As Spring approaches, residents of North Augusta look to one of the most anticipated times of the year: Masters Week. Considering the week’s strong effect on the lives of residents, students receive this week as spring break. During this time, students have the time to relax and unwind before getting their noses back to the grindstone, studying for exams and finishing out the year strong.
Masters Week is a rather familiar time to most North Augusta residents, especially those with experience renting out their houses to guests from around the country. The process of renting out your house is a tedious one, but it isn’t without reward.
One member of the community, Rócio O’Shea, is a past renter.
“We start preparing for Masters Week in October, and start checking lights and things that need to be repaired,” she says. Checking to make sure that everything is in order is usually one of the biggest parts of the process, and requires the most labor.
O’Shea said, “For me, I’m always thinking about Masters Week. You have to keep things clean and make sure everything is uncluttered. Usually in January we start going room-to-room and cleaning.”
One sacrifice that is made during the Masters Week preparation is the removal of personal items, such as pictures or mementos that are kept around the house. “Masters Week can limit what you do with your house sometimes, because all I’m thinking about is The Masters,” says O’Shea.
A lot of renters normally think that renting out their house equates to free money, when in reality, it doesn’t. Jeff Partl, a past and present renter, says “When I first started renting, I thought that it [Masters Week] was just free money, but there is a lot more effort than you think. We spent great amounts of money trying to appease the guests so they want to come back. They want TVs, all these sheets, towels, and blankets, mainly because you just don’t want them using your stuff.”
One of the more present facets of renting out a home is how to feed guests, and in his experience, Partl says “Most guys, if they’re golfers at least, usually just wake up and have a cup of coffee, maybe grabbing a breakfast bar before they go out to the course. They have access to the whole kitchen, but we normally just buy some breakfast items.”
The issue is one important to many North Augusta students, as many families must leave for the week when they rent out their houses. As Masters week draws nearer, it is certain that students will continue to prepare their homes for renters, while in anticipation of a restful Spring Break.
Photo contributed by the Masters Tournament.
Comments