Help a Reader: Renting Out a Home

Here's an email I recently received:

Your post titled “Why I Won’t Rent Out My Home” got me thinking.  In 2010, the World Equestrian Games are coming to my hometown of Lexington, KY.  This event is basically the Olympics for horses, and people from all over the world (primarily from outside the US) will be attending.

There are opportunities to rent out one’s house for the duration of the Games, which last 15 days.  Apparently, it’s a fairly lucrative proposition, since no hotel rooms will be available within 100 miles of the event.

My house is close to the site of the Games, and it’s a nice home (especially in size – by European standards, it’s a mansion).  It’s not luxurious in appointments, but the prime location would make it very appealing to a potential renter.  Rental prices for a house like mine are currently around $7,000-$8,000 for the duration of the event.

The rental company takes part of that, I’m sure, but with proper insurance and removing any personal items from the home, the financial risk will be minimal.

Here are the pros and cons as I see them:

Pros:

• Easy $7,000 or more
• Rental company takes care of cleaning and upkeep during the stay

Cons:

• Have to find somewhere to stay for 2+ weeks
• Potential damage to home (covered by insurance, but it would be a hassle)
• General weirdness of having strangers live in your home for 2+ weeks
• Have to basically move out all clothes and personal affects, store it, then move back in

I’d be interested in what your readers think about the chance to make some money off this event.

So, what do you think?

Comments

[Mark]

I've heard of people doing this for Milwaukee's Summerfest, but I want to say it was only about $2,000 for a week. They were fully insured and required a hefty deposit, but I don't recall any mention of having to clear out personal property.

[Lolita]

Sounds like the perfect time for a vacation! I can see where that would be a huge hassle to remove personal items, especially if you're a packrat. But, you can always pay your kids, nieces and nephews to come one weekend and help clear out the house. Even if you paid 5 kids $100 each to help out, you've still made $6,500 less the rental co. fees and maybe $150 in storage and moving costs. Wierd, maybe. Easy money, hell yes!!

[CB]

PROS:

High-end crowd that probably won't trash your place.

I'd do it. I've done similar things with apartments. I've also done housing swaps and have never had a problem.

[Mr. ToughMoneyLove]

I would do it because we have a second home to live in. I would also do it if I could plan a nice two week vacation for that period and use the rental $ to pay for it. Otherwise, not worth the hassle factor.

[Richard]

If you can just stick everything in one room and lock that room before you leave, you won't have to move or store it.

I have friends who've done that for summers during internships during college. Of course, college students don't have as much to move. :-)

[Jim]

$7000 is a lot of money. I'd do it.

Do you *have* to move *all* your personal stuff? Or could you just find a way to lock it up? Or are you just wanting to do that to be extra safe with your personal items?

You could use one of the mobile storage units like www.pods.com to store your stuff temporarily. That way they'd bring the box to you and haul it off. You wouldn't have to rent a truck or deal with hauling stuff. A 16" box for a month would run around $250 or so.

Would you take a vacation for 2 weeks or what? You might stay with family if you have anyone in town and then give them a cut of the $7k.

Jim

[tom]

Absolutely do it. You'd probably net $5000 of the $7000 at least. Well worth 2 weeks of hassle... especially if you take a vacation.

[Foobarista]

I'd do it. $7K would pay for a nice two-week vacation and a bunch of savings.

[Kevin M]

I'd do it for 3 reasons -

1) the money
2) low risk - probably a high end crowd we're talking about here if they're into horses and willing to spend $7k to rent a house for 2 weeks
3) perfect time to go on your own vacation and make a profit at the same time

[steve]

It's a great idea to rent your home for sporting events, etc. I was a Real Estate rental agent near where the U.S. Women's Open was several years ago. I handled several short term rentals and both sides were happy. I also rented my own home for 2 month's once to a movie producer that was making a film near my town and wanted a home he could entertain in. When he left, it was immaculate and he left me a house full of food. The money was great!

[Matthew]

I'm not sure it'll work the way you think it might. My sister tried to do exactly this for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. No bites at any price. If you can get 7K, go for it, but I highly doubt you'll get anything approaching that amount.

[Glenn the Geek]

I do a radio show on the 2010 Games and last week's episode was on lodging for the games and included talk about renting houses. We are still early but at the moment there is more renters than rentees. I think when it all shakes out the prices will be more like $2,000 to $3,000. I could be wrong but that is what my gut is telling me at this point.

You can hear the interview with the Games housing authority at www.2010radioshow.com.

Glenn the Geek

[Ramon Ecung]

I would do it. You don't have to report the $7,000 as income if you rent your primary home less than 15 days, so it's like a ~25-35% increase of the cash.

@Foobarista: $7,000 is a lot of purchasing power so save! :)