Best Agency to rent my home
 

I have a home I am thinking of renting. Is there an agency that handles home rentals (a responsible agency) in the Merdith/Laconia area? What is the agencies typical take on rental income per week?
Thanks,

My input
 

It's 6% typically. You might get the suggestion of Preferred Rentals, but their cleaning staff is lazy, so you'll need to keep an eye on that . . .

You might be better of using www.VRBO.com and managing it yourself if you have time and find a good cleaning person who can help you manage it.

Good luck.

I use the sister company of VRBO which is HomeAway.com and I use Great Northern Cleaning (highly recommend).

I haven't yet had a problem...this will be our 4th summer and we've got ten weeks booked. Originally got an estimate from Preferred four years ago, but decided to do it myself. One cottage has been easy for me to manage.

Agencies Take
 

We also were checking on rental of our camp. We checked Preferred Rentals and some place in Meredith(REI I think). Both quoted 20% on the rental. According to both of them this was the standard rate. My impression for that is they took care of everything. You might want check to see what the 6% buys you. I'd be interested.

Dave M

I totally agree that VRBO or HomeAway is the best method to rent your home! If it's priced right, you don't need an agency. We are now using VRBO to find a rental in Florida.

We started with Bayside Rentals in Meredith and then switched to airbnb. We are saving 15% on the commission and have had more rentals! I love that airbnb encourages owners to review guests so it encourages guests to be responsible with the rental if they want to rent via airbnb again. We've had very good luck so far with our renters, including bike week! Airbnb also will reimburse for any damages from rentals in case there is ever an issue.

I also love the flexibility so I can set different pricing for week versus weekend rentals. We've found a lot of people are interested in only renting for the weekend and most local agencies will only deal with full week rentals.

It's a bit more work in that I have to coordinate with the cleaner to make sure the unit is cleaned between rentals but it's well worth the savings on the commission!

Use VRBO
 

We have used VRBO since 1997 - to rent places from Florida, Virgin Islands and even London. I think they now own Homeaway, but not sure. Anyway, we have always had perfect vacation rentals. Never a problem, we have rented couple times from same folks in St Thomas through VRBO. Love it.

The 6% quoted would be approximately the commission for selling - not renting.

Rental Agencies around the lake.
 

Commissions are very high compared to places I looked into elsewhere (CO, FL, ND). If it is 6% I will take it in a heartbeat! 10% or more outside of the Lakes Region. It's around 20% or more in this area.

If you decide to broker your rental, see what values you get for the commission. This varies wildly!

VRBO.com and I hear of another website that actually swap vacation homes. I have not seen it. I use VRBO many times and like any website you need to be vigilante. As for cleaning check the Lakes Region Chamber of Commerce for a reputable service.

We are new owners in 20 mile bay and looking to rent a few weeks this summer. I also was quoted 20% from a Wolfboro agency. We elected to post in on HomeAway and try it ourself.

Here is our listing!http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p3752514

Have to weed out the college kids looking to tear it up for a week….but so far we rented 2 weeks in August and a couple of more weeks are pending.

Good Luck!

Real Estate agents also offer seasonal rentals. My sister who happens to be a realtor charges 6%. The owners is in charge of getting it cleaned etc. The lakes region may be different, but this is my experience.

VRBO is still the best option financially if you don't mind dealing with 25 - 50 requests per week.

Rental
 

I have rented out a house in Gilford for the last 11 years. I have it listed with an agency and I pay 20% if the agency rents it out but I retain the right to rent it myself. I just keep the agency informed if I rent it so that their calendar showing the available weeks is accurate. My experience is that 20% commission is pretty standard. I don't know of anyone that would handle a weekly rental for less. The 6% figure sounds way off to me.

That standard on the lake is check in at 3 PM Saturday and check out at 10 AM the following Saturday. I do not rent weekends during the summer because to do so would block out two weeks from the standard rental schedule.

Between my own advertising on the free sites and the agency's listing on the paid sites the house is full every summer. At this time Bike Week is rented and I do not have another opening until August 16th. The late August weeks are sometimes slower to fill since kids seem to be going back to school a lot sooner than they did years ago.

The Wolfeboro Realtors I have talked to charge between 15 and 20% to rent also.

Asking for advice!
 

This sort falls under this ongoing thread......

Okay, here's our dilemma. We want to return to Florida as renters for two months next winter, and since we have a cat, finding a place has not been easy. I've been in touch with realtors, VRBO, Home Away, friends are looking for us, etc. And now I'm on Craig's List and two possibilities have popped up! Both are rather small, cute but nothing fancy, but one is double the price of the other. I can trust the more expensive one because it is a group of cottages and has a website, but the lesser expensive rental is just an individual person. He wants a $1,000 deposit, which would be fine if I can trust Craig's List. How do you verify and trust someone from Craig's List? Maybe he's a scammer but maybe not. We don't know what to do. I would really like advice!!! Thanks so much. :confused:

Public Records
 

You should be able to look up the property on the county website and verify that the person that you are dealing with actually owns the property.

You can also Google the person to see if there are any public records about that individual.

You can also Google the address and if there are public reports such as crimes or police responses to that address it may come up.

You can ask the owner for the names and telephone numbers of previous renter's so that you can call for a reference.