Its not ALL about Florida ... Welcome to the West Coast

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rich_sipe
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Location: Redmond, OR
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Its not ALL about Florida ... Welcome to the West Coast

Post by rich_sipe »

:D Welcome to the Northwest where the weather and the people are nicer. By nicer I mean it is less likely you will die!! Everytime a hurricane or etc. slams the East Coast I thank GOD I live in the Northwest . The worst weather we get is ... hmm can't even think of it. Not really cold, not really warm, not really that wet, not really that windy. :shock:

People are flocking to the Northwest and once you visit you quickly figure out why. I am an East Coast transplant from the mid 90's who came and never left. The only thing we have found is that it is difficult convincing people that out here is a great place to vacation to. The Northwest doesn't have a Disney or like but we also don't have the crowds.

We recently purchased a vacation rental in the Eagle Crest Resort near Redmond Oregon because it is such an amazing place. The area is called the high desert and has the sunshine and dryness of a desert but not the crazy heat because we are at elevation and up north. We get 300 days of sunshine and even a little bit of snow in the winter. It usually gets chilly in the winter and Mt. Bachelor is one of the best skiing around because the snow is so dry.

Anyways I just wanted to post a subject thats about us out here. I just had to LAUGH :roll: at the title "Florida & USA" ... while I might agree Florida is not really part of the USA at time that still doesn't change its state status.

Escape the crowds and come to the Northwest to really experience relaxation. We'll leave the light on :wink:
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tansy
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Location: La Manche, Normandy, France

Post by tansy »

Hi there - welcome to the forum.

I had a look at your site - looks lovely...one thing I do want to ask - we have been discussing on another thread...I notice you have 4 bikes available.

In this day & age with legal situations in USA, now starting here, what do you do to cover yourself if someone has an accident - do you get them to sign that it is their responsibility and also if they damage the bike what happens?

I ask as even though I state in our terms of business folk are responsible for their own insurance...but if they had an accident in our house we have our own insurance i.e. liability...what happens if they are on your bike & have an accident?
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paolo
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Post by paolo »

Welcome to the forum, rich_sipe! :D

You're right, Florida and USA is a geographical misnomer, but I thought as so many vacation rental owners in the US seem to be in Florida, they should get preferential treatment!

Your part of the world sounds idyllic, and your site is great. Tell your rental-owning friends about Lay My Hat, and we may change the title to 'Oregon and USA'.
Paolo
Lay My Hat
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rich_sipe
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Post by rich_sipe »

About the bikes ... well I think that in this day an age people are sue happy no matter what. We have an insurance policy for the place but really our theory is to trust in the common sence of our renters. That might sound naive but I've heard its a nice place to live. They can rent the bikes at the resort but it is such a pain and a little expensive if you ask me. We have friends who have had a place for quite a while and have had bikes and no problems. I think if you worry about everything you end up with a padded vacation rental with signs everywhere saying use the _____ at your own risk and that really doesn't seem like a home. We do provide helmets for our part. We do get a lot of people who are interested in the bikes.

Ohh yeah and if they damage the bikes we don't care too much because we only spent $45 for each of them at the Wal-mart Thanksgiving sale. We could take it out of their security deposit but unless they intentionally damaged the bike(s) its more worth it to give them a break and have them as future renters.
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tansy
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Location: La Manche, Normandy, France

Post by tansy »

excellent, it is a relief to hear common sense!...

our push bikes will be champion (france's equilivant of walmart), I've 14,000 fidelty points = 2 bikes + 70Euros....hadn't thought of helmets....my day of youth we didn't even have to wear helmets on motorbikes!
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tmiski
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Post by tmiski »

The bike discussion got me thinking about liability again. The U.S. is sue happy and liability is something I've always been concerned about. I have a lot of water hazards at my vacation rental (Pool, Spa, Boat, Lake, and more) that could potentially be a liability risk.

The first thing that I did was added language to my lease that made it absolutely clear that this property has certain amenities that could become hazards if not used properly. The lease makes it clear that the client acknowledges and accepts responsibility for using the properties amenities in a safe (and supervised) manner.

In addition, after speaking with my CPA he advised me to max out my home owners insurance (I upped mine to $1 million). I also purchased a $2 million umbrella policy to provide an additional layer of liability coverage. The additional insurance coverage was not very expensive

I'd also love to know what other owners are doing to protect their investments.

Hope that helps,

Ted
Maybe, just once, someone will call me "sir" without adding, "you're making a scene."
Stu
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Post by Stu »

Oregon's different. It's not really part of the USA. It's somewhere between heaven and a nice place. I spent some time working there in 2001 in Woodburn. I did the Oregon trail, I spent some days travelling up the Pacific Highway. Cannon Beach, Rockaway Beach, Pacific City. Magical names for smalltown America. The Onion Mountains. The sunsets over the Pacific, reflected on the Cascade Range behind me. The surf was incredible. All of 10 feet to double overhead and as clean as a whistle. I did Tillamook. A forest bigger than the area of Wales was burnt to the ground in a forest fire there, and replanted in 1932 (I think). The place is awesome and somewhere I'd gladly vacate to...

As for the bikes. We also live in 'naive', (very nice it is too...) and offer our guests the chance to hire bikes. Again, we rely on common sense in the main but ask them to sign a disclaimer.
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