Motivated by the good exchange rate and having spent three years in a row in Orlando on family holidays in his father-in-law's holiday home, Jim and his wife decided to buy a house themselves.

Last April they took the plunge and bought a five-bed house for $290,000 (€223,200) in the Davenport area on a golf course.

The house is within 15 minutes' drive of Disney World.

The couple were surprised at how easy the process was. They looked at the house in March and owned it by April. When they bought the property it came with 11 weeks rent booked already.

So far this year they have 24 weeks booked. They charge between $880 to $1,200 (€xxx-€xxx) a week in rent for the house.

The family are not sure if they will be holidaying there this summer. As long as the rent is coming in they are happy. "If we don't see the house, all the better."

The couple stress the importance of having a good relationship with your management company. They pay the management company $100 (€xxx) a month. This essentially pays for the company to hold on to your keys, help guests out with any problems and co-ordinate repairs and services to the property. These are all paid for separately.

They pay $80 (€xx) every time the house is cleaned, $60 to have the pool cleaned every month and $60 in monthly gardening fees.

The electricity bill will cost between $250 to $400 (€xxx-€xxx) a month and the utility bill is $1,000 (€x,xxx). Yearly insurance costs $1,500 (€x,xxx).

The couple rent out the property themselves through a website (www.floridavillas.com), which although quite time consuming means they have control.

They took the decision to do this after a friend had a bad experience - he found that his house was being rented at times he was begin told it was idle.

Being this far away in Ireland means that there is "little you can do about this", according to Jim.

By taking on the job of renting the house themselves, they will avoid situations like this.