Any advice on renting to non US citizen?

[Sue K]

I have never rented out my timeshare but now find I need to because of a family situation that has come up. I am a little nervous about doing a rental for the first time and now, to make matters worse, I have two serious inquiries from what appears to be non US citizens. Any advice on renting to someone outside the US? Help!

 

[yumdrey]

First, make sure if they are scam or not. If they say they would send money order or cashiers check for the huge amount and want to get the rest of money from you, they are scam.
If I were you, I would ask them for the references in USA who know them. If they fail to provide any references in USA, it's too risky.

 

[sernow]

Open a paypal account if you don't already have one and send them an invoice thru paypal for the rental fee. The invoice will instruct them on how to open a paypal account if they don't already have one. They can then pay by funding thru their checking account or, if you pay for a premier account, they can use a credit card.

 

[Talent312]

You may want to set up a PayPal account to receive payments, both for U.S. and non-U.S. renters. IMHO, its the most effective way of dealing with foreign currency transactions.

But otherwise, insist on payment in U.S. funds drawn on an international bank with a branch in the U.S. (like HSBC). Before depositing a check, verify the routing number to make sure that it tracks back to a legitimate financial institution.

See: http://www.fedwiredirectory.frb.org/search.cfm
and: http://www.gregthatcher.com/Financial/Default.aspx

As another poster said, many inquiries come from scammers. If someone offers to sent or simply delivers a deposit for more than what is required and asks you to refund the difference, its a scam.

 

[silvib]

I don't see that there should be a problem providing you get your money up front. Lots of Brits rent homes for their vacations in Florida through the internet with private individual owners, I'm sure they could feel equally doubtful about the legitimacy of what is being offered to them, especially after they've sent their money. Works both ways.

 

[Sue K]

The timeshare I am renting is in Aruba. Both parties who have inquired, I now found out, are from Venezuela and as Venezuela is quite close to Aruba, I know it is a favorite vacationing spot for Venezuelans. So, I now feel a little better about this. They have offered to wire me the money so that should be okay, right? The one woman who I think I will rent it to, says she will call me if I send her my phone number so this sounds legit, don't you think???? I think I will go to my bank on Monday to check that out. Any other suggestions???

 

[Talent312]

The timeshare I am renting is in Aruba. Both parties who have inquired, I now found out, are from Venezuela and as Venezuela is quite close to Aruba, I know it is a favorite vacationing spot for Venezuelans. So, I now feel a little better about this. They have offered to wire me the money so that should be okay, right? The one woman who I think I will rent it to, says she will call me if I send her my phone number so this sounds legit, don't you think???? I think I will go to my bank on Monday to check that out. Any other suggestions???

Yes, it sounds legit.
However, your bank may charge a ricidulous fee for accepting a wire transfer -- mine did when I wired $$ from a broker for a R/E deal. When you find out what that is, you could add it to the rent.

Many renters require a substantial deposit up front to make the reservation and the balance a few months prior to its use, giving you time to cancel if they don't pony up. But you could point out that they'll save on wire-transfer fees if they pay 100% up front.

 

[pammex]

I have never rented out my timeshare but now find I need to because of a family situation that has come up. I am a little nervous about doing a rental for the first time and now, to make matters worse, I have two serious inquiries from what appears to be non US citizens. Any advice on renting to someone outside the US? Help!

You received some great info on here....I spend a lot of time out of country but that does not mean I would not be a good renter.....so follow the suggestions given and think you will be okay.

I have found in thinking of my renting out some of my units that was presence many times in another country could be a problem and pose suspicion etc. to renters, and to me, so thus it is true it does work both ways. Oh I am a US citizen of course.

I wish you luck and just watch out for the spammers and such and you should I assume be fine..Best wishes!

 

[lvhmbh]

We rented to a gentleman and his family from Holland and they sent us a wire transfer. As soon as it was received I notified the resort to accept him as my guest. Linda

 

[Phill12]

We rented to a gentleman and his family from Holland and they sent us a wire transfer. As soon as it was received I notified the resort to accept him as my guest. Linda

Linda this is what another poster meant about trust does go both ways here.

Owners are the ones trying to make some money by renting then don't trust the renters. How about the renters being told to trust the owner and just pay upfront.

Many of these owners do need to understand this and be careful but also understand what the honest family is going through while trying to rent.

I would spend couple hundred more to rent from the resort than from a owner knowing it was safe and had backing from the resort if there are problems.

We did this couple times while out of timesharing for ten years so some owners do need to understand.

PHIL

 

[Sue K]

Thanks everyone for all of your helpful advice! Although I have never rented out my t/s, I have rented extra weeks from others and I certainly know how it can go both ways. I am such an honest person I always assume everyone else is also, but sometimes that is not the case. Hopefully my renter is also one of those honest ones!

 

[DeniseM]

This is what I do:

1. Ask for a $100 deposit via Paypal to put the reservation in the renter's name.
2. Have the resort send the renter a confirmation in the renter's name.
3. Once the renter receives the confirmation, the balance is due in full within 24 hours.
4. The reservation is nonrefundable and noncancellable - I make that clear in my terms.
5. I always recommend Travel Insurance.

