[valuemkt]

I'm considering a Villa purchase with the intent to rent out for a few years during the peak season .. I'd appreciate some input from anyone who has gone that route.. First, is a rental in teh $ 2800 range for Jan-March easily attainable ? IF property is sound and furnished very well, what would be the occupancy percentage ? Did you do it on your own or go through an agency ? What is their cut ??

Thanks

[Irish Rover]

I have several friends who have looked for a CY Villa for months and but everything has been rented already. As a seasonal renter I would say that $2,800 is reasonable, especially if the cart is part of the package. I had to settle for a Patio Villa for Jan/Feb "08" because I couldn't find a CY. I will be payong $2,600/mo - does include the cart. I'm not unhappy about the PV but prefer the CY. Hope this helps.

[valuemkt]

Yes it helps .. thanks for taking the time to respond !

[FireOnWindCSR]

https://www.inthevillages.com/Home_Page.html[ftp][/ftp]

http://www.****.com/108475

[Lil Dancer]

We used to own a patio villa we rented out. If you go thru The Villages, they take a huge cut. You can call Property Management to get the details, although I did hear that they're not in the rental business anymore, so maybe you have to look for someone else. Some of the real estate companies outside The Villages handle rentors. We did ours on our own. I would say no problem at all renting in the high season - Jan, Feb., March. Outside of that, the only way we could keep it rented was if our price was very competitive i.e. low. I don't think the market is as good as it was few years ago. A lot of people bought villas hoping to flip them, or bought homes before they sold their original home, and got caught in the housing slump. To make ends meet they're trying to rent out their places until the market rebounds. As a consequence there are a lot of rentals out there, so tremendous competition in the off season where there isn't as much demand. Tax wise, there are a lot of write-offs if you don't use the place yourself--depreciation on the home, write off the amenity fees, utilities, pest control, etc. You'd want to check with your accountant ahead of time. I believe we also wrote off or depreciated the furniture we purchased. We pretty much broke even on ours and it paid for itself for the time period we owned, but with the rental market as it is now, I doubt that you could do that. We got lucky and had rentors that returned each year too, in the off season. You have to have a nicely decorated place, and good location to get top dollar. For renting, I think you might have better luck with a place south of RT 466, as its closer to the squares. Again, pricing is so important. There was a patio villa down the street from us that was asking exorbitant rent, and they could't rent it in the fall and spring. We would look at all the internet ads, and call places in the Daily sun, to find the cheapest patio villa, then price ours less. When placing my ad in the daily sun, I would always list the price (some people dont do this, they just put a phone number in.) I think that helps. Some people just don't like to make phone calls to see what the rent is - if you have it there in plain sight, they'll see it and then call for information. I also listed our email address, and I had photos on the web I could direct them to. Also, a word of advice - the Daily Sun charges almost $100 for an 8 day ad.

Hope this helps.

[another Linda]

We've had a great experience so far. We bought a CY villa last spring and are renting it ourselves. It is north of 466, very close to SS. TV is no longer handling anything built before some recent date (ours is older -- 1993) and other property management companies wanted to have it for at least Jan - Mar. Since we wanted to use it ourselves in March, we didn't go through them. I believe they we charging 40%.

We have ours listed on 3 web sites, http://thevillages4rent.com/ , http://innlog.com/ , and http://www.vacationrentals411.com/ . These are lower cost than some of the others and allow many more pictures. So far I've received over 100 emails asking about renting this year and emails for next year have started already. We have it rented September - April, with us using it in March. Guess we'll have to see what next year brings.

I'd be happy to share any other information with you if you want to email me. alameda@twcny.rr.com.