Q: "I'm about to buy a property on Lake Hartwell in South Carolina, and will be renting it out. I have two homes that I'm interested in. One is a four‑bedroom, and one is a three‑bedroom, both on the lake. My question is, would more renters look for a three‑bedroom vacation home, or four bedrooms?"

A: Gary, the difference between a three‑bedroom and four‑bedroom is not significant. What you need to do is, you need to look at the other properties in the area, find out how many three‑bedrooms there are, how many four‑bedrooms there are. If the market is saturated with four‑bedrooms, maybe a three‑bedroom might be OK. If it's saturated with three‑bedrooms, the four‑bedroom might be a little bit better. Anything that would give you the competitive advantage over the next vacation home on the lake.

Another thing that you may want to look at is what sort of amenities the homes have. It's not necessarily just the number of bedrooms or the location, you also have to look at what you're getting for amenities that can draw those vacationers in. Does one home have something significantly better than the next? Or if they really are apples to apples, they're really similar properties, then I would definitely look at the other properties in the area, and you'd probably be better off just going with the one that you love.

Now, there is a difference between a two‑bedroom and a three‑bedroom, however. A two‑bedroom property typically would be just one family staying in that property. It would sleep six people: two people in both bedrooms, and then possibly two people on the pullout sofa. Now, the three‑bedroom, on the other hand, would sleep eight people. Eight people could be two families, with two sets of parents and two sets of children. So, a three‑bedroom would be able to open yourself up to two families sharing that property. But the difference between the three‑bedroom and the four‑bedroom is not going to be significantly different.