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Old 04-03-2014, 05:20 PM
dalecrenshaw dalecrenshaw is offline
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Location: Princeton NJ; Saratoga, CA; El Dorado Hills, CA
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I have had several property managers for our home in the historic side of the Villages. My experience is that it is easier and less expensive to rent it yourself. Once you have registered with the County and State tax offices, it is easy to pay the 11% tax (7% to the State and 4% to Lake County) on month to month rentals. If it is rented over 6 months, then there is no tax due to the state or county. I think that most of the property managers can rent out the house very easily during Jan/Feb/March, but you can just as easily find a renter for those months. The rest of the months are more challenging to find renters, so you will have to lower the rent during those months. Doublewides rent for more than single wides. It is easy to figure out what your house should rent for if you look at some of the vacation rental websites for the Villages. I found that the property managers really don't even try to rent it out in the off season. And, most of them really don't do anything other than collect the rent & tax and pay it, rent it out for Jan/Feb/March, and take care of an occasional problem that might arise (such as dishwasher that's not working, plumbing problems, etc) but they will charge you for their time plus the cost for repairs. I have some real horror stories about the property managers that I have had over the years...and finally decided it was easier and less expensive to do it myself - long distance from California. It really has worked out much better and I wish I had decided to go that way from the start.

P.S. That is not to say that there aren't some good property managers, such as the 2 mentioned above...but I just happened to find some really bad ones, even though they were recommended.