I've seen plenty of real estate scams over the years, but this one was new to me. A homeowner thinking about listing with Swan Realty brought me an unsolicited offer he received from a company in New York.
He wanted to know if it was legit. Here's what I found.
View MoreIn our local Red River NM market, most owners think every vacation rental management company does the same job. They don't. And picking one on price alone can cost you a lot more than it saves.
Comparing managers on price is like comparing a BMW to a Chevy. There's a reason one costs more. One company might do the bare minimum, put your place up on VRBO and call it good. Another works your calendar, your pricing, your reviews, and more to keep you booked. Those are two very different levels of service under the same job title.
If your needs are simple and you don't want much, cheaper might be perfect. But if you're after higher occupancy and more hands-on vacation rental management, the pricier company could put more money in your pocket and cost you less in the long run. It's worth knowing what your property's earning potential is before you decide what level of service makes sense.
Be careful. The wrong contract can lock you into something that doesn't work for you. Before you sign anything, do your homework. Ask exactly what they do, how they do it, and what they'll do for you.
Don't pick a manager on price alone. Ask the right questions, compare what you actually get for the money, and make the number make sense.
Have questions or want to learn more? Give us a call at 575-613-4243. We're happy to help.
Rob Swan | Qualifying Broker | Swan Realty Inc.
I once got stuck and walked four miles home in cowboy boots. I'm not telling you that to scare you off. It's just one of the honest realities of living in Red River, and if you're thinking about making the move, you should hear a few of them straight.
At some point, you will be stuck in the snow. It's not an if, it's a when. That's part of living in the mountains, so it's a good idea to just plan on that happening at some point.
People ask me all the time whether the whole place shuts down when the tourists leave. It doesn't die. It just takes a breath. For about a month in the spring and a month in the fall, the shops close and everybody catches up. The rest of the year, it's hopping as usual.
There's no Costco, Walmart, Target or any other name brand store but it's not a problem. My mom's not entirely sure where my house is, but UPS does, so I don't really go without. Things just take a little longer to show up.
Red River isn't for everyone. That's probably why there are only about five hundred of us living here year round. But if it's for you, there's nowhere on earth that beats it. Forty years in, and I'm still here.
If small-town mountain living sounds like your kind of thing, I'd love to help you find your place. When you're ready to buy or sell, that's exactly what we do and we are really good at it.
Have questions or want to learn more? Give us a call at 575-613-4243. We're happy to help.
Rob Swan | Qualifying Broker | Swan Realty Inc.
Here's something that surprises a lot of rental owners. When travelers pick a vacation rental, whether the dog can come matters more than where the house actually sits. That's straight from VRBO's data on drive-to markets like Red River. People decide the dog is coming first, then they figure out where they're staying.
Think about what that means for your listing. If your Red River rental says no pets, you're getting filtered out before a guest ever sees the view, the hot tub, or the walk to Main Street. The location you're so proud of never even gets a look.
I know exactly why owners hang the no-pets sign. You're picturing chewed furniture and stained carpet. Here's the truth after more than a decade of managing properties in the Enchanted Circle: yes, I've had a few pet issues, and not one was a big deal. Every one got fixed with little trouble.
To a lot of travelers, the dog isn't a pet. It's family. And families book where everyone can stay together. Say no to the dog and you're saying no to the whole reservation.
Higher occupancy and more revenue are sitting on the other side of that no-pets sign. If you own a rental in Red River or Angel Fire and you've been turning pet owners away, it's worth reconsidering. According to the data, that one policy change will increase your revenue.
Have questions or want to learn more? Give us a call at 575-613-4243. We're happy to help.
Rob Swan | Qualifying Broker | Swan Realty Inc.
Putting your property into an LLC is one of the most common asset protection moves out there. What nobody tells you is that it can quietly wipe out your title insurance coverage. I wanted a straight answer, so I took the question directly to the title company's attorney. Here's what I learned.
Moving your property into an LLC after closing can invalidate your title insurance, but only under one circumstance. If you close in your own personal name, then transfer the property into the LLC, your coverage holds. There's a catch, though.
Your coverage stays intact only if the members of the LLC are the exact same people who held the title. Keep the ownership identical and you're fine. Add a member or drop one, and you'll most likely lose your coverage.
Think about what that means. Title insurance protects one of your biggest assets, and it can vanish over paperwork you didn't know mattered.
People place their properties into LLCs for good reasons, and there's real value in the strategy. Just don't assume your title coverage automatically comes along for the ride. This isn't legal or insurance advice. It's what I found by doing some research, so check with your title company first before you make any move.
A quick phone call before you transfer the deed can save you from a costly surprise later. Know the rule, keep your members consistent, and confirm it with your title company before anything gets recorded.
Have questions or want to learn more? Give us a call at 575-613-4243. We're happy to help.
Rob Swan | Qualifying Broker | Swan Realty Inc.
If you're looking at a property in the Enchanted Circle that gets its water from a shared well, you've probably run into the term "well share agreement." They're more common than you'd think, and they're nothing to be scared of. You just need to know what you're signing up for.
A well share agreement is exactly what it sounds like. Two or more owners share a single well. The well sits on one owner's parcel, and it provides water to every home that's part of the agreement. Everybody draws from the same source, and the agreement spells out how that works.
A solid agreement handles the stuff that matters before it becomes a problem. Who pays for pump repairs or a full replacement. Who covers the electricity to run the pump. And what the access easement to the well looks like, so the owners who don't sit on that parcel can still get to it. Nail those three things down and you've avoided most of the headaches.
