VRBO advice needed

[szvers]

After reading some threads on different rental home communities, I went to vrbo and made several inquiries and was happy with the offers I received back.

One offer I received was the best price on a home in Emerald Island. I received some good communication from the person. I also checked the property tax records like someone had advised and I feel certain that I am dealing with the owner once they gave me their name on the contract.

However, what worries me is that I received another email from another house I had inquired about that said that my days were no longer available but that they had another house for me. It included a link to another website, not vrbo, so I could look at the house and it also made an offer on that house. The confusing part is that it is the same house that I am interested in originally. Same pictures, same address as the first one, but the email is from a different person. Plus, the offer was higher than what the other person gave me.

I've never used vrbo before. Is this something I should walk away from? I didn't give any money yet. Or is this standard?

Thank you

 

[dawnn12]

i have dealt with a few house owners on vrbo and the ones i talked to(via email) tried to do the same thing(push to another house) i dont like that i stopped using vrbo and i went over to vacation home rentals .com we ended up getting this house

http://www.vacationhomerentals.com/...lorida-vacation-rental-villa-proID-61533.html

we love it the owners get right back to you house was great so much in fact that we just booked for aug.

 

[spiceycat]

think since you did not make the reservations immediately - they rented what you wanted to someone else - but they have this other place you can rent.

now assuming this is the same person?

 

[sympatico]

After reading some threads on different rental home communities, I went to vrbo and made several inquiries and was happy with the offers I received back.

One offer I received was the best price on a home in Emerald Island. I received some good communication from the person. I also checked the property tax records like someone had advised and I feel certain that I am dealing with the owner once they gave me their name on the contract.

However, what worries me is that I received another email from another house I had inquired about that said that my days were no longer available but that they had another house for me. It included a link to another website, not vrbo, so I could look at the house and it also made an offer on that house. The confusing part is that it is the same house that I am interested in originally. Same pictures, same address as the first one, but the email is from a different person. Plus, the offer was higher than what the other person gave me.

I've never used vrbo before. Is this something I should walk away from? I didn't give any money yet. Or is this standard?

Thank you

You may be dealing with a property manager for the second house. Sometimes owners have property managers handle their rentals and if that's the case and the home is not available they would have other properties that they manage available for your dates. They may be the property managers for the original home also and were trying to get you to rent that. Their price would be higher than the owners because they would need to get their commission. You could just ask the owner of the original home if they deal with this management company.
I've seen homes listed by owners and also by their management company for different prices. I try to stick with the owners because their prices are usually less.

 

[szvers]

think since you did not make the reservations immediately - they rented what you wanted to someone else - but they have this other place you can rent.

now assuming this is the same person?

Well, I sent out inquires to a bunch of houses so I didn't make any offers, was just asking what offers they would give me for my dates.

Then the different person said the one I inquired about was rented, but they had this other one, which was exactly the same house as another listing on vrbo, but the website they linked to was different.

Is this two different people, email addresses, trying to rent the same house, or just commonplace, maybe a listing agent for the owner trying to push it for the owner, and they didn't know I had inquired already?

As you can tell, I'm pretty new at this.

 

[szvers]

You may be dealing with a property manager for the second house. Sometimes owners have property managers handle their rentals and if that's the case and the home is not available they would have other properties that they manage available for your dates. They may be the property managers for the original home also and were trying to get you to rent that. Their price would be higher than the owners because they would need to get their commission. You could just ask the owner of the original home if they deal with this management company.
I've seen homes listed by owners and also by their management company for different prices. I try to stick with the owners because their prices are usually less.

Yes, the owner's quote is cheaper for sure. Okay, so in your opinion, this is typical?
If the same last name on contract appears on the tax property search, can I feel good about this? When emailed her my concerns she mentioned the same scenario as you wrote above.

How about payment for deposit. They said, just call and give cc info over the phone. Is that standard? Just worried.

Thanks so much.

 

[sympatico]

Yes, the owner's quote is cheaper for sure. Okay, so in your opinion, this is typical?
If the same last name on contract appears on the tax property search, can I feel good about this? When emailed her my concerns she mentioned the same scenario as you wrote above.

