[candg1971peanut]

Your home watch people help with that. We rented our home for 2 years & used 4rent. The Villages property wanted us to pay $100 a night when we came to OUR OWN HOUSE!

[merrymini]

Originally Posted by EdFNJ

Why no Canucks ? They can fly or take a train here (can't drive) and can have their "stuff" including car shipped (or rent a car). Also, this expires on Sept 21 unless they extend it. There may be less because of the hassle but it's not impossible. There is no rental moratrium in FL it seems either as it expired on 8/31 (unless it was extended).

Q: What will this mean for airline travel and other travel across the border? (From CA to US)

A: This action does not apply to entry into the United States from Canada via air, rail, or sea travel at this time, but does apply to commuter rail and ferry travel.

Travel Restrictions Fact Sheet | U.S. Embassy & Consulates in Canada

With no moratorium in place for FL renters, 'We expect a tsunami of evictions' | Florida Phoenix

From what I have been hearing, it is not access that is the problem but getting medical coverage while out of Canada. They cannot get the insurance they need if they get sick outside of their country because of their socialized medical plan.

[bigbobdog]

If you do a short term rental (less than 6 months), you'll need to pay Florida state rental tax. We only do long term rentals, or over a six month lease on our rentals although you get higher monthly rents for short term rentals November thru March timeframe. We use a property management firm other than TV since they meet the people in person, look and check out any animals they might have, and do a person to person interview.

[Toymeister]

Another reason not to use Villages Hometown Management is they will take (sue you for) 6% of your sales price if you sell the home six months after you are done with the contract with them. Sell to anyone using any real estate agent from any firm.

That's right 6% commission for not selling your home, not marketing it for doing nothing at all other than including It in your contract.

Now it's not likely that you will sell within six months but who is willing to risk that for no reason at all and be charged the highest property management fee of any firm in TV?

[KRM0614]

Originally Posted by westernrider75

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?

Please do it yourselves ! I was a renter they them they provide no services for the exorbitant fee they charged. I rented a villa which was old the toilets and sewer backed up 3 times they never fixed it the 4th time they dug outside pipe had exploded ! They tried to charge me 500-!

You want that grief?
Stay away from anything villages

[Larry Patrick]

Originally Posted by westernrider75

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?

Welcome to The Villages - is a very beautiful place to live! Especially if you are golfers. If not there is still so many things to do and enjoy your calendar will be full!
We've been renting out three properties here in TV for the last 4 years, with the 1st two years handled by Down Home Properties which were a total disaster from day one!. But honestly none of the Property Managers around TV are worth the money including The Villages who are probably the best except very expensive and difficult to deal with.
The last two years we switched all of our Rentals to Long Term Leases, manage the process ourselves, and regret not managing them ourselves from the beginning.
There are a number of websites avail to you to find good renters (Zillow is very good) and there are at least 3 others.

[Troopie]

We went with The Villages Property Management when we first bought our rental property here, but were living in Virginia. They took a large percentage of what we made in rental revenue, but didn't keep the property rented every month during prime season (we understood that it would likely not be rented during the warmer months). We were very unhappy with them; particularly when they wouldn't let us stay in our own property during a month when they had failed to obtain a renter for us. We have been much happier, and have made more money doing it ourselves. It's actually been much easier doing it this way than we had anticipated. Message me if you would like more information.

[dougjb]

Originally Posted by jameslewis

Down home Properties management is great

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.

[dougjb]

Originally Posted by Laker14

I'm glad we are all in agreement here.

LOL... Now that is funny! When have any Villagers been in agreement. If you get three Villagers together, you wind up with five different opinions!

[patlukeb]

I have a rently in TV. Last year was my first year renting it. I guess the first question would be do you want to use it. You can rent it long tem a year at time or do a vacation rental where you could use it when it is not rented. I have mine as a vacation rental and i use it when it is not rented. I interviewed 2 property managers TV and Hometown property management. TV property management is very restrictive what you can have in the house and the will nickel and dime your for everything. Home town is less restrictive. I choose to do it myself. It was a lot easier then I thought it would be. It gives you the flexibility to rise on lower rates depending on the demand. A few things if you do it yourself. I do not live close I am in Chicago. So you have to make sure you find a good dependable handyman and a good cleaning service. Also a couple other suggestion would be a wifi lock that you can change the add passcodes or delete passcode from anywhere. If you don't have a wifi lock how are the people going to get in. If you are able to answer question for the renters in a reasonable time frame . Also you have to get familiar with how the lifestyle ID's work. Because you will have to get them for the renter. It is pretty easy once you learn how it works and the tv office is very helpful . I have it listed it on **** and had great success. I guess it comes down to if you want to have control and do a little work to save the 20%+ or not to worry have the property management do everything. I would sit down with a couple property management companies they will give you a list of all the items you should have in the house. It gives you a good idea what you might have to go buy. I hope this was helpful.

[La lamy]

Originally Posted by Tblue

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?

If the pandemic is still happening in April 2021 then yes will probably have to quarantine. But 14 days is nothing compared to a whole winter! Worth the trip to TV for sure.

[NancyLee]

..."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."

May I have the name/contact of your very good handyman? Thanking you in advance.

[NancyLee]

Originally Posted by dougjb

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.

May I have the name of your very good handyman? Thanks!

[Chitown]

Originally Posted by westernrider75

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?

We rented a home here in the villages for three months earlier this year before we purchased our home. If you want a great selection with good customer service for rental units here in the villages use DOWN HOME PROPETIES They have the largest selection of rental units in the villages and they were very easy to work with very nice people. We found that the villages rental properties were basically long term rentals they had very few of the short term rentals.

[Nanny32162]

Originally Posted by Laker14

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.

We rented a house before we moved here full-time. We did not use a management company. We had someone who would check our home before and after renters for condition and any possible damage. This couple also made sure that the house was thoroughly cleaned, either by them or by a cleaning company. The renters would call us, if there were a problem, then we would call the proper service to solve the problem. The mistake we made was to not charge an extra $100/week for extra guests in the home. A renter's grandchildren did damage to one of our floors. We always had a security deposit, I withheld the cost to repair from the security deposit, sending the renter a copy of the repair quote.