? about references when renting a townhouse

[KNJWDW]

Hi all!

We are considering staying offisite next summer. We found a nice townhouse in Widsor Hills. For those of you that have rented from the owner, do you usually ask them for references? What is the best way to make sure all is on the up and up - or is ther really nothing to worry about? I found the townhouse on homeaway.com. We have never rented a vacation property from the owner before and just want to make sure we do things right


Thanks!

 

[sympatico]

Some of the sites have comments section from previous guests and sometimes they don't. You can check out the tax records site to make sure they own the home, just do a search when you find out their name:
http://www.property-appraiser.org/

If you're using Homeaway or one of their other companies you can register when you book and they have a guarantee against fraud. Check out the details here:
http://guarantee.homeaway.com/

You can also ask if anyone on the DISboards has rented from those owners.

Ask the owners questions, you can ask for the phone number for their Management Company and speak to someone there.
There's usually nothing to worry about. There's enough home owners on these boards that if someone was doing something illegal it would come up. Most owners in these communities are on the look out for that sort of thing because it's in their best interests to make sure the subdivision name doesn't have any black marks against it.

 

[deejay-55]

There is always an element of trust when you rent fom an owner - you are trsting the owner to rent you his/her vacation home, and they are trusting you to treat it as your own.