LET THE JOURNEY BEGIN
Stu and I ventured into the "short term rental" business without ever hearing the term "short term rental"! I am not sure it was even a word back then. We were still in the world of "Bed and Breakfast". We knew we wanted to rent to guests, but we did not want to live down the hall or make them 'breakfast".
Our first vacation rental was a condo on Navarre Beach FL. Although we rented it through VRBO, a management company was sitting at a desk on the main floor of the tall condo building with an in house cleaning team, and a maintenance person. They did all the day to day management. (more on this later via a blog titled, Navarre Beach condo).
We had rehabbing experience under our belts: a row house college rental, a condo on a beach in Navarre FL, a 200 year old Historic Home, a flip home in Tampa, a condo just for us and family in Ft. Myers, FL along with a life time of decorating homes, paint, tile etc across the midwest to make them sell quickly. We were not "green" but we were not that handy, not that wealthy, but we were excited, newly empty nesters and this was an adventure.
Now that I see the above list, I am not sure why... but rehabbing a home from 1,100 miles away from home and work, one that we would not live in, or sell, one that was disgusting beyond belief, it stunk so bad, one that needed wiring, new water lines, windows, an exterminator, grass, landscaping and a working HVAC and well everything ....and on a shoe string budget... frightened me! Not knowing how to find the people we would need to help maintain the property while we were away, it just all seemed overwhelming to me at the time. No websites or Youtube to guide us. Stu, who had just finished head and neck cancer treatment, and perhaps not using his best judgement wanted and perhaps needed something new and different, how long did he have, this project would take our mind and hearts away from our worry. We purchased the house and threw caution to the wind.....
Stick with us for how the leap to short term home rentals began....to be continued in my next blog post.
Cathy
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