Management Company Mistakes

In the 4 years that I have owned a Florida villa, I have had 3 local management companies. Now, while I am thrilled with my current management company, there are several mistakes that I see management companies making:

1. Pay the bills - don't ask questions - Several times I would get the "invoice" from my management company and they would not send a copy of the original invoice so that I could confirm that what they paid was the amount charged by the local vendor. Also, several times there were mistakes on the account that I had to call the vendor and get corrected. Why didn't the management company catch it?

2. Who cares what the property looks like - who's going to know? They are in England! - I am continuously surprised at some of the neighbor villas around me that are not kept up when I know the owner is paying someone to do it. The lawn isn't mowed or weeded. The house needs to be painted. The roof still has a blue tarp on it even when the other houses have been repaired.

What issues have you had with management companies that you can share?

Are game rooms really worth it?

Q. Should a villa have a game room? Is it worth it?

A lot of owners have started to convert their garages to game rooms. However, before you go out and convert yours, you need to ask some simple questions. First, how will you utilize the space and will your customers appreciate not having a garage during the typical rainstorm that comes with vacatioining in Florida?

How do you deal with damage/theft? How do you know your pool cues or Air Hockey pucks haven't been taken or damaged when you live in England or Europe and your rental property in in Florida?

What I have seen happen is that game rooms are very profitable for the owner and is now becoming a requirement if you want to increase your customer traffic. The vacationing family wants to have everything at their fingertips should they get bored or if they are waiting for family members to wake up or get ready for the day.

The costs to setup a game room is not very expensive as it only takes a minor change to your A/C unit to provide cooling/heat in the garage when used.

What about you? What have your experiences been with villas that do and don't have a gameroom? Which do you prefer?

We are adding a gameroom to our villa (www.luxuryflvilla.com) in 2007. We think it will improve the interest in our villa.