Vacation Home of the Week- 916 Orange Cosmos

We’ve gone through dozens of applications and viewed numerous homes to bring you some of the best vacation homes and owners that Orlando has to offer. We’re proud to compile this list of unique vacation homes and outside-the-box thinking owners. We think each of these homes deserves to be recognized and certainly should be at the top of your list for those of you traveling to Orlando. Check out this week’s Vacation Home of the Week!!

 

916 Orange Cosmos Blvd

Location: Davenport, FL
Neighborhood: Watersong Resort
Owner Booking Weeks: 20
Management Booking Weeks: 4
Website: www.SunshineStateVacation.com

Why Owners Chose This Home:  “We liked the model home and decided to one built newly and just across from the club house. Watersong Resort is uniquely located in a preservation area with beautiful woodlands and lakes.”

What Makes This Home Unique: “Of course all houses are built Tuscany style. Our house difers, because we had the furniture and most decorations and paintings imported ourselves from the Netherlands. High quality and contemporary design. Makes it stand out in the crowd.”

Marketing Strategies: ” To cater for non-English speaking customers I not only translated the website in the respective language, but also reserved appropriate domain names, eg .de .nl .eu etc. I also created a communal website or owners in Watersong Resort to publish their property on for free: http://www.amsport.nl/site. Also installed a Family & Friends discount program and a kick-back referal program.”

The Pink Flamingo’s Review:
The outside the home is very nice but unassuming and upon walking into Bou’s home it was like walking into a model home.  Everything is so unique and I don’t use that word lightly!! I spent quite a bit of time just looking at little things like the wall decor, art work, furniture etc. I was absolutely enamored by all of the detail and work put into this home.  When they had the home decorated they had everything shipped over from the Netherlands, so it’ all authentic. No IKEA in this house! One of the coolest things in the home was the little city landscape that runs across the top of the wall meeting the hallway and the kitchen. How cool! It’s little things like that, that really make this house unique. It’s also very tastefully upgraded and clean.

The real thrill comes when you walk outside into the backyard and your whole backyard is overlooking the most beautiful conservation areas. This is one of Watersong Resort’s major focal points, its gorgeous conservation views. This home is located on one of those direct view lots and it’s walking distance to the clubhouse so you not only have privacy in the home but convenience! What I truly love about the Watersong Resort is that it’s one of the few communities in the area that has really captured the Tuscan style architecture.  The homes don’t look like any other community that you’ll see in the Disney areas and the clubhouse is very high end so you’ll get nothing but luxury here.  It’s also very close to the golf course at Providence which is a huge selling point to golfers. . As a matter of fact, their guests seem to like it so much that they have had two purchase a home in Watersong before they left to go home during their visit!!

Watersong Resort Davenport, FL

Bou and his wife are Dutch nationals and had visited Orlando before making this purchase. They both still work, Bou is a software salesman and has worked in both the Netherlands and Germany which opens up his market of renters tremendously. When they were in a position to purchase a vacation home, being in the Netherlands, they naturally considered places with a warm climate. They had friends that owned vacation properties in France, Spain and Portugal and had told them horror stories about security, and unreliable property management companies in those places. After alot of research Florida was their vacation home destination of choice and they started to explore the market in Orlando.

Owner’s like Bou who live overseas have such a huge advantage to tap into their network of travelers in their country. Bou is doing exactly that. As a matter of fact, he doesn’t even have a HomeAway ad yet. He’s strictly doing most of this by word of mouth in Holland and Germany, which is very impressive! His homepage is also generating leads for him. What he did, that I thought was really unique and outside the box is he started an Orlando Forum in the Dutch language (http://www.sapg.nl/smf) and set up a content management system based website for Watersong Resort owners to publish their property for free. (http://www.amsport.nl/site). Owners can naturally swap referrals with each other on this site. They do advertise on Home Owner’s direct (UK) and VRBO.  Bou’s goal for 2012 is to target the German speaking market with over 90 million people!

If you’re looking to rent a home that’s truly unique, convenient and private than The Pink Flamingo highly recommends Bou’s Home Away from Home in the beautiful Watersong Resort.

Watersong Resort Vacation Homes For Sale

Enter Your Home Today in Our “Vacation Home of the Week”

 

Vacation Home of the Week- 640 Blue Jay Way

We’ve gone through dozens of applications and viewed numerous homes to bring you some of the best vacation homes and owners that Orlando has to offer. We’re proud to compile this list of unique vacation homes and outside-the-box thinking owners. We think each of these homes deserves to be recognized and certainly should be at the top of your list for those of you traveling to Orlando. Check out this week’s Vacation Home of the Week!!

