Maintain Your Vacation Home. New Construction Homes for Sale in Clifton Park NY. Josh Gonzalez a Real Estate Agent with Coldwell Banker Prime Properties.
Plan to spend time and money to maintain your vacation home, no matter if you hire a property manager or local caretaker, or do the work yourself.
A basic keyless entry system costs less than $100 and is essential in case of an emergency. Image: Kwikset
Maintain Your Vacation Home. New Construction Homes for Sale in Clifton Park NY. Josh Gonzalez a Real Estate Agent with Coldwell Banker Prime Properties.
How you'll maintain your vacation home might not be at the top of the list as you shop for a beach cottage or mountain cabin, but it should be. You'll need to devote time and money to handling routine home maintenance and responding to emergencies.
Hiring a professional property manager can ease the maintenance burden, but not the price tag. An informal arrangement with a local caretaker can be cheaper. Doing the work yourself can be cheapest of all, but the logistics get complicated if your vacation home is far away.
Maintain Your Vacation Home. New Construction Homes for Sale in Clifton Park NY. Josh Gonzalez a Real Estate Agent with Coldwell Banker Prime Properties.
Property managers: Convenience at a price
Hiring a property management company for your vacation home can be costly, but it can save a lot of effort (and headaches) on your part. A property manager can open and close your vacation home, and screen and hire a staff to make sure your house is well-maintained inside and out. If you plan to rent out your vacation home, a property manager can advertise the rental, check in guests, and handle payments.
A property manager acts as your eyes and ears, doing regular drive-bys and responding in emergencies. This is especially important if you live far from your vacation home. Ask owners of nearby vacation homes for referrals. Membership in a trade group like the Vacation Rental Managers Association adds to credibility.
Property managers don't come cheap. According to Christine Karpinski of HomeAway, a vacation rental website, property managers typically get 20% to 60% of the rental income from your vacation home. So if your ski chalet rents for $1,000 per week, expect to hand over anywhere from $200 to $600 of that income to the property manager.
Local caretakers can be cheaper
A cheaper alternative to a property manager, especially if you don't plan to rent out the house or will handle rentals yourself, is hiring a local housecleaner or handyman to maintain your vacation home. Again, other homeowners are the best source for referrals. Even during the offseason, it's a good idea to have someone local who can go to the house once a month to turn on faucets, flush toilets, and inspect for damage.
How much you pay will vary by location and the nature of the caretaking tasks. A recent survey of cleaning fees put the cost between $69 for a 1-bedroom home and $199 for a 6-bedroom. A rule of thumb for calculating cleaning fees is to multiply the number of bedrooms and bathrooms combined by $20.
Since you're entrusting cleaners and handymen to go in and out of your home unsupervised, check references and ask for proof that they're bonded and insured. A fee-free option is to rely on a neighbor. Work out an arrangement to check on each other's properties regularly, rather than hiring someone.
Prepare for maintenance emergencies
Preventive home maintenance reduces the likelihood of emergencies, but a pipe is bound to burst eventually. As the owner of a vacation home, especially one that's hundreds of miles away, the most important thing you can do is be prepared for the inevitable.
If you don't have a property manager, caretaker, or year-round neighbor you can call, at least have a list of local repair companies at your fingertips. Invest three or four hours into assembling a list of plumbers, electricians, exterminators, and the like. Ask other homeowners for recommendations, or, if too few are forthcoming, turn to a service like Angie's List or even the phone book.
Having a keyless entry system for your vacation home is critical in the event of an emergency. A basic touchpad model costs less than $100. You can give the code to a repairman over the phone. A wireless system, which allows you to use a computer or cellphone to change the entry code, can cost three times that amount plus a monthly service fee of perhaps $10 to $15. By: Donna Fuscaldo
Maintain Your Vacation Home. New Construction Homes for Sale in Clifton Park NY. Josh Gonzalez a Real Estate Agent with Coldwell Banker Prime Properties.
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