Any Canadians own vacation homes near Disney?

[wtpfan]

We are interested in investing in a home near Disney. We are interested in renting it out because we would only go there once or twice a year. Are there any home owners out there that can give us some advice re: management companies, etc.. or tips about things you need to know. I appreciate all the help I can get from fellow Canadians!

 

[BellyBaby]

We literally JUST bot a home, don't even have possession yet. I recommend going to searchfloridahome.com, Karyn Smith is the agent we used, she's in Celebration. She's great, and her site has tons of info, it will take you awhile to get thru all of it, but it's info you need to read. Then borrow or buy "How to Rent Vacation Homes by Owner" by Christine Hribb-Karpanski. If you're still serious after all this, start looking, planning, and saving. And get your credit score up, you need 700 or better. You can get a mortgage thru RBC down there with only 25% down, not the standard 30% b/c it's Cdn affiliate. (you want to have a mortgage - it's a deduction off your rental income)

Read up, and let me know if you want more info. We're going down end of May!!

 

[wtpfan]

Thanks so much for your response, BellyBaby...I'm so excited for you!

Can you PM me your e-mail address. I'd love to have someone to correspond with. Who knows, maybe we will be able to offer you some info, too.

Thinking of going down end of May also to start looking.

 

[Charleyann]

Wow, I'm not alone. We were thinking of purchasing a small home as well. Rent it when we weren't using it and then when we retire......

Good Luck everyone!

Charleyann

 

[who's ur daddy?]

Heard home sales in Florida started picking up... but maybe just a temporary bounce.

What are prices like down there these days?

 

[BellyBaby]

Sorry for the slow response, I was away.

wtpfan, I just pm'd you.

And prices are a bit all over the place. Ranged from $160k - $260k. Depends on the area, age, furnished or unfurnished. Spring is busy so far in real estate down there. We would be in a house, and another couple would walk in also looking. I would say not to wait too much longer to buy. By next year just the run-down homes might be left. And homes age quickly down there, we were shocked how run-down a 2000 home would look (nothing like the pics online). But I guess a good clean would fix that, plus we saw a lot of bank-owned, so they were empty a long time.

Closing process is annoying. Here our lawyers do it all.

I'll fill in for anyone willing to listen how it's going as it happens!

 

[wtpfan]

Thanks for all your info...We're still thinking of going down end of May, hopefully have a bunch of homes lined up to look at. Bellybaby, I will e-mail you soon when I have more time. Super busy at work right now. Has your home closed yet? Was it a foreclosure or short sale? Hope everything goes well!

 

[BellyBaby]

Closing end of May - hopefully. It takes a long time to close down there. Seller (bank) said for every day we didn't close on time, they'd charge $100 per day, so we pushed it back 2 weeks to make sure.

We bot bank owned, meaning the foreclosure process is finished and property reverted back to bank. Short sales I would stay away from. You can put in an offer and not hear back for weeks. A lot could happen in that time, and in the end they might not even take the offer.

Bank owned is a little scary as the sale is "as is". But we bot a 2005home, so we should be ok.

If you could nail down what area you want (resort vs. non-resort) is half the battle. We went down thinking Indian Creek, then surprised ourselves and bot in Emerald Island.

I'm excited for you, too. Now we HAVE to go to WDW at least once a year!