How about payment for deposit. They said, just call and give cc info over the phone. Is that standard? Just worried.

Thanks so much.

I don't know if I'd call it typical but it's not unheard of. If the names on the contract and the property records are the same and she mentioned about the management company then it should be ok. And yes, I've given out my credit card number over the phone for a deposit and payment. Different owners do it differently, some only take cheques but I like the over the phone credit card way the best.
She should send you a rental contract to sign and email or fax back and then a receipt after you pay the deposit. Other specific information will follow after you pay the last payment.

 

[MEK]

I have used VRBO countless times for various rentals throughout the United States. I have never once had a problem.

I can tell you that it is not just owners that list their properties. Sometimes it is a rental agency that lists the property for the owner. That is probably why the person you communicated with said that unit was rented, but offered you another. They probably manage a variety of properties within the same complex. They are probably not the actual owner.

I prefer to rent directly from the owner and not a 3rd party so I look specifically for rentals where I am interacting directly with the owner. A good tip is to check out the rental comments towards the end of the listing. There are sooooooooooooooooooo many rentals in Orlando and around Disney World. Look for one with good feedback from previous renters.

VRBO is legit and I suspect that any negative feedback would cause that property to be dropped from the listings immediately.

 

[szvers]

Decided on a Townhome in EI. When I revisited the aforementioned property's tax records, I read that it had 4 br/2baths, when the listing said 5 BR, so I figured I wouldn't risk it. I double checked the address too.
Now, reading the listing reviews no one mentioned this so it probably does have 5 BR, but would the county make that error?

Anyways, I want to thank everyone who commented. It really helped!

 

[JANNYANS]

The county site only lists the property as it was originally planned and not any alterations that may have been available -for instance I know of a home that is listed as a 3 bed home with 2 baths but the options available when it was being built meant it could be a 5 bed -which it is .Additions the owners have made brings it now up to a 5 bed 4 bath -but the county site does not reflect this.

 

[sympatico]

The county site only lists the property as it was originally planned and not any alterations that may have been available -for instance I know of a home that is listed as a 3 bed home with 2 baths but the options available when it was being built meant it could be a 5 bed -which it is .Additions the owners have made brings it now up to a 5 bed 4 bath -but the county site does not reflect this.

I've seen this many times also and figured that that was what was happening.

 

[szvers]

The county site only lists the property as it was originally planned and not any alterations that may have been available -for instance I know of a home that is listed as a 3 bed home with 2 baths but the options available when it was being built meant it could be a 5 bed -which it is .Additions the owners have made brings it now up to a 5 bed 4 bath -but the county site does not reflect this.

Ahhh...makes sense. Like I said, no one gave the home a bad review so your info jives with that for sure.

I'm pumped to go now!

 

[Cruz91]

What the OP suggested has happened to me several times when starting at VRBO. I would say many (if not most) vrbo owners also list their properties with the same management company that handles their day-to-day issues when the owner doesn't live in the area (i.e., cleaning, emergency issues, etc). On a number of occasions I have gotten quoted a price by the owner and management company in the same day.

One thing to be careful of, though, is double booking. Depending on how diligent the owner is about informing the management company that they have booked a listing on their own - the possibility exists to double book! This too happened to me on one trip (and thankfully, only one so far). We arrived and started unloading, and another family came in and had all the same information (keypad code, signed rental agreement, etc). The condo was at Windsor Palms (which is only relevant to give you perspective on where we were location-wise). The rental company was a PAIN to get in contact with (took several calls and almost an hour). When we finally did get in touch, they told us the other family booked first, so they'd need to make alternate arrangements for us. They tried to put us somewhere way down 192 almost to 27 (5-10 minutes further away, and not as nice). Um. No. Luckily, I had also gotten a quote from Ken P for a condo at WBC that I didn't book (it was about $250 more for the length of our stay). In the end, the rental company paid the cost of renting the WBC unit, which just as luck would have it, was still available! All in all, we lost about 4 hours of our day moving from WP to WBC and dealing with phone calls, but it turned out well...