Everyone I've rented to has been happy with this - they really like getting a confirmation from the resort in their name and it is quick and easy for both parties. Since anyone can open a Paypal Acct. I would be reluctant to accept payment any other way. If a renter has too many demands or I don't have a comfortable feeling about them, I would politely decline to rent to them and find someone easier to work with. Remember - you have no obligation to rent to anyone - you're in the driver's seat!

 

[Patri]

Denise, if the renter wouldn't send the balance, would you tell the resort to cancel their confirmation? They would have to take your word for it that you haven't been paid in full.

 

[DeniseM]

Denise, if the renter wouldn't send the balance, would you tell the resort to cancel their confirmation? They would have to take your word for it that you haven't been paid in full.

I sure would - in fact I have! Last summer someone paid the deposit to rent my Kauai TS and after they received the reservation, they decided airfare was too expensive and backed out.

There was no issue of the resort "taking my word for it," because there was no reason to discuss it with the resort in the first place. As the owner I have the right to make any changes I see fit in my reservation. I simply called them up and ask the resort to put my name back on the reservation - no problem.

 

[brucecz]

We had one from England who wanted our Checking account number to supposely send money to our account buy one of our timeshares. We had talked to each over on the phone several times over several weeks.

When we told him we wanted to be paid by Paypal he said that was unexceptable and broke off all contract after getty huffy when we would not give him access to our account.

It appears that they wanted our account number to empty out our account.
If you are going to do some type of bank transfer make sure that they can not get your account numbers from you or your bank.

We in all foreign rental or for sale inquiries from anywere else besides the US or Canada, we let them know in our first resonse to them we will only except Paypal.

That ends most of those inquiries

I do rentals very similar to the way Denise M does.

1 But we get 100 % of the rental up front

2. In regards to establishibg trust with a renter or buyer. We have our floating reservations and fixed week ownership warrenty deeds on our computor to send out to verify our right to sell or rent out our ownerships.
We of course remove the reservation numbers from these until the rental is fully paid for. We do remove any account numbers on our emailed information.

3. The reservation is nonrefundable and noncancellable - I make that clear in my terms.

4. I always recommend Travel Insurance and have about 7 companies listed as item number 7 in my full rental agreements.



Be very carefull and good luck.

Bruce

 

[Sue K]

Interesting things I'm learning along the way....

We live in a small town and know the people at our bank very well. My husband went to the bank and discussed this with them. The bank said that if we give the renter our account number and they empty our account, it is the bank's problem, not ours. It will cost us $12 to receive the wire transfer. As Paypal would charge us $140 for our deal we decided to go with the wire transfer. Just to be certain my husband opened a new savings account just for this transfer. He had to put $50 into it to open the account. If the bank manager my husband talked to gave him the wrong information (hardly) the most we would be out would be $62. I would gamble on that as opposed to paying pay pal $140.

 

[DeniseM]

I would gamble on that as opposed to paying pay pal $140.

Why would you pay Paypal $140? Is the rent $4,000?

 

[Sue K]

The sticky at the top of this thread says that Paypal charges a 4% process fee. We are charging $3500 for the rental. My calculator tell me that amount would be $140.

 

[sjuhawk_jd]

Paypal fees

It is 2.9% and not 4%

 

[DeniseM]

The sticky at the top of this thread says that Paypal charges a 4% process fee. We are charging $3500 for the rental. My calculator tell me that amount would be $140.

Do you mind if I ask what you are renting for $3,500? This is a straight deal right - you aren't refunding any money to the renter or anything like that?

 

[DeniseM]

Your Paypal fee is based on how much you receive every month.

Monthly sales Price per transaction

$0.00 USD - $3,000.00 USD 2.9% + $0.30 USD

$3,000.01 USD - $10,000.00 USD 2.5% + $0.30 USD

$10,000.01 USD - $100,000.00 USD 2.2% + $0.30 USD

> $100,000.00 USD 1.9% + $0.30 USD

Since this is a one time deal, the OP's Paypal fee would be 2.5% + $.30 or about $87.80

If the seller pays by eCheck (transfers funds from a bank Acct.) the Max. Paypal fee is $5.

Fees for receiving eCheck payments will not exceed $5.00 USD per transaction. eBay sellers can also choose to offer promotional financing terms on PayPal Buyer Credit funded purchases for an additional fee.

 

[DeniseM]

Sue - did you receive your payment OK?

 

[Sue K]

An update on my rental

The deal is done and after all of my concerns it couldn't have been any easier. As I said earlier, my husband opened a new savings account with the $50 balance required at our bank. The renter wired us the full amount in $US to that account. The fee for receiving the wire transfer was $12 for us, which we chose to pay. Much cheaper than what we would have had to pay Pay Pal. When we received the money we transfered it to another one of our accounts. I also sent them a list of rules regarding the resort including the fact that they would be responsible for any damage done to the unit. We then notified the resort to put the unit in the renter's name which they did. We then sent the renter a copy of that confirmation. It all went so well I don't know what I was losing sleep over.

Thanks everyone for all of your help!