Vacation property

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Vacation property is a niche in the real estate market dealing with residences used for holiday vacations (eg beach house). The rapid development of the Internet and technologies such as telephony and personal digital assistants that allow people to work from home since circa 1995 has blurred the division between vacation property and a primary residence. Some business people, including the British entrepreneur Richard Branson, use their luxury real estate for both business and leisure purposes.

Many internet-based services have developed to connect short term rental customers with owners or brokers of vacation properties. This market is growing quickly (the top sites have Alexa rankings of 5000) and may someday compete with the massive international hotel business, as more customers find the flexibility and locations of vacation properties outweigh the service and standardization of hotel chains. Craigslist (cf. vacation rentals section) is probably the best known site where customers can find vacation properties for rent on a short term basis. Housing swaps and other related services are also commonly offered by such sites.

A second home or vacation home can be a home owners asset as renting it could provide additional income. Many vacationers are opting for a single family residence that they can rent on a nightly or weekly basis. In many cases the savings for them are signifigant compared to hotels or vacation packages. For owners it can be as rewarding as paying the mortgage. As people begin to realize this trend vacation type properties are becoming popular not only for existing homes but also for building one.

Buying a vacation property is pretty much exactly the same as buying a house. Apart from this time the vacation home has to be in a location where you think it will be profitable to the holiday market. Before you consider buying a vacation home its a good idea to visit the country before hand so that you get a feel for the area and to find out exactly what its like to live there. If you have a favourite area for your vacation home overseas fair enough, if you are still looking you may want to pick a country where your vacation home can be a valuable asset. There will also be different legalities in different countries so be aware of this before purchasing. After the property is purchased its up to you to generate awareness for the property.