Picking Your Real Estate Agent When Buying a Vacation Rental Investment

Clients approach us all the time asking us to find them a cash flowing vacation rental investment and we guide them through the best lending programs, the rules and regulations of the geographic area they are targeting and we even run some financial projections for them to know what their gross rental income would be. This is why working with an experienced agent is one of the most important decisions you can make when buying real estate. At Host and Keep, we specialize in Vacation Rental Investments in South Florida, covering Broward and Miami Dade County. 

Here are a few tips that can help the process of purchasing your next investment property. 

Research the market: Explore different locations and options to determine if this is the right field for you.  Have your agent make sure that vacation rentals are allowed in the area you're looking to buy. We hear horror stories about clients that worked with an agent and were sold a home only later to find out the city doesn't allow vacation rentals! This usually ends in a lawsuit.

We see things a little differently. We not only place our clients in a good investment, but we manage the investment after that - so we are fully incentivized to make sure our clients are buying a healthy cash flowing investment. Agents well versed in this are few and far between.

Financing options: There are so many great programs to explore based on your current situation. Our preferred lender does a great job of finding the right match for you based on the options: Private loans, Conventional loans, Commercial loans, 7 or 10 year ARMS, No doc leans, etc. We support in researching and understanding the loan process, what you’ll need to get pre-approved, and what the terms of the loan are will make the process much smoother for you. Just as you would for any type of financing, you’ll also want to keep control of your credit score, and maintain a low debt to income ratio. Doing these things will help you secure funding.

Know your needs: Are you planning to use this property for vacations? Is this just an investment and only you care about the monthly distributions? All of these factors will help mold our search for you. Be available for showings and if you're out of state be ready to make a decision based on a video or facetime walkthrough.

With Host and Keep you’re fully supported from buying to managing and then selling in the future to another Vacation Rental Investor. Please choose wisely when working with an agent, they are not all equally as knowledgeable. 

“There are certain things they don’t teach at Gold Coast Real Estate School” - Caroline Ramos