BUYING A VACATION RENTAL?

 

Buying a Vacation Rental?
Be Sure to Read Through This Guide First

Buying a vacation home can provide you with a relaxing option for getting away from it all. You’ll have an escape from the outside world and a vacation spot that really feels like your own.

If you’re thinking about buying that vacation home as an investment property, however, there are some additional considerations worth making before you purchase your second home. Owning a vacation rental property requires more effort than simply owning a vacation home. So if you are thinking of investing in a short-term rental, make sure you read through these helpful resources and guides first:

Figuring Out Financing for Vacation Rentals

Should You Buy a Vacation Home?

Planning to Rent Out Your Vacation Home? Understand the Tax Rules

5 Vacation Rental Property Expenses You Shouldn’t Ignore

Buying a Lakehouse: What You Need to Know

How to Get a Mortgage on a Vacation Home: It's a Whole Different Game

Deciding Which Vacation Location Is Best

Economics of Buying a Beach House: Read Before You Buy

50 Dream Homes in the Woods That Will Make You Long to Escape It All

The 10 Best Places for Buying a Vacation Home in the US

Take Stock of Tax and Business Requirements

 

How Do I Report Rental Income on My Tax Return?

What Legal Requirements Are Needed to Start a Business?

Research How to Create an LLC

Short-Term Rentals: Laws, Licenses and Taxes

 

Sprucing Up a Vacation Rental Property

 

Preventive Maintenance for Vacation Rental Homes

How to Furnish Your Vacation Rental For the Best Guest Experience

Everything You Need To Know About Rustic Design

The Best Gear to Outfit a Vacation Rental or Airbnb

 

Managing & Marketing a Vacation Rental

 

VRBO's Dead. Airbnb's Not Great. How to Market a Vacation Rental?

How to Boost Your Social Media Strategy for Your Vacation Rental           

The Value and Cost of Property Management vs. Self-Management

 

There’s a lot of valuable information in the links above and you may not find all of it useful. Since purchasing an investment property can be such a major financial decision, however, it may be worthwhile to read through at least a few of the resources above and do your own homework. This way, you will be certain that owning a vacation rental property really is right for you, and you can find a vacation rental that is right for your needs and goals as well!

By: Tina Martin

 

As always, if you are thinking of buying or selling rural property, call the Rural KC Team/Keller Williams Partner.  It's all we do!  Have a great day.

EYE-CATCHING PAINTING TIPS FOR HOMEOWNERS

 

EYE-CATCHING PAINTING TIPS FOR HOMEOWNERS

The way your home is decorated says a lot about you, your family, and your lifestyle. Not only does choosing the right colors set the mood in a place, but putting those colors in the right spots can also dramatically change the features of a room. There are so many ways to use color to change your home!

Using Paint to Change the Game

The possibilities that new paint creates are literally endless. And the great part about playing with paint is that it’s really easy to change if you decide you’re not thrilled with the results. Unlike building projects, changing the paint in your home can be done with limited expense or hassle.

Here are just a few ideas to enhance the details of the house you already have:

• Pay close attention to the door. Your front door is one of the best spots for setting the mood for your whole home. It says something that your windows never could, so it’s important to paint it like it matters. Matching the house trim is old hat; today’s front doors feature bold or fun colors that complement the rest of your outdoor color scheme. Some houses can also see a bump in interest when homeowners try the same trick on their garage doors.
• Choose bold trim colors. Your trim doesn’t always have to be white, though it shouldn’t be the same color as the wall. Instead, you can make a huge statement by highlighting some of the more decorative elements of your home with paint colors that have something to say for themselves. Pair light gray walls with black trim or choose several different colors to accent ornate trim work in older homes.
• Rethink built-in cabinets and shelving. Plenty of homes have built-in shelving or cabinets, but most homeowners opt to paint these the same color as the trim in their homes, effectively hiding a potentially eye-popping element. Instead of blending your built-ins into the background, choose colors to highlight them. Painting doors a different color than walls and trim, or selecting a bold or bright color for the back wall of an open shelving unit can really make a statement. This trick can also work for the risers on wooden staircases.
• Why not white? A lot of people shy away from white walls because they feel like the color lends an institutional feel to a room, but white doesn’t have to be hospital-grade. There is a range of barely their colors within the white spectrum, and you can enhance them with color pops in the room itself. It’s your house; if you want a white, don’t let anyone tell you you’re wrong. Choosing a trim color that complements your white is also vital to success with all-white walls.
• Color on the ceiling? Sure! There’s been a long tradition of ceilings being painted a flat white, but that wasn’t always the case. In the past, ceilings have been havens of color in rooms of various sizes and shapes. Depending on the effect you’re looking to create, you can use lighter or darker colors to visually raise or lower the ceiling, or accent decorative ceilings with color for added dimension.
• Try textured paint. Wall texture comes and goes as a trend, but it’s a great way to deal with older homes that may have irregular or downright rough walls. Today’s texture paint goes well beyond Venetian plasters, giving you a huge range of options in texture and more ways to get an end result you’ll absolutely adore. Use a heavy texture as an accent, or go a little lighter for interest throughout your living space.

As always, feel free to call the Rural KC Team at 913-837-0760 or 913-837-0411 with any real estate questions you might have.  The Rural KC Team is affiliated with Keller Williams Partners.

WHAT IS A SMARTLOCK?

 

Home security is important. As smart technologies continue to grow in popularity, an increasing number of homeowners are turning to higher-tech solutions to meet their home security needs. While options like smart cameras and connected doorbells are becoming much more common, not as many homeowners realize that it’s possible to upgrade their doors with smart locks as well. These locks come in a variety of designs, offering some pretty interesting options to those who want to take their home security to the next level.

