1. Know what you want, need, etc.

If you want to be right on the beach but don’t want to pay the premiums, then you may have to decide to give up a few amenities. In a beach rental you will get what you pay for so if you do want all the bells and whistles, then expect to pay a little more. It may be worth it since this could be one of the only vacations you have all year.

2. Do your due diligence…

The beauty of the web is there is all sorts of information out there. That can be a good thing and a bad thing, but utilize your common sense when determining what you are getting in a vacation rental. Ask for referrals, find a qualify local professional to assist you, read lots of reviews, view pictures and video tours, and so forth. Make sure you know what you are getting in terms of amenities and locations.

3. Know the owners and how will issues be handled:

Both of these attributes can play a huge role. Once our air conditioning went out and unfortunately we had to move spots, but luckily we were able to do that while they fixed the problem. Owners of vacation rentals should provide a bio and information regarding how to handle things while you are staying in their place. You may also be able to contact local business organizations like the chamber of commerce to make further inquiries.

4. Know the contract:

Signing up for a beach rental is not always like booking a hotel. Each rental will have specifications that you will want to know. The last thing you want on your trip is headaches with your spot. Do you have to clean up? Is there a refundable deposit? These are just a couple items to review. In addition to this don’t send money before you sign something and we recommend utilizing an escrow service or paypal that will allow you to dispute any issues.

5. Book early, book late, and ask for deals:

These owners are people just like you and I. They will tend to offer deals and usually do through a number of vacation rental websites (there are quite a few). Bottom line is write down what you want, your budget, and go find it. Once you do, book it or someone else will. You can get deals whether you book early or go last minute. Don’t play games though or you may wind up in a beach vacation rental you don’t want.

Vacations don’t come around all the time for the majority of us. Your goal is to enjoy it to the utmost and proper planning will ensure that. Finding beach vacation rentals is one of the critical factors that will determine the success of your trip.

Humidity in the summer is much more noticeable than other seasons. Rain is also much more intense during the summer. The coastal areas will always be more extreme in heat. Florida’s sometimes devastating hurricane season goes from June to November. Unless you enjoy running and hiding from dangerous whether, this may be something important to consider.

If you are looking for less crowded theme parks, January and February are key off peak months. This is an ideal time to travel due to small to non-existent lines. Also the weather is not so ridiculously hot that you will pass out from dehydration. It is actually warm and pleasant. Another benefit is this time is a pleasant way to escape the horrid winter conditions in many northern home lands.

Another benefit from traveling during the off peak season is that this is the time when vacation rental homes tend to be at their lowest cost. You are paying a lot less money to get the same luxury as you would in other seasons. Sounds like a vacation rental that simply cannot be beat.

The big process is known as tenant screening and it can be performed through several services. The process allows for landlords and property owners to learn more about current tenants and possible future tenants who are interested in renting your property. There are two main options available to look into when running a personal investigation of the individuals who plan on living within your property or living arrangement. The first is a national criminal search and the second is a national eviction search.

National criminal search is a resource that allows landlords to enter the names or alias of a person who you believe needs to be checked out. The service runs a search and provides any and all results which may be tied to the possible tenant. This can provide information such as jail time and what they were sent to jail for. Any negative information which may be influential to your decision to whether or not allow the individual to rent from you is provided. Tenant screening of this manner is necessary to protect your property.

Tenant screening through a national eviction search is also one of the best ways to weed out bad tenants from the list. Evictions occur for several reasons such as destruction of property, overdue rent or complaints from neighbors and authorities. These eviction logs are important because it lowers their image and integrity, making them a liability because they may cause damages or skip too many payments. The national eviction search may pull up results for people with similar names as well so it is important to make sure the possible tenants are the ones who are listed in the search before accepting or declining their status as a tenant.

There are options available for a combined search which makes it possible to get the national criminal search and the national eviction search done for a discounted rate. This covers both of the possible information sources which could directly affect your decision on accepting new tenants or learning about the possible problems you could face with existing tenants.

1. Avoid the early summer

The period between late May and early June is a notoriously bad time of the year for getting a good deal on a vacation rental homes. This is the time when children get out of school, and many families immediately rush out to take a vacation. With many more families competing for the same real estate, vacation home owners have no incentive to lower their prices. In fact, they often raise them a bit during this time. It is much better to take your vacation during the mid to late summer months.

