Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Not worth the $20 for this short and shallow book, December 26, 2008
at $20 for this short book I would recommend you look elsewhere. I was VERY disappointed by the lack of useful content in the book.
The author's 'expertise' in this field is that she owns ONE vacation rental in New Hampshire, so as you might expect, her recommendations are specifically tailored to that experience and situation. There is virtually nothing in this book that would be considered truly interesting information as I suspect everything could be found online.
I wrote a prior review on this book and did not have a good alternative book to recommend. Fortunately I do now.
How to Rent Vacation Properties By Owner, but Christine Hrib Karpinski. It is about 300 pages long and in my review of it so far it appears to have a number of useful details. It easily covers anything in the "Breaking all the rules" book but with useful information and insight.
Before buying this book, I would suggest you check out the other one as well, read the reviews (significantly more of them for that book) and the author bios.
One final comparison, and perhaps not a fair one, but intended to provide another example of the difference in quality of these two books.
Both books have a forward included. For the OTHER book, it is written by some long-term journalist covering real estate. For THIS book, it was written by the author's cleaning woman (yes, I am serious). Nothing against this nice woman, but I cannot imagine she has a not of useful insights for me on how to rent my property other than that it should be clean.
Hope this helps. I don't like to dump on books or authors because I know it takes a lot of time and energy to write and publish a book, but this one unfortunately deserves to be noted because at $20 it is unfair to buyers/readers.
|
|
|
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
TEN STARS for this one ! Best Book on How to Rent Vacation Homes By Owner, February 29, 2008
This book has really helped me. - TEN STARS
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It was written from personal experiences and I felt connected with the author. Marie Ferguson takes a different approach to renting vacation homes. She has a clear understanding of what your guests want and what they expect upon arrival and that they are willing to pay higher prices to get quality accommodations.
This book is right to the point and answered all of my questions. It is also helpful to know that Marie Ferguson is available to answer questions as they appear. I have never heard of any author being available 24/7. She has great insight for creating property listings that really work and she is willing to help you with yours to give it that personal touch.
I also received the Welcome Book (that no other author has provided) and a free property listing. The Welcome Book comes with Sample Rental Rules, Pet Rules, Beach Rules, Pool Rules, etc that can be easily changed to fit your rental needs. I had fun customizing it and my Guests love the fact that I provide all the information needed to make their stay more enjoyable.
I particularly like the lists it provides for stocking my rental (things I didn't think of ) and it provides samples of rental agreements and correspondences to renters. It certainly makes it easy for me to run a rental business by using the system in this book. By following the easy, step by step instructions, I have had good luck with my renters. Like anything, if you are consistent with what you are doing, chances are better that you will succeed in having a great business. I am having a great time with my rental home. With this system, I am able to use it when I want (easily) and rent it out during the times I am not there. I am planning on buying more properties while the prices are affordable.
I also bought Marie Ferguson's latest book, The Complete Vacation Rental Planner and Tax Organizer. What a handy book to own. All of my rental information can be found in one place and I like the tax section that shows the deductions that I can take.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|