Looking for the Best Mississippi Gulf Coast Vacation Property Rentals Management company? Christies Gulf Beach Rentals can manage your vacation property completely hands-on. We do it all for you from managing the calendar and managing the cleaning process to directing repairs and maintenance. Our owners have decades of experience with property and business management. Our client portal has it all for you to help you manage your finances.
One of our owners has owned and managed a large national business. He has decades of experience with vacation rental management having owned many in Europe before the trend was popular in the U.S. Another owner has more than 20 years as a property manager. I could go on about our experience but it’s about how this experience is applied that you should be interested in.
We created Gulf Coast Property Management LLC for long-term vacation rentals management and then started Christies Gulf Beach Rentals for short-term rentals. We have two websites that refer people to your properties, not including the referrals from our associated Logan-Anderson Gulf Coastal Realtors website.
Christies calendar is consolidated with 3rd party sites
The state of Mississippi requires that all property management companies be affiliated with a real estate agent or broker. One of the Christies owners is a broker and owner of Logan-Anderson Gulf Coastal Realtors. This is a good thing for our clients. That real estate brokerage license means that the state is watching our operations.
It’s true, most of Christie’s bookings come from third-party sites such as Airbnb and VRBO but some of those bookings have come from people who have first visited the Christies website. Our site contains a consolidated calendar of all third-party bookings.
The calendar indicates all bookings for our client’s properties. If they choose to stay on their property, they can book it on Christies with a special code that permits their stay to be free.
The client portal contains links to not only the Christies site but their listings on third-party sites if they decide to look at them. Included in the Client Portal are links to the linen inventory, maintenance logs, agreements, HOA rules, and much more. It’s literally a one-stop place for everything they need to know about their property. One key item in the Client Portal is our financial data which indicates all details for paid stays.
No email reports, just 24/7 access to all data
Rather than sending out reports and emails. Clients have 24/7 access to the Client Portal to see for themselves how much they have earned in any one period (updated weekly). We feel this is far better than sending a rental income report that our clients are not ready to see or use. At the end of the year, their 1099 will match the data they have been seeing all year. This will permit them to make IRS quarterly deposits.
The State of Mississippi collects sales and guest taxes for local communities. Christies registers all of our client’s properties with the state. We report monthly at the Department of Revenue website on your behalf. If all revenue is from third parties, we check the boxes.
If Christies received a booking through our website, we collect sales tax and remit it in the report. The entire process is completed and you can rest assured if there is an audit, we are here to help.
Guest Guide is customized for your property
Our Guest Guide is another feature. We want our guests to know everything about the property including its history if any. This document is comprehensive and includes not only all of the rules (HOA also) but how to use things. WIFI code, parking instructions, and any regulations that local authorities require to be passed along. Listings of local restaurants, stores, and churches are included.
The Guest Guide is customized for each client’s property and our clients are involved in its creation.
Cleaning is a necessity so we manage the cleaning process. Brian our manager makes site visits to be sure that properties are ready for the next guest. The Guest onboarding process is something that Brian takes very seriously. He communicates with each individual on the day of arrival (also before). Brian responds quickly to guest requests.
Suggestions such as securing wall art
We meet with prospective owners at the property and walk through the property. We take this opportunity to explain our vacation rental management process. Often even experienced owners can benefit from our advice about various things such as how to secure wall art, fix beds to the wall, wifi thermostat, and much more. After years of experience with guests who are hard on properties, we have found some solutions to prospective problems.
Christie will for a fee, completely set up a house, condo, etc. She acquires all of the furniture, furnishings, and kitchen items, and even decorates often creating her own art.
Part of our service is to recommend such things as twin beds, picnic tables, the best ways to decorate, and much more. We recommend the correct sleeping configurations for the maximum return on your investment (and consider HOA
How much can I earn from my vacation rental?
Adding two full beds for example instead of a queen bed will sleep two more. Brian and Christie provide excellent service to our guests and clients.
Christies is not just a vacation rental management business, we often manage the sale of our client’s vacation rentals or help a client find a property for a vacation rental. One of the key things we can offer in this process is knowledge of short-term rentals and their activities. A question often asked is? “How much can I make from my vacation homes?” This would be difficult for many but it’s not hard for Christies.
We use existing client data to extrapolate. Not only about the total income but the details such as how often it will rent. As a rental company, it’s our business to know about rates and occupancy. If you are planning on buying a rental property as an investment property or for personal use, you need data.
Christies offers knowledge about vacation management
Property owners need all of the information they can get to make decisions such as: “Do I keep it or sell it?”, “How much will I need to save from earnings to cover slow periods”? Rental properties are all different, even when they have the same floor plan and are part of a large condo group. Christies Vacation Rental property management services can help you manage your property as a business.
In addition to rental management, we offer additional services including:
- – Creation of an LLC
- – Quit Claim Deed of to LLC
- – Accounting services
- – Utility and bill payments (for those who don’t want to do anything)
- – Landscaping (bi-weekly, monthly lawn care)
- – Manage major repairs
- – File permit requests and addend city meetings
The management fee
About that management fee. You will need to contact us about this. I can tell you that our fee is a fixed percentage of the gross income after deducting cleaning and HOA fees. Christies gets 100% of the cleaning fees. We do charge a minimum of $100 in any month where the income falls below $100.
This minimum fee which should be a rare occurrence is to compensate us for visiting the property to make sure it’s still there, in good condition and the pipes did not freeze in the winter. Our fee is very competitive.
We do not ask for a security deposit or any other type of deposit for our clients. We do charge a small start-up fee to manage the free photos, create your webpage, guest guide, program doors, thermostats, etc. As I said, it’s very reasonable. All property managers charge a set-up fee.
Your income
Time to talk about your income. Don’t get excited, there are no specifics here, every property is different. You should know that your rental condo will be busy sometimes and not other times. For example, Mardi Gras is popular on the Mississippi Gulf Coast so you may expect to earn more during that time.
That perfect vacation may take place during Cruzin-the-Coast for example when rates are much higher than at other times of the year. You would think with all of the local casinos on the Mississippi Gulf Coast that people would want to stay there. They do but many also want a beautiful condo or house within easy walking distance of the beach. A place where the entire family can have fun.
Our Coastal Cottage property is within walking distance of the beach and is one of several beach houses that Christies rents. I have a fire pit and a large yard. This is perfect for a larger family that wants to enjoy their rental home and the sea breeze.
Having many properties – more opportunities to rent yours
You may have a condo with great views and an outdoor pool. And of course, all of our properties have access to beautiful beaches. Sometimes we receive requests to accommodate a couple of dozen or more. This allows us to fill several clients’ properties at one time.
Other times when we receive last-minute calls for a property that is booked, we can move the new guests to another property. On occasion when all of our properties are fully booked, we coordinate with two other property owners who have several vacation rentals they manage on their own.
This coordination works both ways and helps find homes for our visitors. In the end, we want our guests to have the best vacation and our owners to earn a great income.
Social Media
In addition to the Christies Gulf Beach Rentals website plus Airbnb and VRBO, we post on Facebook and Twitter. Every new blog article is posted along with some blog articles about the Mississippi Gulf Coast posted on RetireCoast.com and Logan-Anderson Gulf Coastal Realtors. This keeps our sites active.
All new properties are posted on social media sites to draw attention. We encourage all of our clients to post their property on their social media websites.
If you are interested in having Christies Gulf Beach Rentals manage your property please reach out to us. Click on the button below and complete the client interest form. Click here for more information about property management