For a number of years we have rented a beach house on North Carolina's outer banks for a week, usually late May or early June. We've always dealt with the same management company (Midgett Realty) and have always had a positive experience. Once when we arrived it was right after a big storm, the place we had reserved was out of commission, and they had us in another very nice place within an hour of our arrival. They are pretty strict with things and limit the kind of cliental. I can't believe they have a lot of problems because we usually show up right the day after someone else has left and everything is always shipshape. Then again, this company is huge in the vacation rental business down there.
At one time, we were considering getting a place and I had a few discussions with people in the business as well as homeowners. A few things I learned: Your happiness depends on the management company you work with. You need a solid, well-established outfit. It might behoove you to try before you buy. I've been to the Outer Banks enough over the years that I think I would be going into owning a beach rental eyes wide open and get no surprises there. Somewhere else, I don't know.
I have friends who got into that game quite a few years ago who have confirmed that, at one time, if you bought a place with 5% down you'd own it free and clear in 20 years with only your original 5% invested. At the time I was considering it, you could have payed off the mortgage on a place down there over 20 years with 50% your own money. Right now, I don't know. If you go on Midgett's (for example) website and get a feel for the initial cost of places for sale, look at the weekly cost of equivalent places across the season, and look at how booked up they are, it looks, to me, pretty good. But that's all subject to change.
Finally, I talked to a guy a few years ago who lives about three hours away from Hatteras Island. He bought a place there because they went there all the time. He said two years was all he could take because, after every big storm, he was compelled to drive over and see if his house was still there. He sold it and, a year later, the house two places down from his disappeared in a storm when a new channel was cut through the island. I guess you pay your money and take your chances.
