In the summer of 2020, when we were all at home with little to do, Chris and I dreamed of having that beach house to go to and get away from it all. We looked at Zillow and Realtor and studied the North Carolina coast. After much review, we became most interested in Topsail Beach. Topsail is only two and a half hours from our home, family oriented, and affordable. All that said we struggled to find something to buy. We took a road trip to see a few places but it they weren’t quite right. Then we stumbled upon a lot on Ninth Avenue. We were not looking to build a house, we wanted an existing rental property that was furnished! And had a rental calendar already established! This lot was amazing…steps from the ocean and sound access which made the views incredible. While we were standing there looking at it, up comes a man in a fishing boat from the sound. He walks up and says “Oh go ahead and buy it…you know you want to.” We smiled and introduced ourselves. That day we headed home and knew we had to figure out how to make it work.
Fast forward to October of 2020. We headed down and selected finishes for a fantastic layout of a four bedroom, four and half bath home. The best part was that it had two rooms that could fit king size beds and two living spaces so that one could be for adults and one could be for kids. We felt like those were some of the biggest challenges in past rentals we had. We upgraded some trim work and flooring choices and kept things light and neutral. We paid our deposit and drove home!
The builder couldn’t promise, but anticipated a May 2021 date for completion. We thought this was good timing to get the house up and running for the summer season to enjoy ourselves and starting to get some rentals! We had a good six months to figure out all the furnishings and set up for short term rentals. It was a daunting task considering we had to figure out how to coordinate and fund an empty four bedroom home! With the help of my parents, we started collecting items from estate sales and good deals. Thanks to the help of friends that also have a beach rental, we had a list of items to consider and budgets. We tried to get organized and design how the rooms should be set up.
In February of 2021 we received our first picture of a cleared lot with the first materials on site. We also realized it would be more like July for closing vs. May.
This was making everything more real! From this point, everything moved fast. The coolest thing was the fact that this home was modular and the majority of it was built in Virginia. We would have loved to see it being transported or initially being set in place.
We visited in June and were able to walk through the house. We had reservations about it being ready in a month. There were some hang ups with permits and as anyone that has ever been through the process of building a house…it is NEVER on time! Our new date was now October. While we were bummed that it would be post summer vacation time and everyone would be back at school it was what it was and at least it wasn’t our permanent residence.
Before we knew it, October was here. We had everything scheduled and lined up. Movers that would come to our house and take all the items we had purchased, boxed up and labeled per room. Deliveries scheduled from furniture stores, washer and dryer, and signage. All the utilities lined up so we would have power, water, internet, trash service, etc. We had all the fun things like issues with the closing amount almost not being wired in time to close, Note to anyone going through this…don’t schedule closing and move in on the same day if you can help it.
So here we are! Welcome to Beach Please! I didn’t tell you about the name and how we got there. I had always said that was the name I wanted. I thought it was sassy and even my mom got me a tee shirt with it on there. We did consider a few other catchy beach house names like Salty Beaches and Stay Salty but ultimately Beach Please won. We then contracted with a local sign company to design the logo and we were super happy with how it turned out. It is important to have great photography to help showcase your property. I photograph for real estate shoots so I have the right wide angle lens to capture the angles needed.
We then created all the branding material- Signage, welcome package and koozies for guests. We learned so much through this process and we put in a lot of hard work. I hope to do it again with another property in the future. Our work has paid off in having a very successful 2022 rental season that go us many five star reviews on VRBO and Airbnb. We will continue to adjust and make improvements and additions that our guests will enjoy.
Please reach out if I can help you through this process. I offer consulting, design packages and interior photography. I can help this not feel as overwhelming and help you to enjoy it. Owning property and offering short term rentals in order to help make that happen is rewarding and a good investment. I would be happy to help you through it!