OK I messed up

[TrudyM]

I lost my rental. :oops:
I had found a rental for Jan- March 2014. When the rental agreement came in the mail it was a stock agreement used for long term rentals with a lot of stuff crossed out and the crossed out items were not initialed. I didn't think that was safe also it read weird with stuff crossed out that changed the meaning. Especially as the crossed out bits left parts that in some cases didn't make sense. So in typical me style instead of sending it back for initials, I added an addendum that clarified the crossed up sections. The landlord didn't like that so I guess they sent my check back. I am not at home but in Hawaii so I only found out when I emailed the landlord as I noticed it still showed available on 4 rent.
What should I have done?:shrug:

[manaboutown]

I do not believe you messed up. I certainly would not want to rent from that landlord!

You undoubtedly saved yourself a lot of future grief.

[jeraldinemarie]

What kind of property are you looking for, I may have a 2/2 in Sanibel at that time. send e-mail jbarsz1@san.rr.com
Jeri

[jeraldinemarie]

Oh, I guess i'm about 5 years to late for her, new to this site and should have checked the dates!

[redwitch]

It sounds like a landlord who is new to renting and clueless. I certainly wouldn't want to rent a place where things are changed on an agreement, not initialled and who knows what would be truly binding.

You'll find another place. It sounds like the only thing you've really lost is a lot of grief and worry.

[ijusluvit]

I lost my rental. :oops:
I had found a rental for Jan- March 2014. When the rental agreement came in the mail it was a stock agreement used for long term rentals with a lot of stuff crossed out and the crossed out items were not initialed. I didn't think that was safe also it read weird with stuff crossed out that changed the meaning. Especially as the crossed out bits left parts that in some cases didn't make sense. So in typical me style instead of sending it back for initials, I added an addendum that clarified the crossed up sections. The landlord didn't like that so I guess they sent my check back. I am not at home but in Hawaii so I only found out when I emailed the landlord as I noticed it still showed available on 4 rent.
What should I have done?:shrug:

One more example of how renters are vulnerable when using the 4 rent website. Owners can do anything they want, anytime. They can mis-advertise, send back your check the day before you arrive, not be available to assist you when you are there, etc. etc. You were lucky to get out of this when you did. Maybe you'd be willing to share the property location with us to spare others your grief.

To be protected, you need to rent a property which has a licensed manager, who must play by the rules. Your deposits will be protected, your rental will be secure and anything you need during your stay will be provided. You have legal recourse if these expectations are not met. 4 rent does not ALLOW property managers to be involved!!!

I suggest you try vacationrentals.com. Click on the map for The Villages and go from there. There are other similar sites and your initial inquiry will let you know whether there is a manager or not.

[cgalloway6]

One more example of how renters are vulnerable when using the 4 rent website. Owners can do anything they want, anytime. They can mis-advertise, send back your check the day before you arrive, not be available to assist you when you are there, etc. etc. You were lucky to get out of this when you did. Maybe you'd be willing to share the property location with us to spare others your grief.

To be protected, you need to rent a property which has a licensed manager, who must play by the rules. Your deposits will be protected, your rental will be secure and anything you need during your stay will be provided. You have legal recourse if these expectations are not met. 4 rent does not ALLOW property managers to be involved!!!

I suggest you try vacationrentals.com. Click on the map for The Villages and go from there. There are other similar sites and your initial inquiry will let you know whether there is a manager or not.
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.

[TrudyM]

I think the landlord was ok with not signing something they didn't like just as I was. However I wished I had thought of a better way to handle it. I also wish they had emailed me when they didn't like my solution before just sending my check back. I don 't know if they tried to call as I had given my home phone and then had to go to Hawaii for a family thing unexpectedly. I didn't have there phone number and a requirement of a contact phone for emergencies was one of the things I added. I have rented direct from owners before in other areas and if anything found usually they are more attentive than a property manager.

[TrudyM]

Oh, I guess i'm about 5 years to late for her, new to this site and should have checked the dates!

No the date on the right is the date I joined when I first visited the villages the date on the left is then time of the post. I posted this at 2 am this morning from the Ilikai Hotel in Hawaii. when I couldn't sleep.

[Cantwaittoarrive]

I would have called the landlord and gone over the "crossed out" items and explained that you were not comfortable. That way if you couldn't work it out immediately you could have moved on and found a different rental.

[ijusluvit]

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.

[Kelsie52]

I am a landlord that rents a CYV and I also live here in the Villages.

I send guests a contract on line with any mention to long term rental (if not required to the specific case) removed. I ask them to review it and then return it to me with any questions. I spell out ---what I require as to extra guests , cleaning fees, security deposits.

Each contract is designed especially to that guest --I want them back !!!
Most landlords here are not out to hide things from their guests .

The contract is written to protect both the owner and guest.

:welcome:

[TrudyM]

I would have called the landlord and gone over the "crossed out" items and explained that you were not comfortable. That way if you couldn't work it out immediately you could have moved on and found a different rental.

