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Originally Posted by cgalloway6

That's painting everyone on villages4rent with a pretty broad brush. The OP didn't like the contract presented to him and the landlord didn't like the contract he returned so the deposit was returned. What would expect to happen - either party signing a contract they didn't like?
If you have a signed contract you have the same legal rights as anyone using a property manager. If you don't have a signed contract, the property manager can return your deposit and sign someone else to the same time you want. The rules are determined by the state and the contract, not by a "licensed property manager". Your deposit is protected under the same Florida laws whether you use a property manager or not.

Yes I have a house for rent at villages4rent and I want to have happy renters that will take care of the property and come back.
If someone asks about a certain date we hold the date for them and tell anyone else that asks that it is reserved but not leased and will put them on a list to contact if it becomes available. Many times we lose both because the first one never calls back to confirm or return the application and the others don't want to wait to find out if the property will be available or not.
We check references and have someone to clean and inspect the home after each rental. They are also available if there is any problem we can't fix over the phone. Deposits are returned promptly after inspection.
The OP had a bad experience and I can sympathize with them. It is a learning experience if you haven't been a landlord before and no matter how hard you try to do the right thing, you can make a mistake. There could have been more communication between the two other than just passing a marked up contract back and forth but it was a learning occasion for both parties. I hope they can work it out if the home isn't rented already.

I stand by every word I wrote. By no means am I claiming all or even a large number of owners who use villages4rent are not completely reliable. What I am saying is that prospective renters have experienced some serious problems with individual owners. Here are some examples:

1) False advertising. Not long ago I looked through the 4rent listings. I found three owners who clearly mentioned that their property had a pool. When I looked into the properties more closely, none had a pool. One owner did clarify things in the fine print by mentioning that the pool was "within short walking distance" (ie: neighborhood pool)

2) Contract Problems. The OP of this thread cites the second recent case I'm aware of which reports the same basic thing; that the contract proposed was essentially impossible to deal with.

3) No One Around. This forum has contained at least several complaints in the last couple of years about folks who showed up at their 4rent home and had to admit themselves. They received no real welcome orientation and when they had some questions and needed help with a few things, the owner was unavailable.

4) Taxes? Lots of talk here recently about who and how county and state sales taxes are paid. In fact this can always be an issue with 4rent properties unless the owners clearly state how it's done. Few do. Property managers automatically deal with this as part of the process.

OK, now it's time to give all of these 4rent owners the benefit of the doubt. I'll speculate that they just don't know all of the things they should do to prepare and operate a good rental property. Perhaps they mean well and thankfully they are certainly in the minority.

My point is that licensed property managers not only know every detail of what is needed for a good rental experience, but they are paid to provide all that service as well. The rates I see for properties professionally managed are not higher than owner operated properties. They may even be less because managers know when to make deals and price properties to get more rentals. I've seen this all first-hand. Folks who've read my posts know I have the best manager in TV. My rentals couldn't be better and I love how much my guests love my place. I'd hope all TV guests might have nothing but positive experiences when they come here.