2. Be flexible on your dates

Rather than booking a home based on the dates you want to travel, you might try a different tactic. Instead, plan your travel dates based on when a home is available. Not only does this give you a wider selection to choose from, but it gives you the highest likelihood of securing a discount.

3. Be flexible on the home

Instead of choosing the exact home you’d like to stay in, you might consider asking the realtor which homes are available. If you let them choose, they might be able to get you into an even more luxurious home than you might have originally chosen – at a better price.

4. Last minute deals

This can save you the most money. However, if you’re the type of person who likes to plan everything out months in advance, it may not be the best choice for you.

Although you may have the security deposit of the tenant, but if you do not take proper care, you might end up paying out of your pocket, to refurnish the damage caused to your property by the tenant. Finding a good tenant therefore, should be of great concern for you, for the proper upkeep of your property.

Like always, good and bad people exist in every field; and so is it in case of tenant. Although good tenants, may not come by too often; they do exist. Proper screening of a tenant can help you find a good tenant for your rental property. The following are some of the ways, by which you can conduct screening of your prospective tenant, to see whether he is suitable enough or not:

1. Personal interviews

By way of conducting personal interviews, you can have a bit of idea, to figure out the suitability of a tenant. If you are good at reading thoughts, you can get a fair deal of idea. A novel way, to conduct a screening test, is by way of psychological tests, which can give a fair deal of idea, whether or not; a guy is of vandalistic nature. Although such tests can not be said to be the ultimate screening technique; they surely do come up with fairly accurate results.

2. Talk to previous landlords of the tenant

This is another way of screening a tenant. As it is, you can personally meet (if possible) to the previous landlord of the tenant and figure out about the suitability of the tenant. While it may appear to be a stupendous task, it would definitely give you a fair deal of idea about the client.

3. Hiring professional screening services

A major advantage of hiring professional screening services is that they gather information from a wide range of sources. These sources may range from court records, police blotters, credit bureaus, and so on. Needless to say, that the more varied the information, the higher the accuracy level. However, in their zeal and the mode of collecting information, screening services may quite often brand good tenants as bad tenants. But this is quite rare.

Finding a good tenant is more or less of a necessity for a rental property investor. Proper screening helps a lot in taking care of this necessity. You may take help of the above mentioned methods, to, conduct proper screening of your prospective client, to come across a suitable tenant.

Here are a few suggestions on how to make your holiday home environmentally friendly and still allow for a great vacation rental opportunity:

Make a list of eco-friendly “house rules” for your guests to follow once they are in your vacation home:

- Ask your holiday home guests to make sure air conditioners are off if doors are open or they are going out.

- Ask holiday guests to turn down (in colder environments) the heating thermostat by at least a degree Celsius, this will help save energy and decrease harmful emissions such as carbon dioxide.

- Ask holiday guests to turn off lights and switch appliances off when they are going out or not using a room.

- Advise guests to take advantage of the holiday sunshine when washing their clothes instead of using machine dryers – provide a clothes line so that clothes can be dried outside.

- Tell guests to use any recycling bins provided so they can separate biodegradable and non-biodegradable wastes.

- Rainwater is better for garden plants than tap water, and can easily be collected and stored – provide your
vacation home with some method of collection of rainwater, water is becoming an increasingly scarce resource.

- As appealing as they can sometimes appear, try not to provide a gas patio heater as they use a huge amount of energy.

- For the swimming pool area, use eco-friendly products for the swimming pool, as much as possible buy products with fewer chemicals.

- Be sure your holiday home is well insulated; many state or local building codes include minimum requirements for home insulation. Be sure your new home or home addition meets those codes. It will save you money in the long run.

- Replace old appliances as they can consume a lot of energy; these days many appliances are efficiency tested – try to invest in energy efficient appliances.

- If the holiday property is empty make sure appliances are unplugged – many home electronics still consume energy even when they are turned off. Many devices on “standby mode” will continue to draw down power and help increase your electricity bill. Also, chargers and power adapters continue to draw power from the wall socket even if the device is not attached. Unplug these devices or use a power strip to turn off multiple units, when they aren’t being used to make sure that you are not wasting energy.

- Replace conventional incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). They cost a little more, but last up to 10 times longer, use two-thirds less energy and give off 70 percent less heat.