Will you be posting it on a site like VRBO as a shorter term rental or will your realtor post it on the MLS?

We rent our CA home for the summer. It is a furnished rental listed by our realtor on the MLS. It's available 6 months. Last summer it was rented to the same couple for 4 months.

I'm not sure what kind of things you think need to be done. Basics like smoke alarms, etc. need to be in place. I make sure there are basic kitchen supplies on hand, things like a few extra rolls of paper towels, filters for the coffee maker, etc.

I supply 2 sets of bed linens for each bed, 4 sets of bath towels for each bathroom. We are walking distance to the ocean, so we also supply beach chairs, towels, umbrella, cooler.

The renters last year had sold their house and were deciding what to do next. They brought their own linens/towels/coffee maker and many kitchen small appliances. We'll see what happens this summer(it's not rented yet).

Edited to add: We are in a HOA and provide a copy of the HOA rules & regs. I also make up a 1 page 'welcome to our home' list of things I'd like them to know... garbage pickup day, please water my plants, etc.

Didn't you just build that house? Why are you moving?

Install a keyless door lock on exterior door. You should get one that you can set the code remotely. That way you can easily change the door code after guests leave & before new guests arrive.

Check with your insurance about coverage for a rental.

If you think you may sell the home, be aware of what earning rental income will do to capital gains taxes.

CindyMac, my husband lost his job and has found one in Ft. Worth. We need to cover our mortgage and can not do it at this time... even with the job in Ft. Worth. So, we are going to give this a shot. We live by the lake and the vacation rentals are always booked here in the summer. Lots to do!

We plan to use airbnb and vrbo to start. We are talking to our realtor today to see what she can do for us and if we can afford her. lol

To add to the above, ensure you are in compliance with any and all local regulations regarding licensing, code and registration.

We've used management companies to handle all linens, cleaning and check in/checkout. It sounds like you are planning to use a realtor. If not, there may be individuals available or even small firms. They do take a generous cut.

We created a owner's closet in each with a separate system of locks. This holds extra supplies as well as personal items.

Create a manual with instructions on how to use all the appliance and entertainment electronics (and where to find the manuals), WIFI codes, locations of fuse boxes, water turnoffs, emergency contacts, etc in addition to those list above.

You'll need a lot of backups, especially, surprisingly, on pillows. Costco has some decent, inexpensive hypoallergenic pillows. Costco and Home Goods will be your friend. Don't buy too expensive (e.g. original art or expensive blankets) but don't buy too cheap. We or our firm provide a welcome pack of items. We also provide some spa-level travel-sized personal items (soap, shampoo, conditioner, vanity kit) -- purchased online via Accent Amenities plus pump soap in the secondary locations.

Reviews are critical to future success. We priced competitive at the beginning to attract reviews but gradually expanded our minimum rental period and price to capture a premium market. You may find one booking engine is more popular than another in your area. We found some clientele on AirBnB to be challenging -- i.e., partiers. (ETA: Also consider booking.com, part of the HomeAway/VRBO group. Some of these firms now cross-post listings across their network).

If others in your area do short term rentals check with them about who they use.

My nephew has 3 airbnb houses (central Florida). His stay full most of the year. He uses a cleaning crew that reports immediately back to him about damages and other needs. I'm not sure how your realtor can help unless she is a property manager specializing in short term rentals.

My sister rented her beach house through VRBO, she too only used a cleaning crew that was recommended by others on the island.

Good luck!

Good luck! We owned two properties at the beach which we rented out weekly. I used VRBO, always had a written lease, security deposit and cleaning fee. I really never had any issues and they were constantly rented. They were not personal homes however, you will have to move your personal things out of the home. Also be prepared for normal wear and tear.

Aktillery, I'm sorry to hear that. Same thing happened to my dh a couple years ago. He was close to retirement age, but not happy his career didn't end on his own terms. A year of retirement and he went back to work. Now I'm the one who's not happy.

You have a beautiful home. I'm sure you won't have any problem renting it out.

Best of luck to both of you.

Too bad Tibbrix isn't still here. She could give you advice because she did that.

Cyn, I was thinking that as I posted this and as I have been planning this whole thing. I miss Tib a great deal!

I'm sure someone has her personal email and could pass your information on to her. I'll go check my old emails to see if I chatted with her in the past.

I think LynnNM may be of help (in finding Tibb)

We rent out our garage apt which was originally built for in laws and friends because our house is small. We work with a local agency who have been in business since pre-internet but now also list it on numerous Web sites. I used to get more background info on guests which made me feel safe from potential "axe murderers" but now with website rental I don't know anything about who they are. We've met some wonderful people who've become friends and had other guests who I'm happy to see depart. I did put love into the design and furnishing of the apt and it can be painful to see it kept differently than I keep house or how I would leave a rental. I do most of my own cleaning between rentals. Just started a policy of rentals longer than 1 month require a housekeeper to come in. The income has helped us, but everything is a tradeoff.

We have two -one in Austin, TX and one in Lake Placid, NY. We use property managers for both. We had thought we would take over the mgmnt ourselves after the first year, but we aren't in a rush to do so. Our oldest DD and her DH have one in Tahoe, which they manage themselves and that works well. I haven't read everything here, but wanted to mention a couple of things.

