Be careful with renters. You need an agency that will monitor and weed out riff raff! Our neighbours have been renting, many are, and some have no respect for your cottage, neighbours, or property. The photo (left) shows a PWC harassing a loon. For my story, with a horror story/comment, read my Fireworks post!
One good source of info is here at Cottage Blogger. Heather writes a great blog, with valuable tips and information. There is a book for serious cottage owners who want to do this right. (She warns about guests with COLIC!) You need to educate tourists, used to the ways of city life, to the etiquette of Muskoka life.
One way to do it is to have a neighbour monitor guests, tell them whom to expect, and what to do in the event of trouble. I signed up with CottageLink, but there are many rental agencies and bus
inesses that will arrange for renters. We had numerous phone calls, with little action last year. I took our place off of the market. Being semi-detached it just didn't work out for us.The rental market was saturated last year: both in terms of quantity of rental properties available and rainfall! Renters had their choice of properties. They drag up high-speed PWCs for a week and zoom around - missing the beauty of a lake at sunset.
I look forward to seeing our seasonal visitors, not so much the tourists who have little respect for those of us who live here year round, work, and must get up in the mornings! I always breathe a sigh of relief in September!
4 comments:
Hi Jennifer
Sounds like you had some rough times with renters. Sorry to hear that. We spend a lot of time as an agency, screening out renters, and always find out what they are looking for in the way of a vacation before renting to them. We typically turn away 30% of applicants because we don't feel they are a good match for a particular cottage.
I wish all were as conscientious as you, Heather! Many do it hands-off, some simply by word of mouth. Keep up the great work!
It seems that there is no regulations for the lake? That's an awful lot of jet skis out there.
There are a lot of jet skis, junosmom. The lake is saturated - meaning no one can build any more cottages.
The marine laws state that they must go less than 10 km/hour within 30m of shore, but who can patrol this?
Boats go back and forth and exhibit dangerous behaviour: speeding alongside one another - that male testosterone thing again. It has caused some of my family members to sell their cottages and move away.
The police come and set up patrols, they bring their boats on a trailer and cruise the lake, but boaters see them coming. The most dangerous is having three on a PWC, with baby in front. As a mom, you wouldn't think people would do that but they do!
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