I am a 3rd time landlord.........I bought in TV last year with renters in place that is immaculate!!! I NEVER knew that 2 dogs were living in it when I previewed it. As a landlord here in AZ I specified NO PETS and that can be done..........MY renters came with 2 dogs in TV do I like it? NO? But the dogs are well behaved and my carpet inside is very light but like I said its CLEAN.............Golf Cart If I do another rental there either furnished or unfurnished would I provide a Golf Car? NOPE do not want the hassle of maintence............Would I prefer to do furnished? NOT REALLY as you have to cover ALL bills even if its not rented.......so that means you are not making money...........So yes I prefer long term unfurnished. You wont make as much but you will make some. Case in point I tried to really up the rent on my people as they were really very low on the scale and it was a newer 3 year old home...........BUT I knew to cut them a deal as they are taking care of my home there as IF it was there own...........IF I buy again I may contact them to see what there pricing is to get them back but for the long term.........Am I breaking even? maybe but barely it was not about the $$$ for me this time as much as keepin up with my home so I can move into it and I hope to do so by the end of summer early fall....ALSO IF you rent under 6 months and 1 day you have to pay the tax of 7% which should be built into your price or stated in addition on top of rent......If it's long term there is no need to do this.. .........BTW there are many many facebook sites that you can learn from........Landlords of the villages is one site with loads of info...........Some of those that responded on here I bet were never ever landlords.............its not always peaches and cream when it comes to being a landlord just sayin......and its not always about the $$$$

I think a lot of this depends on your expectations. I bought five years ago knowing that I wasn't going to retire for three or four years. I was lucky in that the previous owner left a lot of good, usable furniture so I took pictures and posted the home on villagershomes4rent.com; cost was around $140 per year. I managed everything myself, I found rental agreement and security deposit forms on the internet and used them for every renter. I set up an LLC (under $100) to keep income and expenses separate from my personal stuff. My home rented easily in the "high" season, and had excellent renters from January through April; these same people have become friends and we hang out together when we're all in TV at the same time. Renting for the 3 or 4 months during high season covered my annual mortgage costs, renting any other months was just gravy. I had no other experience being a landlord but found it much easier than I thought; I was able to manage everything from 1100 miles away; you'll be able to find any help or maintenance people online or word of mouth from neighbors. Again, this all goes back to your expectations, I wanted to have income and tax breaks while I was still working and used the rental income to pay for a new roof and HVAC system but I did not have expectations that this would produce a profit. I did not make a profit in any of those years but the carryover losses helped lower my income tax hit. I would do the same scenario in a heartbeat, it was fun and rewarding for me but you have to have a certain mentality to do it. If you or your wife are worriers and are going to stress out about minor things this is definitely not for you, if you're able to roll with stuff you'll enjoy it as much as I did.

First, If you can purchase without having a mortgage, that would be great. Your money will earn more in the rental income than it will in the bank. Second- Buy a preowned that doesn't have a bond. Rent it long term. Figure out what you would be paying in monthly fees. (insurance, Taxes, Vcdd utilities (probably around $290 for a courtyard villa or ranch) If its long term, you won't have to worry about gas or electric, Wi-Fi, internet, cable etc. You will need to get lawn care and pest control. If you're out of state, its not a problem. It's easy to find people to make repairs . this site is great for that. Good luck.

Rentals
 

As a neighbor of people who buy and rent, always feel bad that we will never know the owner at all. It's hard to connect to such a group of renters. I also remember the developer doesn't like for renters. But now it's everywhere.

I believe the OP was asking for input....not rudeness....which is how your post came across....at least to me. When someone asks for help or assistance in TOTV, perhaps it would behoove America's friendliest hometown to help or assist the person. Perhaps you might want to suggest the OP ask the following questions of themselves...not pose it as a know-it-all post.

for sale
 

We are moving to assisted living and selling our home in Woodbury completely turn key, with golf cart, hot tub on enclosed Lani, nice furniture for $350k On a dead end street in an dead end section. Quiet, Fun neighbors with quite a few parties. tibmayo@yahoo.com

Yes Thanks Zenmama.This is correct per our HOA attorneys at 2 different FL properties. Retiredguy also has comments that are in line with what I've heard from legal experts (I am not a legal expert).

As always - don't rely on advice about legal matters given to you by strangers on the internet. There are comments and assertions in this thread about ADA issues that I'm pretty sure are incorrect, so please - seek advice about ADA issues and service animals from a legal expert.

Also - as someone else mentioned these laws exist to protect people with disabilities. *There are many people who have disabilities that are not apparent to us.*PTSD, mental challenges and others. Disabilities can be very challenging and I don't want to add to that. I want to be sure that I don't in ANY way do a disservice to a disabled person by mistreating them. That includes harassing them, questioning them legally or illegally about an animal they have leashed and under their control.

Reading matters.


"Currently on one web site alone"

Thank you all so much for all your input! I am not in a place to purchase yet, but I was trying to see if we could rent the majority of winter months while still staying for a few different weeks throughout winter. Seems that more people think long term rental would be best. I will continue to do more research! We owned a rental property near Disney and that was pretty over saturated, but we rented well and broke even. I wouldn’t be looking to make a huge profit. Just wanted to rent to offset costs for the time being until retirement.

