Second home

[Marc Kwaad]

Hello all,

We are thinking about buying a second home for vacation. The time we are not there we want to rent the home.
Does some have experience with renting their home, is it difficult to find customers etc..

Thanks!

Kind regards Marc

[Arubalisa]

There is some info in the threads at:

Buying An Aruba Home

Experience with renting??

Living in Aruba

[Marc Kwaad]

Thanks for your quick reply.
I have read the renting out posting. The information I'm looking for is.
- Experience of people who are renting out their home, problems or just positive experiences.
- Difficulty of renting out the home (finding people who want to rent the home)
- Company who can take care of the home (cleaning the home/pool/garden/..)

Thanks and sorry not to be very clear in the first posting)

[SanNic44]

Marc,

Renting a home in Aruba can be very challenging. I've had good luck and bad, as would be expected. I would not count on it for income to pay any loans outstanding on the property. As an enhancement to your return over the long term is a better scenario.

The problem is that long term renters are difficult to evict. Short time people abuse the property. Sorry, but this is true. Sand in the drains, blocked pipes, airco left on for hours, water left running for a long time, fridges that are "pigged up." Things like this have to be figured into the equation. Sure, there are good people who will rent your house. But you would be surprised at the ratio of good to bad. If children are involved, expect plenty of damage. When you try to collect on a credit card or in cash for these issues it is one big argument that ultimately makes you the "bad guy."

I've seen some places do well and know people with multiple properties who can afford reliable maintenance people and so forth. Reliable maintenance is also challenging. I have two guys who help me, but they're VERY busy and some times just can't make it. Others simply do not show up.

Over the years, I've built a relationship with several other people, local and otherwise, and thus have a good bunch to keep an eye on things, get repairs or upgrades done, and help renters enjoy their stay. And this is my suggestion: rent for several years yourself. Build those relationships and then strike out on your own.

But, just a suggestion. Others may know better and have more complete info.

[Mr Norman Paperman]

Marc
http://www.vrbo.com/vacation-rentals/caribbean/aruba
You may want to ck out this web site and click on several properties and check out there calanders.

[purestone2004]

we have had our home in Aruba for about 18 months and we do rent it out. We have a property manager though that looks after all that as there is no way i want to deal with this stuff from the so far away. He does a great job so far. We rented the house MAYBE 12 weeks last year from July-December. Our manager is pretty selective about who he rents what to and so far we have only had one couple at a time in the house. THat may change with the pool being built. He doesn't rent the house for less than two weeks at a time and so far it is usually for a month at a time. He makes sure to pick up the guests at the airport and go through the house with them. IF they are there more than 2 weeks they have to pay for the houskeeper to come in to clean and that way she gets to check things out (we know her and she is great also) He takes deposits on cc for utilities and if they go over the set amount they have to pay extra. This is to prevent the air conditioning of the island usually (windows open air on) Now that being said on my visit this time i did realize we were down a wine glass or two and some little things like that. We do have very basic furniture and appliances, nothing fancy for us. If we don't want to loose something we don't leave it out. We have a big locking cabinet in the back of our closet for all of our personal stuff, even things like the good sheets that i bought from home that i like which are only for our use We did have one renter recently who asked that we put a king bed in the second bedroom for them instead of the bunks we have, yeah right. We said don't rent to them. That being all said if we did have more issues I wouldn't hesistate to stop renting as we don't need to have the money from it but so far it is working out fine.

Hope this is vague enough for you.

[Marc Kwaad]

Thanks for all your information. We are thinking about buying a home at North. We are not renting out the home for earning money but only to reduce the costs of having property in Aruba.

Are you using a company to arrange all work for renting and service the property? Or is it just a 'friend'

Regards Marc

[purestone2004]

Our home is also in the Noord area. We have a property manager (company) he looks after everything including the gardners, pool maintenance and any work being done around the house. He has "people" who do everything for example if we have a plumbing problem he calls the plumber so we don't have to look around for someone. He is also now our friend so that may count as a friend

[curlylaura]

purestone, what is the comany name? that would help. tx

[Retagger]

Hello Purestone,

What is the name of the company that you are using? Do you have a contact name, website, phone number? What are their charges? Do they charge per rental, a monthly fee and what is included?

Thank you in advance,

Regards,
David