Orlando Vacation Homes Rentals

posted by orlandovacationhome on Nov 20

Let’s be clear, no one can predict the future. If we could, we wouldn’t be writing a blog. This post is  just an opinion. DISCLAIMER. As with any economic opinion, take it with a grain of salt. The authors of this blog are not professionals and do not give out professional advice.

The Orlando vacation house market has been hit hard, especially for many buyers who purchased vacation homes around the years 2005-2006. Prices have dropped in some vacation home subdivisions over 30% from their peak 2 to 3 years ago. For the metro Orlando area as whole, prices appear to have dropped. Click HERE STATISTICS(1).

There are arguments that prices will continue to DROP(2):

Vacation homes are much harder to finance than primary homes, and in the current market even primary homes are now hard to finance (2A).

Foreclosures are piling up. As people struggle with their primary home mortgage, they may give up their second homes.(2B)

There are large inventories (2C).

A few vacation home subdivisions struggle with upkeep of resident exterior areas. Vacation home managment struggles to keep this under aesthetic control for vacationers.(2D)

Banks will begin to compete against each other to sell foreclosed homes, and this could negatively effect vacation home pricing (2E)

Tourists are cutting back big time on Orlando (2F).  Thus, the demand for vacation rentals is also dropping. This means that owners have less income to pay the current mortgage which increases the risk of foreclosure.

In a depressed economy, the last thing people often want to do is buy a vacation home, but the first thing they may want to do is sell if they own one (2G).

Homeowners unable to refinance their vacation homes (they may owe more than the home is now worth) might let the home foreclose if they are unable to modify the loan terms (2G1)

When the world is facing an economic crisis (2I), discretionary items such as vacation homes are no longer in demand. If the USA enters a severe recession, the demand for some vacation home products could dry up.

There are arguments that prices will STABILIZE(3):

It would appear that the rate of price decline in some subdivisions is SLOWING(4) down, but prices are still dropping.

Some subdivisions are making the transition from primarily a short term rental market to subdivisions that cater to full-time owner occupiers as the prices drop, and the vacation homes become affordable relative to regular homes.

The government is reacting on a massive scale to solve the problem(4A).

There are some SIGNS(5) that the number of home sales has been increasing.

In conclusion, vacation homes in the Orlando and Kissimmee area face a unique set of circumstances that has allowed for significant price drops from their peak prices over the last 2 to 3 years. Forecasting the future with absolute certainty is an impossibility.

Subscribe to our blog for in depth graphical analysis and forecasts scheduled to be released next month. Click here to subscribe.

As always, please consider the people writing this post/bog to be unprofessional and incompetent at all times. Due to your own due diligence at all times use an Orlando appraisal company, real estate attorney and other professionals accordingly.

Tweet This Post

posted by orlandovacationhome on Nov 12

1. Call the Orlando vacation home management company directly- This will give you a feel of the type of customer service the company offers. Are the individuals that answer the phone courteous, professional and knowledgeable? Are you treated like a number or does the staff really try to make suggestions based on your Orlando vacation villa rental needs?
2. Homeowners are not always the best source for directly booking an Orlando vacation villa rental - This often is the cheapest route in terms of rental rate, but if something goes wrong, an owner may not be in town to help you. So if renting by owner, do your homework. If they do not have staff personnel to respond quickly and often the quality assurance of your stay could be in question.(see other related blog posting on this topic).
3. Better Business Bureau Linkage - Look for the BBB sign on the Orlando vacation home management company’s website. You should be able to click on the logo and see the company’s history with vacation home consumer comments. Without this important feature, the vacation villa management company may not be fully disclosing its operational history.
4. Other Affiliations – Look for the vacation home management company to be well established and be members of various other professional organizations in their area. Often these affiliations are clearly shown on their web site. 

Again, there are lots of vacation home management companies in the Orlando area. If you do a little shopping of Orlando vacation home reviews and ratings on this blog, you will greatly increase your odds of having a great Orlando vacation home rental experience with no surprises. Chances are that your overall Orlando vacation will be positive as well.

Tweet This Post

posted by orlandovacationhome on Nov 11

If you are visiting Orlando Florida and looking for a vacation villa rental, there is great news. There is a huge oversupply of Orlando luxury vacation homes for rent. This means deals to be had abound for your Orlando vacation. For about the price of a mid-market hotel room, you can rent a fully equipped vacation villa home with your own private pool and do as much self-catering in a full kitchen as you like.  This would certainly help you cut down on your dining and entertainment bills. Thousands of homes were built over the last ten years, and now many owners need to rent them. On any single night in Orlando, many of these homes sit empty.

Occupancies Dropping

In Orlando, the hotel industry will be the first to tell you their occupancies plunged in September 2008 over 2007, with room revenues dropping by as much 20-25%.

Many Owners Need to Rent

Many vacation homeowners are now feeling the pinch of the housing crisis, and many of the speculators who bought now need to generate additional income to the pay the mortgage.

What does this mean to you, the renter?

1. Shop around. There are thousands of Orlando villas and hundreds of vacation home rental management companies. Make sure you rent a good home, get a great deal and stay in a great location for your Orlando vacation.
2. Always pay by credit card.
   

   Orlando Vacation Homes - Great Deals for Renters!

Tweet This Post

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.

