All Forum Posts by: Kurt S.

We’re at the Jersey shore and normally by now we’re 100% booked for the summer season…this year we have 1 week rented. I agree that I think inflation is a big factor. I’ve since lowered my rates and hopefully things pick up. I think most people book their shore homes late February, March, and early April…hopefully they’re are a few stragglers left 😊

I wanted to get some thoughts on dynamic pricing. I’ve always used the “enemy method” but was curious what you all think about Pricelabs, Wheelhouse, etc. I know the Airbnb “smart price” is a joke. I plugged my property into the Pricelabs site and the prices they came up with were INSANE! I can only dream of getting rates like they suggested. Or am I totally off base and giving my property away at fire sale prices (relatively speaking). Help?

@David Rabinowitz

Yeah prices are just ludicrous right now. I think you can probably still get on island in a 2 bed condo for 250-300k. Good luck. I say this all the time but our biggest regret is not having done it sooner. Life’s short…buy the beach house!😊

@David Rabinowitz

Our place is a SFH. Brigantine is very much a throwback to the old Jersey Shore towns….quiet, safe, friendly, and not overbuilt (yet!). It the kind of place where your kids can ride their bikes or walk anywhere without worrying about them being run over by traffic. So if you want the hustle and bustle of a boardwalk or dozens of restaurants and shops to go to, it's not the place for you. But if your idea of relaxation is sitting on a mostly empty beach, maybe playing some mini golf, or hitting up the ice cream shops, I don't think you can find a better place than Brigantine. When we bought it a few years ago, our kids were teenagers at the time and were a LITTLE disappointed. But now they all say there's no other town they'd rather be in. And we've been to them all!

@David Rabinowitz

We have a place in Brigantine, going on 6 years now. LOVE IT! We usually rent it out 6-8 weeks in the summer, and use it ourselves as well. We supplement with 1-2 weekend per month in the off season. Wish we’d done it sooner. Prices at the shore (like everywhere) are ASTRONOMICAL right now. Let me know if you have any questions. We really like it there but are hoping to get an additional place in Florida when prices come out of the stratosphere.

@Sunny A.

Hi Sunny!

We list with local realtors for the summer, basically because we didn’t know how to do the on line stuff initially. We tried getting away from them this year but every week they’d call with another booking. Brigantine is separated from AC by the causeway bridge and honestly it’s a world away. I’d have no problems letting our kids ( when they were younger) go anywhere alone in Brigantine. But we’re literally 10 minutes away from world class restaurants in the casinos. Best of both worlds. If you’re paying cash for a property you can probably turn a 20k profit, but like I said, we’re finally breaking even this year with the mortgage, utilities, improvements,etc. But we get to vacation for free whenever we want. And we do love it here.

Hi Sunny!

We’ve had a place in Brigantine ( just north of AC) for about 6 years now. It’s a 4 bed/2.5 bath townhouse, beach block. I can honestly say it’s rented solidly every year we’ve had it. July and August are the only sure thing months...June shore weather can be iffy, and kids are usually still in school so it’s hit or miss. We can usually count on 1 weekend a month in the off season as well. We self manage, local realtors account for 75% of our in season rentals, on line platforms account for the rest and all off season rentals. The 15% lodging tax assessed to on line rentals (which realtors are exempt from) I think is the reason our in season on line performance is lower. I used to do all the off season cleaning myself but have been fortunate enough to finally find an excellent cleaning crew so they do it all now. Except for spring cleaning...my wife just can’t let someone else do that 😂. We’re also finally covering almost all our expenses with rental income. And that’s with us using it 2 weeks in season and very frequently off season. I think our only regret is not doing this sooner...it really has become our Happy Place. Good luck and feel free to reach out if I can answer and more specific questions.

We have a townhouse at the Jersey Shore. In season it’s a 1 week minimum with Saturday turnover and off season it’s a 2 night minimum. We were always worried a 1 night minimum would be a magnet for local party rentals.

Hi David! We’re right up the coast from you in Brigantine. We’ve had a 4 bed/3 bath townhouse for about 5 years now. Best decision we ever made. We’re beach block but separated from the sand by the dunes. We started at 2700/week and have raised rates religiously every year. We were at 3800/wk last summer and the whole season booked by the beginning of March. Don’t listen to realtors when pricing your weeks...they tell us every year we charge too much. I’m unsure what this summer will bring though with Covid...will people be anxious to get out in the sun, or still scared to go out with limited dining and entertainment options. Time will tell...

We have a STR in Brigantine NJ and it's been an ugly spring and the summer looks bleak as well. We lost all our guests in March, Apt, and May and have had no requests to book at all the rest of the sum. We're normally booked solid in the summer. And I agree Airbnb's new policy will be a killer....not the cleaning but the gap between stays. We normally rent Sat to Sat...allowing a break between guests would mean we'd have to lose every other week. BUT the local realtors can still book back to back...and kill us with their commissions. This of course is all dependent on the state allowing rentals...if we stay shut til June, the years pretty much a loss.