Do-it-yourself or not? That is the question.

Many vacation rental owners resist the idea of doing their own vacation rental management. For others, it is an opportunity to maximize the income from their vacation rental property.

The truth is if you are retired or need a second income, going into the vacation rental business part time, is an ideal solution for the following reasons:

1. Hire yourself to clean and earn extra money, depending on how much you need money. Otherwise hire a cleaning person.

2. You save from 25%-35% from each and every booking, that a vacation rental management firm normally charges; thus creating your second income.

3.  Even if you aren't the best salesperson in the world, chances are you will close more bookings that even a “professional” would because you know much more about your property and can speak with potential guests intelligently and passionately. And if you are good talking with people you can increase your bookings over how much a firm would do.

4. It’s a second income and flexible part time job that you can land without going through a lengthy job search process.

The downside to do-it-yourself vacation rental management is the same as the upside…it is a job, and not a hobby. You will need a toll free number, computer, contracts, credit card processing systems, cleaning and maintenance people, advertising, and an entire business infrastructure.

A lot of people think that you cannot do Vacation Rentals from long distance. With a laptop e-mail, the world wide web, and cell phones, this is no longer true! I have done it for five years quite successfully, while I was putting my daughter through college, it was just the third income stream I needed!

The big challenges are creating a vacation rental business infrastructure, but once you have set things up correctly, things will go quite smooth. If you decide to hire a property manager, I highly recommend one thing. Do not make this mistake of hiring a real estate person who is doing other things such as selling real estate, and doing regular lease rentals.