Vacation Rentals

[wildwoodfam]

Both companies advertise on this website.

Steve at Curry is good to work with - he has a lot of waterfronts some range form extravagantly priced to very reasonable.

Good luck!

[jogator1]

I have reanted from strictly rentals twice and would not recommend that experience to anyone. I should learned my lesson after the first time.

Last year my family and a friends family rented a cottage on Wentworth Shores and it was infested with ants. We called the lady (I forgot her name) and she said don't worry about the ants, they will go away. She explained that it had rained just before we arrived and as soon as the ground dried they would leave the house. Well the first 2 nights we were there we literally had ants crawling on us all night in bed. Thank god they didn't bite.

I called her again the next day and she said she couldn't do anything about it because she was going to a birthday party and doesn't work on Sunday. She told me she didn't believe the ants were as bad as I described. My wife was extremely upset and collected a cup full of ants. Monday morning we went to her office to complain in person (and show her the ants) and she was very rude. We had to threaten her that if one of the kids were bitten (3 young children) and had an allergic reaction we were going to hold her responsible. She sent out an exterminator 2 days later when we had 2 days left for our vacation.

Since this post is getting so long I'll make the previous years experience short. We went to her office to check in and she told us she ran out of linens. I had to argue with her until she went down her stairs to put together linens for us.

Beware of strictly rentals.

[TomC]

Its tough for an agent to responsible for all of the aspects of privately owned houses. The property owner is really the one responsible for keeping the unit vermin free...

[Flylady]

I rent my place when I am not there, and have only the last two weeks of August open. 2 bed 1 bath camp lakefront. Let me know if you are interested.

[tis]

Grandma. Please check your private messages.

[wildwoodfam]

Originally Posted by TomC

Its tough for an agent to responsible for all of the aspects of privately owned houses. The property owner is really the one responsible for keeping the unit vermin free...

The rental agent is responsible for checking the status of all his/her rental properties - thats why there is a HUGE window between checking in and checking out. We used to rent out our place and the rental agent was responsible for any issues with the house for that stretch of weeks she rented.

If their was a leaky sink - SHE called the plumber - if the lights burned out - she was called - THATS WHY THE HOUSE OWNER PAYS THEM A COMMISSION!

Shame on Strictly Rentals - the ants should have been noted during the walk through before the renters even got there and if there was even a couple of ants crawling around something should have been done right away!

[TomC]

Originally Posted by wildwoodfam

The rental agent is responsible for checking the status of all his/her rental properties - thats why there is a HUGE window between checking in and checking out. We used to rent out our place and the rental agent was responsible for any issues with the house for that stretch of weeks she rented.

If their was a leaky sink - SHE called the plumber - if the lights burned out - she was called - THATS WHY THE HOUSE OWNER PAYS THEM A COMMISSION!

Shame on Strictly Rentals - the ants should have been noted during the walk through before the renters even got there and if there was even a couple of ants crawling around something should have been done right away!

...which i do not happen to share..

The property owner is responsible for the condition of their property. The rental agent is not authorized to enter into contracts for services (plumber or exterminator, etc) on behalf of a homeowner. These bills, if unpaid, can result in a mechanics lien on the property. If you rented your property, would you accept a bill for some contractor to perform work on your place that you didn't pre-authorize? A plumber or exterminator bill can be several hundred dollars.

When a tenant has a problem, the agent typically contacts the owner and asks what remedy they would like to pursue. If the owner says "nothing", then the agent and tenant are stuck, unless for the purposes of goodwill the agent elects to try to rectifiy the issue at their own expense.

You can be sure that the agent would drop that property for future rentals, but that doesn't help the situation for the specific renter that had the problem.

My comment was about rental arrangements in general ("Its tough for an agent to responsible for all of the aspects of privately owned houses"), not about what Strictly Rentals did or didn't do. How can a booking agent really be expected to inspect and arrange for rectification for issues in hundreds of properties in 6-8 hours on a Saturday? The agents contractual requirements are to market and represent the property and handle the transaction. For a property owner to hide behind a booking agent to be sure there are no bugs, all the plumbling works, there are no leaks, the lawn is cut, the smoke detectors work, the mattresses are comfy, and so on simply strikes me as unreasonable.

I maintain that the property owner, who is offering the occupancy of the property (and collecting the bulk of the rental remittance), has the responsibility for making it suitable for use. Paying a commission to an agent, to me, does not transfer that responsibility.

I have no skin in this game so it really matters little to me.

[wildwoodfam]

and its a big BUT, the owner may not be anywhere near the rental property - the owner may live in Idaho and would not know that there were ants crawlign about the property. It is up to the rental agent - thats why you hire them!

Tom - c'mon. Have you ever worked with a rental agent or are you speaking on opinion only?

Why pay an agent to broker your property? Why not just drive back and forth and do it yourself?

I'm not saying the agent has to pay - certainly THATS part of the home owners responsibility - but puhlease! If I am at home in Boston, and the renter called me to complain about ANTS - the first phone call I made would be to the agent to say - "Didn't you see the ants when you checked the house?!" I would then have her contact the exterminator and have them take care of the issue.

[Water Camper]

GrandmaBig6,

You have a private message.

Bill

[mudpuppy]

GrandmaBig6 - I sent you a private message.

Thanks,
Mudpuppy