I would love to say…..
“Ten years ago, I thought about this great business concept, did loads of research, made a business plan, and today I am a successful Vacation Rental Owner, etc., etc.” But……..the ONLY truthful part of this statement would be…..the “Ten years ago” part.

The simple truth………..
My wife and I got into the VR biz by accident. Here’s how:

In ’97, we were living in Kauai, Hawaii. We own 2 homes there in a small compound and have since ‘89.  However, in ‘94, our apparel business required us to relocate to Hong Kong for awhile. As a result, we shuttled back & forth from Hong Kong to Kauai for the next 3 years, but lived most of the year in Hong Kong. Then we moved back to Kauai full-time in the summer of ’96.

After a year of getting back into the island lifestyle, the wife brought up the idea of being a little closer to our parents in their final years. She also expressed a desire to have the kids exposed to a little more culture and advancing their education for their high school years. Although we loved Kauai (still do) and all the wonderful things a Hawaiian life style had to offer, we decided to move back to the mainland for that time in our family’s life.
 
So, after discussing it a bit more……we moved to Las Vegas! Why Las Vegas, you ask!? For us, it was a very easy decision because we already owned a home there due to the many weeks a year we spend there for trade shows in our business.           

Next decision……….
WHAT TO DO WITH THE 2 KAUAI HOMES?

1st Decision (but “not our best one”) –
DON’T SELL, Let’s try “LONG TERM RENTALS”!!!!!!

I have a long list of reasons as to why this was a not our best decision. However, let me also say that there is nothing wrong with owning long term rental properties as an investment plan…..been there, done that too!

But, when compared to what we discovered by using our houses as VR’s, our first decision was not our best one! I will save all the “why’s and wherefores” as to the benefits of changing our strategy from long term to vacation rentals for another day. But, for now……back to the story of - How I Got Into The Vacation Rental Business!

I was surfing the Internet one day and ran across an ad for a web site that advertised “Vacation Rental Homes”. Obviously, it caught my attention. I proceeded to spend quite a bit of time looking at every aspect of this site and gathering information.
 
I remember thinking………….
Wow, why didn’t I think of this before? We had rented vacation homes in the past when our condo was rented. And, we had done so when wanted to go with a large group. So, why didn’t I think of this long before?
 
My 1st simple realization was –

 “MORE RENT PER WEEK THAN WE WERE GETTING PER MONTH!!!!!!!!!!!” WOW!!!!!!!!!!
 
My 2nd realization was –

I mistakenly thought that tourists only rented homes in the tourist areas of Hawaii. You know…….the beaches areas, the golf courses, the resort communities, etc. etc. I learned that……….
 
Not only was I wrong!  I discovered that my houses were very marketable for a variety of reasons. More about that later too!
 
So we listed our homes on that 1st web site and the rest is history as they say and I am pleased to report that –

The SIMPLE TRUTH is………….
My wife & I stumbled “head first” into the world of VACATION RENTALS HOMES and have enjoyed it on many levels for ten years now.

We are still learning more and……hopefully getting better at it every day. In fact, this coming year, we are considering focusing more energy and resources into this business and possibly acquiring additional properties and making more of the ones we have.

Today, we rent our homes very successfully and are very glad we stumbled into the world of VACATION RENTAL HOMES! More discoveries in articles to follow!

All 4 now-gk/