely unfamiliar with some security issues (I have installed security locks on two closets where I keep personal things in the summer) and my house is generally completely uncluttered, I have sets of towels and sheets I only use when the place is being rented, and nothing valuable hanging around. I'm a single woman, I'd sleep in the house as well, and I have a cat.
Anyone have any experience with this? From a financial stand point it seems like such a great thing, and/but when I look on Airbnb I notice that hardly anyone advertises in my area. This could be good or bad, depending on why it's so sparse. There are no ordinances against, I've checked.
My other option is taking in a boarder full time, but... eek, another person in my house. Not sure I'm up for that.
Any advice, opinions, encouragement, discouragement?
June 09, 2017 at 05:29PM
