With more and more owners feeling financial pressure, I am getting contacted by owners with houses that are fully furnished and they want to rent them. Finding tenants for unfurnished homes is usually easier but with a furnished home, the pool of potential tenants is reduced. The upside for a tenant, many of these houses are in desirable locations - close to the beach, golf course etc.

In recent months, I have noticed a difference in the questions I get from prospective tenants. The questions have become more along the lines of what a buyer might ask. In a conversation I had yesterday with a Hilton Head & Bluffton realtor she was having a hard time wrapping her head around why that ( a number of things) mattered to a tenant. She kept repeating, "The aren't buying the place." I believe it is a new dynamic in the industry.



My feeling is so many people are being… Continue

As the holidays get closer, it seems desperation is setting in. Homes in private golf communities around Hilton Head and Bluffton are going down in price, which is recalibrating the whole marketplace. Deals are plentiful and the opening of the new townhouse community in Bluffton recently has flooded the market with affordable and brand news units.



What to do? If you are trying to rent long-term and you find your property empty at this time of the year, one strategy is to try and rent… Continue

I picked up the keys for a property I was adding to my portfolio of vacation rentals last week. I met with the housekeepers to get things squared away and then posted my first ad. Within 15 minutes, 1st call and not for next summer but for the latter part of October. The reason I am excited..the former management company only had one or two rentals during the SUMMER. This is a beach front home. No, it isn't a stainless steel McMansion with a pool but rather a somewhat dated, traditional style… Continue

It never fails....you have a potential tenant that you believe it going to be perfect. They haven't asked for a concession like splitting the security deposit, or give you fair warning about their bad credit, no animals, non-smoker, I mean perfect scenario. They take a rental application and copy of the criteria and make arrangements to meet the next day. What happens next? You make the call to schedule and time and no answer. Later that day, no answer and then no return call. What happened? Of… Continue