Sunset Beach, North Carolina, is one of the most beautiful locations in America and even those who don’t live there full time might invest in a vacation home. Because of this, it is a hot destination for vacationing and rightfully so. This means that there is a great investment property market. As such, there are amazing properties purchased and sold with the intent of creating a vacation rental, or more commonly known as Airbnb.
If you currently have a Sunset Beach vacation home rental that you are planning to sell, you may wonder what you should do with your rental bookings while you have the property available for sale. Or if you should continue to take bookings for the future after you plan to have the property sold.
Should Sellers Continue to Book Rentals While Selling a Vacation Home?
The answer to this question is, it’s not the best idea. There are many reasons why a vacation property owner should halt all rental property bookings as soon as they put the property on the market.
Reasons investment property owners continue to accept rental bookings while selling a vacation home
They can’t pass up on continuing to generate income
When you own a vacation home, the main focus is on turning a profit on that property. Continue to generate profit while the home is for sale is incredibly tempting. The whole purpose of owning the property is to have it make you money, not cost you money. If you are not renting the property and it sits empty, it is essentially costing the property owner money.
To mitigate paying out for the property as much as possible, some investment property owners will try and continue rental bookings up until the very last day/ closing day on the final sale of the property. This is risky as there is no guarantee of when this will be until you receive an offer, and even then, it is not a 100% guarantee.
The best strategy is to halt all rental bookings. Once the rental property is listed, actively on the market. Not only does this help you to honor every rental. It helps to ensure that renters are not damaging the property while you are trying to attract a new potential buyer.
They feel that having bookings already in place will increase desirability from a potential buyer
Some vacation home owners feel it can sweeten the deal if they can prove that the property is lucrative and highly desirable for rentals. One of the biggest concerns of an investment property buyer is that the home is going to be able to generate enough income to pay for itself and then to turn a profit.
Some vacation home owners have continued to receive rental bookings far into the future after they plan to have the property sold. This may seem like a good idea, and it is helping the future potential buyer, but if you are using a third-party website to retain those bookings, those websites most often will not honor bookings under a different property owner name.
This means there is no obligation for the new property owner to honor any bookings that have been made. Not only that, but the new buyer will not be able to collect the proceeds from any rentals through the booking site because the booking site will not be honoring the rentals. It is a way of protecting the booking site and the buying and selling parties in the sale transaction.
The best plan for selling a Sunset Beach vacation home is to work with an experienced local Sunset Beach real estate agent. An agent who knows the successful vacation rental market well and can help you find a buyer looking for a rental just like yours. Avoid the temptation to continue generating income or to try and generate income for the future potential buyer. Stick with trusting a real estate professional to get your home sold as quickly and for as much money as possible.
If you are considering selling your vacation home in Sunset Beach, please contact us. We are here to help you with any Sunset Beach real estate needs, both buying and selling properties.
“Karen and Frank Baker are patient and professional. They listen to what you want in a home and find it. It took me a few years to get to the “I’m ready to buy” point, but Karen and Frank stuck with me and never pressured me. We found my perfect home and I’m happy…..” – Sunset Beach and Beyond testimonial
Let the team at Sunset Beach and Beyond help you sell your Sunset Beach home. We are experts in Sunset Beach real estate.