Many people spend their lives dreaming of owning a beach house, but instead of going for it, they assume it's a luxury that's out of reach. However, with Fire Island’s robust rental market, you might be surprised at the financial realities of owning a vacation home. Buying a beach house can give you the opportunity to earn significant income by renting out the home when you're not using it. Most of the buyers we service see their purchases as both an asset they can enjoy with their family and friends, and as an investment that can produce rental income to defray the cost of ownership. Renting the home frequently gives the owner the opportunity to own the home at a substantially subsidized cost, with some properties actually carrying themselves. Additionally, many people are under the misconception that mortgage financing is not available on Fire Island but that is not the case. Mortgage financing, both for second homes and investment properties on Fire Island, is available through a wide variety of lenders. No need to stockpile the entire purchase price in cash if you don't want to.
Wondering what renting your beach house could look like for you? On Fire Island, weekly rentals range anywhere from $2,500-$16,000 per week depending on the property. Owners who don't block out any time for their personal use frequently earn approximately 12 times their peak weekly rate as an annual total. For example, if your home rents for $5,000/week in July & August, you could expect to earn approximately $60,000/year in gross rentals for your home. If you decided to use it for 2 peak summer weeks, then you can adjust your expected gross rental by $10,000.
While there is an active market for rentals from May to October, you'll see the highest rents during the peak summer weeks, which corresponds to when kids are out of school, since that is when most families take their vacations. Shoulder season rents are typically about half what a home commands during July & August. Many homeowners choose to use their homes more during the shoulder seasons, (preferring the peace, quiet and lack of crowds) and rent them out during the peak for maximum rental income. While renting out their home the majority of the time is a great option for buyers looking at their home primarily as an investment, for those who prefer to use the home for the majority of the summer season, in many cases, renting just one or two summer weeks will cover your annual taxes and insurance. Even if your primary objective is to purchase a home for your personal use, it's nice to know that the asset you're purchasing has the potential to generate significant income, just in case your circumstances might change in the future.
Some buyers love the idea of owning a vacation rental, but don't have the necessary time to devote to it. Full service rental management is available to handle all of the hassle for you, so you can still use the home when you want, and generate income when you want, all without any effort on your part. At the end of the day, owning a vacation rental gives you the best of both worlds- income and personal enjoyment!
In this article, The Wall Street Journal covers wealthy buyers' interest in real estate on Fire Island. Fire Island Real Estate's Licensed Associate Broker, Abigail Mago, gives insight on how Hurricane Sandy drove up prices in the long term and why buyers are drawn to Fire Island. Check out the article below!
The 2018 summer season is fast approaching, and we wanted to inform you of an exciting improvements made by the Fire Island Ferries freight department! To increase ease and convenience, they have started accepting credit cards for freight!
The Fire Island Ferries' new system eliminates the need to carry cash to either drop-off or pick-up freight. The new website allows new residential customers to create a user-friendly, secure account where they can put in their billing information and they'll be billed automatically during the season. Additionally, it allows residents to view their shipments at any time of day and for any shipping period from the current day to the current season.
For existing residential customers, if you have been shipping with the freight department in the past, then your name and address is probably already on file in their system. The freight department encourages existing residential customers to call or email them to confirm your information is already in the system.
Commercial accounts for invoiced customers only are free to utilize the website to track shipments but cannot create a new commercial account. Invoiced customers' billing is done separately and do not need to enter any credit card information on the website.
You can access the freight information here: http://www.fireislandferries.com/freight-info/ and you can access the Fire Island Ferries Freight Portal, where you can create your account, here: https://fireislandfreight.azurewebsites.net
You can contact the freight department at 631-647-3055 or at freight@fireislandferries.com with any questions.
2017 was another strong year in the Fire Island real estate market. The island wide average recorded sale price as of December 22nd was $800,077, which is nearly even with 2016’s average sale price of $804,581. Several Fire Island towns saw huge year over year price growth, including Ocean Beach, where prices increased 24%, Corneille Estates, which saw a year over year increase of 27%, and Fair Harbor which saw a 25% increase in average sale price. Ocean Bay Park and Seaview saw more modest price growth at 4% and 2%, respectively. See the table below for average sale prices by town. Please note that there is a data recording lag of up to 90 days, so not all 2017 transactions have been recorded yet. The figures below represent all reported data as of December 22, 2017. We will issue a comprehensive market report in the first quarter of 2018 that will have complete 2017 sales data.
Fire Island is a nature lover's paradise. We're known for our wild deer, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Check out this beautiful photo gallery of the Monarch Butterfly's migration through the island.
http://fireislandandbeyond.com/the-monarch-butterfly-migration-on-fire-island/2/
