But what is really involved in being a vacation landlord? Is it a business that is right for you. I asked 9 vacation rental owners for their advice to would-be vacation rental owners.

"Can you afford mortgage if your home is not rented at all?" asks Stewart Granville, owner of an Orlando Florida vacation homes listing site ( http://www.lastminutevillas.net ). "If interest rates rise (which they almost certainly will) can you still afford payments along with utilities ,taxes, insurance, management fees ,pool cleaning ,lawn maintenance ,running repairs – can you still afford it?"

That is an obvious, but often overlooked, factor. Before rushing into a purchase, make sure that it does not get repossessed if somehow your marketing is fruitless at first. Paul Rowney agrees. Owner of a 4-bedroom Florida Gulf Coast vacation rental ( http://www.lastminutevillas.net/villa/181/ ), he says to be wary of "realtors who promise you'll rent your property for 40 weeks a year." It helps to do your homework. Is there already rental saturation in area you want to buy in, or are people already lining up for too few vacation homes?

"You can't get too personal with your home if you are using it for renting - you have to think what your client wants," warns Michelle Prince, owner of Secret Key Villa ( http://www.lastminutevillas.net/villa/166/ ) in Kissimmee, Florida. That means your ideas of perfect bright red-orange kitchen might have to be shelved if your customers have more subdued tastes.

Andrew Piper, owner of a 5 bedroom vacation rental villa ( http://www.lastminutevillas.net/villa/332/ ) advises not to expect that all your friends are a market waiting to rent your vacation home – they are more likely going to hope for a freebie, staying silent if they are too embarrassed to ask. Remember, owning a vacation rental is a business, or else it becomes a very expensive cottage.

I posed question of “free advertising” to a few forums and they all can back same, but with new links to check out. It’s basically what I already knew, but it’s nice to try and find new ways of doing things.

For this article that has helpful links in it, Please go to my Website and click on Free Advertising.

Link Popularity:

This is most important thing and in doing any or all of below things, you will gain link popularity. Links to your Website, wither you link back or not, gets you ranked good with search engines ( best free advertising of all) and you will get visitors from other sites that are “targeted visitors” that are interested in what you have to offer, and that my friend is your “MAIN GOAL”

So here is what I know about free advertising and what I have recently learned in no particular order:

Articles:

Writing articles and submitting them to different Website will get you exposure you need and also build your credibility. It’s not so difficult to do this, just give good advise on a subject you know a-lot about, hopefully it is somehow connected to product/service you are selling on your Website. Make sure in your signature that you have your URL or a way to contact you. When you go to submit your article, they usually give you a step-by-step way to do this. You can always go to one of site first to get an idea of what you will need to write and publish your article. You can also go to my Website and see how I have written them.You can go to Google or Yahoo and search on “Submit your article for free”.

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