Any vacation home owners?

[KeysNole]

Greetings, first off let me say thanks to all of you for providing so much information on this board. It is great to read everyone's thoughts and recommendations.

We are looking to purchase a vacation rental home in the Kissimmee/Davenport/Champions Gate area and wanted to see if anyone currently owns.

We have pretty much narrowed our selection down to Windsor Hills, Champions Gate, and Solterra (in that order). It seems as though Emerald Palms is falling behind in amenities, and Encore makes it very difficult to rent (other than that Encore seems pretty amazing!). Windsor Hills seems to have the best combination of amenities and proximity to WDW.

We are experienced vacation home owners in the Florida Keys. We would have a manager or management company.

If any home owners could share pros or cons, we would appreciate the feedback.

Thanks,
Frank

 

[spiceycat]

I was going to live in Kissimmee at one point - that changed - the traffic there and in Davenport is pretty bad - and since Champions Gate area is further down than Kissimmee I would expect it to the same. I really use to love US 192 - now try to avoid the area.

 

[NH-to-FL]

to Disboards!

Our winter home is in Davenport, off Ronald Reagan between Champions Gate and 27.

As spiceycat says, the traffic in the area is getting pretty heavy. And now that the economy is back up the building has picked back up. Apartments at Champions Gate and many new housing developments. Campions Gate also has a large new housing development going in along 27, perhaps that is where you are considering.

The Champions Gate exit on I-4 gets very busy. Eastbound in the morning the traffic heading to get on I-4 east can back up through Champions Gate. At dinner time westbound I-4 backs up past 192.

If your goal is a vacation home then your first choice of Windsor Hills is a good one. There are a lot of rentals in the areas and the proximity to WDW is a plus. And the price will reflect it. I see many positive posts concerning Windsor Hills here on DisBoards.

We were lucky to have had the opportunity to buy our vacation home at the end of the last real estate crash. The goal was that it would eventually become our winter home. We had it in the rental market for a few years until I retired.

We were passive in our rental activities, letting our property management handle the renting. We did OK but certainly nowhere near breaking even. The wear and tear was not insignificant. I suspect you are aware of this from your existing rental. A number of owners in my neighborhood have given up on renting as it just wasn't worth the aggravation.

Best of luck in your search!

 

[Woodview]

to Disboards!

Our winter home is in Davenport, off Ronald Reagan between Champions Gate and 27.

As spiceycat says, the traffic in the area is getting pretty heavy. And now that the economy is back up the building has picked back up. Apartments at Champions Gate and many new housing developments. Campions Gate also has a large new housing development going in along 27, perhaps that is where you are considering.

The Champions Gate exit on I-4 gets very busy. Eastbound in the morning the traffic heading to get on I-4 east can back up through Champions Gate. At dinner time westbound I-4 backs up past 192.

If your goal is a vacation home then your first choice of Windsor Hills is a good one. There are a lot of rentals in the areas and the proximity to WDW is a plus. And the price will reflect it. I see many positive posts concerning Windsor Hills here on DisBoards.

We were lucky to have had the opportunity to buy our vacation home at the end of the last real estate crash. The goal was that it would eventually become our winter home. We had it in the rental market for a few years until I retired.

We were passive in our rental activities, letting our property management handle the renting. We did OK but certainly nowhere near breaking even. The wear and tear was not insignificant. I suspect you are aware of this from your existing rental. A number of owners in my neighborhood have given up on renting as it just wasn't worth the aggravation.

Best of luck in your search!

The Last Paragraph is very True. Many Villa owners would agree with All the above.

We are from Europe and owners for 18 years & the area has changed over that time

Do we make money No ...... But we still have a villa

 

[KeysNole]

Thank you all for the replies. I think Windsor Hills is the only "older" community we would look into. It also seems like the purchase price/rental price makes sense for WH. The nightly rates at places like Solterra, Champtions Gate, Windsor at Westside, etc do not make as much sense as WH (but there are some beautiful communities out there!).

We would plan to carry a small mortgate and would actually hope to turn a profit based on the $40,000+/- per year rental income.

For those who own, please let me know what your positive and negative experiences have been. For our current vacation rentals we have dealt with the large repairs (roof, pool heater, etc) along with annual hurricanes. We have learned to keep the house vacant as opposed to rent it to low balling tenants.

