Protecting Your Vacation Rental Property For The Off-Season
They can either buy a property they can rent out as a full time home, or they can buy a property that can be turned into a vacation rental.
Each has its inherent pros and cons and it will depend on the landlord which choice is the best fit for his or her situation.
For instance, when it comes to vacation rental properties, the landlord has to deal with the off-season or that time of the year when the property would just sit idle.
During winter for example, you cannot expect people to rent your property due to obvious reasons.
At this time of the year, you run the risk of leaving your property at the mercy of nature if you do not know how to prepare it for the upcoming cold weather.
In this article, we will look into the things you can do to make sure that your rental property will go through the winter unscathed.
First off, you have to make sure that rain water is diverted away from the house as fast as possible.
This means you need to clean the gutters to make the water drain away easily.
During winter, wind and ice storms can cause severe damage to any property when trees are involved.
Thus, you need to prune tree limbs close to your property.
This would reduce the risk of the limb crashing down during a hard ice storm.
If the property has a satellite dish installed on the roof or any similar elevated place, make sure that you disconnect it and stow it safely inside the property.
If the property uses propane or natural gas, make sure that you turn it off in preparation for winter.
If you are not sure how to do it, do not hesitate to call in professionals.
The small cost of commissioning the job is a good investment as it would lower the risk of any significant and costly damage to your property.
Bonus tip to lower costs: stop newspaper delivery during the offseason.
You would just be paying extra when there would be no one there that would have use for the delivered reading material.
It is imperative that you protect your investment as a landlord and screening potential tenants is not the only thing you should worry about.
You should also look to protect the property even during the off-season.