Some do. I knew one that owned 23 houses that she had acquired over the years she rented out.

Good advice on being careful about choosing tenants. We had one that complained about the A/C not cooling. We went over and found the doors and windows open, the A/C on and the condenser (or is it compressor?) outside was all frosted up. We asked how long the windows and doors were open, 'since they arrived'. How long has the A/C been running, 'since we arrived'. They didn't have the sense that God gave grapes. They received a lesson on running the A/C and a follow up visit twice to make sure they weren't doing it again. But there were other incidents with those tenants. Thank goodness they were there only 2 weeks.

I would not be in a rush to buy a house right now. Here is one expert's opinion of downturn coming soon in the housing market.

"The spring and summer months are traditionally the hottest home-buying season, but one housing expert predicts sales to drop as much as 40% during that time because of the coronavirus outbreak.

“Market activity will be lower in the next couple of months,” Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the National Association of Realtors, said in a press conference. “I won’t be surprised if sales activity could be down 30% or even 40% in the next months.” "

Wait a couple of months prices will be down

Villagershomes4rent.com. The Villages is very expensive. I would buy anywhere but Fenney area, especially for golfers.

I have 2 rentals long term. I rented them myself from NY. I posted adds in Talk of the Villages and Nextdoor .com. I wouldnt use the Villages property mgmt. They charge YOU to stay in your own home! Well thats what they told us 7 years ago when I bought my first home. I just recently bought my third home which will be the one I live in when I make my permanent move to The Villages. I placed and add for rent in both sites I mentioned and also this time in the villagers homes 4 rent. That site you do pay for a yearly posting. Now the 2 rentals I rent long term is easy peasy. All I pay for is the VCDD bill and lawn service. Electric and internet, cable telephone and furnishing is the tenants responsibility. I bought them new.These both home are a court yard villa and a ranch home. Court yard villas rent great. Do make sure you get one with a 2 car garage. Better resale. The reason I did the other site this time was because its a premiere home(pre owned) and it is furnished and rents at a much higher price than a villa,etc. So I wasnt getting as many bites as my two other homes. I did thought get for the Jan. feb. and March season. I would of had this April, but person had to cancel due to whats going on. And renting long term you don't pay Florida tax. Otherwise seasonal rentals will be probably just the 3-4 months and if you get lucky a month here or there in between. When I have an issue with a repair I call local people to come and fix. Never a problem. There is another company called White Pelican home services. They take care of everything. I dont know what they charge . It might be worth looking into. They even advertise your home. clean after rental etc.
If you have any questions that I didnt think of writing please dont hesitate to ask.
Best of luck

Also, you can advertise on air B & B. That usually rents a place weekly, monthly, etc.

Mgwano, are you still here (OP)?

S/he posts a question and leaves us to fight it out ourselves when it isn't even our issue!

Anyway, if you're still here and quietly deriving benefit from our impeccable insight, I also wanted to say, as one who is enrolled with TV's Hometown Property Management, that another reason it may not be for you is that they require you to hand it over to them for at least all of January, February and March. Not sure that would work for a pilot who wants to use it as a crash pad.

Other posters here have said Hometown "charges you to stay in your own home." Not exactly. They charge a $50 monthly caretaker fee whether it's occupied or not and I for one am okay with that expense. I'd probably hire someone to do that anyway. And they also charge a cleaning fee when you leave, but all PMs do that.

Aren't you forgetting the cost of the mortgage? If you put $50k down on a $250k house and get $2,500/yr. return you are getting 5% on your cash investment, but that won't nearly cover the mortgage payment of appx. $1,500/mo. or $18,000/yr. Even appreciation won't offset that cost.

If you are paying cash it eliminates interest on a mortgage, but you have to factor in the opportunity cost of the $250k. If you could make 3-4% elsewhere that $7,500-$10,000/yr. you could have had, so that has to be considered in the math.

Unless I'm missing something, which I could be...

We rented out our fully furnished house for 4 years. We started with Hometown and dumped them after the first year. They were (to us anyway) hard to deal with, unresponsive, and only got our home rented 3 of 12 months. Plus they took 20%.

We switched to ReMax and had better luck. Our home was rented an average of 4.5 months out of the year. They were good to work with.

We made enough on rental income to pay the bills and mortgage for the year. We had to rent it out during the prime months to do this and then use it ourselves during the slow periods. That is almost always the way it goes.

We finally decided to live here full time and enjoy the winter months; beginning this year.

Good luck with your decision.

You should join the Facebook page, Landlords of the Villages. 90 owners in the group who can answer your questions. You can use a Home watch program if you don't mind marketing the place yourself. Mine greets my guests, orients them to the house and is on call 24/7 if there is an issue. They also inspect the house weekly when it's not occupied. I pay $50/month

If you don’t mind, can you give me the name of your company. Thanks.