If you have a rental home that you would like to rent out as a vacation home there are some things that you should know. In this article I am going to use Spain as the location of the rental home but you can use the basic principles for wherever your rental home is located. What you are looking to accomplish is having the best possible rental service while still making good profits on your vacation rental. Below are the five things you need to make sure the property management company you hire has.
1. Excellent Customer Service
The people who stay in your rental home, villa, or apartment need to have the best customer service while they are there. The property management company you select needs to offer prompt and courteous customer service. You need to get references or at the very least testimonials from other satisfied property owners. Your tenants should arrive to a super clean home, villa, or apartment.
You want to find a property management company that gives tenants a welcome packet that includes a map of your rental property and the surrounding area. Make sure that they handle collecting rent in a professional manner and that they handle maintenance requests quickly. The property management company should also handle your renters questions regarding turning on the utilities and phone in a friendly manner.
2. Cleaning
The property management company you select should have a quick turn over rate when it comes to cleaning and getting your house back on the market between renters. If your rental home is in Spain and you live in the U.S. or England, you will need a local to the area property rental service that takes care of scheduling the cleaners. For your vacation home, cleaning must be done between guests’ stay. Furthermore, the yard must be maintained year round and so they should schedule gardeners. Make sure that these services are provided by the property management company.
3. Keys and Other Necessities
If you live in the U.S. and your vacation home is in Spain, you want to make sure that the rental company you hire will take care of all the legal requirements in the area in which your vacation home or apartment is located. For example, they should take care of paying the property tax on time, paying the cleaning service and other vendors on time, providing you with monthly financial statements and accounting, take care of switching over the utilities, etc.
The company you select should keep an inventory list of all the items in your rental home and check that list each time someone departs to make sure nothing is stolen. This is very important if your rental home or apartment is in another country. You do not want to have to worry about being cleaned out each time your home is rented out. Put your mind at ease by hiring a property management company that takes care of this for you.
4. Building Refurbishing and Major Repairs
You want the property management company you hire to have their own in-house maintenance people. This way you are dealing directly with these people by proxy of the property management company. Any defunct work or work not done falls squarely on the shoulders of the property management company you hire. There is no excuse like we called in the work but the plumbing company is really busy and they said they can not get to the repair until next week. The best and largest property management companies have their own in-house maintenance divisions.
5. Pitching Your Rental Home
Check to be sure the property rental service will promote your apartment for rent or Spain holiday rental. Promotions will increase your number of rentals and profits each year. A property rental service may handle your advertising in local, national and international venues. If they have a website, they may promote your holiday rentals at the site. If you own a vacation rental near golf courses, then make sure they will advertise your rental from the angle of “golf holidays.”
Keep these things in mind when looking to hire a property management company. By picking the right property management company, you will have an enjoyable and profitable owner experience.
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