posted by orlandovacationhome on Nov 12
When booking an Orlando vacation home rental via the internet, part of your decision will include selection a quality vacation home management company. There are plenty of Orlando vacaction managment companies to choose from in the Central Florida area.
- Professionally run with 24/7 customer service
- A professional easy to navigate web site to select your Orlando villa
- The vacation homes have a quality assurance program in place to maintain top notch vacation home standards (Please see our blog post on this topic).
- The Orlando vacaction villa management company has their own service trucks and maintenance staff and are always on call.
- Location of the vacation home.The home should be in a completed and well maintained vacation home community subdivision. No vacant lots and overgrown lawns in the area. Please consult our site often for updated vacation home community reviews and ratings.
- Great vacation villa community facilities (i.e. pool, clubhouse, community activities)
- Internet access or WiFi in the Orlando area villa
- Crystal clear pool/spa
- Fully furnished includes items like blenders and other amenities in the kitchen – not just the basics
- A game room for the kids
Ultimately, you will decide what’s important to you and your family’s Orlando vacation experience. Always try and book the homes with the best location (as close as possible to the parks if that’s where you want to be). Ask the management comany a lot of questions and consult our independent vacation home community ratings. The best run companies are always happy to answer all your questions.
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posted by orlandovacationhome on Oct 29
Buying A Vacation Home in Orlando – Kissimmee
At a dinner party in our home town of Frome, England, we recently met a couple who told us they just bought a vacation home in Orlando, Florida.
As we go to Orlando all the time and our mum owns two vacation homes, we had a lot in common. Our new friends told us where they bought the home, so we looked it up on the Internet. When we visited Kissimmee the following week, we met with our management company and started talking about the home. The owners told us they paid $220K cash for the house. Our property manager said the same model was selling for less than $160K (bank owned).
In America, there are various real estate professionals that can help you. To ensure you are getting the best deal possible, directly hire your own independent professional advisors. Your cost for this type of advice will be several hundred dollars for an appraiser as an example.
Hiring a professional to do some market research could have saved our friends almost $60,000. Don’t make the same mistake!
So if you are looking to buy a vacation home in the Orlando, Kissimmee, Clermont or Davenport area, do your homework and directly hire a team of independent professionals these might include CPAs, Appraisers and Attorneys. As always we just express an opinion and don’t offer professional advice. Please reference our disclaimer.
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posted by orlandovacationhome on Oct 28
Foreclosures Effect Orlando Vacation Home Market.
The level of foreclosures in the Orlando vacation home market are now at or near record levels. As many vacation homes in the Central Florida are second homes and many were bought by speculators, the prices in many communities have dropped significantly. It would seem that many owners have simply walked away due in part that the rents from such homes are not enough to cover their expenses.
Some of the communities hardest hit are those that saw the greatest appreciation. Unlike regular homes, vacation home communities tend to have less permanent resident owners that can help stabilize the area or neighborhood.
Many banks are also being tough when lending on vacation homes which can further hold demand down. In effect, this means that many homeowners who bought a property over the prior three years could now face significant losses they sell today.
We are not real estate professionals, as we had to go through online public records, and methodically pull sales along with calling a few local realty offices in the Orlando and Kissimmee area. Our information may not be perfectly accurate so, as always, consult a real estate professional in the area and have them pull the data for you.
So what will happen to the Orlando vacation home market in the future? No one knows, and it is pure opinion and speculation at best. If we knew, we would be sitting on an island in Tahiti sipping a beer rather than worrying about the general state of the market.
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posted by orlandovacationhome on Sep 20
Orlando Florida Vacation Home Subdivsions are Not All Equal
There are some great subdivisions out there for your vacation home, and there are some not so great.
We recommend you stay in vacation home communities that are newer (built in the last 10 years), and those that have extensive community facilities such as pools, club house, play ground, etc…
A gated subdivision is a nice extra touch, as it can keep unwanted elements out of the community.
If you are coming to Orlando for the theme parks, you stay as close to the parks as possible.
Also, find out a little about the subdivision – how many foreclosures are there? Are there incomplete and vacant lots? Are there a lot of lawns overgrown? Can you be at the main entrance to Disney in under 10 mins?
Our favorites:
Emerald Island
Windsor Hills
There are at least 50 other subdivisions to choose from, so be careful. Some of them are terrible and poorly maintained. Do your homework and ask a lot of questions!
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posted by orlandovacationhome on Sep 12
Always do your homework. There are hundreds of management companies and picking the wrong one can be costly. Here are some questions you may want to consider asking:
- Are they licensed and do they have proof of licensure?
- Are they insured and do they have proof of insurance?
- How long have they been in business and do they have proof of that experience (references, etc…)?
- How many homes do they manage?
- Do they have a physical office and where is it located?
- How will they market your house to potential renters?
- How many full time staff do they have?
- Do they contract out and markup pool service, cleaning, landscaping and general maintenance or do it themselves at cost?
- Do they have a system that an owner can access and view when the home is booked?
- Do they have a system where I can view my account and property maintenance?
- What is the average occupancy of homes they have managed for 3 or more years?
- What type of preventative maintenance will they do on my home?
- Do they make a profit off repairs and maintenance?
- How is my home inspected and maintained?
- Will they guarantee a minimum net rental income in writing?
- Are they also real estate agents?
- Are they registered with the Better Business Bureau?
- Do they have 24 hour customer service?
- Can they provide you with a dozen references (of other home owners) for you to call?
- What type of quality assurance do they offer and how is it communicated?
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