About the Author

Johnathon Candelario

Florida-licensed real estate agent and hands-on short-term-rental operator. Every guide on this site is written and verified by someone whose team is physically inside these resort communities every week.

Who writes this site

I'm John. I sell vacation homes as a licensed Florida real estate agent, and I run Vacation Home Help — a Central Florida company that cleans, manages, licenses, and files lodging taxes for short-term rentals on behalf of 300+ owners. That second job is what makes this site different: the HOA quirks, gate policies, trash logistics, guest-fee surprises, and real revenue numbers in these guides come from operating inside these communities, not from scraping other websites.

Florida Real Estate License

SL3660236 · Sales Associate

Brokerage

Preferred Shore
50 S. Lemon Ave #302, Sarasota, FL

Operator

Founder & CEO, Vacation Home Help · cleaning, management, licensing & tax filing for 300+ owners

On the ground in

Bahama Bay, the Windsor resorts, Reunion-area communities, Storey Lake, Regal Palms & more

Also: I host the Vacation Home Help podcast on short-term rental operations, and my team files Florida tourist development tax returns monthly across Polk, Osceola, and Lake counties — which is why the tax sections on this site cite the actual Department of Revenue forms.

How we verify our data

Every community guide on this site follows the same standard:

Primary sources first. Tax rates come from the Florida Department of Revenue's official DR-15TDT and DR-15DSS forms and county tax collector sites — not from other blogs. CDD assessments come from each district's adopted budget PDFs. License costs come from DBPR's published fee schedules.
Figures carry dates. HOA dues, prices, and rental numbers change. We state when each figure was verified, and we treat undated numbers on other sites as suspect — you should too.
Market data is labeled honestly. When no community-specific rental dataset exists, we say so, and we label market-wide averages as proxies — including why they can mislead (bedroom-mix skew is the usual culprit).
First-hand experience fills the gaps. Operating details — trash logistics, gate procedures, amenity access in practice — come from our own team working in these communities.
We publish what we can't confirm. Each guide's uncertain items are flagged in plain language ("verify on the tax bill") rather than papered over.

Spot an error? Email john@vacationhomehelp.com or call 407-750-2434. We correct fast and note material corrections on the affected page.

Disclosures

Some community maps and floor plans on this site are reproduced from their creators and hosts, with credit given on each page — including home builders (Pulte Homes, Lennar, Mattamy Homes), resort operators, and local brokerages. If you are a rights holder and would like an image credited differently, updated, or removed, email john@vacationhomehelp.com and we will act promptly.

Vacation Home Guy is the marketing name of Johnathon Candelario, a licensed Florida real estate sales associate with Preferred Shore. I earn commissions on real estate transactions and my company Vacation Home Help sells cleaning, management, licensing, and tax services — which means I benefit when readers become clients. The guides are written to be accurate whether or not you ever work with us. Community guides are not affiliated with or endorsed by any resort's condominium association or management company. Equal Housing Opportunity.