Congratulations on the purchase.
We have property in Emerald Isle, NC that we use in a similar way. Personally, I think spring and fall are the best seasons for NC beaches. So, it is a great setup for us.
When we first bought the place we wanted to make it as nice as possible for our renters. We bought lots of nice, new things. Big mistake. Buy nice stuff, but where you can don’t buy new.
Case in point, our first year, right before season we bought eight new board games. All we did was remove the shrink wrap and put them in the game room. Well, every single one of them was stolen within 6 weeks. Since then we go to garage sales and buy used board games that are in good condition, not one of them has been taken in the past 8 years.
To minimize theft, use a black sharpie and put the name of your house on anything that can be picked up and carried out. Don’t leave out anything that you are attached to. It will get damaged or stolen. Don’t get me wrong, 9 out of 10 renters are very nice and will treat your house with respect, but that last one...
On the money front, if you are going to use an agency to manage your property--between commissions, admin, laundry, cleaning and minor maintenance--expect their take to be about 1/3 of the overall rent.
When you get back into the house after season don’t be surprised at the new position of furniture throughout and where everything is in the kitchen cabinets.
Speaking of which, buy yourself a nice label maker. We put labels in the cabinets indicating what goes on each shelf—helps a lot. We also, labeled all the light switches—people have said how helpful that is.
Anytime you see cheap stemware for sale buy it. Every year wine glasses will be broken.
I know I’ve made this sound terrible listing all these problems. Let me close by saying, while other investments may be more lucrative, none have brought my family nearly the level of joy that our beach house has. For all the headaches, I could not imagine life without it.