Renters Steal the Strangest Things

The rental company for our beach home provides a welcome basket to each of our guests. In my personal opinion it’s a sad excuse for a welcome basket. It contains two rolls of toilet paper, one roll of paper towels, a dish rag and two pitifully small bars of hand soap. This season I decided … Read more

Home Repairs for our Rental Property

Last week while we were vacationing at our beach home in North Carolina our refrigerator started to leak. This isn’t the first time we’ve had problems with this particular appliance, so we headed down to Sears to order a new one. In the case of a rental home, hundreds of miles from our primary home, … Read more

How Do You Search For a Bargain?

I need to purchase two new blenders. The ones at the beach are in constant use by our renters, (who doesn’t like a round of margaritas by the pool), and consistently broken. In the three years that we’ve owned a beach house I’ve purchased four blenders. We keep two in the house and this year … Read more

Suggestions for my Beach Rental Home

As a child I went on very few vacations with my family. Once or twice we rented a condo in Ocean City. One summer we arrived at the ocean to find a run down condo with stained floors, outdated appliances and uncomfortable furniture. My parents spent a good deal of money on that rental and … Read more

How Do I Prepare for a Real Estate Opportunity?

Ultimately my husband and I might buy another rental property near the beach. With the real estate market in a semi-chaotic state we’re keeping our eyes peeled for bargains. The question is: how do we plan for a buying opportunity? The first issue: we have mortgages on both our primary residence and our rental home. … Read more

Items Missing From Our Rental Home

If you’ve read this blog before you probably know that my husband and I own a rental property in a resort town in North Carolina. Every year, before the rental season begins, I purchase a number of items to make the guest’s experience more enjoyable. Included in this list are books, DVDs, board games, pool … Read more