I pride myself in finding the good in everything, but every so often I encounter a situation where I’m compelled to write a review to protect someone else from experiencing the unfortunate and avoidable situation my family just went through on our yearly vacation in Corolla, NC.
I should point out that my family has been vacationing in OBX for over 30-years, and in fact over a decade at the house above. We’ve rented this house through multiple realtors and for many years so I think we have a pretty good perspective on renting in the Outer Banks of North Carolina and especially on the house above called August Rush.
This property has been managed by Beach Realty and Construction for the last 5 or 6-years and in that time, the rental process, the cleaning, the check-in times, the price and sadly, the property itself have all gone dramatically down hill. As requested by Beach Realty, I did review this property after our 2022 stay on their website, the the review was quickly removed. I suspect that many more such negative reviews were removed in an attempt to prevent potential renters from learning the truth about August Rush.
I’ll start with the 2022 issues we had with August Rush and Beach Realty, and if you need to read any further, I’ll add in some of our previous experiences just in case you aren’t convinced. I should also point out that we have left the home and will not be renting it in 2023, and after reading on, I suspect you won’t be renting it either.
2022 Experiences with August Rush & Beach Realty:
- August Rush has a really bad mold problem. It’s in the bathrooms, the kitchen ceiling and kitchen cabinets as well as other locations in the house. Three years ago, the ceiling mold in the kitchen and upstairs bedroom and bathroom became so bad that the owners covered it over with wooden ceiling panels to hide the mold.
- The Air Conditioning in the house has failed every year for the last 4-years. This year it took two-days of our vacation time to repair and we were left with window Air Conditioning units so noisy you couldn’t even talk in the kitchen or dining room. Several of the repair people sent to fix the AC said the problem has existed for over 5-years and the owners and realtor refuse to spend the money to fix it properly.
- The Air Conditioning system vents constantly drip fluid. This dripping occurs over the dining room table, in our food, on the kitchen island, on the couches and chairs and on the floors.
- Between 2021 and 2022 the rental rates increased over $1500, with no noticeable improvements and no proper repair on the reported Air Conditioning issues. Between 2022 and 2023 the rates are increasing another $1500. Keep in mind that Beach Realty also charges a generic $500 processing fee to every rental as well as a $300 linen fee for sheets and towels.
- Two of the bathroom vent fans stopped working for the last two years even though they were reported each time. This further aggravates the mold issues.
- Multiple electrical outlets in the house simply don’t work and several are so old that when you plug something in, the cord falls out. This is inconvenient at best and dangerous at worse. Try the top floor outlet next to the dining room table and be sure to count the number of light bulbs out when you arrive and how many more fail while you’re there,
- Several exterior doors are broken to the point that they will not latch and/or lock. Unfortunately are also the rooms where the youngest members of our family (and likely your family) were sleeping. Most every exterior window in the house has some level of damage or disfunction and most have no screen even if they did open. We found this out the hard way when the Air Conditioning failed again this year.
- The decking on the house is beyond unsafe. Boards on the back of the middle floor near the hot tub are so rotted out that even a wooden chair placed on them (to keep anyone from falling through) pushed right through the deck boards. The upper deck above the hot tub sways when you walk on it and we now bring a hammer to re-sink all the nail heads that are popped up every year.
- Despite multiple complaints, the pre-check-in cleaning has been really hit or miss to the point that my family now spends the first day every year re-cleaning the house. This is especially troubling in a house that welcomes pets prior to your arrival. As a bonus, the youngest members of our family were lucky enough to find empty beer cans kicked under their beds.
- In case you were wondering, yes we do report everything, we follow up at the end of every rental season with suggestions for the home, and quite simply, Beach Realty has ignored every one of them.
I can tell you from our personal experience in the 30-years we’ve been visiting OBX and from our search experience for 2023, there are much better, healthier and safer homes than August Rush and much better realtors than Beach Realty. I can also say that most every one of the other homes we’ve rented are better maintained, have the same or better amenities, and now have a lower price with linens included and no $500 processing fee like Beach Realty.
In previous years we’ve experienced the following with August Rush and Beach Realty.
- 2022 was OK, but for 4-Years straight, Beach Realty missed early check-in times. In most cases they did refund the early check-in fee, but this is of little consequence when you’ve been driving for 9-hours and you have a car full of groceries that need refrigeration.
- The Air Conditioning on the top floor failed multiple years and the dripping from the vents has been an issue for 3-years.
- The dishwasher failed with a few days remaining in our visit and while it was replaced in 2022, it did little to help with our dishes in 2021.
- We were told the hot tub was removed in Dec 2021, but only because we noticed (the week before our arrival) that the photo of the rental had been photo-shopped to remove the hot tub. When we pushed further, the property manager at Beach Realty said that despite her Beach Realty colleague telling us about the removal, the hot tub was actually not removed. As of 2022, the hot tub is still there, but given the condition of the decking, I suspect it won’t be there much longer without a significant deck repair.
- In 2021 the kitchen refrigerator was broken to the point that it froze and ruined much of our food, despite trying to adjust it. We were forced to move everything to the basement refrigerator and throw away quite a bit of damaged food.
- In 2021 the owners and realtor decided to paint the countertops to hide the damage, mold and rot. As you may suspect, the paint peeled off constantly to the point that we had to run out and buy shower curtains to cover the counters and keep the paint chips out of our food.
- In 2021 Beach Realty implemented a linen fee of $300 after we paid for our rental, so when we arrived, they refused to give us sheets and towels. After pointing out their mistake and sending them the e-Mail where they confirmed linens were included, they finally delivered our sheets and towels 5-hours after our check-in time.
- In 2021 our kitchen light fixture shorted out during dinner and was unrepairable.
Based on the lack of maintenance, the deteriorating condition of the house and the price increases, it is our opinion that August Rush has reached the point of no return. It is also our opinion that the owners are grabbing the last bit of money that they can before they level the house and build a new home.
I’ll continue to update this thread with any explanation from Beach Realty as to why my review was removed. Believe me, I was not the only negative review. In any case, if you’re considering renting August Rush after reading this, then please do let me know your experience. Our August Rush experience has been going downhill for several years, and with the price increasing for no apparent reason (and no improvements improvements) and the house becoming unhealthy and unsafe, we decided it was best to move on…and I suspect you will too.
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