My 2 cents as a former landlord
 

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.

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.

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

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.

Speaking as renter...
 

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.

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??

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.

Ridiculous!

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.

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

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.