Price Goes Way Up at Dream Catcher

[California Girl]

Maybe we could get a thread going on bad patio furniture! Or maybe just pictures of the humorous "subpar" things we find in our various rentals! I'm dyin' laughing here!

[Tracy in WI]

Back to that patio furniture - it seems to me the addition of the "base" was so that one might enjoy the spectactular view a bit better. Now that is definitely worth 5% right??!!??!!


Tracy

[California Girl]

Back to that patio furniture - it seems to me the addition of the "base" was so that one might enjoy the spectactular view a bit better. Now that is definitely worth 5% right??!!??!!


Tracy

uhhhhh... I could see the view with or without that lovely piece of .. uh.. furniture.

[bobcside]

As to the LEAN, of the patio furniture after repair/modification, I'm a little surprised you guys didn't figure out that this was obviously done intentionally in order to facilitate rain shower run off.

As an aside, keep in mind that these villa owners, who cliam to be opertating at a loss, will in 20 years or so end up owning thier Villas (thanks to folks like you) free and clear inspite of operating at a loss for all those years.

Unquestionably you are intitled to expect what you pay for. You would think that would be a no-brainer

[California Girl]

I would never want to own a rental villa on STJ or anywhere else. I can't think of a bigger headache than letting a different bunch of strangers stay in my house each week. I imagine most people are respectful of others' properties, but I'm sure there are also those who aren't.

[XOXO]

Bob, I didn't think of that. I guess that is one way to get the water to run off.

My husband and I wanted to buy a condo in Branson, Missouri. We fell in love with the location and the condo. We realized that until we retire we are not going to be able to get there very often. So, they (the developers) were going to put it in a rental pool. We could have used the rental money to go toward the payments and the maintenance fees. Essentially it would have paid for itself in 10 years. Even after 10 years we would not be ready to retire so we would have rental cash flow.

My husband couldn't get past the fact that someone was going to sleep in "his" bed. So, we didn't get it. Since then the prices have escalated. I SO regret not buying it. AND when we go to other destinations I wonder if he realizes someone slept in his bed!!

And a friend of ours who bought one is doing really well with his condo. It just bites! (not that he is doing well but that we didn’t make a good decision).

Anyway, Bob you are right. And I do think that people who have rental property know that they may not be making a lot of money but they ARE getting some help with payments and also some nice tax deductions that may help with their cash flow.

[Coden]

I laugh my "you know what" off every time I see that wicker couch and platform picture and I tell you, I would have been peeei$$d if I had rented a villa and it had that horrible wicker couch on that disgusting platform. I probably would have had a stroke!!!

[Keep Left]

Ok, I guess after 5 pages and the former owner of Villa Tesori (class A property). I have something to say about rates, profits and income. First, if you have a well maintained house, with all the bells and whistles the villa guests (I hate to say renters) beat a path to your door. Take a look at Island Getaways and the calendar for Tesori to validate.

Next, if properly run and the owner pays attention to details such as maintenace cost and supplies you should make about 60% to 65% gross profit after management fees and their maintenance. This should leave you sufficient funds for mortgage, insurance, taxes, maintenance and a good supply of rum and you have a "free" place to stay when not rented.

Often the management company does not take care of the place like the owner wants but there are ways to validate things are in excellent repair and meet or exceed the standards and expectations of guests. For example, about once a month I would call the guest and ask him pointedly if there is anything he needs, is everything working can I do anything to increase your enjoyment of the home. Simple, cheap and you get a very honest response. In one instance the sewer system was not working properly. Got management to fix it that same day.

Now for the rates. Yes, WAPA is increasing and to be honest guests tend to leave the a/c on. This can create a hugh monthly bill. I have seen electric bills in excess of $1,800 for the month. Guests think stateside when they use cistern water. Next thing you are doing is pouring 10,000 gallons of purchased water into the cistern. Some villa owners and I'm saying here hundreds of units between St. Thomas and St. John and it really makes me mad do not pay the VI required hotel tax. Because they pay no hotel tax and I suspect no IRS tax it drives up the property taxes for everyone else including villa owners.

