Agents of change

  There are a number of factors that have created a state of flux in the vacation rental world. As anyone who is involved at any level and for any length of time can attest things are changing. Real estate bubbles, oil spills and inventory gluts are only the proverbial tip of the iceberg when it comes to the real agents of change in the industry. The last thing owner/investors want is a race to the bottom. How else are you going to deal with that looming debt service?
  There are few elements on earth that are as fragile as a the delicate sensibilities of the American vacationer. Options abound for us and the only thing separating us and our ultimate destination is the direction that the brain's electric current decides to travel. Consider your own propensity to vacillate back and forth between the Orlando vacation or that trip to the lake.
  Many owners of vacation homes have taken the power back from the management companies and decided to have a go at it themselves. Aptly realizing that just because a management company tasked with managing, maintaining and monetizing a properties physical assets is there doesn't mean they know what they are doing. (As a side note you would be hard pressed to find a single management company in existence today that actually had anything to do with the development of the asset they are managing.) The owners that are successful at managing their assets are typically those that got in early on web phenomenon like VRBO.com or who have a closed circuit distribution (like a work place) to farm from. This group is certainly the exception rather that the rule.
  So what are our options?
  The time has arrived for shift in the paradigm.
  Are you rental ready?