Bye everyone! - Off to Windsor Hills and WDW!!

[lisajl]

ok George...I think we are ready to rent Sept 08!

Lisa

 

[5mins2disney]

George, I think you should buy one of the 6 bedroom homes so that we can rent it in Nov.

Ha! The problem with those is the rents don't make the properties "cash flow" themselves enough...you'll be running them at a big loss every month. That's why I'd rather own 10 townhomes if I could, the rent vs cost/price ratio makes a lot more sense (financially at least). Although, they are just gorgeous homes, I've been in quite a few! They're double the price, but you don't get double the weekly rents, which is why I tell people with larger groups, it's more economical to rent out the larger homes, less cost per person or per family, you just need a much larger group to get a home that size to make "sense".

I'd go and rent one to stay in in a minute if we had a larger party coming down with us, just keep my home rented out for the week or what not! hehe...but it's hard to go stay in someone else's home when you have your own place there too.

 

[5mins2disney]

Here's another little thing we did...put up some decorations on the pool wall while we were there....found this stuff at Sam's Club pretty reasonably priced...made of fiberglass and resin so it's good for outdoors. Our MC liked them so much she bought some for her own pool! The wall was a little big and blank looking before hand..

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

looking good!
I take it your job situation is sorted now or are you becoming a property magnate??
Sounds like the holiday was great

 

[bscs]

I keep telling my dh that my Dream is to someday sell our house and buy a condo or townhouse at WHR. He says to keep dreaming because even though our 5 bedroom ranch house was built for us just 10 years ago. The property value is so low around here it's crazy.Great when buying not so great when selling If you don't mind saying about how much is a townhouse? I would think it is a very good investment though. Well good luck on your purchase. Post LOTS of Pictures!

 

[5mins2disney]

looking good!
I take it your job situation is sorted now or are you becoming a property magnate??
Sounds like the holiday was great

Holiday was great thanks! Job...well..almost..with any luck I'm actually going on a "final" interview tomorrow morning, I had about 5 phone interviews last week while at Disney with this company, and they were about ready to make me an offer contingent on a face-face meeting, which happens tomorrow, so with any luck, I'll have an offer on Mon-Tues! Buying another property depends on getting the job!

Townhomes there sell from roughly $250k-315k, depending on the location, the furnishings / amenities, condition of the home, and how many bookings it has in place already (those add to the resale value of the home if you didn't know). You can expect to spend $20-40k furnishing an empty one depending on how high level you want to go on the furniture, decorating, electronics, etc., and how much of it you do yourself versus using a local furniture "package" store (hint: they charge 100% markup for cheap furniture!).

Depending on your mortgage level, that sort of thing, you can get a place close to paying for itself, it would be VERY rare for someone to make a profit at this (I'm just being honest), but hopefully, with any luck, someday when you sell the place it will be worth more than when you bought it! WHR is the "hot" resort to be in right now as it is the closest, nicest, and newest resort to WDW, it's hard to beat the #1 rule in real estate, LOCATION!

In our case, we were thinking about buying a bigger first home, (or a boat! /GRIN)...and this made a LOT more sense! First of all, it generates some income to pay for itself (a boat never does that!)... secondly, we can always sell it if we ever need to financially, it's not our primary residence, so the risk of losing $$ isnt' THAT great..(not like the stock market where you can lose it all). We get the benefits of going to our own home a few times a year, and now when we visit, we can write off 2 trips a year on our taxes (travel expenses and food) since we're checking up on our investment property.

You're right about property values though, they're VERY low right now, which is why I think it's a GREAT time to be buying more! I think for the amazing place this resort is, and it's location, it's an absolute steal at these prices, and over time, when the real estate market picks back up (who knows...2-3 years?) they're going to be worth a LOT more. We took some home equity out of our first home to put into this 2nd home, so we were able to buy when the market is low without having to sell another place.

Ever visit a place and say to yourself, geez...I sure wish I'd bought this place...oh...15 years ago when it cost $xxx? If I had I'd be rich now darn it! LOL (Same thought process here). We're in it for the long haul, that's hopefully where it will do ok.

You'd have to stay there or visit to really "feel" it...if you haven't it's hard to explain. When we stayed as rentors 2 years in a row, it just felt like SUCH an incredible place (still does by the way!) we thought, WOW who wouldn't want to stay here this place is absolutely incredible?! Then we looked to buy, and nothing was available, it was 100% sold out! LOL The realtors showed us homes in several other resorts but none seemed to have the same "magic" to us...oh well, we're happy with finding a place a year later!

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

Well fingers crossed George
Dare I say we are going to WH this year - to Laura's TH. Looking forward to it as you can imagine.

