Paypal, Venmo, etc... are preferred by owners. The key is to use a one-way only method. For Paypal, that's designating the money as "Friends and Family".
I've rented 4 or 5 times through the rental board here on DISBoards, with good success. The most expensive rental I did was almost $5k. My first rental was through a broker, also just over $5k.
If you choose to rent yourself, be prepared for hours of wasted time. For example, I had 120 points to rent. I had requests from people who wanted 300+ point rentals, people who wanted one day a month away, people who wanted long vacations in AKV value studios (which is not my home resort), and people who wanted accommodations over a year away. I also had people asking me to look up availability and then never responded, or responded that they asked someone else with cheaper points and booked with them.
You'll want to have a good contract that protects both of you. Some brokers put everything on the owner, while others accept the risk. During the pandemic shut down, some brokers showed less than honorable ethics with the owners.