Vacation property

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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. In the United Kingdom this type of property is usually termed a holiday home, while in the United States the most common designation is second home.

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. 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 significant 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 it's 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.

The amount of time it takes to sell a vacation property, especially in a resort area is very different than typical residential real estate markets. Most resort markets have a short selling season such as December to March in the beach communities of Florida or June to September in a mountain resort area like Lake Tahoe. Communities that have a combination of luxury homes and are in a resort market are characterized by affluent property owners who can sell in their own time frame.

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