Myrtle Beach South Carolina Marketing

Myrtle Beach Rentals, in today's highly developed market for Myrtle Beach Hotels, can be the difference in carrying the entire note on a $1 million dollar Oceanfront investment, or having up to half of that investment covered with tourist revenue.

As a rental investor, who has purchased a rental property, it would appear that the burden of providing this income would rest squarely on the property management firm. However, because the property manager has not invested in your Myrtle Beach Condo rental, his company's income needs can often be in direct conflict with your own needs to subsidize your mortgage through rentals.

When you feel your condo is under performing and you are not getting income that is on par with the overall market at several competiting hotel concepts, or units within your own complex, below are five good questions to present to your Myrtle Beach property manager, to determine if you are being effectively represented.

These questions are listed in order from most important down.

Ask your rental manager these important questions:

1. How many units, if any, does your rental management firm own in this building?: Inherent conflicts exist in rentals, when the owner of the property management firm, his partners, or family actually own competing condos in the same unit where you have purchased. The natural tendency is to rent management owned condos first in soft periods.
2. How many discount online travel companies do you work with? How much of your total rentals do they represent?: We have all seen the ads for these National discount travel sites like: Expedia, Hotels.com, Travelocity, and the like promoting low fare hotel rentals. These are powerful sites, but they largely produce price loyal clients. They beat down the rental rate on your condo and create a long term discount climate that will affect your property values and rental history. WHY WOULD YOUR RENTAL MANAGER USE THESE?: He has to keep up his payroll and housekeeping. His split on even discount rentals provides him with ongoing income. He can cut his own marketing costs, throw out a low rate, and traffic your unit to death to cover his own expenses. These rates are not publicly posted, so he can hide the fact that he is under pricing the value of your rental every day. As a savvy investor, ask him not to put discount online travel guests in your unit.
3. What internal marketing promotions do you have scheduled for the upcoming season? In tight times, this is the first place a property manager will try to save money. Unfortunately, his savings will most likely lead to fewer high dollar rentals for your condo or home investment.
4. Where does your website rank on these common key words with yahoo and google?: (Your Hotel's name), Myrtle Beach Condos, Myrtle Beach Hotels, Myrtle Beach Resorts, Myrtle Beach Oceanfront Hotels, Myrtle Beach Vacations, Myrtle Beach Golf, Myrtle Beach Golf Vacations, and Myrtle Beach Condo Rentals. If your rental is in another town, substitute that town name for these key word searches. Almost 80% of all traffic today does some form of Internet search. If your rental manager is spending little or no money getting on page one for some of these terms or buying pay per click on page one of these terms, he does not have your best interests at heart. While he does not have to rank on all of these, he should be page one or two on atleast your Hotel name and two other key phrases. Page one is preferred.
5. What are my/(our) options for improving my rentals this year with your firm?: Your rental manager should be a partner with you in renting your condo. You should be in the problem, when one exists, together. If your rental manager does not have a plan of attack here, start looking for another property management firm.

If you are in the market for a great buy on a Myrtle Beach Rental home or condo, contact our Myrtle Beach Condos Direct Real Estate advertisers. They are each industry leaders and outstanding professionals.

Oceanfront Myrtle Beach Hotels are often the only consideration many home buyers are aware of when it comes to making a rental property purchase. These concrete and steel structures dominate the landscape and are often a draw when making Summer vacation plans for many future purchasers. The problem with focusing only on an Oceanfront condo purchase is that Myrtle Beach, S.C. has three distinct travel seasons that cater to tourists with different needs and desires.

Another issue that relates to purchasing Oceanfront is the cost. Prices for two bedroom, two bath Oceanfront Myrtle Beach Condos generally start at around $395,000.00 even in today's soft market. Traffic for tourism in these condos often plummets after the Labor Day summer season ends and often does not pick up again until Valentine's Day. Spring Myrtle Beach Vacations in these units often consists largely of weekend stays. This will create a revenue disparity, as the mortgage on these off months remains constant while revenues are slim to none.

A better alternative for savvy investors are Myrtle Beach Condos on luxury Myrtle Beach area golf courses. Premium golf courses like Tidewater Plantation, Grande Dunes Golf Courses, and Barefoot Resort offer several advantages in year round business that Oceanfront properties can not match. Prices for a two bedroom, two bath condo at Barefoot Resort on short sales this past summer have been as low as $140,000.00. While this is not the normal rate, deals can be found and are abundant. Listed below are bullets for why this price point makes great sense as compared to the rental income realized.

• Summer Season rentals keep these properties running at over 80% as the beach is largely at capacity.
• Golfers, who come in late September through mid May prefer the convenience of being on course and not driving all over town.
• Ammenities at Barefoot Resort, for example, are a stone's throw from the condo and venues like 4 world class golf courses, House of Blues, Alabama Theatre, Greg Norman's Australian Grille, and 64 shops drive Christmas shoppers and golfers directly to renting onsite. The Christmas season in Myrtle Beach runs from early November through December 24th.