Personally, I attempt to treat each and every guest as they are an old friend and accommodate every reasonable (and sometimes unreasonable) request. For example every guest I had, in addition to an expensive arrive basket was given a Villa Tesori hat - they not only appreciated it but my phone number was on the back (a little marketing here).
I religiously read each and every guestbook comment and lord help the management company if a page was missing. If that happened I called the guest at home and asked them how they enjoyed the house.

Pricing for villas is a function of availability, marketing and management company expertise and of course lastly, what the traffic will bear. That's the simple truth. For example, you really want to save money on rentals - use only the companies that have calendars posted and wait to the last minute. Oh, you can't do this in high season but the rest of the year you can then haggle and negotiate. Because to a villa owner a dollar of rent lost today by a vacancy is a dollar lost forever. So in many cases they would rather have something coming in for rental then nothing- or that's at least how I view rentals.


Lastly, if an owner does not have a unit up to par then it is up to you on this forum to be honest and assess the shortcomings; thereby, saving a future renter from not being happy.

Now for my moment of shameless marketing - you can see my comedy island novel which comes out Monday at www.keepleftbook.com

[traveler22]

Thanks for your insight Keep Left. As a Bi-yearly renter of properties on St. John I enjoy the ISLAND, the villa/condos we have stayed in over the years are mostly a place to rest ,relax and change but I usually don't rent the high end villas. I would rather spend my dollar on activities on and around the island. We have never been too disappointed with any place we stayed but obviously, some have been better than others. I do however think it is more of the property management end that needs improvement. I have seen RickG and others comment may time on this forum about out of date pictures of villas on rental agency's website and I think that can leave SOME peoples expectation too high when they arrive. Cudos to "Keep Left" for checking on his/her tenants themselves and being involved. I think when an owner does not live on island and can not keep up with their villa it falls to the control of the rental agency which are more concerned with the advertising and renting than maintenance. I have also used most of the rental companies on St. John and when there was a problem, most were taken care of asap(island time asap). I say go enjoy the ISLAND and if you do have a problem, use the villa contact person that is given for your rental and don't let it ruin your vacation! Go do something on the island while it gets fixed (again remember island time is a little slower) And if its not corrected, that is what this forum is for as well as the good things that happened on your vacation.

[petepie]

I think that the owners probably work with the management companies to set a market rate. If Dreamcatcher had significant repairs/updates/maintenance done, it may now be in a different "peer group" of comparable villas, and the rental rate has been raised accordingly so that it is equivalent to other comparable villas. If it was in disrepair and dated, that's probably why the rate was so low for the location, number of bedrooms etc. before. It's all market driven--if your rate is too high, your house will be vacant. If it's too low, you'll be popular, but leave money on the table. With houses priced at $2.0M and up, unless an owner has had the home for a long time, they probably are not even breaking even with their costs vs. rental income, so are highly motivated to get the highest rent the market will bear.

So, maybe this price increase indicates that Dreamcatcher has been updated and improved, it will be interesting to see if new pics show up soon.

[Keep Left]

Yes, your right about owners working with mgmt companies to generally set rental rates. I also concur with your observation if prices are too high then no rentals, if too low than too many rentals. It is difficult to set the price just so you have 40 weeks a year rented. However, I disagree with properties "built" for $2M or more not breaking even. A good new class A property close to Cruz Bay costing $2M or up with 4 to 5 beds will easily generate $200K to $225K after mgmt expense or in at least my case it has.

I looked at Dream Catcher website. They must be doing something right as they are pretty much rented solid for the next 2 to 3 months. I agree it would be interesting to see new updated pics of the property; but I would bet someone has taken a major interest and upgraded to achieve the higher rents (if they are, cause I don't know the old rent scale). Yep, agree that someone in the past probably got what they preceived a bargain before repairs, when in reality it was in a condition that deemed lower rentals. Good observations by you. Just my two cents.

