Anybody have a beach or vacation house?

thedash

DH and I are beach bums but often have trouble finding a rental that works with our schedules due to minimum nights and Sat-Sat weeks. A hotel room with two small kids is not convenient at all. We're considering buying a condo or small beach house. We would like to rent it sometimes to help offset costs but be able to use it for ourselves fairly often too. Does anybody have advice or experience with how this usually works out? We have also seen some 1/4 shares of condos which are nicer places but obviously lack flexibility. We're looking at the Delaware shore and possibly OC, MD but would consider VA Beach, especially Sandbridge.

*sparky*

We have considered buying @ the DE shore a million times. The problem is we like to stay close to the beach and those houses are out of our price range.

We have a few friends who have places. The ones who rent it out use a realtor. You can tell them how much time to block off for you and they take a % of the rental income for their fee. A couple of my friends rented theirs on their own through home away.com and vrbo, but they said it was a huge hassle.

If you can buy a place with someone you know vs. buying into a share I think that works out better as far as flexibility. What I didn't like about the shares is that you get assigned weeks and they may not work for you but there did not seem to be any option to request certain weeks.

GL!

Tink112011

kdc2007 said:

my parents own a cabin on a lake. but they don't rent it out, it's about 30 min from their house so they go there almost every weekend. DH, LO and I are going every other weekend this summer. 

Same situation here.  But witnessing first hand how much work it is to maintain a second home, I don't think we'd be on board for owning it ourselves.  Its great to share the burden with the ILs.  It's also nice that while we enjoy going out there, we don't feel that we have to spend every free weekend there.

snicksnack

Feel free to PM me with any questions.  We have a house in Berlin Maryland, about 7 miles or so outside of OC proper fairly close to west OC and OC pines. Our neighborhood is very affordable.  We bought it during the boom and at the time could not afford inside OC limits and get the space we wanted.  I love our neighborhood I am just not a fan of driving into OC but my family has a place in OC so we can park there.  We go to Assteague a lot and our neighborhood has a pool that the kids love.  As for renting our HOA does not allow It except to long-term renters 6 months or more.  We did it once one winter and I would not do it again.  We knew the people we were renting to and they were great but some furniture got damaged, pets etc…  The things that suck are the sewer bill our neighborhood was new and we have this extra fee we have to pay it is tied to our electric bill and it is high making our bill always over 100 even on the months we are not there, taxes, and the stress of hurricanes and things that happen when we are not there.  Also, packing the kids up every weekend is a chore I liked going more pre-kids I know first world problems LOL. If you want to rent check and making sure it is allowed before looking at a building.  I knew several buildings in OC that don’t allow it.  A lot of the smaller more affordable complexes have no renting clauses mainly because the tents don’t want to deal with the trouble that comes with vacation renters.  Another option is to buy a house that has two apartments.  My friend’s family has one and they stay on top and rent to families, mainly recruited through their church, on the bottom level

bethughknee

My parents have owned a house in Ocean Pines (near OCMD) since I was a kid. They've gone back and forth renting it out depending on $$ needs. (Right now it's a long-term rental with a tenant staying for 2 years. They're using the income to renovate their primary residence.)

When we were younger, they would rent out several or all but 1-2 weeks of the summer. A couple of times they used a realtor/property management but eventually they preferred to rent only to family/friends. They also went back and forth between using a cleaning service between renters or paying their neghbors (who they got very close to) to go behind and clean it.

I am looking forward to them finishing renovations and opening the beach house back up because it's definitely MUCH easier to be able to get on the road whenever you want. I can't imagine sitting in Bay Bridge traffic with a baby. (All that to say we rented a place in Rehoboth for later in the summer and will be trying to navigate the same situation...)

Curls218

My ILs have a condo at the Jersey shore that we use.  I like the idea of the condo so there's no outside maintenance to deal with.  But they can't rent it out for the summer (the whole summer or any portion) due to the rules of the condo association.  They have to have a full year lease or no lease, so they actually had it rented out to someone who lived there full time for the past few years.  This is the first year in a while they've had it.  No idea how often they will use it but we are planning on going every other week.

SunAndRain

Several of our friends have vacation homes, some most don't rent them out but a few do.  They use a cleaning company and manage the rental contracts themselves, and advertise on vrbo.com.  They have a combination lock that they can reset through the internet so no leaving keys for the tenants necessary.

The key is to have an owners closet to lock up all your personal items. And a cleaning service.

I stayed a couple times a friend's cabins and while their homes were lovely, I spent my last morning stripping beds, laundering sheets and towels, and cleaning bathrooms.  I don't even clean my own bathrooms (have housekeeper) so, for me, that sort of killed the idea of ever having a vacation home that I would personally have to keep clean.

groovygrl

It is definitely a lot of maintenance so MH & I have always talked about if we do ever get a 2nd home (not in the position to do so now b/c we don't live in a place we particularly want to stay for any amount of time) we would want to have some sort of property manager or something to oversee the house, esp depending on how far from home it was. We'd also do the rental thing & block off the weeks we wanted to use it and the only way we would own a beach house would be if we lived in the southeast, so we figure we'd get a lot of use in spring & fall when ppl aren't renting.  Don't underestimate the damage that salt water air can do if you're relatively close to the water too.  Cleaning service & locked owners areas would be a must.

Kristonita12

I don't have a lot of experience with buying, but I live in VA Beach if you need any help looking!

Dochas

If you're going to need to rent it in order to pay for it, make sure there is a lot of demand.  We have a vacation house in the mountains and love it.  I originally thought that we would buy something that we would rent sometimes.  But once a house feels like yours it can be hard to do.  Luckily we didn't intend to rent because there are a lot of properties available so I'm not sure we'd always be able to book it.  There's a lake for the summer and it's right by winter skiing - and people seem to just trash places so it would be hard for me.  So don't get attached!

Also - we rarely have company back to back so we don't expect people to do any cleaning.  People pitch in with cleaning up after dinner and help cook and stuff.  But I don't wash the sheets at the end of every weekend.  It's easier for me to do it when I feel like it than to have a pile of laundry staring at me. And get a place that has a master bath - much more comfortable than everyone sharing a shower.

cecilyandgautam

If you find a home you like - location & size wise - on AirBnB, you would write the owners and ask if they're willing to give you a standing reservation for the season and you can book in bulk. AirBnB rentals are usually the same price as a low-medium market hotel, but a ton more space + full kitchen, so great for family stays, IME. 

Alternatively, if you want to buy then you can either handle the AirBnB process as an owner or contract it out with a management company for less profit, less work, and less risk. 

yeah.

my ILs have a place in Delaware that they could easily rent out but they don't. I'd find a way to do it. Having access to a beach house is amazing - built in vacation and so much fun.