Today we’d like to introduce you to Linda Sanders.
Hi Linda, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
In 2007 my husband Philip and I, together with our then pre-teen 2 children left the UK on a cold and wet January morning to embark on our new life here in Central Florida. We came over on an E2 visa which meant we had bought a business and we are still on an E2 visa as unfortunately this very rarely has a pathway to a green card, unlike some of the lesser qualified visa for the USA.
We own a property management company, mainly managing privately owned vacation homes in the tourist areas of Kissimmee, Davenport, Clermont, and Haines City. We also manage a small number of long term rental properties, which are either additional homes our vacation homeowners have bought, or sometimes they change their short term rental to long term rental.
As a property manager your are on call 24/7 365 days of the year. We do have staff but we are a smaller company as we prefer to be hands on with the properties we manage. In most instances we know more about our owners’ homes than they do as we are in and out of the properties regularly.
My job in the office is mainly to find paying guests for the properties, this is through various media, i.e. direct bookings through our website, relationships and agreements we have with tour companies/travel agents, third party portals such as Airbnb, vrbo, Expedia etc and of course repeat guests, many have been staying with us year on year for the past 18+ years.
My husband splits his time between the office and servicing the properties. Property management is quite complex especially keep up to date and the homes in compliance with current regulations. the majority of homeowners do not what nor understand the day to day running of their vacation homes, such as the payment of utility bills,paying monthly taxes on rental income – we file 2 sets of taxes per property – state tax and Tourist Development Tax. We also apply for new owner’s licenses and ensure their annual license fees for each owner is paid.
Although Phil does minor maintenance on the properties, we employ specialist services such as licensed electricians, plumbers etc. The swimming pool are maintained on a weekly basis by the specialised pool companies we employ. We have our own maid service to look after the cleans when guests depart.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Like everyone across the globe, but especially in tourism and hospitality, the COVID Pandemic hit us hard – especially as vacation homes were the last accommodations to be allowed to operate again (the argument was it was more dangerous for people to self isolate in a privately owned home, than stays in a hotel or motel with hundreds of strangers all using and accessing the same public spaces).
Quite a few homeowners needed to sell their vacation home to have money to live on during the lockdowns and subsequent hardships over the following 2-3 years,
However, through it all we still kept the business going and kept staff employed.
The tourist industry has changed a lot because of COVID and we continually look at our business and keep up with current travel trends
Not being able to have a green card means every business decision we have made over the past 18+ years has always been how to ensure we keep immigration officials and our visa requirements on the right track
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Majestic Villa Services?
In the UK my husband and I worked in corporate UK. Phil spent many years working within the Goodyear Tyres corporation as their marketing and advertising senior manager. I was a senior secretary to the Company Secretary and Finance Director of a multi-national company before taking off 7 years to be a stay at home mom. In 2000 I started work life again as a community college tutor, teaching basic ICT. My husband then invented a device within the automotive sector and set up his own manufacturing business.
All this experience was invaluable for when we invested in our property management business – a small company which was not being run particularly well but we could see it’s potential back in 2007 – we subsequently turned the busi9ness on its head to become a mutli-award winning business within the local tourist and hospitality industry. I am also a Kissimmee Is Me Ambassador for my continued efforts in promoting my hometown of St. Cloud and the surrounds area of Kissimmee, encouraging visitors to look beyond the usual attractions of the theme parks and actually come and enjoy real everyday Central Florida.
As a company we are known within the industry for our the way we maintain the homes we manage, our customer service and our honesty and integrity. I also bring these qualities to my real estate business.
Our homeowners refer us to other homeowners, so we don’t have to advertise for homes to manage, guests stay with us year after year and refer family and friends to stay in the properties we manage.
We are proud to have hosted, para-olympians, national baseball players and their families; but our most bitter-sweet memories are those families with a member who is critically or terminally ill and we help them make happy and lasting memories. We try to find out as much as we can about our guests to give them the best stay and if we feel a particular home they are inquiring about might not be the right fit for them we will make suggestions of other homes which might be a better fit …. guests appreciate this.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
We stay in hotels as and when we can get away … we just want the pampering we give to the guests and homes we manage … although many hotel rooms are not as well kept or cleaned as the homes we manage
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.good2govillas.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/linda.sanders.52493/