It seems as though the Disney area homes are a bit different because of: high tax rates (2% seems about normal), high HOA fees, necessary management fees.

 

[NH-to-FL]

For those who own, please let me know what your positive and negative experiences have been. For our current vacation rentals we have dealt with the large repairs (roof, pool heater, etc) along with annual hurricanes. We have learned to keep the house vacant as opposed to rent it to low balling tenants.

The following will, unfortunately, be mostly negative....

One issue you might confront in the Disney area is occupancy rate. There are a lot of vacation rentals in the area. We were only getting around 15 weeks per year. Villas near us that seem to have similar or even lower occupancy. Usually just during holiday periods. And spring break. I see the occupancy rate reflected in the variable traffic levels I observe in the area.

My impression is that Windsor Hills, being closer to Disney, might have a higher occupancy rates.

Like you we also turned down renters who would try to low ball rents. I preferred to have fewer tenants who would take reasonable care of the place. In spite of the managers stated goal of targeting "good" renters we still had wear and tear. Various stains on the carpets. Burned and/or missing pots and pans. Broken furniture. During one of our last rentals a picture from the master bedroom wall disappeared. The manager never discovered these issues so no deposit was ever held.

Another challenge is to find a management company that will have good cleaning and maintenance teams. Our manager's cleaning team was just OK. I appreciate the challenge of cost verses depth of cleaning between rentals. It takes time to clean a multi bedroom/bathroom villa. Just washing the sheets can take many hours. Which I was never sure was done. Many times when we arrived we would find dirty pans in the kitchen cabinet and what looked like "slept in" beds. We would spend a good chunk of each of our visits doing a "deep cleaning". The handy man who did the general maintenance was very good. They also had a good plumber who we still use today.

Talking to some folks in the development, our experience was on the good side of typical.

We would plan to carry a small mortgate and would actually hope to turn a profit based on the $40,000+/- per year rental income.

This income sounds aggressive to me but it appears you have done your homework. If you can pull it off, wonderful!

 

[KeysNole]

I appreciate the words. We love our vacation rentals but do run them like a business. In the Keys the labor pool is razor thin, so getting things fixed or finding a good cleaning crew is like pulling teeth.

NHtoFL, which neighborhood is your rental home in? It seems like most owners who push their rentals are in the 25-30 week range. Checking calendars on sites like vrbo seem to support this.

We are more afraid of the new developments than anything else, but do think the Windsor Hills proximity to Disney and years of successful rentals will help.

I appreciate everyone's thoughts!

 

[NH-to-FL]

NHtoFL, which neighborhood is your rental home in? It seems like most owners who push their rentals are in the 25-30 week range. Checking calendars on sites like vrbo seem to support this.

We are in West Haven. It is still being developed, by two different builders, but we are in one of the older sections. It is a nice development, well maintained. And it has the HOA fees to match.

We investigated a few different management companies but were either unimpressed by their capabilities or scared by their enthusiasm that they would fill the house with renters. We considered being more active ourselves via sites like VRBO but decided we didn't want to do the 24/7 prompt response necessary to make it really successful. Since it was only for a few years we stuck with what we had. We don't have a mortgage and I took the position that we were breaking even after factoring in our "savings" from our 4-6 weeks/year of usage.

I appreciate everyone's thoughts!

You are welcome. May you have success!

 

[jodifla]

Do homes in these developments also have owners who live their year round, or a good part of the year?

 

[NH-to-FL]

Do homes in these developments also have owners who live their year round, or a good part of the year?

Yes. There is a mix of rentals and full/part timers. We are snowbirds, and also visit occasionally during the summer. There are a number of snowbirds in our development. The snowbirds we know have, like us, decided not to rent when they are not here. We have noticed that as the homes turn over they are shifting to full time residents.

One of the new sections is specifically targeting the rental market and the other section more to the full time resident market.

 

[arminnie]

I bought a condo in New Orleans - not at WDW 10 days before Katrina. Many people contacted me to rent the property as 80% of the city was underwater (my condo was not). I bought the condo for me - not to rent out so I know that I alienated many people who thought that I should have rented out to them. But I loved having my home available to me so I ignored all of them.