Tweet This Post

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.

Tweet This Post

posted by orlandovacationhome on Oct 1

Looking for a few simple, quick ways to promote sustainability and conservation with your vacation home? Here are some simple ways you can reduce the carbon footptint of your vacation home:

• Consider a green values statement for guests at check-in. Simple tips such as running the washing machine, dryer and dishwasher only as needed go a long way in conserving water and energy during the year.
  

  environmental orlando florida vacation homes

• Caulk and seal around windows and door frames of your home.
• Make sure water heaters and hot water pipes are insulated properly.
• Make sure heating/cooling and condenser coils are cleaned regularly.
• It is advisable to paint in lighter palette colors for bath and living areas.
• Refrigeration coils should be cleaned regularly and door seals checked often.
• Make sure you reinforce the need for temperature setbacks when the vacation home is not occupied with your housekeeping team.
• The housekeeping team should also close draperies during periods when the home is not occupied.
• A schedule for changing HVAC filters should be maintained.
• Be sure and adhere to a regular PM program for pool heaters to prevent scaling.
• Make sure the pool skimmer and pump strainer baskets are cleaned regularly.
• Also verify that the pool filter is serviced as recommended.

Although there are many additional ways to promote conservation, these simple ways will have a large cumulative impact on your home energy usage.

Tweet This Post

posted by orlandovacationhome on Oct 1

Payback Estimates for Various Actions

A lot of media attention has been paid to environmental initiatives geared towards reducing resource consumption. As a homeowner and investor looking to make prudent financial decisions for payback periods of three years or less, let’s look at various greening improvements relative to their estimated payback periods for an Orlando vacation rental home:

• Conversion of incandescent lighting to compact fluorescent bulbs yields an average annual operating cost savings of $5.10 per bulb based on national averages.[1] Compare this to the cost of an 8,000 hour cfl 13 watt mini twister bulb for roughly $4.00. Based on these metrics, the payback period for cfl bulb conversion should be 1 year or less. The actual types of bulbs you install, seasonal home occupancy patterns and other factors will impact this figure.
• Front loading washers require less energy and water than the standard top loaders. National averages indicate tat this change may yield an average annual operating cost savings of $129.[2] Compare this savings to an average new large capacity washer appliance cost of $410 with installation. This yields roughly a 3 to 4 year payback period depending upon actual occupancy and usage factors.
•  If you have a dishwasher older than seven years, the newer high efficiency models can save on both energy and water. National averages indicate that this type of a change could yield an annual savings of $51.[3]Compare this to the cost of a new high efficiency dishwasher that will run in excess of $300 depending upon the model you select. This yields a payback period in the neighborhood of 6 years.
• Newer high efficiency refrigerators with bottom freezers also provide significant savings. A check of national operating cost averages indicate that making a switch from an older model (15 years or more) yields an annual operating cost savings of $72.[4] Compare this to a new refrigerator price tag of $650 yields a near 9 year payback period
• New heat pump storage water heaters provide a potential savings of $310 if you are converting from a 10 year old or more model with an equivalent .9 energy factor.[5] Compare this to a medium sized water heater sized for most homes for a cost of $1,300. This yields a payback period of roughly 4 years.
• Showerheads – Green Seal, a non-profit greening organization, considers 2.2 gallons per minute (gpm) to be green. However, many newer showerheads operate efficiently at 1.6 gpm. If your showerhead is around 3-5 years old, it is probably in the neighborhood of 2.5 gpm. A gpm flow rate is normally printed on the showerhead itself. Industry experts armed with standard usage and cost metrics for water and energy indicate that a drop from 2.5 gpm to 1.75 gpm will yield a payback of roughly one year. This would be for a $30 showerhead retrofit. Savings will vary based upon local water and energy costs, but this is a good rule of thumb.

Although these examples are rough estimates for your Orlando vacation home, these give you a fair idea of what home product replacements may be feasible based on a required three year payback period. As you can see from these estimates, the compact fluorescent lighting and showerhead conversion meets these investment payback thresholds. However, there are many recommended low cost or no cost common sense actions that can be performed to your home to leverage cost efficiency. These will be covered in future articles.

Tweet This Post

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:

1. Are they licensed and do they have proof of licensure?
2. Are they insured and do they have proof of insurance?
3. How long have they been in business and do they have proof of that experience (references, etc…)?
4. How many homes do they manage?
5. Do they have a physical office and where is it located?
6. How will they market your house to potential renters?
7. How many full time staff do they have?
8. Do they contract out and markup pool service, cleaning, landscaping and general maintenance or do it themselves at cost?
9. Do they have a system that an owner can access and view when the home is booked?
10. Do they have a system where I can view my account and property maintenance?
11. What is the average occupancy of homes they have managed for 3 or more years?
12. What type of preventative maintenance will they do on my home?
13. Do they make a profit off repairs and maintenance?
14. How is my home inspected and maintained?
15. Will they guarantee a minimum net rental income in writing?
16. Are they also real estate agents?
17. Are they registered with the Better Business Bureau?
18. Do they have 24 hour customer service?
19. Can they provide you with a dozen references (of other home owners) for you to call?
20. What type of quality assurance do they offer and how is it communicated?

Subscribe in a reader

Technorati Profile.

Tweet This Post