thinking of buying a holiday home

can anyone offer me advice on buying property in orlando.We have only just decided to do this so i dont know what area or anything yet.Would you get a mortgage over here or in orlando,how much it roughly cost for the up keep of the villa,who looks after it for you,what the best company is to use for renting it out etc

thinking of buying a holiday home

I am sure those from the UK can help you more.

We are also considering it and I am in the very early stages of my research. You have to get a property manager since you don%26#39;t live there. You also have to keep in mind the HOA fees if you are looking into that. Windsor Hills for example is 450.00 a month on top of your mortgage, insurance (keep in mind you have strangers staying and you want good insurance) utilities, pool upkeep (if you have one) housecleaning fees and property manager fees and taxes. I am sure their is more but that is as far as I am for now.

thinking of buying a holiday home

You need to take off those rose coloured glasses. and research this issue thoroughly.

Before you buy you need to ask yourself a few hard questions.

1 Can you afford to buy it , and the upkeep without any money coming in as rent or hire.

2 Are you going to buy this just for yourself and immediate family to use.

3 If your are going to rent it out , don鈥檛 depend on the rent paying the mortgage. Has many home owners will tell you that you have a job to get enough hirers to break even.

4 There are a lot of regulations and standards you will have to conform to which will cost you a lot of money.

You will only be able to have a certain type of garden. it must be kept tidy and kept up to scratch. You might not be able to hang washing out, or leave the rubbish bin out more than a given time.

The inside of the house similar standards apply.

5 For this you as a UK citizen will have to hire a management company do this work. The chances are you will not know positively how many time they mow the grass, replace . repair any item. Or how many times they hire it out without telling you.

This gives them the opportunity to run up your bill. If you are letting it to members of the general public. Most of these companies will drastically reduce you perceived rent income.

6 Many have done what you are considering. Gone out there and bought a lovely home. Hired it out to pay the mortgage. Then find that the most popular weeks when you want to go someone else has it booked. then at the end of the season when you do visit the lovely home you bought for yourselves to enjoy is no longer the beautiful home it was.

7 Then you don鈥檛 fancy it because it has had everyman and his dog has been using it.

8 Then after the first year into your 20 year mortgage you find you don鈥檛 get as many customers as the real estate and builders said you would, ( because they are sending their clients to other new owners) Then you have to start to dig into your own pocket to pay the mortgage and maintainance bills which never stop or reduce.

9 Property prices have recently gone through the roof which will add to you financial burden.

Take advise from other home owners and remember;- Buyers Beware.

!0 My advise would be, buy by all means, but keep it for your selves and immediate family. Don鈥檛 buy if you are going to be dependent on the rent paying the mortgage

XR for once I agree with you!!

We bought a year ago, a 2 year old villa on Southern Dunes that the first owners had to sell because they are not the money making machine the builder or realtor promises.

In our first year, we have booked 30 weeks and been out 4 weeks ourselves. We are back this Friday for 23 days.

1. Get a realtor, the sellor pays their fee so they cost you nothing. Some of the big companies - Caldwell - have links to the new builders. Research them, they should send you copies of their qualifications and not charge or ask for money. We used Jane LaFrance from Remax (mickeyhomes.com)

2. If you are buying off plan, remember that until the houses around you are finished, you cannot rent yours - builders only construct once the house is sold.

3. If you are buying resale, use the MLS to research prices and photos. You get a good one at BritishHomesGroup.com.

4. Mortgages - this is your own choice but you need a minimum of 20% deposit, best to go for 30% as your processs sails through. It is a matter of personal choice US/UK but we have a UK through British Mortgages Abroad, the mortage is converted to sterling on the day of the sale and is based on the UK interest rate. Lloyds also do a mortgage that is slightly cheaper. Take advice on this, your Realtor may recommend someone but British Homes Group are independent and worth a call. The number is free and they are above Edwim Watts in Kissimmee.

3. You will have costs of about 8% above the villa price called closing costs. Then villas al have furniture provided by the builder. We threw ours out and bought our own and this is one of the reasons we are booking well.

4. Go to Florida for a week and view the homes, get a feelfor the area, would you vacation there? Your Realtor will drive you around and should have lots of info about each sub division.

5 Management Companies - if you buy new, you will get lumped with someone like IPC (or IPG) or Conntempo or one of the other big companies. They will let your villa out - sweat it - as best they can but often it will be to Airtours/TCD - who pay bottom $ and you do not know who is in your villa. I have freinds who had IPC one in their condo the other their villa both in Windsor Hills and when they arrived for a vacation found guest in their homes and had not been told.

Our own company just split as they felt they were getting to big to be personal. My water and electricity bill for May suggests that someone has been in but the company deny this. How do I now check? (I usually call the villa once a week at 7am UK time but forgot)

Monthly upkeep is $700 - $1000 that is everything. Rentals, no one wants to pay full money we do all our own bookings and it is time consuming, then you have to have a website and advertising costs. Our expenditure to July this year is $6500 (excluding mortgage).

Is it worth it; not as a financial investment but if you have your own reasons, then yes it is a very satisfying purchase. Roll on Friday!!

If you will do a TripAdvisor search in this forum...you%26#39;ll find that in the last few months quite a few people have asked the same question and there were a ton of folks who replied. The overall opinion was that it is a very, very bad idea and the majority of folks who replied had tried this so they were giving advice from first hand account. But...as I said...do a search and read through the replies to form your own opinion.

XR 759 is right, and there are so many people who have bought holiday homes and cannot rent them out now.

People also don%26#39;t think about the visa requirements, they think once they have bought property they can go and stay as long as they like wrong.

We visit the US a lot and people ask us why we don%26#39;t buy, the answer is I like going to lots of different places and I don%26#39;t want to spend my vacation clearing up and doing maintenance after someone else%26#39;s.

I would only buy a home in the states if I could visit every few months when I have retired.