Federal ADA Law
 

I hope to provide some assistance or clarity in this issue.
I offer the information based on working for over 10 years in ADA Compliance in CALIFORNIA, where the laws are sometimes more strict than federal laws; I was required to know the difference.

Below are the applicable federal requirements and helpful(?) notes:

Disabled people are not required to disclose their disability. You cannot make disabled people tell you they are disabled, nor can you make them tell you what their disability is; they have the right to keep this private. This applies to employment, HOUSING, transportation, education, and other areas of life. That is federal law.

Florida law is permitted to be more strict AS TO the disabled person's RIGHTS than federal law, but it must at minimum meet federal requirements pertaining to a disabled person's rights.

To qualify, a service animal must be individually TRAINED to provide a SERVICE to a disabled person. That is federal law.

(Because training can vary greatly from state to state or area to area, and because a person can, indeed, train their own service animal, there is no way to "certify" across the country that any particular training standard has been met. This is unlikely to change and therefore, training must be regarded as being responsive to the disabled person's needs, rather than to a "detached" and varying standard.)

You may ask one or two tasks the service animal is TRAINED to do (a task does not have to identify what disability the person has), but you may not require performance of the task, nor any proof of training, service animal identification, animal vest, tag, or any other training proof. That is federal law.

An emotional support animal or psychiatric support animal is NOT the same as a service animal. That is federal law.

It really is that simple. That's also why it can be so problematic.

People skirting the law by claiming their pet or emotional support animal is a service animal, and who demand the same legal considerations, are the sorts of people who will probably lie or cheat about other issues. These sorts of people have also made it very difficult for genuinely disabled people to be treated fairly and with respect. SHAME on them! (Those are just my personal opinions.)

>SIGH< Such is human nature. Believe me, if it happens in Florida, it happened in California, in spades. And I was required to deal with the legal issues in my professional capacity.

G-d bless you all with good health and good tenants.

Again - this is incorrect. You can find the correct information on the government websites. Here is a summary of the information, found on the ADA Network organization's website (this is a non-government site that exists to support people seeking information about the ADA):

Basically - you can say "no pets allowed" in your home. But if someone says "this is not a pet, it's a service animal" you HAVE THE RIGHT to ask the tenant if the tenant has a disability that requires the use of a service animal. If he says yes, you ALSO have the right to require documentation to prove that he has such a disability that requires the use of a service animal. If he provides you with this information, then you must accommodate him with allowing him and his service animal to rent (assuming he is otherwise a qualified candidate for tenancy).

dont do it

The topic of rentals is very volatile at the moment and some districts may be pressured to reel in short-term rentals.

Also, keep in mind you’re not going to be welcomed with open arms by neighbors if you rent to some bad tenants.

I just don't see this whole rental thing continuing the way it is and anticipate some changes.

Proceed at your own risk.

One of the issues I haven't seen mentioned yet is insurance coverage on rentals. We had a dozen rentals up north and if our properties were vacant for more than 30 days, we had to switch insurance coverage to a different, much more expensive policy after 30 days of vacancy . The cost was $4k for 6 mos. coverage vs $1k/yr for a regular policy.
Without that upgrade, our insurance would be null/void if there was an issue (fire, theft, etc) and YES, the insurance companies do find out. We had one of our college rental houses robbed during the Christmas vacation holiday on day #35 of it being vacant but rented. The kids went home for Christmas break in early December and the house was robbed in mid-January.
The thieves broke in and stole TV's and all the copper pipes in the house (hot water baseboard heating). If we hadn't obtained the more expensive policy, we would not have been covered for the $21k in damages.

Short Term Rentals
 

If you count on short term rentals STR to supplement income, I wouldn’t. Todays news paper had yet another incident with…

20-year-old arrested after alleged attack at airbnb rental in The Villages

https://www.**************.com/2023/...-the-villages/

Rentals will likely be getting a remake shortly. Businesses can’t operate from residential homes here in The Villages. All homes are zoned residential. In the state of Florida a “tenant “ changes from”customer” status to tenant after 10 days. If you rent, contracts are typically signed and funds are transferred leaving a perfect trail for opera business.

Good Luck. There are lots of opinions. We have recently had 2 homes sell and are AIRBNB rentals. Bad News. Multiple renters and cars coming and going all the time. A friend has a rental business with over 200 rentals and business has slowed significantly. Too many homes.
The last thing I will say is renters say they don’t have and dog and you go over for some reason, and guess what? There is a dog or 2.
Again. We have been here 20 years. Seen it all. Good Luck

It's clearly stated that you can't operate a business that involves keeping inventory on site or customers visiting your home. It appears obvious that the intent is to prevent people from regularly selling stuff out of their home.

Considering The Villages makes some of their money from renting homes (Lifestyle Visits), I don't believe that renting your home out for a couple of months is considered operating a business under their own definition at least..

Misinterpreting
 

The Villages doesn’t have a signed contract by a buyer before their renting or selling which is their business to begin with. The first contract is initiated after a sale to a private party.

In other words, they are exempt because nothing exists yet.