Rental company suggestions
 

My Grandmother passed away last month at Golden View in Meredith. Wonderful people there! Anyway, now it's time to figure out what is going to happen to the family lake house in Moultonboro we've had since about 1960. The only family members who want the house are my immediate family (dad, mom, sisters, bro in-law, wife and myself). We will have to rent it in order to keep it and we like the idea of the house helping to pay for itself. We want to keep this house for generations to come.

Who can recommend a good rental company or who should we steer away from? I've already called Preferred Vacations, but I'd like to hear about others.

Thanks.

try talking to Sue Gravelle at Lakes Region Rentals in Center Harbor. She has been great to work with for us as renters.

Also, Bayside Rentals in Meredith. 603-677-7022

http://www.baysiderentalsnh.com/

They're over in Wolfeboro but they have rentals all over the lake.

http://www.maxfieldrealestate.com/

HomeAway-internet
 

We use HomeAway on the internet. We are responsible for all aspects of renting our cottage but advertise on HomeAway. That means: taking photos, enter all information on HA, receive inquires, arrange for cleaning, maintain the calendar, collect rent(security deposits) etc. We like controlling who we rent to and we know our cottage better than an agency.

In fact, Preferred Vacation Rentals and Yankee Pedlar RE in Wolfeboro also advertise on HA.

We will be fully booked by April or so. Easily worth the price.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

Good start. Thanks everybody.

Preferred Rentals in Moultonboro. We have rented with them the last 3 years and are very satisfied. They are very professional and make the process easy for the renters so I have to assume they do an equally good job for the property owners. http://www.preferredrentals.com/

Homeaway & VRBO
 

I used both for renting out seasonal properties as well as finding vacation properties for rent. On occasion I will find owners that are willing to swap.

I do know rental agents requires a commission and I am OK with that but commissions varies. The worst one was a California agent that not only required a week rent from the renter but also a week rent from the owner!

So check ahead for what each agent requires in agreement from both parties.

Rental cleaning!
 

If you decide to rent the Lake house...we provide change over rental cleanings in between your rentals. Check out our website www.greatnortherncleaning.com we have a section devoted to rental cleaning. We can also provide helpful information pertaining to renting your house based on our experience in this field. We take are of about 40 rental properties. Feel free to contact us if we may be of assistance.

Maxfield Real Esate and Home Away
 

I put the listing on HomeAway and Maxfield takes care of the inquiries, contracts and everything else including cleaning between renters. This works for me as when I am not there except for a few weeks in the peak summer, it is easier to have someone local taking care of the rentals. I am booked solid every season however without HomeAway I am not sure that would happen. I do pay a commission but again they are doing the work I can not becasue of my location . PM me if you would like additional info.

Stay away from Preferred vacation rentals
 

Dealing with them has caused 5 families of over 40+ yrs. of renting at the same place to stop going there. My family never missed a year in over 60 yrs., but the last 8 yrs or so, PVR took over the bookings and it just got more expensive and less personal every year. I wrote to the owner of PVR and got nothing but patronizing comments, and finally spoke with the property owner, but nothing changed with PVR. Shame, but 'tis the way business is run, and I follow the bookings online for the property, and it goes down and down every year, where it had been full every week, of every year previously. :mad:

I am in complete agreement with Mirror Lake. If you can handle those small tasks for one cottage, you will save yourself the commission you'd have to give someone like Preferred. We are coming into our third season and already we have repeat customers.

And I'll make the same offer as MLBB - please feel free to PM with questions. There are two other properties on my road in Moultonborough that use HomeAway as well. Here is my listing:
http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p347116

This company does a great job for us on our turnover dates. And as stated above, I was given advice and helpful hints when I had questions about renting out our cottage.

Good luck whatever you decide!

Be sure to check out airbnb.com. We previously used Bayside Rentals and were quite disappointed with them so we switched to airbnb and so far it is much cheaper and we have had more rentals than with Bayside. We registered at www.airbnb.com/newhost with a promo code (I think current code is 4KZWAS) and got $50 bonus upon our first reservation. It is free to join and list and then they charge 3% commission for reservations.

I have to do more legwork with airbnb but considering we only had a handful of rentals through bayside and they screwed up more than one of them I am happy to do more work myself so that we make more per rental while not having to worry that agency has screwed something up again.

If you do use a rental agency be sure to check your listing, paperwork, etc. very carefully and make copies of your paperwork. We had more than one issue with incorrect information in listing, missing paperwork, etc. so I would recommend checking everything carefully. Airbnb is great because you make listing yourself and approve each reservation with total displayed so you understand cost, fees, etc.

Good luck
 

Remember though there are a lot of things that are not covered under a security deposit, normal wear and tear really take their toll after a while and can add up to thousands of dollars in repair costs over time.
Do yourself a favor and set aside a fund to do repairs as they come up.
I've been in some really high end rentals that IMHO look like crap because the owners do not want to put any money into them. Painting, refinishing floors, cabinets all require more attention and unless abused are considered normal wear and tear that cannot be deducted from a security deposit.
Just some helpful tips, we own rental property and would NEVER consider going down that road again. The majority of renters just do not treat rented property nice at all and if the cost to fix exceeds the security deposit the time required to recover that money is staggering and costly.

HomeWood,

I can't help with the rental, but want to offer my condolences on the loss of your Grandmother. How wonderful that she was able to be near the lake in her final days. Good luck hanging on to the house!

A "ditto"...
 

A "second" for Maxfield... :)

Ask for Nancy. (603) 569-3128.

She once was contacted by an agent who had mistakenly booked a family for a property that already had a tenant. :eek:

They were placed within the hour—at a waterfront property just minutes away by boat—for less money! :coolsm:

Thanks, everybody. House is being looked at Monday by one of the companies suggested from the list here. They manage 3 or 4 houses already on our road. So we shall see...

renters
 

We had a renter for 5 years..worked out great until one of the couple passed away.. house took a bit of a hit then and we had thousands in repairs.. could NOT keep the security deposit, we were told.. a shocker for sure.. Best thing if you are going to rent the house is be sure you are there often to see what is going on or have someone else do it for you.

That won't be a problem at all. I live far away, but the rest of the family is only a couple hour drive and we have fantastic year round neighbors. In the future (somewhat distant) my wife and I will live within 20 minutes of the house, whether we still have it then or not. Lakes region is where we want to retire.