Here's the part that gives buyers peace of mind. These agreements get filed with the county, so they run with the land, not the person who currently owns the property. When you sell, the next owner is covered under the same terms. You're not leaving them to sort it out on their own.
If you're buying a property with a well share already in place, read the agreement before you commit. It's a quick review, and it tells you exactly what you're on the hook for. This is the kind of thing I check on right alongside water and utility questions.
Well share agreements aren't complicated once you know what to look for. Get the agreement in hand, understand who pays for what, and you'll know exactly where you stand.
Have questions or want to learn more? Give us a call at 575-613-4243. We're happy to help.
Rob Swan | Qualifying Broker | Swan Realty Inc.
Here's a scenario that costs vacation rental owners real money every year, and most of them never see it coming. It comes down to one thing: whether you can handle back-to-back reservations.
A back-to-back means one guest checks out and another checks in on the same day. No empty night in between. It sounds simple, but if you or your property manager can't turn a property around that fast, you leave a gap between every stay. Those gaps add up fast.
Let's run the numbers. A decent occupancy rate for a vacation rental is around 50%, which works out to about 182 nights rented per year. Say your average stay is 3 nights. That's roughly 61 reservations a year.
Now imagine you can't do back-to-backs and you burn one empty night between every stay. That's 61 lost nights. At an average rate of $300 a night, you just left more than $18,000 on the table.
Yes, I simplified this to make a point. But the point is, if you can't accommodate back-to-back reservations, you are losing money, it's that simple.
This is where solid property management earns its keep. Fast, reliable turnovers are the difference between a rental that pays and one that leaks income. If you want your place to make real money, the ability to turn it over in a day is non-negotiable.
Take a hard look at how your property gets managed. If empty nights are stacking up between guests, that's your revenue walking out the door.
Have questions or want to learn more? Give us a call at 575-613-4243. We're happy to help.
Rob Swan | Qualifying Broker | Swan Realty Inc.
You order a survey, it comes back, and there it is: an encroachment. Before you panic, take a breath. This happens more often than you'd think, and it's rarely the disaster the word makes it sound like.
An encroachment is just something crossing a property line where it shouldn't be. Maybe a fence sits a foot over the boundary. Maybe the corner of your neighbor's shed clips onto your land. Maybe a driveway spills onto the lot next door. Minor stuff like this is common, and a good property survey is exactly what brings it to light.
Here's the real sequence. The buyer gets made aware of it. The title company flags the encroachment as an exception to the policy. And then, in most cases, they still go ahead and insure the property. They just won't insure that one specific encroachment. That's the whole story.
Almost never. People hear "encroachment" and jump straight to the worst case. In reality, a minor one is more like a footnote that all parties acknowledge and move past. It doesn't stop the sale.
Knowing how surveys and title work ahead of time keeps a small finding from feeling like a big problem. If you're buying or selling in the Enchanted Circle and something turns up on a survey, it's usually far less scary than it sounds.
Have questions or want to learn more? Give us a call at 575-613-4243. We're happy to help.
Rob Swan | Qualifying Broker | Swan Realty Inc.
Right now, someone you have never met could be walking through your vacation rental.
Most owners never think to ask who that person is. That's worth fixing before it turns into a problem.
Cleaning crews come and go all season long in a busy Red River rental. They have access to your home and all the items in your home. If you can't say who is allowed to hold a key, you're trusting a stranger by default.
Here's the assumption I hear most often: the cleaners work for the management company, so somebody must have checked them out. Not necessarily. Every company operates differently, and plenty of them aren't running background checks at all. Nobody is going to volunteer that information unless you ask for it.
Ask any property management company you're considering whether every person who enters your home has cleared a background check. At Red River Nightly Rentals, every single person who cleans your home has been through one.
When you shop management companies on price alone, you're not comparing apples to apples. You're comparing apples to oranges, and this one question shows you the difference fast.
Your rental is an investment and it's also your house. Knowing exactly who walks through the door is basic protection, and it costs you nothing but one question.
Have questions or want to learn more? Give us a call at 575-613-4243. We're happy to help.
Rob Swan | Qualifying Broker | Swan Realty Inc.
If you own land with water running through it in New Mexico, what you do at the river's edge matters more than you might think. A fence and a sign were enough to put one landowner in front of a judge.
Back on May 15 I posted a video about the 10th Circuit affirming the public's right to fish every river in New Mexico. In it I mentioned a case where the state had filed charges against a landowner who tried to keep people from using the river. Here's the follow up, and it doubles as a warning.
Erik Briones was charged with five felony counts, most of them tied to threatening people with a gun. He was also charged with public nuisance, a misdemeanor, and that's the charge I find most interesting.
In New Mexico, part of the definition of public nuisance covers interfering with the public's right to use public property. Briones put a fence across the river and posted a no trespassing sign. Under state law, either one of those can be construed as a violation if it's being used to obstruct a lawful public right of access.
You don't have to hang a welcome sign. But I'd suggest not doing anything that deters people from exercising their legal rights, especially when it comes to public land or water. All it takes is one person filing a police report to open an investigation or get a citation issued.
If you own or are shopping for land along the water in Red River or anywhere in the Enchanted Circle or New Mexico, find out exactly where your boundaries stop and the public's rights start before you build anything. Defense attorneys are not cheap.
Have questions or want to learn more? Give us a call at 575-613-4243. We're happy to help.
Rob Swan | Qualifying Broker | Swan Realty Inc.