Retire With A Vacation Rental Business

If you have some spare cash or even if you own your own house and you want to sell to move to warmer climates, then vacation rentals could be the answer. All you need is a website, social media account, and an account on some of the well-known vacation rental websites. You will then be set with a vacation rental business that you can grow and eventully use for your retirement income. Here are some of the most common questions people ask me.

How much do you need to invest?

Kevin Miller

It really depends on where you want to move to, and also where you live now. For me, I moved from the Uk to Thailand. I bought new build properties and began to rent these out while living in one of the apartments I purchased. The price I got for my house in the UK allowed me to start my own online business and buy two apartments next to each other.

Now I have my own apartment and rent 4 apartments using a vacation rental websites, and all the apartments are in the same location nearby, so it is easy to manage my guests as well as work online.

In the UK houses are expensive compared to apartments here in Thailand. Plus, as Thailand is a developing country, there are new builds going up all the time, so all you need to do is find a pre-build offer. Generally speaking, a pre-build usually goes for 50% to 75% of the price of the post-build price.

Everyone’s situation is different. I know other people that have moved to Australia, Canda, South Africa, and South America. All of whom had different pros and cons. My biggest disadvantage was not being Thai. You cannot own land here if you are not a citizen, but you can 100% own an apartment as long as 51% of the building is Thai owned.

See more here about list your rental: www.needmorerentals.com

How do you find vacationers to rent?

As mention in the intro, I use vacation rental websites. Airbnb and HomeAway are the 2 main websites I use, but I also have my own website. I recently discovered that I could have actually saved a lot of the costs with my own website had I used a company called Lodgify. Check them out because I paid over $2,500 for my website; while I could have just paid $59 a month.

My website comes with lots of additional costs for upgrades, bug fixes, plugin updates or plugins that stop working. All in all, I pay out about another $400 to $500 a month keeping the site maintained. Right now I am considering using Lodgify because it is an easy $59 a month for all my properties, and I get a web team supporting me all included in the costs.

What about the upkeep?

Probably the single most difficult aspect of running your own vacation rentals is the upkeep. This is exactly why my apartments are all close by to where I live. If a cleaner does not turn up, then I have to do it. When a guest has a real problem with the self-check-in, I am there to help if need be.

For the upkeep, I hire a local Thai business. They are brilliant! For anything that needs fixing, they have a team of guys and their services are relatively inexpensive. This something you will 100% need when you run vacation rentals unless you have the time to do it yourself, and also the skills to do a proper job.

Most of the time problems such as blocked drains are easily fixed by the cleaners. The upkeep of the building itself is done by the building management team that I pay a monthly maintenance fee to. One less issue to worry about for me! Other things such as air-con maintenance, fixing damages, window cleaning, and upkeep of woodwork, I have to get this done once every 6 weeks.

All this goes towards your retirement

Now I am in the process of buying a house nearby. It is also a new build and being sold in what they call a ‘village’. It is basically a small estate with about 30 houses. The land is owned and managed by a management company, but the land for my house I have to buy. As I have a son who is half Thai, 51% is in this name, 49% in my name.

Soon I will have a house with a swimming pool and be renting all 5 apartments as Vacation Rentals. Plus, if I want to sell, I will make a nice profit to put away for my retirement. Then when the day comes, and age catches up with me, my son will have a ready-made business sitting there waiting for him to manage!

You can also read others opinions on this subject here: Does Owning a Vacation Home Make Sense?