Christine Karpinski: I'm Christine Karpinski. Thank you for listening to the "How to Rent Vacation Properties By Owner" podcast. Today's guest is Deborah Haws. Deborah owns a design firm in Shreveport, Louisiana, and she also owns a vacation home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It's always fun to talk to homeowners to learn a little bit about why they purchased where they did, and maybe get ideas for yourself of where you want to buy your next home.

Deborah, thank you so much for joining us.

Deborah Haws: Well, thank you for having me.

Christine: OK, we're going to get right into this. What made you go to Santa Fe and buy a vacation home there?

Deborah: Well, I had a good friend who had moved to Santa Fe and I went up to visit. I saw the scenery, ate some of the wonderful food out there. I loved the art galleries and I just said, "This is where I'm going to retire."

Christine: When did you buy that home?

Deborah: I bought in 1997.

Christine: OK, 1997 and you're still not retired so you must have bought it with retirement far off in mind. Correct?

Deborah: Yes. Yes, well, I have sold some apartments here, and was facing a rather substantial tax bill on the uncle, and so I discovered the process of a 1031 exchange.

Christine: Right, also known as the Starker.

Deborah: Yes, that's very good. So I was a little burnt out being a landlord but I went up to Santa Fe and thought I'll just do some vacant land. Of course, if you've been there, you know there is no grass so you have no maintenances or upkeep on that. But my friend talked me into actually doing a house and then Santa Fe has a fairly established long standing vacation rental community. There was plenty of help so I went with the management company the first few years and then decided that I could do it myself even though I was a thousand miles away. So that's how it happened.

Christine: Well back up just a second. You had said you were burnt out from being a landlord. It's funny many vacation homeowners who rent their vacation homes do not consider themselves landlords. It seems to be a totally different process, different way of thinking, different way of dealing with renters that are coming in.

When you purchased it, did you have the rentals in mind?

Deborah: Oh, yes, yes. I had, definitely had it in mind.

Christine: Aha! So right from the start.

Deborah: Right from the start, and my first criteria to my friend, the realtor, had been I don't care what it is but there cannot be a toilet on the property.

Christine: You mean outside, you want it inside. You wanted running water but you didn't want it outside in the front yard, right?

Deborah: Right? No, I wasn't terribly please about even having running water! And you are correct that owning a vacation rental is far different than being a landlord. And a guest, which is what I consider the people who rent my house in Santa Fe, is far different than being a tenant. And Christine, I'm not sure why? Maybe it's because going on vacation is exciting and you share that excitement with them. I just get a kick out of talking to people who've never been out there before and also maybe, and quite honestly, it's a short term relationship.

Christine: Right. You don't have to deal with them every time something breaks. I tend to think that somehow it has something to do with the fact that a lot of our travelers are people just like ourselves. They're homeowners, sometimes in a little higher income bracket than say somebody who'd just be renting an apartment. So I'm not sure myself either, that's just speculation on my part; however, I found it to be the same thing. I used to own long term rental properties and the way vacation rentals are so much easier and so much more fun.

Deborah: Yes, you're right and the other thing is just that when I am not able to be out there, I get a little bit of satisfaction, almost living through them, that they're going to go to Geronimo that Saturday night because I've recommended it. They're going to Madrid, New Mexico for the Christmas parade because I recommended it. Even though I'm not there myself, I live a little bit for them and it's fun.

Christine: Well, that's an interesting perspective and I guess it could be, too. That you can't be there all the time yourself and you know it's a great place and a great house and lots of fun things to do. I guess what it comes down to is it's really a lot of fun to be able to share that when you can't use it yourself.

Deborah: Right, exactly.

Christine: Oh, can you hold on one second, we just need to take a break for a word from our sponsors.

[radio break]

Christine: OK, so before you had said you used a property manager and then started renting it yourself. How long did you use the property manager?

Deborah: I guess for about four years. Through the process I started becoming more comfortable with people out there in terms of the trades, San the electrician who always takes care of everything, and Carla who does the housekeeping. And I got to know these people and realized, wait a minute. I can do this because they're going to help me.

That's the biggest part to me about doing something long distance is having the people on the ground whom you know, I'm not going to go over there in the middle of the night if something goes wrong because you're a thousand miles away.

Christine: Absolutely, absolutely. I think most vacation homeowners maybe not when they begin realize that, but certainly into it. Yes, they are our lifelines and we wouldn't be able to do it if we didn't have great housekeepers and maintenance people that we can just count on to go over and fix things and take care of our place and be the eyes and ears of our homes.

So now when you started renting out your property, how did you even start with that? Did you start with going directly to the Internet or did you start with newspapers or how did you begin?

Deborah: Well, directly to the Internet because I am an Internet junkie. I did try the newspaper and found it just did not work. You have to walk yourself through what the guest is going to go through in terms of looking and where would they look and how would they look.

And until HomeAway and the site on the Internet came along, it just was not possible on a long distance basis to do this. You all made it possible, I put you right up there with Carla, that's pretty high up.

Christine: Well, that's a nice compliment to the company. But it's true, we do depend on the Internet and the websites in order to help bring us the guests. Now, you'd talked about how fun it is to talk to your guests and live through them. Is there anything that you would consider difficult about renting your vacation home?

Deborah: Not really. You want to make sure that you book the right date, that you don't book through two weekends like a 10 day rental. You want to make sure that you're not doing yourself out of two full weeks by renting it for 10 days.

Christine: Well, we've learned from our mistakes. You only do that kind of thing once and then when you get so many calls for that following weekend and that following week ended up being empty and you're going, "Gosh, darn it." You know, that one wasn't worth it because it took up two weeks. But I think we all live by trial and error in the vacation rental industry.

Deborah: True.

Christine: Now, you had mentioned earlier in this interview that you had purchased this property for retirement. Are you planning on retiring anytime soon?

Deborah: I have one foot on I20 as we speak!

Christine: Oh, really?

Deborah: Yes.

Christine: So you're planning on moving up there pretty soon?

Deborah: Yes, yes.

Christine: That's fun, and I imagine at that point you won't be renting it out anymore.

Deborah: Well, I actually will be renting it out, because my least favorite time in Santa Fe is July and August, and I think July and August are high season, and we have these crazy opera people who love to come to the opera and sit out in the desert sun. So while they're watching the opera, I will be in northern part of New Mexico in another little cabin that I've yet to find, and I'll just move out of the summer sun and go to the pines in northern New Mexico.

Christine: Gotcha. Well, that sounds like a good plan, and then you'll have the best of both worlds.

Deborah: Absolutely.

Christine: You'll be able to live in your vacation home when you want to be there and when all the tourists want to come in, which happens to also be you're highest revenue weeks, you'll be able to move out, rent it out to guests and gosh, what a great plan.

Deborah: Well, so far, Christine, it's only a plan. Check back with me and I'll tell you how it went.

Christine: Well, we will, we will. Well, Deborah, thank you so much for sharing your story with us. I really appreciate it. Everybody loves to listen to the owner podcasts, which talk about the different areas where you've purchased and why you purchased, and it's a lot of fun. I wish you all the best and I hope that soon, you'll be able to have both feet on I20.

Deborah: I believe so, thank you.

Christine: Thank you.