Hello, it feels like summer is officially here even though I believe the 21st of this month officially marks the date. But, I can tell you from experience, it is here! I fairly recently started playing sand volleyball again after all of my issues last year between the tick disease and a broken shoulder, And OMG! It is hot out there. I am really not sure why the group I play with on Sundays plays at 1 PM in the heat of the day.  It must be purely to test our mental strength and endurance. Running and jumping in the sand in 90 degree temps will make you feel you’ve lost your good sense! The sand was so hot a few weeks ago I had to break out the sand socks and some folks that didn’t got blisters. Yikes!

The real estate market is in full swing with people shopping for new homes to rent and buy. The decision to sell their current property, turn it into a rental or sell their rental is all the buzz now. If you haven’t considered it yet, this is the last month I’d wait if you want to catch the July and August shoppers. But keep in mind these are not like the old days where if you didn’t have it rented or sold by July 31st, it didn’t happen for awhile. Gainesville now supports year-round leases and sales although winter and holidays are always the slowest.

We’ve had our typical busy season with lots of new properties coming into management and some of our rental properties selling. We have a handful of properties turning over each month and moving new tenants in especially in the properties that are closer to the university or that tend to attract students or faculty from one of our two fabulous, top-rated colleges. The vendors in town are all working very hard and if you don’t already have a good relationship with them, your property may not be a priority for them. That’s one of the perks of having a good property management company.  We have trusted vendors that get our work done quickly, correctly, and at a good price despite being busy.

These days are spent doing lots of inspections with pictures and videos and the paperwork that goes along with the tenants’ move-out process and refund of their security deposit. Because we videotape our move-in and move-out inspections, it makes this time a lot less difficult and stressful when tenants don’t agree with the charges assessed in their security deposit. After sending their list of damages if they dispute a charge we invite them back to the office to review the videos. A lot of our tenants turn around and buy property and then have us manage their property when they need to relocate because they respect how they were treated while they rented from us and how well we took care of the property and documented everything. These are all things to keep in mind if your managing your own property.

Using the wonders of modern technology to keep up with work, I was able to finally take the Bahamas trip that was supposed to happen over Christmas last year (before the broken shoulder got in the way). I know that working while on vacation may not sound pleasant for some people, but I like what I do and I have the best assistant in the world so it just makes it another day in the life, but in a different beautiful location. We stayed in Eleuthera, an island 110 miles long and about 2 miles at its widest. We had an overnight stay in Nassau which we maximized by staying in a beautiful hill top, ocean view bed-and-breakfast  that the universe picked for us (or the cab driver depending on how you look at things). Then on to Eleuthera where we stayed in an awesome bungalow right on a private beach. The bottom step of the deck was in the sand. Two full sides of the home were sliding glass doors that opened to that beautiful view. The owners were very accommodating of our schedule changes and easy to work with.  I included a link below to some of the neat places we visited. Check out the video of Glass Window Bridge (our video) that separates the Atlantic from the Caribbean and the stark differences. Big surf and deep deep blue water on one side and calm shallow, serene, green water on the other. It was breathtaking and the video shows this.

I hope you enjoy your summer. Kids are out of school and summer break is here, so take advantage. Last month’s newsletter listed some fun things for kids to do this summer (click here). Wear lots of sunscreen in the day and bug spray at night if you live in the sunshine state 😉

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