640 Blue Jay Way

Location: Davenport, FL
Neighborhood: Sandy Ridge
Owner Booking Weeks: 18
Management Booking Weeks: 19
Website: www.OrlandoHouse.me

Why Owners Chose This Home:  “We wanted a home that was a bungalow (single floor), newly built, 4 bedrooms, and with a great floor plan. Two of the bedrooms had to have master suite amenities; with private baths and at least one had to have a walk-in closet. The pool area required a covered lanai overlooking the pool; with southern exposure to enjoy the sun!

We chose to buy in Sandy Ridge, Davenport because it is set within a lush conservation and is ideally situated within easy reach, 20 minutes,  of the popular Central Florida theme parks and attractions.  The community is very well landscaped and also has its own kiddies play area. Being close to great routes such as Interstate 4 and Hwy 192 makes planning those all important days out to parks or shopping that much easier. We also wanted Florida’s beautiful coastline within easy reach, from the quiet white sands of St Pete’s to the fast pace of Clearwater, and with one of the closest (Cocoa Beach) being just over an hour’s drive away.

We wanted renters to have easy access to golf. Golfers will be spoiled for choice when it comes to golf courses, Sandy Ridge is within a few minutes drive of the popular Champions Gate Golfing Resort.  It was very important to have close-by supermarkets, shopping strips and some fine restaurants within a few minutes.”

What Makes This Home Unique: “Our home provides a stunning single floor layout, with beautiful porcelain tile throughout the main living areas (soon to be shown on the web site). Each room in the house is professionally decorated.  A south facing backyard with a covered lanai overlooks the screen enclosed heated pool. The kids, young and old, will enjoy the farmers field seen from the backyard with horses.”

Marketing Strategies: ” Our house has what 99% of all rental homes don’t have, an iPhone/iPad application. This opens up a whole new marketing tool. Google “iPhone Orlando vacation home app” and our application will appear first in the search results. Search “Orlando Home” in Apple iTunes, and our application appears first in the list! We have had numerous inquiries and rentals through the application.”

The Pink Flamingo’s Review: I’ll start with the home itself.  I was in 640 Blue Jay Way  a couple of years ago when I sold Dave and Lois the home and back then it was a very nice home after they fixed it up. Nicely appointed, great location and awesome view but when I went to preview the home a couple of weeks ago I had a “WOW factor” experience when I walked in.  The entire home, except for the bedrooms had been updated with all beautiful 18×18 ceramic tile and it really made the house pop!  This is such a smart move on the owner’s part, especially  for a one story home as the living areas tend to get more traffic.  It’s really adds a more luxurious feel to the home.

Blue Jay way is such a cute home, it’s perfect for families traveling with kids because the floorplan is very cozy and no matter where you are in the house you can have a pretty good idea of where the kids are and what they’re up to.  There’s no getting lost in this home and you don’t have to worry about the family being disconnected by an upstairs.  In my opinion, it’s the perfect family retreat home or even for two couples traveling together as it has two masters.  This home is really great for just about anyone but I love the intimacy and convenience that it offers for families.

Sandy Ridge Properties

The backyard is really cool, it has a view of some farm land and you can see horses grazing and just hanging out. The whole community is very much like that. If you take a drive through Sandy Ridge you’ll see tons of trees and nature. That’s what I love about it. You don’t feel like you’re in some cookie cutter community where all the tress have been chopped down. There is plenty of nature for you to enjoy. The location of the home can’t be beat. It’s not even 5 minutes to a Publix shopping plaza and a short 15 minute drive to Disney.

The owners, Dave and Lois, are a really nice couple from Ottawa and are super laid back and down to earth. Great people to do business with and I’m positive that anyone renting out their home will have nothing but a first class experience working with them. Dave is extremely tech savvy and very sharp. He did something for his home that I have never seen anyone do before, he created an iphone app in his spare time that people can download to their phones. How cool is that? You can actually read reviews on the home, check out local attractions, shop car rentals, check the booking calendar, book the home and so much more!! In fact, based on my search in itunes I think Dave and Lois are the ONLY vacation home owners that have an app for their home. That is truly outside the box marketing and I love it!! If you haven’t already, go to Itunes and download their app here.  It’s free! Don’t forget to “Like” their page on Facebook too.

When traveling to Orlando, if you want to work with honest and ethical people, get a great deal on a cozy yet classy vacation home than I highly suggest renting out 640 Blue Jay Way from the Pollocks.  It gets our Pink Flamingo two thumbs up!

Sandy Ridge Vacation Homes For Sale

Enter Your Home Today in Our “Vacation Home of the Week”