Renting or Selling Your House: What’s the Best Move?

Renting or Selling Your House: What’s the Best Move?

If you’re a homeowner ready to make a move, you may be thinking about using your current house as a short-term rental property instead of selling it. A short-term rental (STR), or Vacation Rental (VR) is typically offered as an alternative to a hotel or resort, and they’re an investment that’s gained popularity in recent years.

While a short-term rental can be a tempting idea, you may find the reality of being responsible for one difficult to take on. Having managed 100’s of short term rentals for several decades myself; I can assure you that there is more to it than a lot of beginners realize.  Here are some of the challenges you could face if you rent out your house instead of selling it.

A Short-Term Rental Comes with Responsibilities

Successfully managing your house as a short-term rental takes a lot of time and effort. You’ll have to juggle tasks like dealing with reservations, organizing check-ins, and tackling cleaning, landscape, and maintenance duties. Any one of those can feel demanding, but all together it’s a lot to handle.

Short-term rentals experience high turnover rates, as new guests check in and out frequently. This home traffic can lead to increased wear and tear on your property—meaning you may need to make more frequent repairs or replace your furniture, fixtures, and appliances more often.

Think through your ability to make that level of commitment, especially if you plan to use a platform that advertises your rental listing. Most of them have specific requirements hosts must meet. An article from Bankrate explains:

“Managing a rental property can be time-consuming and challenging. Are you handy and able to make some repairs yourself? If not, do you have a network of affordable contractors you can reach out to in a pinch? Consider whether you want to take on the added responsibility of being a landlord, which means screening tenants and fielding issues, among other responsibilities, or paying for a third party to take care of things instead.”

There’s a lot to consider before taking the leap and converting your house into a short-term rental. If you aren’t ready for the work it takes, it could be wise to sell instead or at least hire a professional, licensed Manager.

Short-Term Rental Regulations

As the short-term rental industry continues to grow, regulations have increased. Legal restrictions commonly include vacation rentals in a particular neighborhoods.  HOA rules and restrictions may not allow them.

Many cities, counties and state also require homeowners to collect, account for, and submit sales and use taxes, accomodation taxes, or other taxes/fees when renting out their properties. Nick Del Pego, CEO at Deckard Technologies, explains:

“Renting short-term rentals is considered a business by most local governments, and owners must comply with specific regulations and business tax rules established in their local communities.”

It is important to thoroughly check whether short-term rentals are regulated or prohibited by the local government and your homeowners association (HOA) before even considering renting out your home.

Don’t Forget the Obvious

A short term rental also means completing furnishing and outfitting the property down to the forks and spoons.  It means carrying all of the utilities (including television and Internet services).  And don’t forget about departure cleaning after each stay and fresh linens for each new guest.

Bottom Line

Converting your home into a short-term rental isn’t a decision you should make without doing your research. If I can help answer further questions about what it takes have a successful short-term rental, please reach out.  If you decide selling your house is a better alternative, let’s connect today.