Chris Ward, Broker in Charge with Eagle Realty, a prominant Real Estate firm in the Myrtle Beach area, states, "Not only will buying a golf course condo (which there are some tremendous deals on this time of year) benefit you in the long run since golf communities tend to keep an above par standard on the properties surrounding their courses, but rental advantages span above the normal summertime vacationer to the spring and fall golf groups, and also the "snow-bird" renter for a couple months in the winter. This supplemants income usually not there in the winter months."

When comparing price paid to overall rental income potential, golf course condos tend to give a greater bang for your dollar invested. While Oceanfront Condos can see tremendous appreciation in real estate values during hot markets, the carry on the mortgage during down periods just doesn't add up to the total appreciation. When looking for location and price, we recommend that you investigate premium golf course condo concepts.

For more information about these, check with our primary real estate advertisers at Myrtle Beach Condos Direct.

Myrtle Beach Hotels, up and down the Grand Strand, are now largely oceanfront property management firms. These properties can provide offsetting rental income and offer a good long term investment for wise purchasers in this soft market. With ammenities that can include lazy rivers, indoor pools, Oceanfront decks, it is often hard not to make an emotional purchase when considering an investment.

While these ammenities do make for a beautiful environment, hidden factors about the nature of the rental can often make a huge difference for savvy investors.

Listed below are five important factors to consider when making a rental investment at any of the many Myrtle Beach Hotels that run from North Myrtle Beach to Pawleys Island, S.C.

These factors are listed in the order of importance with one being the most important factor.

1. Find out how many property management firms rent in this particular Myrtle Beach Hotel. Once you have purchased, you want to shoot for competition in renting your condo. Myrtle Beach Condos that are purchased with only one property management rental firm in the building are, in effect, marrying that rental manager. Once this type of purchase is made, you are locked in, at best, with hopefully a benevolent dictator. (or perhaps worse). As far as Myrtle Beach investments are concerned, the more rental managers working in that hotel, the better.
2. CHECK OUT THE REPUTATION OF YOUR PROPERTY MANAGER ONLINE. Believe it or not, this is a simple process. Visit nationally known travel sites, like Trip Advisor, and type in that particular hotel's name. Example: Myrtle Beach Barefoot Resort. Trip Advisor will give you a local score and lets you read customer reviews. Do not buy a rental property where the hotel name has more than 15% of its reviews as negative. A link example of TripAdvisor.com is here Try to purchase a rental where the property has a score of at least 3 or higher. A bad name will not result in good future rental income.
3. ASK TO MEET THE HOUSEKEEPING EXECUTIVE AND TALK TO THE MAINTAINENCE TEAM: Your ongoing condition of your investment is critical. Find out about their competence and character. If the rental property manager refuses to allow you to interview this staff, beware.
4. GET REFERENCES FROM OTHER HOME OWNERS. We recommend at least three who have been with the firm for 2 years or more. The rental manager should provide these.
5. GO ONLINE AND CHECK OUT THE RENTAL FIRM'S ONLINE BOOKING ENGINE: Online booking engines are up to 30% of all rentals in today's market. A poor online engine that does not show good pictures of your individual unit can leave you with less income.

Follow these tips and you are sure to make a sound investment. For more information click here to speak with one of our advertising agents concerning a Myrtle Beach Condo or Rental Home investment.

Myrtle Beach Hotels, over the past 25 years, have slowly made the migration almost entirely towards the property management concept. Very few independent, non chain hotels are individually owned as of this writing in August of 2008.

Oceanfront Myrtle Beach Hotels were among the first to become property managed beginning in the last twenty years of the past century. The property management concept, where oceanfront hotels are built selling out each individual condo unit and then managing the concept for the home owners was pioneered in Myrtle Beach by S.M. Johnston. The concept performed well and oceanfront landowners found this a way to raise needed capital to build larger hotels with plush ammenities.

From the 1990's forward, Drake Development scored well with high end property management developments in North Myrtle Beach that included Asheworth, Windy Hill Dunes, North Shore Villas, and the outstanding Barefoot Resort concept. During the Real Estate boom, early in this decade, property owners purchased these high end condos and made great returns as some of these units doubled in value in just a few, short years.

With the onset of the Real Estate Depression that has gripped much of the nation, recent completions in Myrtle Beach including Anderson Ocean Club, Sandy Beach Resort, Oceans I, and the Ocean Blue Hotel have gone largely unsold with area banks holding the notes on many of these condos and some of these developments. Property Management firms are holding the line, however, and vacation rentals are strong on almost all of these new developments. If, as economists predict, we hit a bottom in the next eighteen months, any condo in any of the above developments might prove to be a worthy investment.

Myrtle Beach Hotels with low occupancy tend to be the more traditional, individually owned hotels that have largely disappeared. Even with good occupancy, however, Home owners are not able to meet mortgage demands from the rental income derived from the units that have been converted into Hotel property management concepts.

It is a sure sign that little, if no development will be occuring in the next few years. The fall out from this for the local economy has hurt construction workers, car salesmen, realtors, and all service industry employees. Unfortunately, until the daily rental rate for hotel rooms finds an increase, potential buyers will have little incentive to invest in any Oceanfront Condos unless they are able to find a short sale. Let's hope for a moderate increase in rentals and rental rates so as to help our overall Real Estate Sales. This rate change will require more diversity and a growing pool of new property management firms that are smaller and can compete with one another.