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Block Island Homeowner - Rent Your Home Guide
This guide is for the Block Island homeowner who wishes to rent their own home. On Block Island, any one who wishes to rent their home as a Block Island vacation rental has three options in no particular order: Option One is to list your home with a local realtor. Option Two is to list your house yourself using an online rental listing website Option Three is to do both. Based upon my experience in all three options, read on to find out the best option for you.
Here are some questions to ask yourself to help you determine which option to take:
Exploring Option One: Using a realtor means that you the Block Island homeowner would hire one of the island's eight agencies to rent and manage your house for you. They market your vacation house by listing it on their website. They make their commission by taking a percentage of the dollar amount that your house rents for. This is deducted from the amount the renter sends in and the rest is sent to you. The percentage they take is usually 15% but can range from 10% to 25%. Depending on what sort of deal you have with the realtor, you may contract additional services such as house watches and maintenance, staging your house for renting to the public, opening and closing the house for the season, etc. This option is for some one who wishes to rent their home but does not have any time to manage bookings or very little time to look after their house. Exploring Option Two: Using an online listing website to rent your Block Island vacation house gives you much more control over your home as well as the rental income.
These websites are very well setup, marketing your home is simple and the best part: all the commission goes to you. For the $85-$250 you'll spend per year listing on one or more of these sites, the thousands of dollars you'll save from paying a rental agent can go in your pocket. You will handle incoming inquiries and set up a simple system to handle the bookings. Websites such as Vacation Rentals By Owner If you are willing to put in a few hours a week to do your own bookings, this is the option that I recommend. Your house is marketed better, more visible to the world, more money goes in your pocket and you maintain your own home rather than trust it to some one who has 30-40 other homes to manage.
Exploring Option Three: This option incorporates both One & Two and works well for giving your home more exposure hence yielding more bookings. The realtor lists your vacation house on their website only. Depending on how good they are at marketing their office and website and depending on how they decide to present your house to the public is how you get your bookings. The realtor's phone rings and they try to match people with houses and fill as many weeks as possible. You may add to this by marketing your own house online and funneling the inquiries to the realtor or working with the realtor in whatever way you set up. If you are a Block Island Homeowner and would like to have your house listed for free on this website like these house, Click Here for details. Return from Block Island Homeowners to Homeowners Go to Block Island Rentals by Owner Go to Houses for Rent Go to Block Island Family Vacation |