Would have if they had given me a phone number. But I guess they were going to be traveling. Maybe I should have emailed my concerns before sending it back. I thought I was helping as I have been told a contract with crossed out bits and no initials isn't legal.

[TrudyM]

I am a landlord that rents a CYV and I also live here in the Villages.

I send guests a contract on line with any mention to long term rental (if not required to the specific case) removed. I ask them to review it and then return it to me with any questions. I spell out ---what I require as to extra guests , cleaning fees, security deposits.

Each contract is designed especially to that guest --I want them back !!!
Most landlords here are not out to hide things from their guests .

The contract is written to protect both the owner and guest.

:welcome:

Sending online so you can read and discuss without snail mail taking up time is definitely the way to go. I should have scanned in the contract highlighted issues and emailed back. I just didn't handle it right. Having a little business know how I should have know better.:confused:

[DougB]

Oh, well. Live and learn. Everything usually works out for the best.

[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.

[ijusluvit]

....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 think I might be the 'someone' referred to,, but I didn't make the above claim. I said you will find professionally managed properties on vacationrentals.com, vbro, homeaway, etc. but you will NOT find them on villages4rent, because the website rules forbid it.

My reason for spending time contributing to this thread was to point out that problems like the OP had can occur with owners like those on 4rent who may not know "all the ropes", but are most unlikely to occur when a property manager takes care of the rental.

[asianthree]

because i used a company to rent my home the first year is why i use thevillages4rent now...i email my contract and let them know if there is any question to email or phone...i have never had a problem with email the renter prints out the copy and send back with the deposit..i have even had some one print sign scan and email back and transfer deposit into my account...you have to love todays tech

[redwitch]

As to hiring a property manager, I know of at least one real estate company that handled rentals that went out of business. The renters' deposits were taken, the contracts were signed but the homeowners did not receive the funds due nor was there anyone to let the renters in. There have also been cases where someone would claim to be a property manager or a homeowner of a piece of property that was neither for rent nor owned by that person.

Good and bad happens regardless of what method is used. You have to take some things on faith. You can do due diligence in checking county property/tax records, having someone local check a property for you, but nothing is a 100% guaranty.

[Schaumburger]

Just my 2 cents speaking as a renter...I have done 5 short term rentals in TV since 2011. Maybe I have been one of the lucky ones...all the rentals I found were from thevillages4rent.com. All of the homes were exactly like what was presented in the photos on the web site. I was only able to see one rental house before I actually rented it. The other 4 were rented just by me looking at the photos on the web site. All of the home owners lived in The Villages, and all owners were excellent about returning phone calls and answering e-mails. One house I rented last year had some internet problems and a garage door problem which the owner fixed promptly.

After reading one person's bad experience with renting, I do check the appropriate county tax collectors/tax appraiser's web site to verify that the person I am sending my money to is actually the owner of the property.

[TrudyM]

Thanks for your support. Hopefully I will be able to find a replacement and get down there this winter after years of lurking on this site. The drive from Washington state will be the daunting part. I will try to have any landlord send the lease as an email attachment this time so I can review in advance. One of the things I wondered about was the line that required us to wash all then windows, clean then oven etc. upon exit even though I was paying a cleaning fee and the exit was a day before the end of the month to allow them to clean for the next renter. Is this normal??

[mickey100]

No, that is not normal. We used to have a rental, and never asked a tenant to do anything like that. You live in it, hopefully keep it clean while you are there, then the cleaning service would take care of it when you leave. We did ask the tenants to strip the beds and put the sheets and towels in the laundry, so the cleaning service would be able to get it ready for the next tenant, particularly if there was a short turn around time.

[ijusluvit]

Thanks for your support. Hopefully I will be able to find a replacement and get down there this winter after years of lurking on this site. The drive from Washington state will be the daunting part. I will try to have any landlord send the lease as an email attachment this time so I can review in advance. One of the things I wondered about was the line that required us to wash all then windows, clean then oven etc. upon exit even though I was paying a cleaning fee and the exit was a day before the end of the month to allow them to clean for the next renter. Is this normal??

Ridiculous!

[TrudyM]

No, that is not normal. We used to have a rental, and never asked a tenant to do anything like that. You live in it, hopefully keep it clean while you are there, then the cleaning service would take care of it when you leave. We did ask the tenants to strip the beds and put the sheets and towels in the laundry, so the cleaning service would be able to get it ready for the next tenant, particularly if there was a short turn around time.

Actually one of the things I added was that used linens would be washed and left in the dryer. Also although I hadn't added it to the addendum I did tell them I was adding the cart to my liability coverage on my insurance. I thought that would have made them happy.

[asianthree]

washing windows would be a first...and it would be the last...there are a few homes on thevillages4rent that are available..we use the site for our homes and have rented multiple times and were very happy..put up a wanted to rent here and you will find a place

[borjo]

I had a rental for quite a few years an never asked my renters to do anything upon leaving. I figured they wanted to get an early start. They paid a $100 cleaning fee which covered it. We cleaned it but did need them to vacate the last day of the month so we'd have enough time to clean before the new renters came on the first day. Too much to house clean in one day. Old bones needed more time.