Re: Villa Rentals
We used to own a patio villa we rented out. If you go thru The Villages, they take a huge cut. You can call Property Management to get the details, although I did hear that they're not in the rental business anymore, so maybe you have to look for someone else. Some of the real estate companies outside The Villages handle rentors. We did ours on our own. I would say no problem at all renting in the high season - Jan, Feb., March. Outside of that, the only way we could keep it rented was if our price was very competitive i.e. low. I don't think the market is as good as it was few years ago. A lot of people bought villas hoping to flip them, or bought homes before they sold their original home, and got caught in the housing slump. To make ends meet they're trying to rent out their places until the market rebounds. As a consequence there are a lot of rentals out there, so tremendous competition in the off season where there isn't as much demand. Tax wise, there are a lot of write-offs if you don't use the place yourself--depreciation on the home, write off the amenity fees, utilities, pest control, etc. You'd want to check with your accountant ahead of time. I believe we also wrote off or depreciated the furniture we purchased. We pretty much broke even on ours and it paid for itself for the time period we owned, but with the rental market as it is now, I doubt that you could do that. We got lucky and had rentors that returned each year too, in the off season. You have to have a nicely decorated place, and good location to get top dollar. For renting, I think you might have better luck with a place south of RT 466, as its closer to the squares. Again, pricing is so important. There was a patio villa down the street from us that was asking exorbitant rent, and they could't rent it in the fall and spring. We would look at all the internet ads, and call places in the Daily sun, to find the cheapest patio villa, then price ours less. When placing my ad in the daily sun, I would always list the price (some people dont do this, they just put a phone number in.) I think that helps. Some people just don't like to make phone calls to see what the rent is - if you have it there in plain sight, they'll see it and then call for information. I also listed our email address, and I had photos on the web I could direct them to. Also, a word of advice - the Daily Sun charges almost $100 for an 8 day ad.
Hope this helps.
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