Section 6

Index

Have you ever dreamed of owning a vacation property? A seaside condo, an A-frame or condo on the ski slopes, a cabin on the lake, a home or villa at a golf and tennis resort, or perhaps a timeshare at a resort destination?

If so, we invite you to use this book as a road map to realizing that dream. Whether you already own a vacation property or are just beginning to consider the possibilities, this book is for you. Carefully researched, written, and edited, this book contains special information that can help with your decision to purchase a vacation property, or obtain more from your investment after you own one—more rentals, more fun, more value, and more excitement.

My own dream came true in 1981, when my wife and I bought a vacation villa at Kiawah Island, South Carolina. We thoroughly enjoyed our vacation property dream for 16 years. We loved taking walks on the beach, playing tennis, teeing off on world-class golf courses, dining on sumptuous seafood, visiting nearby historic Charleston, and sometimes just plain relaxing with a good book, away from the hectic pace of our day-to-day lives.

During that 16-year journey, we leaned quite a bit about buying and owning vacation property. Looking back on the experience now, I realize with the benefit of hindsight that we didn’t always take the most direct route. Often we had to detour around roadblocks. From time to time, we took a wrong turn. Once in a while, we just plain lost our way.

We quickly learned that we could benefit from more rentals to help defray our property expenses and to keep our dream alive. A public relations and marketing professional, I decided to apply what I had learned in my career to enhance my vacation property experience. I outlined several techniques to get more rentals for our vacation home. Over the years, we found many simple, practical, and effective ways "to put heads in beds," as they say in the hotel/motel industry.

We found an outstanding rental management company to manage our property and help obtain rentals. We developed an excellent relationship with them. Using the tactics that we ourselves developed, we then augmented their efforts to find additional renters. For example, during a typical year, our management company might obtain 20 weekly rentals for our property, and we would find an additional 5 or 10 for a total of 25 to 30 weeks. More rental income made our property a much better investment.

It occurred to me that if these ideas helped me obtain more rentals, then they could help anyone who owns a vacation property. With that in mind, I wrote and published Maximize Your Resort Property Investment, a book designed to help owners get more renters. The book, published in 1984, was featured editorially in Barron’s, Business Week, USA Today, Money Magazine, the Kiplinger Washington Letter, as well as in other local and national publications.

The book went through two printings. Copies were sold to property owners from every state in the U.S., as well as from Israel, Mexico, Canada, the Bahamas, and other countries in the Caribbean. The book proved to be of value to many vacation property buyers and owners from wide geographic locations.

Thousands of owners have used the ideas from that book to generate extra dollars in rental income. If an owner obtained just one extra rental week using the information, the book paid for itself many times over.

Like anything worth having, ownership of a vacation property involves effort on the part of the property owner. It involves a commitment of time, energy, and resources. This book outlines dozens of ways to locate more renters for your vacation property. These ideas can help generate thousands of dollars in extra rental income. But you must be willing to do a little work, or all of the good ideas in the world won’t help. As Thomas Jefferson once said, the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.

For example, many timeshare owners have long agreed that the best value of ownership is the opportunity to exchange for vacation weeks with other timeshare owners all around the world. Still, many timeshare owners have never made the effort to explore this avenue.

Just like a job, a relationship, an exercise program, or learning a new skill, the more effort you put into the activity, the greater your return will be.

This book contains virtually all of the information from my first book, plus much, much more. In addition to adding new tips and tactics, with the help of Coldwell Banker Real Estate Corporation, we have broadened the scope of the book significantly, expanding it and updating it for today’s market. While the first book helped owners locate more renters, this book begins by helping with your decision about purchasing a vacation property, and then goes on to provide helpful tips and techniques for owners to make the most of their investment—both financially as well as with the enjoyment of the property.

We’ve added guest editorials from some of the country’s foremost experts—sections on furnishing your vacation property, keeping good tax records, financing your vacation property, and taking a look at timeshares, the fastest growing segment of the vacation property industry. This information comes directly from the experts, the leaders in highly specialized areas that apply to vacation property ownership.

This book also includes valuable directories—information at your fingertips—and special money saving offers to help you get more value out of your vacation property. And speaking of value, we not only improved the product, we lowered the price!

Road Map to Your Vacation Property Dream was written and compiled by one who has traveled the road before. It is designed to help you arrive at your dream by a more direct route, using the experience of others to pave the way. This book will help you avoid the pitfalls and discover the hidden treasures of owning a vacation property. It is my hope that it will also add happiness, excitement, and more rental income for those who decide to buy their vacation property dream.

My thanks to Coldwell Banker Real Estate for participating in this project. Of its more than 2700 offices worldwide, more than 800 specialize in vacation property markets (see the directory of Coldwell Banker Resort Property Network™ offices in Section 5 of this book). The brokers and sales associates from Coldwell Banker are the experts in vacation property. If you decide to buy a vacation property, they can help turn your dream into a reality while making the process a whole lot easier. Be sure to read the special introduction letter form Alex Perriello, CEO of Coldwell Banker Real Estate Corporation, which follows this foreword.

According to an ancient Chinese proverb, the longest journey begins with the first step. This book, designed to help you get the most form your vacation property, is the first step to an informed buying decision.

Enjoy the journey to ownership of your vacation property dream!

Christopher S. Cain
Author, Vacation Property Expert