Originally Posted by Tblue (Post 1834696)

That is good news as I have family there, but if you were to fly back to Canada does that get you a 2 week self quarantine?

Originally Posted by dougjb (Post 1834884)

I would beg to differ. The founders of this company are wonderful. But, they turned it over to their daughters. They made an absolute hash of it.

I am an out of town owner. I had a new house. Here is what Down Home did. They turned the sprinkler up to full blast. When the rainy season hit, I asked them to turn it down. They did not. So, I had huge bills. I left many phone messages (no one picked up the phone). I emailed repeatedly. Absolutely no contact from them.

Since it was a new home, I paid an inspector to go out there and check the home for warranty problems. Down Home never forwarded the report to the warranty department.

Finally, and I do mean after months, I got a response from Down Home. The mother (founder) of Down Home was very apologetic. She returned the monies that she took from the rental payments for the months. But, I was stuck with the water bills and the lack of warranty coverage.

Oh...one of the daughters finally apologized...you know ...office mishaps and such.

Nope...not a company I would put on my list.

But, they are nice people! Just terribly incompetent when I used their services (which was based on a recommendation from a Villages Salesperson). I sincerely hope they are more competent now!

I now manage the property myself. I am still out of town. But, here is what I did. I found some great long term renters. I also found a very good handyman who I can call who will go out there and do what is needed. So far, I have had very limited need of him. But, the arrangement works out well. I do not think I would be comfortable with this arrangement if I was just doing seasonal rentals or had a lot of turnover.

Originally Posted by westernrider75 (Post 1834457)

We are in the process of purchasing our first Villages home and are planning on renting it out until we can come there full time. We are not sure if it’s better to use The Villages Property Mgmt or do it ourselves....thoughts?

Originally Posted by Laker14 (Post 1834506)

I would say that unless I was going to be in TV during the rental season, I'd use a management company. They get a good chunk of money for what they do, but it's about as worry free as you can get. Also, as a renter, it seems to me that while the management companies get their dough, the price of the rentals are higher to offset the management expense. I think the market for rentals is strong, at least it was before COVID.

Originally Posted by westernrider75 (Post 1834457)

We are in the process of purchasing our first Villages home and are planning on renting it out until we can come there full time. We are not sure if it’s better to use The Villages Property Mgmt or do it ourselves....thoughts?

Originally Posted by westernrider75 (Post 1834457)

We are in the process of purchasing our first Villages home and are planning on renting it out until we can come there full time. We are not sure if it’s better to use The Villages Property Mgmt or do it ourselves....thoughts?

Originally Posted by jameslewis (Post 1834621)

Down home Properties management is great