My wife and I have owned and managed several vacation properties on VRBO and have rented several for our trips as well. We live on 200 acres in rural Virginia so are very familiar with rural properties such as this.
1. The driveway was very steep and washed out. Our 15 passenger Ford Transit van had trouble getting up the driveway without the wheels spinning and had to get a fast running start to make it up the driveway, our wheels spinning as we went. Also, to get to the property you have to drive a few miles on a one lane road and encounter people coming at you in the opposite direction at a fast rate of speed.
2. The house was not cleaned properly. There was trash under all the beds, big clumps of hair laying around on the floors, cobwebs hanging off the living room furniture, etc. There were expose raised staples on the interior stair posts.
3. When we arrived there was a note saying the washing machine was broken and the master bathtub had a leak and we couldn't use either of them. The property managers showed up the first day bringing a replacement washer. It was an old used washer in poor shape and thumped loudly when it was run.
4. The gas stove did not work properly. Most of the burners would not light unless you it them manually. Also, the oven did not work properly. We tried merely cooking frozen pizzas and it burned the edges, leaving the middle uncooked.
5. There was no exhaust in the kitchen. This caused the smoke detectors to go off when cooking frozen pizza, frying eggs, steaming vegetables, etc., even though there was no smoke. We would have to open the windows and doors to to even heat food up.
6. The railing around the elevated deck by the pool is dangerous and not built to code. The railing was made from a thin gauge steel cable that was merely hanging loose between the posts. Since the deck was elevated several feet, this posed a great danger to our small children. These types of railings need a thicker gauge cable and you need to use turnbuckles in order to tighten them properly and keep them tightened as they will loosen over time.
7. There was personal junk stored everywhere throughout the house.
8. The house was advertised as being 30 minutes from the Ark Encounter and Creation Museum. It actually was minimum of 45 minutes to each.
This property could be an excellent vacation rental, but the above items need to be addressed before renting it out.
