Our villa rental is for sale -should we be worried?

[lovethecape]

We booked a villa for next February and I noticed it is now for sale. Will this impact our trip at all? Wish we could afford it!

[Anthony]

So are 150 other villas -

It is a good question though -

[Xislandgirl]

They are all for sale

It is not an issue, the market is slow right now and the chances that your villa will sell before you go is pretty small.

If someone wants to see the house while you are there, the rental agency will contact you. In most cases, you will have a choice if you want it shown. If you agree, a Realtor will come to the house with the client and they will walk through when you are not there. You will not need to clean or anything, just leave. Your rental contract may give you the option to say no.

If the house sells before you arrive on island, one of 2 things will happen. You will arrive and enjoy your trip or the villa agency will put you into a comparable house. That depends on the rental contract and the sales contract. Many rental homes specify that all rentals must be honored in the sales listing.

Bottom Line?- Don't worry. The house we stayed in last week was for sale. Other than the lockbox out by the gate, we would have never known.

[lovethecape]

Thanks Xislandgirl. I just reread our contract:

The management company "...reserves the right to substitute comparable or better accommodations without liability, should the villa reserved be sold, be out of order or be deemed substandard by us for any reason. If comparable accommodations are not available, Guest may receive a complete refund of all pro-rated rent and Hotel Tax paid for the original villa."

It is just kind of annoying to plan ahead 10 months, spend a lot of time picking a villa, and then have the possibility of being offered a different villa. I will call the mgmt. company on Monday to see what they have to add.

[hugo]

OK, lets see... 150 houses are on the MLS. Three houses have sold since the first of this year, and I believe only one of those is a "villa"; the other two are residences, priced below $1,000,000. The odds are....

[liamsaunt]

You are renting from Catered To. I recognize that contract language.

Really, don't worry about it. Catered To is a great management company, and all of their houses are really nice. The odds of your being switched out are incredibly low anyway.

[Gromit]

The only real issue here is them showing the house while you're staying there. I've heard of other people having issues with this (I for one would be annoyed). But otherwise given the current market I doubt you should be worried.

[lovethecape]

Gromit - I'm actually less concerned about them showing the place while we're there since we'll be out most of the day. I guess my real concern is that we are going during President's week and the inventory of "substitute villas" may be low.

Liamsaunt - it's actually Caribbean Villas - they probably all have similar language. But thanks, I won't worry about it unless I hear from CV.