[Dave-a-roni]

This thread has kept me up well past my bed time, this is like Jerry Springer! But lets get to the good stuff, California Girls lovely patio furniture picture... holy crap! Now my 2 cents. I do a bit of wood working myself, so I REALLY looked this over in jest. First I thought, the wood to make that gawdy base probably cost more than the seat itself, so why did they bother? Then I looked again to see if it was pressure treated wood (for price & water resistance) then I noticed that the "leg" 4x4's appear to be re-used because they're painted on some sides (from some previous project). No biggy on the re-used wood thing, but atleast paint the whole thing one color to match, espesially since the sides are plain pine and the legs are green-colored pressure treated (and partially painted). And while your painting it, do the WHOLE thing, and that would include the wicker seat! It would still be bad... If you wanted to candy coat a turd, would you coat only half of it?
Ok, now another critique. Who ever built it even went throught the trouble to miter the corners at 45 degree angles, which looks great, and lag bolt the thing together (strong)... but if your going to do that, you might as well just build a whole new bench!
This is wrong in so many ways.
Could this piece have possibly been stolen from a MILF bar?

[JT]

Well, my, my, what an interesting thread this has been!
As to Califonia Girl's patio furniture, I think you got more then the 5% service fee's worth with the fun we've all had on goofing on it.

The first time we rented a STJ villa we were so stunned by the view and whole experience that we took little note of much in the way of problems, except when the water totally stopped on the night of our 1st full day. The management company sent up a guy that said the pump was shot and it was going to take a couple of days to get a new one. Now I live in a rural area, can go without a lot, but no water? No way. Houston we got a problem here. Long story short, I ended up working with the ol' boy they'd sent up there, fiqured out the pump wasn't shot, though the switch was, bypassed the switch on the pump, ran the pump "hot- wired" long enough to build up enough pressure to conservatively wash dishes, shower, and flush for the night. The next day the guy got a $18.00 switch and every little ting was gonna be alright! He fiqured I had saved the owner several hundred bucks. I did get a pretty good discount the following year when we came back down to the same villa!

I remember Villa Owner from a while back pissin' and moanin' about being sick of rude/ inconsiderate guests. After reading his/her[?] most recent posts I'm just going to say that you really sound as if you don't enjoy what you're doing, as far as renting your villa, nor do you seem like much of a "people person" generally speaking. Plus, you're losing money! Maybe you should think about doing something else, or short of that, track down whatever is providing that strong smell refered, to in another thread.

[Rachelle & Joe]

Hey JT, we had a similar though not Urgent experiance when we rented a villa that was only 8 mo. new a few yrs. ago. our daughter & boyfriend rented with us & the small pool had shown a small waterfall in the pic, which upon our arrival was not working no biggie but we were so excited to be there & a lil' bummed at that same time LOL! the rental co. said they needed a part & did'nt know when they could get to it, soooo the hubby & boyfriend went to hardware store got a part they figured would need & bingo! got it going! the part only cost 20 buks & they were glad to do it. we told the company but did'nt realy seem to care one way or the other but we had a lot of fun with the whole event!anytime we rent a villa or whatever we treat the place as if it were our own because we would want others to do the same if we were renting or loaning a place to them! anyway thanks for your story brought back fun memories!!!!!

[sailorgirl]

Well, my, my, what an interesting thread this has been!
As to Califonia Girl's patio furniture, I think you got more then the 5% service fee's worth with the fun we've all had on goofing on it.

The first time we rented a STJ villa we were so stunned by the view and whole experience that we took little note of much in the way of problems, except when the water totally stopped on the night of our 1st full day. The management company sent up a guy that said the pump was shot and it was going to take a couple of days to get a new one. Now I live in a rural area, can go without a lot, but no water? No way. Houston we got a problem here. Long story short, I ended up working with the ol' boy they'd sent up there, fiqured out the pump wasn't shot, though the switch was, bypassed the switch on the pump, ran the pump "hot- wired" long enough to build up enough pressure to conservatively wash dishes, shower, and flush for the night. The next day the guy got a $18.00 switch and every little ting was gonna be alright! He fiqured I had saved the owner several hundred bucks. I did get a pretty good discount the following year when we came back down to the same villa!

I remember Villa Owner from a while back pissin' and moanin' about being sick of rude/ inconsiderate guests. After reading his/her[?] most recent posts I'm just going to say that you really sound as if you don't enjoy what you're doing, as far as renting your villa, nor do you seem like much of a "people person" generally speaking. Plus, you're losing money! Maybe you should think about doing something else, or short of that, track down whatever is providing that strong smell refered, to in another thread.

Same thing happened to us! Hubby tinkers with the pump and viola water. Self help!