What Are Smart Locks?

As the name implies, smart locks are door locks that have “smart” connected functions. This means that you can lock and unlock the locks remotely without the need to physically unlock them with a key. They often offer status monitoring as well, allowing you to see whether your doors are locked or unlocked (and in some cases, even whether the door is open or closed.) While there are fully electronic smart locks available that can only be opened remotely, the majority of consumer smart locks feature a physical keyhole and/or a numeric keypad for access as well.

For most smart locks, you can lock, unlock, and monitor them using a smartphone app or a connected hub device such as Google Home or Amazon Alexa. Remote key fobs (similar to those you see with most cars) may also be used to control the lock remotely. Some locks also incorporate biometric features, allowing you to lock or unlock the device by touching a fingerprint reader.

Smart Lock Advantages

There are a number of benefits to installing smart locks on your doors. By allowing you to unlock the door remotely instead of having to use a key, you can get into or out of the house faster when your hands are full or in emergency situations. This remote feature also comes in handy if you realize that you forgot to lock the door when leaving the house or if you need to have someone stop by and pick something up for you while you’re away.

Smart locks also give you a greater degree of control over who can and can’t access your home and when that access is granted. Many models connect with other devices such as smart doorbells or connected camera systems, letting you see who’s at the door before making the decision whether to lock or unlock. In many cases, you can even include the smart locks in smart home routines that you’ve programmed on other devices, having them lock or unlock at certain times or when certain routines are run. This can improve the overall security of your home, allowing the doors to lock automatically when potential threats are detected or at times when no one should be visiting.

Installing Smart Locks

Most smart locks aren’t much more difficult to install than standard lock units, though they are likely to have more post-installation setup required. Many smart locks function as a deadbolt, though they may incorporate the doorknob and standard door lock as well. Depending on the model of a smart lock being installed, additional components such as a solar panel and battery unit may be included in the installation as well. These components may be integrated into the lock mechanism, or they may be separate.

Once a smart lock is installed, it still needs to be configured to work with your app or other devices. This is usually a pretty straightforward process, similar to pairing a device with your phone via Bluetooth, though some users may experience problems during installation or integration into an existing smart home setup. After setup is complete, the locks should function without issue, using encrypted digital keys over a wireless or Bluetooth connection.

As always, if you have any questions about this blog or about rural real estate, please don't hesitate to contact us at 913-837-0760 or 913-837-0411.  Have a great day!

HELP WITH KEEPING YOUR HOME PET-FRIENDLY

HELP WITH KEEPING YOUR HOME PET-FRIENDLY

 Pets play a large part in many families. While these fuzzy (and sometimes not-so-fuzzy) friends can bring a lot of fun and companionship, keeping pets happy and healthy can take a lot of work as well. One way to keep this under control is to improve the overall pet-friendliness of your home. Much like babyproofing before bringing home a new child helps to prevent accidents and other problems, putting in some time to make your home more pet-friendly now will save a lot of headaches and other issues down the line.

Pet-Friendly Homes

There are a few different concerns you should consider when trying to come up with ways to make your home more pet-friendly. Think about whether there are any areas of the home that your pet might get hurt or sick if they get into. Do you have a pet that’s likely to chew on things? Stop to consider what those things it chews on are made of. Take an inventory of all the things that you don’t want your pet to damage or break; how many of them can’t be replaced?

As you can see, pet friendliness includes more than just restricting access to certain parts of the home. A truly pet-friendly home is one that will keep your pet safe in many ways while also protecting important items from your pets. There are a few different ways to go about this, of course, and there is no one right answer when it comes to how you should approach making your home more pet-friendly.

Common Pet-Proofing Techniques

The way that you approach pet-proofing and making your home more pet-friendly will depend in large part on how your home is designed and decorated. With that said, here are a few ideas to serve as starting points for your pet-friendly revamp.

• Check the interior of your home for peeling paint or similar problems, especially if you have an older home. Some paints contain materials that could be toxic for pets, so removing peeling paint areas and giving everything a fresh coat of pet-safe paint can help to keep your companions safe.
• Secure potentially dangerous areas like stairwells, fireplaces, and crawlspace access points. Replace rusted or loose coverings to make sure that they can’t be pulled back or shaken free by a determined pet. Then install baby gates or other barriers as needed which will allow you to get through but prevent passage by those without opposable thumbs.
• Lock up cleaners and other chemicals where your pets can’t access them. Some scented cleaners may smell like food to pets, and even non-toxic chemicals can still make pets sick or cause other problems if ingested. If you have medications in the home, they should be locked up similarly.
• Get a trash can with a sturdy lid, preferably one that can be operated hands-free. This will not only keep trash from being spread out in your home but can also keep pets from eating things that they really shouldn’t.

Of course, this is just the start of ways to secure your home and make it safe for your pets. Regardless of the specifics, though, the end goal is to make sure that there are fewer things within reach of your pets that could potentially cause them harm.

In some cases, more extensive work might be required for your home to be truly pet-friendly. Stop and consider whether any changes need to be made to your home’s layout to eliminate hazards or otherwise protect your pets and keep them out of places they don’t need to be. You should also talk to contractors, landscapers, and others to make sure that you’re choosing pet-friendly materials and plants for your home.

We hope you have enjoyed this week's blog.  As always, if you have any questions about rural real estate, please don't hesitate to contact the Rural KC Team at 913-837-0760 or 913-837-0411.  Have a great day!