I feel I might be starting a little in the middle of our tale, but nonetheless I am too excited to start at the beginning.
We bought a cottage today!!!!…well nearly!
So what, I hear you ask, as you are sitting on your deck over looking your lake or wistfully remembering your last trip to your cottage just last weekend. You have to understand this is a big deal for my wife and I (27 and 29 respectively).
Now you’re raising an eyebrow aren’t you?
We have just signed over our offer for a beautiful cottage on the northern shores of Lake Ontario near the town of Colborne. With 135ft of private sandy beach and a million dollar view (purchased for substantially less) we are like giddy school children on the first day of summer break. Nothing can stop us now! At least we hope not.
So this blog is a full documentation of the journey we are taking as young, professional dinky’s (double income, no kids yet) with our first cottage property to use for vacation rental.
Still with me…. If you are, you are probably asking, how can they afford it? They must be mad to rent? Aren’t they very young and inexperienced? This is all going to go horribly wrong…..what fun I get to watch!
To which I answer, we can’t, we are, maybe, probably and you’re a disturbed and sick individual!
So why do we have the proverbial ‘balls’ to do this? Well we do have the Roger Clements or the Wayne Gretzky of the cottage rental industry on our team (just minus the steroids and off track betting). My Mum!
Being the son of one of Canada leading cottage rental experts does have its advantages and I felt what better way to make my fortune than on the coat tails of Canada’s own vacation rental matriarch. Thanks Mum.
For the last decade, Heather Bayer has quietly stormed the Canadian Vacation Rental industry with her insights and experience from running her own cottage rental agency (CottageLINK Rental Management), writing her book (Renting Your Recreational Property For Profit,Self Counsel Press) and becoming a leading rental expert in the social networking forums such as Twitter, Facebook, Linked-In, YouTube and of course through her renowned blog, cottageblogger.com. Note that I’m Junior…. Yes.. clichéd but I think it sounds kinda’ neat.
So I thought it was time I put all this stuff that I’ve been proof reading for years to the test. Not only will I be utilizing all of Heather’s strategies and tools that have been developed over the years (available through her blog and our resource website rentingforprofit.com) but also documenting all of the trials and tribulations along the way for you to glean some learning from, while being entertained at the same time.
Well we have a long way to go before I have to start filling the walls of my home with $1000 bills to hide it from Mr. Harper (Canadian Prime Minister – for those not proudly tattooed with a red maple leaf on your cheek…… face cheek…come on people!). I hope you will share this journey with us and share our experiences with other owners so that we might all be successful and stress-free vacation rental owners.
(I just realised that I’m not a true Canadian because I had to look up the spelling for Gretzky, my maple leaf on my butt must be rubbing off ;o)
{ 0 comments }
