Owners of a Cape Cod vacation rental property have an important decision to make: to list on my own or to list through a company? Listing independently may seem tempting at first.
There may be no up-front fees, and you have complete control over your property’s availability and listing. But, there are a lot of downsides to it, too.
Once you buy on the Cape, consider working with a trusted and experienced vacation rental company to ensure you get the most value out of your investment property.
Real Estate Trends on Cape Cod
Fortunately for rental home owners, established and new, real estate trends on Cape Cod are looking up. While market trends are unique to each town or region – upper, lower, outer, and inner – of the Cape, one thing is certain, median sales prices has been slowly and steadily climbing since they plummeted in 2008.
Nearly 10 years after the financial crisis, the median home price in Barnstable County has seen a steady increase from $320,000 in 2008 to more than $400,000 in 2018.
In just one year, the median home price has increased by more than eight percent from 2017 to 2018. At the same time, the average number of days on the market has decreased from 147 last year to 125 in the first quarter of 2018.
The conclusion? Homes are selling faster and for more money than last year. There seems to be no end in sight for this upward trend. That’s good news for those who are looking to buy on the Cape in the near future and want to immediately get it rented to establish a cash flow.
Listing your Cape Cod Vacation Rental
Despite popular opinion, owning a vacation rental is not passive income. It can be, however, a good business decision for the right person. It takes real, hard work to run a successful vacation home rental business – although cash flows come quickly, you won’t see the full fruit of your labor for years to come.
Now is a great time to buy on the Cape – before it overheats. But, investing in real estate, involves care, maintenance, and a consideration of customer service. It should not be a split-second decision.
While there is work involved, listing your property with a service like ours can make life as a landlord a lot easier. With so many public listing sites – Airbnb and VRBO, among others – you might wonder what the benefits are of working with a local real estate and rental company.
Finding tenants can be time-consuming, stressful, but we’re here to make it easier. Here are a few things that our property rental company can do for you:
- Market your property – we use strategies like target audience, word of mouth, content strategies, and community profiling to market your property without you lifting a finger.
- Schedule viewings – we’ll help schedule viewings and showings, take photos, and set up appointments, so you don’t have to.
- Tap existing networks – years of networking means we have a database and resources we can use to our advantage to fill vacancies.
- Provide local insight – with more than a decade of experience in Cape Cod, we can bring local insight an online listing site can’t. We can help sell the community your property is in, and help customers get excited about their upcoming vacation, which can lead to higher conversion rates. We also have a deep understanding of market value and average rent, and can analyze your property’s amenities and compare it with others that are similar.
- Reduce turnover time – listing your company with a rental company can help reduce time in between renters, thus helping you increase occupancy rates.
Over the last 10 years, we’ve provided rental services for more than 170 property owners. We have the knowledge, experience, and networks needed to provide excellent rental services, to both the landlord and the renter. Let us take care of the details, so you don’t have to.
Ready To Buy
For more information on our services for landlords, contact us at (508) 619-7658 or request a brochure that details our services online. Let us help you get the most out of your investment property this year, and fill off- and shoulder-season vacancies like never before.
