[Ohiogirl]

I advertised on both thevillages4rent.com and vacationrentals.com. Managed it myself from afar, with a local caretaker there to meet and greet, provide orientation to the property, and call for assistance if any problems. I also was almost always available by email or phone, and provided both to the tenant.

Contrary to what someone posted earlier, you do not have to have professionally managed properties to be on vacationrentals.com or ****.com or homeaway.com (all similar, IMO). In fact, I think the majority are owner-managed.

I emailed customized (for each tenant) leases after emailing back and forth about the agreed upon price and dates, asked the prospective tenant to print out, sign and mail back with the deposit check. My lease addressed matters such as cancellation by both tenant and landlord, although I never cancelled anyone. It is so easy to do this with computers and email that there really is no excuse for x'ed out lines, etc. If you cannot do this, you probably shouldn't be managing your property.

All that being said, you are still trusting that things will be as they appear. I would hope that prospective tenants would at least check property records to see that the name of the person on their check is the name of the person on the deed, and anything else they can find out with at least a minimal online search.

I don't rent it out anymore, since we retired and moved down for a good part of every year, but we are now getting into home exchanging on a limited basis, and only when I feel secure about the person we are exchanging with. It's still a matter of trust.

I had as complete a notebook as I could make (added anything I could think of) with how to work stuff like golf carts, make tee times, get on wifi, etc. available to the tenant. Glad I kept the notebook, which I will now update for the home exchanger, and will do the same for our Columbus, OH area condo.

If you've been on this forum long enough, you can hear bad things about property managers as well, either a company or an individual. If an individual, what if that person gets sick or worse? There was a company a couple of years ago that closed suddenly, I think owing several landlords deposit or rent money. Don't know if the same happened to the tenants.

It's the difference between staying in a hotel property and taking a chance on an owner-rented home. I bet 98-99% of rentals go just fine; it's just that you hear about the problem ones.