Ben Edwards was one of the first people I met at the Vacation Rental Managers’ Association conference in San Diego last year, at the meet and greet. As President of the Association he has a lot of insight into the vacation rental industry; as a manager at Newman-Dailey Resort Properties he’s got hands-on experience of the day-to-day operation of the business, and as principal of a consulting company specializing in buy/sell transactions, his financial background is invaluable. As you might imagine, we had a wide-ranging conversation and he was a lot of fun to talk to.

>Tweet: .@Cottageguru with @VRMA President Ben Edwards – buying and selling a #VacationRental business http://ctt.ec/Ywt46+ pic.twitter.com/6TY0

Ben has some great tips on selling a vacation rental company or home and shares his experience of managing 100+ transactions. He talks about:

• How a chance internship turned a prospective law student into a vacation rental professional

• The experiences gained from working for the founder of Newman-Dailey Resort Properties (who happens to be his mother-in-law)

• How a company needs to think about selling long before it actually happens

• The compelling story that can result in a successful sale

• The EBITDA and its relevance to valuing a company for sale

• What you need to add back in to boost the sales price

• How to find a buyer….and how to find a company to buy

• What an independent owner needs to do before they put their VR property up for sale

• The role of an advisor and why there’s value in engaging someone to act on your behalf

• Issues of regulation and why this is going to have major impact on the VR business

Links

Weatherby Consulting

Exit Strategy – Ensuring Top Dollar for Your Vacation Rental Management Company

Sanctuary Vacation Rentals

Newman-Dailey Resort Properties

A Guide to Buying and Selling a Vacation Rental Company (Slideshare)

EBITDA explained

Where you can find Ben:

Website

Twitter

Facebook

Google+

LinkedIN