“But as an Airbnb?”
“Three bedroom, with twin beds, two people per room, six people max, furnished kitchen, furniture, I could ask anywhere between seven hundred and fifty, to five thousand.”
“Why such a difference?” Faith asked this time.
“The lower number would be for one night. The higher number would be for a week.”
“You’re telling me that you can get five grand a week for this place?”
“Or more, depending on what the outside looks like. I haven’t been out there yet.”
“Oh, there’s a little over a quarter of an acre. It’s completely fenced in, so what you see is all there is. There’s a covered patio, and though I don’t have one, because I tossed it last summer, but there is a place to put in a BBQ grill.”
They went out to look at it, and as Margaret nodded and snapped pictures, Faith looked at Shay.
“What do you think?”
“I can’t make that decision for you, Faith. I don’t know what your finances are.”
“I’m set, I don’t need the money.”
“Think about this,” Shay said after several minutes of silence. “Do you want the renters to call you all hours of the day and night with complaints? What if it’s sitting here empty for weeks on end, will anyone call you if someone breaks in and destroys it, or what if someone breaks in and starts to live here? Do you want to deal with reviews, the possibility of checks bouncing, credit cards declining, or the renters trying to dispute the charges and get them cancelled? Or do you want to get one lump sum and walk away from it all?”
“I never thought of what you just suggested, and since I don’t need the money, I’ll go with the one lump sum.”
“He’s right,” Margaret said as she joined them. “Everything he said is a possibility. As much as we try to be the person of contact, somehow the renters find the owners and start calling them with little problems.”
“How little?”
Margaret shook her head. “One renter wanted someone to come in and make their bed, and put out clean towels for them, every single day they stayed. They booked for the month. We told them if they wanted that service, then to go to the hotel. Once a renter is on the property, the cleaning company won’t come in until they are gone. Yet, another one said that the ice maker on the refrigerator leaked and they wanted a refund for the entire week. It started leaking three hours before they were due to leave. Two weeks.”
“Yeah, no, I’m not dealing with other people’s stupidity. Let’s see what you can come up with if I sell it outright, and in as is condition.”
They went back into the house, and by eleven o’clock, the paperwork was all filled out, and Faith had signed on the bottom line. She handed the house keys to Margaret, and after doing one final walk through, not finding anything missed, they went out, and Margaret placed a lock box on the front door. “I’ll go back to the office and get this listed. I have the photos, and I have your cell phone number if I need you. With today’s technology, we should be able to do everything over the internet. Do you have any questions before we leave?”
“When will you put the sign in the front yard?”
“As soon as I go to my truck and get it out. When I get back to the office, I’ll list it, meaning I’ll put it on our website, and upload the photos, along with the description of it.”
“Okay, do you need us to help with the sign?”
Before Margaret said anything, Shay spoke, “I’ll help.” He started toward the vehicle, and Margaret only shrugged, and instructed him on which sign, and where to put it. Ten minutes later, Margaret left, and Faith pulled out after her, heading west and to her new job, new life, new relationship.
CHAPTER 15
“Canyou pull off at that next rest stop?” Shay asked as he pointed out the front window at the sign that read a rest area was in thirty miles.”
“What? Why? We just stopped for gas, didn’t you go to the bathroom then?” She looked at Shay with a shocked, bug-eyed expression.
Shay laughed at her expression. “It’s not that, I want to talk to you about something, and I know you enough by now that if there’s a heavy decision on your mind, you like to think about it. I don’t want you to jerk the wheel when I talk to you.”
“I made a rash decision a couple of days ago about selling the house or turning it into an Airbnb.”
“Yes, but was it really rash? Or was it practical?”
She nodded, and cocked her head to the side. “There is that, I’ll agree with that. It was a practical decision. Okay, I’ll pull over.”
When the truck slowed down, Shay looked up to see she was pulling into the rest area, and his stomach suddenly tightened, and his heart fluttered. He knew he was probably going to be jumping the gun with what he wanted to discuss, but it’d been on his mind for a few days, and he needed to let her know whathe’d been thinking. There was no way he could get his answer if he didn’t voice the question.
