Vacation House vs Condo
by Robin Fowler

You want to purchase a vacation rental property, but you don’t know whether to choose a house or a condominium. There are advantages and disadvantages to owning either.

As a vacation rental property owner, and likely one that will live far away from your property, you want to choose just the right type of property that will maximize your investment, give you the biggest profit, and be as in demand as possible. You can choose to buy a house or a condo. So which should you choose?

As with any choice you have to make in life, there are pros and cons for either. Houses are bigger, which can be good and bad. Condos are smaller, which can be good and bad. Ultimately, you need to decide what you want out of your vacation rental venture, and move ahead!

Many vacation rental owners choose to own one or more condos, for several reasons, including:

• Condos are usually smaller than houses, which will likely cost you less money to keep cleaned and maintained

• With a condo, there are usually no outdoor repairs for you to worry about; this is often covered by the Home Owner’s Association fees that you pay

• There is no lawn maintenance and landscaping to pay for!

• A condominium community might offer wonderful resort-like amenities, like a swimming pool or two (that you don’t have to maintain!), a fitness center, a hot tub, golfing, children’s playgrounds, and jogging trails

Keep in mind that if you decide to buy a condo, all of these great benefits are likely to cost you more money in the form of higher Homeowner’s Association Dues each month!

There are lots of vacation rental owners who choose to buy houses, too. A vacation rental house has many of its own benefits that can lead to big profits for you, the owner, including:

• A house will usually be larger than a condo, and it will have more and larger rooms available for use; this means that there is room for larger traveling groups, and higher rent that can be charged

• A house might be located in a subdivision with the same types of amenities as a condominium community, such as swimming, golf, and other types of outdoor recreation

• Owning a house means that you can provide renters with their own private outdoor living spaces, like a big yard, a deck, a patio, or a private swimming pool

However, with a vacation rental house, as the owner, you will be responsible for any exterior maintenance of the house, as well as yard and landscaping maintenance, especially if the house has a swimming pool. And a larger living space means, of course, more space to have cleaned. This means more money that you will need to put into the overall maintenance and cleaning budget for your rental. And, houses are almost always more expensive to purchase than a condo. But, the fewer amenities available in the community will more than likely mean that your Homeowner’s Association fees will be drastically lower than if you purchased a condo in a community.

Before you purchase a condo or house in any kind of community, you will need to check with the Homeowner’s Association to make sure that they allow temporary rentals. Also, become well educated on any rules and codes that will apply to your new vacation rental property, so that you can make your renters aware of them in the renter’s agreement or policies.

When you are faced with the choice of house or condominium, do your research, and look at the ultimate bottom line for both options. Make sure that whichever choice you make will give you the opportunity to break even or, ideally, make a profit each year!