We rented VRBOs for years so we knew what we liked. In a nutshell, that meant uncluttered spaces that had everything we needed, with a touch of luxury. So with that in mind, we stocked the kitchen with just one of everything but tried to make it the best we could afford -a really great can opener, great blender, etc. We included at least 12 of all dish/silverware type things. One mistake we made was to provide really nice sheets and towels. It turned out that the cleaning services requires us to use their linens so that ended up being a big waste, though we do use and enjoy them ourselves.

We use both places ourselves, but have limited personal items there. As someone else mentioned, we have a locking owner's closet in both locations. I placed a bookcase along the backwall of the owner's closet in Austin, because it's only a normal coat closet size, and this enabled us to keep a lot more in the closet, and to keep it organized.

At the Austin house, we have a lock on the front door which opens with a numeric combination. This allows you to give a code to a renter which will expire, a different code to cleaners, etc. You can manage it all on the computer and it really makes things easy.

Vacation rental insurance is different from homeowners. We use Proper Insurance, underwritten by Lloyds of London.

We keep a binder for each property, with tabs for Property Manager, Utilities, Taxes, etc. Makes keeping up with multiple properties easier as there is just one place to look.

In both cases, our property managers advertise on their own websites and also manage listings on VRBO and Airbnb for us.

aktillery - I have no info on owning a VRBO but wondered where you are going to live - Ft. Worth? You are going through such an ordeal - so sorry for all of this. I hope it won't be too long before life can become a bit settled, even though it may be an interim situation.

Yes, 3katz, it is very difficult and thank you so much for the thoughtful words!

Thanks to everyone for all the invaluable info. I will keep you guys posted. Talk about a stressful time. I hope we get this all ironed out and ready in time.

(((((Hugs))))

I have Tibb's email address, but you don't have messaging activated. Drop me a line and I'll give it to you.

aktillery, I really hope this all works out for you. So stressful. Best of luck. Also thanks for starting this useful thread, I have been reading all the tips.

aktillery, this must be a very stressful situation and time for you. Take a breath and know that it will work out in the end.

I have a good friend who rents their large condo at the Gulf beach. He has related stories of lessons learned to me when we were thinking of renting our lake condo (we didn’t). He said a remote access computer monitored system for the door access control and a/c thermostat was a money saver. People would set the thermostat extremely low and leave it running all day and night in the summer, resulting in outrageous utility bills. He could remotely change the temp back up to a comfortable 68-69 degrees himself.

He had a reliable cleaning service but then began to notice unusual entry/exit activity. Turned out the housekeeper was letting her family members in and out to use the condo when she knew it wasn’t in use. Of course he fired them and found another service.

If he had not been monitoring the activity he wouldn’t have known about any of this. I would strongly consider an investment of this type since you won’t be able to monitor regularly.

Outside, that would be definitely something we would want. Do you know what the remote access monitoring system was? I would love to check it out.

Thank you!

Thanks Robo!

No, sorry I don’t. This was a few years ago, and I don’t recall since we decided not to rent ours out. I do recall he was able to monitor and change temps from his cell phone.

We recently had a new thermostat and a/c system installed in our own home however that uses the Nexia system with an app on our phones. We can raise the inside temp before leaving on vacation for example and then remotely lower the temp prior to arriving back home. The app also allows for home security but our home security system is older and not tied into it. Hope this helps.

I don’t know anything about this, but when I was in my local Home Depot last week, they had a pretty large set up of the Smart Home system in the front of the store. I’ve seen something similar at Lowe’s but it was just a front of the aisle display.

https://www.homedepot.com/b/Smart-Home/N-5yc1vZc1jw

i’m sorry you’re having to deal with this upheaval in your life right now. You have such a beautiful and well loved home, I can empathize how difficult it must be to open it up to strangers even for just a little while. I don’t think you’ll have any problems finding renters, and hope they all turn out to be lovely tenants who will respect your property.

The owner of a house we rented in Maine a few years ago lived in MN and managed her VRBO from there. She was super organized and left a binder with the instruction manuals for all the appliances in the house. Nice to have so it’s not hit or miss figuring out how some things work. We rented another house once where the owner had about 5 remote controls on top of the TV. What a pain that was. If you got the tv and cable in sync, you didn’t remember how you did it.

Thanks so much chick and outside.

Aktillery - do you have a security system in your home? When we moved we had one installed and I was amazed at all the extras that can be added to these new systems - Nest thermostats and doorbells, automated lights, lock and unlock doors remotely, security cameras that you can access online (although I'm assuming in your case it would only be exterior cameras).

My brother has two rentals that he tried to manage himself. He's retired and figured it wouldn't be too difficult. Well after the first year he opted to have his realtor and her management company handle all the details.

We have Honeywell Wi-fi thermostats that we can operate remotely via an iphone app. I'm sure there are much more sophisticated options now but we've had these for years and they are very reliable; i.e. the Honeywell network is rarely down. I also have a ring doorbell that monitors comings and goings nicely as well as a wi-fi camera at my other place that watches over the comings and goings in the driveway there.

We also have Honeywell Wi-fi thermostats at our primary residence in PA. It allows us to monitor the temp in our house from our phones or computer. We have 2 fairly inexpensive outside cameras. We use them mainly to monitor snowfall and keep an eye on things while we are gone.

We do not have cameras at our house in CA. I think it's an invasion of our renters privacy(even outside ones). We do not do short term rentals, but rather rent for 5-6 months for the summer season. We don't have AC, so monitoring the thermostat in CA is not necessary.

Maire, no unfortunately we do not have a security system. If this all takes off and we make some good money we will install a lot of that stuff.

Money is super tight right now so many things will have to wait.