Cape Cod is nearing its busy summer season, when many families seek out vacation properties to rent. This oceanfront home in Osterville, which has eight bedrooms, four bathrooms and a private beach with showers and changing rooms, is available for parts of July and August for $12,500 per week.

With just eight weeks before the official start of summer, real estate agents on Cape Cod and in Martha’s Vineyard are gearing up for the annual flock of vacationers and visitors.

While some real estate agents on the Cape are reporting that a good portion of their rental property listings have already been booked and they are receiving a steady stream of phone calls and e-mails from prospective vacationers, they also point out that there are plenty of available homes and condominiums still available for rent during the summer season.

“We have been very brisk with reservations,” said Jean M. Ellis, director of vacation rentals for Kinlin Grover GMAC Real Estate in Brewster, which handles almost 1,000 property rentals throughout the Cape. “The market seems very similar to the past three years. We’re expecting a lot of late bookings.”

Local Realtors say the vacation rental market on the Cape has shifted over the last four years to a somewhat slower pace. Prior to 2001, most vacationers reserved rental properties in the winter months in order to secure the home, condo or cottage they wanted. If vacationers didn’t book a place by March, they had a slim selection of less desirable properties to choose from.

Now, it’s not uncommon for someone to call in July for an August rental, according to agents in the area. The amount of reservations and business that used to be conducted during the first quarter is now spread over the first two quarters, explained Ellis.

“We’ve experienced a lot of late bookings over the last couple years,” she said.

Part of the reason for the delay in bookings is that a lot of visitors are turning to the Internet to search for rental properties. Most real estate companies have created user-friendly Web sites, complete with extensive information and photos of properties, which make it easier for consumers to make a decision without having to leave the comfort of their homes.

Linda Collins, broker-owner of Orleans-based At the Cape Properties, estimates that 95 percent of her business with renters is conducted online. Her company’s Web site features photos of every room of homes that are available for rent as well as photos of the nearest beaches. The only information the Web site doesn’t include is the addresses of the properties.

Collins said in the 1980s and even the 1990s, vacationers would travel to the Cape during the winter and spring so that agents could drive them around to show them homes that were available for the summer. Now, visitors can view photos online and if they are interested in a particular home and make contact with At the Cape Properties, the company will provide the home address if the visitor wants to drive by and see the rental.

Rental activity at At the Cape Properties, which has about 63 listings in communities like Brewster, Orleans and Barnstable, is up 20 percent from the same period last year, with about 50 percent of the listings already reserved, according to Collins. “Whether that means [renters] are booking earlier remains to be seen,” she said.

‘A Real Uptick’

In addition to aiding real estate companies, the Internet has spawned various rent-by-owner sites that encourage homeowners and renters to bypass traditional rental agents. But real estate professionals caution renters that there are several risks with such transactions, including ending up with a rental property that is in poor condition. And most real estate agents interviewed by Banker & Tradesman said many homeowners who think they can rent on their own have trouble finding appropriate tenants and ultimately seek out professional assistance.

Another factor that has influenced the vacation rentals in the region is the booming second-home market on the Cape. Consumers who previously rented on the Cape have been spurred by low interest rates and rising property values to purchase properties. A good portion of them rent those homes to vacationers for part of the season.

“The second-home buyers who purchase here, a lot them buy for investment purposes,” said Terrie E. Reilly, a sales and rental agent with Oyster Real Estate in Osterville.

As a result, there are more homes available for rent. “In Osterville, sales and rentals have been very healthy,” said Reilly.

About 45 percent of her office’s 40 listings have already been booked, according to Reilly. Unlike Kinlin Grover GMAC and many other real estate agencies in the area that handle weekly rentals, Oyster Real Estate has monthly and seasonal rentals in the Barnstable villages of Osterville and Cotuit that rent anywhere from $6,000 to $75,000 a month.

“The season is just starting,” she said. “It seems to be healthy.”

Meanwhile, rental rates have stabilized in the last several years, according to those in the industry. Kinlin Grover’s Ellis said there has been little appreciation over the past two years in rental rates.

Ellis said it was not unusual to see rent increases of between 10 percent and 15 percent prior to 2001, but since then rental rates have remained “very stable and competitive.”

In Provincetown, rental agent Jackie Kelly said that so far she has been as busy this year as she was in 2004.

Kelly, an agent with Atlantic Bay Real Estate – which has an inventory of about 300 listings – said repeat clients are the company’s “bread and butter.”

“This office has had such a steady clientele for so long,” she said.

On Martha’s Vineyard, where companies like Coldwell Banker Landmarks Real Estate also see a lot of repeat business, many of the tenants who vacationed there in the past have reserved properties since the fall. Judy Federowicz, principal of the company, said that’s because ferry tickets to the island are tough to come by as summer approaches.

In fact, Federowicz said it’s critical for property owners who still have openings for the summer to be flexible with rental terms because there are no open ferry reservations left for weekend days.

Coldwell Banker Landmarks Real Estate, which has four brokers who take reservations for rentals, has about 375 listings.

“The Internet, we have found at this point, is our greatest resource,” said Federowicz. “There has been a real uptick in the level of activity in the last three weeks. Right now we’re about even with last year.”

Rents on the island have remained flat, and vacationers have a wider selection of homes to choose from on Martha’s Vineyard as many new residences have been built in recent years. “I don’t think anyone has bumped up their rates for a few years,” she said. “We had a slow start, and a lot of it had to do with the weather.”