Village Rental Service

[livsea2]

If you sign up with the villages to have them rent your Villa/House do they have you sign with them for a certain period of time? I have read that they make you pay their commission even if you use it yourself. What would stop you from taking it out of their program for a month or so, using it yourself, then putting it back in their program after. There must be some sort of contract then? Thanks for any answers.

[ilvgolf]

You do have to sign a contract with them and if you come down to use your house yourself, they charge you the 20% commission that they would otherwise receive if they had rented it during the time you would be here. Also, they won't take all houses into their management program. My neighbors (two of them) both had their homes in the property management program and when their contracts were up they were told that the villages would no longer be using their kinds of homes for rentals. Now, take to mind, these are very nice homes but not big ones and are not on the "new side" (across 466) and I think that is why they took them out of their program so they could "lure" them to the new side. JMO as to why they did that.

[MelZ]

The agreement with Property Management can be cancelled by either party, and they do get 20% of the rental fee when you use your house.

I would not think they would view anyone who cancelled and they renewed after a short stay favorably. The 20% is a lot less than the cost of a hotel room (probably an average of $25-30 per night).

My house is in the property management system and we have been very happy. I don't mind paying when I come down. Remember they have to pay the property managers and support staff.

[SteveFromNY]

Some clarification re: TV Propery Management

We just canceled our Property Management contract and had no problem whatsoever - the agreement calls for some advance notice any you need to give it to them, but they are pretty flexible AS LONG IT IT'S NOT DURING THE HIGH SEASON!! That's the period they have a big demand of course. During the rest of the year they typically use it for a few days or a week at a time for preview visits, and can move people around no problem. If they collect rent up front and then have no place to put people because you canceled your agreement, I'm sure there would be issues.

As far as canceling then joining again, I never tried, so I can't say what they'd do.

The contracts run from July to July (but that changed a couple of times while we were using them - 1st it was April to April, then June I think). We just told them we weren't renewing this past July. We were in the program for 3 years, and finally we are in a position where we can live there.

You do have to pay them their 20% when you use the house. But 2 things to keep in mind about this: 1st, it can be deducted as it is an expense by you. As the landlord (not the tenant) you pay this charge to TVPM, so it is a deductible expense. So it's you paying yourself and then paying TVPM. Sounds hokey I guess, but it seems to work. 2nd thing, during months where there is rental activity, they do not charge the fee for a caretaker. I think (but can't swear to it) that this included the months where we used the house too. They tried to rent the house for some period of time every month too. So there was some income nearly every month, meaning we didn't pay a heck of a lot for the caretaker.

I would suggest talking to them if you are considering using them. While there are ways to accomplish the same things cheaper, like most other things in TV, it costs a little more but you get first class, problem free treatment. They provide reporting on a monthly and annual basis, auto-deposit your money to you, keep the house in top-notch shape, and screen the tenants. It was really easy for us! We only laid out a few dollars up front for emergency lighting - like a hotel has - and a fire extinguisher, and to start a petty cash account in case the caretaker needed to buy anything (light bulbs, etc). Any other fees came out of the proceeds from rent. Their cleaners were excellent too!

[livsea2]

Thanks for the replies. I figured they must have a contract or something otherwise as I said people would be "jumping out" when they wanted to use it themselves the jumping back in and I am sure the Villages would want to safeguard against that. Interesting.