 

[kaysmommie]

Glad you had a good trip! We have 5 more months until our vacation. The pictures of the resort pool look really nice. Did your kids love riding the front of the monorail? We did that last trip all the way to Epcot, my little boy still talks about the monorail all the time and he is not even 3 yet. My DD is begging for Cirque tickets, so that might be something for our next trip for just me and her since you said it was awesome. We also use TGM, his park plans are the best.

 

[5mins2disney]

Well fingers crossed George
Dare I say we are going to WH this year - to Laura's TH. Looking forward to it as you can imagine.

You're going to LOVE her place, it's awesome! It's what got us hooked! hehe

 

[5mins2disney]

Glad you had a good trip! We have 5 more months until our vacation. The pictures of the resort pool look really nice. Did your kids love riding the front of the monorail? We did that last trip all the way to Epcot, my little boy still talks about the monorail all the time and he is not even 3 yet. My DD is begging for Cirque tickets, so that might be something for our next trip for just me and her since you said it was awesome. We also use TGM, his park plans are the best.

The monorail was one of the highlights, definitely! Especially when they got their monorail "co pilots" licenses at the end, very cool!

Cirque du Soleil was just awesome too! I've seen 5 other Cirque shows here in Chicago, and this was actually one of my favorites. We were a little concerned that our kids were too young for it, and wouldn't "get" it...but they thought the "clowns" were absolutely hilarious, and the performances were just the coolest thing ever! One small word of advice, avoid Planet Hollywood at DTD, what a disaster that was...super long wait, terrible food, overpriced, super loud music videos playing throughout the whole place (I thought the theme was movies, not rock videos....that would be better off for Hard Rock Cafe!).

We're thinking about going back in October now, last Sept was too hot for us, October sounds a whole lot better, weather wise, although the crowds were great in Sept. I guess I'd better book a res in our place soon, it's getting kind of full, LOL.

 

[kaysmommie]

The monorail was one of the highlights, definitely! Especially when they got their monorail "co pilots" licenses at the end, very cool!

Cirque du Soleil was just awesome too! I've seen 5 other Cirque shows here in Chicago, and this was actually one of my favorites. We were a little concerned that our kids were too young for it, and wouldn't "get" it...but they thought the "clowns" were absolutely hilarious, and the performances were just the coolest thing ever! One small word of advice, avoid Planet Hollywood at DTD, what a disaster that was...super long wait, terrible food, overpriced, super loud music videos playing throughout the whole place (I thought the theme was movies, not rock videos....that would be better off for Hard Rock Cafe!).

We're thinking about going back in October now, last Sept was too hot for us, October sounds a whole lot better, weather wise, although the crowds were great in Sept. I guess I'd better book a res in our place soon, it's getting kind of full, LOL.

We are going over Columbus day weekend and week, so it should be a bit cooler than September. We went in November one year too and the weather was great and crowds were low. I guess you better book soon because your place isalmost booked up. Don't worry I'm not a fan of Planet Hollywood it's worse than Rainforest Cafe . DH and I loved the townhome idea but then we got a 40% off on the overpriced Poly. We liked the Poly but it is not worth $400 a night for one room. But I'm sure we will be going again soon. DD really wants to go Universal .

 

[5mins2disney]

We are going over Columbus day weekend and week, so it should be a bit cooler than September. We went in November one year too and the weather was great and crowds were low. I guess you better book soon because your place isalmost booked up. Don't worry I'm not a fan of Planet Hollywood it's worse than Rainforest Cafe . DH and I loved the townhome idea but then we got a 40% off on the overpriced Poly. We liked the Poly but it is not worth $400 a night for one room. But I'm sure we will be going again soon. DD really wants to go Universal .

Actually we ate at Rainforest Cafe at the end of our day at AK this trip. I've been to the one in Chicago quite a few times and always thought it was overpriced (same at most Disney restaurants of course), but the food was pretty good actually! Of course, the 2 killer Mai Tais we had help make any meal good! LOL I've had burgers there before I thought were pretty mediocre-low....this time I got the shrimp sampler platter and thought it was pretty good actually! Of course...see prior comment about Mai Tais...hehe..

 

[#1 Minnie Lover]

George,

Do you mind me asking how deep the splash pools are at the TH's in Windsor Hills? We are staying at one for the first time in July (we use to live in Mco and MISS IT!!!) and I am curious.

Thanks.

 

[5mins2disney]

George,

Do you mind me asking how deep the splash pools are at the TH's in Windsor Hills? We are staying at one for the first time in July (we use to live in Mco and MISS IT!!!) and I am curious.

Thanks.

Sure! 2-3 feet in the shallow end to 5 feet deep in the deep end.

There's steps and a ledge / bench in the shallow end (and in the corner of the deep end) and jets you can turn on also.

They're actually bigger than they look, much bigger than say, a hot tub. 12' x 12' ....which is as big as my office I sit in at home (size of the room dimensions).