 

[szvers]

What the OP suggested has happened to me several times when starting at VRBO. I would say many (if not most) vrbo owners also list their properties with the same management company that handles their day-to-day issues when the owner doesn't live in the area (i.e., cleaning, emergency issues, etc). On a number of occasions I have gotten quoted a price by the owner and management company in the same day.

One thing to be careful of, though, is double booking. Depending on how diligent the owner is about informing the management company that they have booked a listing on their own - the possibility exists to double book! This too happened to me on one trip (and thankfully, only one so far). We arrived and started unloading, and another family came in and had all the same information (keypad code, signed rental agreement, etc). The condo was at Windsor Palms (which is only relevant to give you perspective on where we were location-wise). The rental company was a PAIN to get in contact with (took several calls and almost an hour). When we finally did get in touch, they told us the other family booked first, so they'd need to make alternate arrangements for us. They tried to put us somewhere way down 192 almost to 27 (5-10 minutes further away, and not as nice). Um. No. Luckily, I had also gotten a quote from Ken P for a condo at WBC that I didn't book (it was about $250 more for the length of our stay). In the end, the rental company paid the cost of renting the WBC unit, which just as luck would have it, was still available! All in all, we lost about 4 hours of our day moving from WP to WBC and dealing with phone calls, but it turned out well...

Oh, geez. That would be a nightmare.
Which resort community is WBC?

 

[Momma2PrinceNPrinces]

WBC =Wyndham bonnet creek.

I used VRBO and Homeaway to search for rentals. We ended up booking with one I found on Homeaway, but is also on VRBO. The owner had me pay $100 deposit through PayPal and the rest is due 1 week before the trip. I try to always use PayPal and a credit card so we have buyer protection. Although you can't dispute a transaction with PayPal unless it's been 45 days or less and a credit card transaction 60 days or less. That's why I'm also going to buy supplemental travel insurance! I'm a super paranoid traveler

 

[szvers]

WBC =Wyndham bonnet creek.

I used VRBO and Homeaway to search for rentals. We ended up booking with one I found on Homeaway, but is also on VRBO. The owner had me pay $100 deposit through PayPal and the rest is due 1 week before the trip. I try to always use PayPal and a credit card so we have buyer protection. Although you can't dispute a transaction with PayPal unless it's been 45 days or less and a credit card transaction 60 days or less. That's why I'm also going to buy supplemental travel insurance! I'm a super paranoid traveler

How much does the supplemental run?

 

[Momma2PrinceNPrinces]

How much does the supplemental run?

It depends. I got a quote from American Express Travel and it's $96 for the 4 of us. Another place recommended on here is Insuremytrip.com. They give prices of different plans an companies.

 

[go2cindys]

After reading some threads on different rental home communities, I went to vrbo and made several inquiries and was happy with the offers I received back.

One offer I received was the best price on a home in Emerald Island. I received some good communication from the person. I also checked the property tax records like someone had advised and I feel certain that I am dealing with the owner once they gave me their name on the contract.

However, what worries me is that I received another email from another house I had inquired about that said that my days were no longer available but that they had another house for me. It included a link to another website, not vrbo, so I could look at the house and it also made an offer on that house. The confusing part is that it is the same house that I am interested in originally. Same pictures, same address as the first one, but the email is from a different person. Plus, the offer was higher than what the other person gave me.

I've never used vrbo before. Is this something I should walk away from? I didn't give any money yet. Or is this standard?

Thank you

We have used VRBO many times and have never been asked to check another out another house and have always been pleased. I would talk to the owner and ask what is what.

 

[pbinn310]

We rented though vrbo about 10 years ago, and dealt with an owner from England. It was a beautiful house and were very happy with the decision to have a house offsite with our own pool instead of a hotel room. We decided to rent again this year and went through vrbo again. This owner also lives out of the country and has a management company that takes car of the property for him. We dealt directly with the owner through emails though.