Lake home with about 300 ft of shoreline Rental Contract required before booking

Thank you Sheila, it really helps overcome a score someone left out of anger awhile back. Its a tough business to be in. Most years we fall short by $10-$15K of paying for our expenses so great reviews can help get us closer. We really enjoy having nice families use it to create great family memories. Please come back another time. Thank You, Alex

I am glad you liked our place and set up. You are always welcome to come again. You were understanding and appreciative and very pleasant to work with, which makes renting our place out fun for everyone. Thank You, Alex

I am not sure why Tom M. would write they liked the property and location and then give it a score of a 3 out of 5, but that is what he decided to do. Even though the renter almost caused an expensive problem which I found and corrected before it damaged the boats, I did not give him a bad score. The renter and I were lucky because they put both boats on the boat lifts but did not secure them to the lifts, even with written and verbally instructions telling him how important it is and how to do it. We have loops already on the ropes to slide over the piers poles or use to tie to. It takes seconds to do but he didn't do it. He used one rope and it was loose and not secure. If big winds and waves had come it would have washed the boats right off the lift. Fortunately I was concerned about this renter and stopped by to check on the property about a week after his stay. We did not give the renter Tom M. a poor rating or complain to him, we just let it go but after they added to the frustration by giving us a low score we will not rent to them again and I suggest other owners think twice before renting to them.

Renter(s) were great to work with and took very good care of the property. We hope they come back every year. Thanks, Alex and Jean

G.S. was a great renter. He was easy to work with and overall a great person to rent to in all ways.

We go to extra lengths to make sure renters know what our place is and isn't. The listings descriptions and pictures are extensive. We also list everything we can in the contract - property guide, so they can look it up if they need to. We have the renter call us once they book it to answer their questions and to go over the most important items to help prevent problems. Each of the items she listed could have easily been rectified with a simple phone call to me during the rental, or it was in the contract - property guide. Examples from above: - We can control the heat through the internet at any time. We lock the thermostat because one person reprogramed it and it would be 85 all night long and it was hard to clear it. - There is an A/C, 6 amp battery charger on the pier in a wooden box, and a 6 amp charger and 2 replacement batteries, in the garage, so there are 4 batteries. The solar chargers in the boats just help maintain the charge while it is in the boat. - The small restaurant 300+ yards away through a woods, must have had music outside in which case it would not matter if renters played their music at the same time. Mercer Township says rental properties can't disturb neighbors with music or noise and has actual quit hours starting at 10 pm. Two neighbors asked me to not allow guests to play music outside so we honor their requests and the townships rules. - We don't list a washing machine as part of the rental and state on the contract its not available. Renters broke 2 washing machines in one year so now we keep a lock on it. There is a nice laundromat 2 miles away in town. - Almost all bedsheets are less than 1-3 years old so if some older, but still good ones were out in the basement kids room, my apologies. We are using the house more for our family so the sheets etc. don't get that much use in a year. - The water pressure is very high in the showers, and renters can set the heat setting to what they like. Rural properties with a well don't have the same water pressure as some places in cities, but the pressure there is very good and the showers are in good shape. - The only notes we have up are on toilets and the kitchen sink saying to not flush body wipes, grease, etc. down toilets or sinks due to having a septic system. We inform people of this, yet in 2020 we had to replace the entire septic field ($19,000) because renters plugged the septic field with body wipes and it could not be fixed. We feel it's better to put a note on the toilets reminding people so the septic does not back up. It can be hard for teenagers etc to remember this type of thing so we puts notes on the toilets. Renting a house in the country is not like going to a five star hotel with staff on site, so you have to call the owner if you can't figure out something. Complaining after the fact does not help solve the problem in time and does not seem fair to list in a review. My phone is with me 24/7. We have a very nice place with many repeat customers. Most people love it, and have a great time, even with notes on the toilets. We also help people by listing some amazing places to visit in the area that most people love. Thank You, Alex and Jean Elkins -

Response to the review above: My wife and I are owner/members of this business and L.L.C. and have rented it to many families in the last 10+ years. We are new to VRBO's site. In 10 years of renting it, we have only had to ask for part of a security deposit 3 times. There have been damages to our place more than 3 times, but we understand that accidents can happen, so we dismissed them. We have dismissed some fairly expensive things, like a large window that a guest broke by accident. That renter proactively told us they broke the window.. One of the reviews we have on VRBO is from a guest who created very odd and significant damages to our property. They denied causing the damages. I had personally prepared the cabin for their stay. I inspected the damages after their stay. I did this before any other renters were allowed into our place. I did this at the request of our cleaning professional who called us and asked us to look at the damages before she did any cleaning. With my wife and I, there are 5 people who evaluated the damages, Three are unrelated to us. One is a doctor, one is a nurse, and one is a professional cleaner. Each person stated the items were ruined. The renter paid for the cost to replace the items, then went on VRBO, and wrote the review above. They told us multiple times that they did this to get back at us. They also stated multiple times that they are going to have many of their friends go onto VRBO and submit horrible reviews. While we usually ignore damages that cost $135, in this case the reason for the damages can't be overlooked. We did not ask them to pay for the time we spent fixing the problem, or the travel time and cost to drive 70 miles round trip to purchase the items before the next guests arrived. Ultimately, I hope all readers of reviews on VRBO factor in that some of the reviews may be written by past renters who are upset about having to pay for damages and so they use the review as a tool to harm property owners who request money for damages. In an effort to allow fair speech and full disclosure, VRBO won't take these postings off. It is important to allow free speech. Allowing free speech and yet protecting owners from malicious acts, is a hard puzzle to solve. We are new to VRBO but we have families that have rented our place year after year for many years. They love it, and we love letting them enjoy our place. If you want more pictures of our property, please let us know. Thank You, Alex and Jean