When you call your beachside condo your new “home sweet home,” you won’t want to leave any stone unturned in settling into your new place. From practical things like ensuring that your condo is properly insured to more “fun” things like planning activities around the condo’s location, you’ll have plenty of items on your to-do list to keep you busy for the foreseeable future. From renting a beachside condo to owning one, each person who has one will have different perks and problems to address in their new home.
1. Protect from the Elements
The first thing on most owners’ minds, when they purchase a beachside condo, is keeping their property safe and the contents of the condo safe from the elements. Depending on where the condo is located, you may find that it’s at higher risk of flooding, fire, or other concerns regarding the weather. Before you decide to buy a condo somewhere, you should look into the natural disasters that occur there frequently and other weather patterns that might affect your condo over time. This can affect how you weatherize your condo, what you store on the property, and how often you go to the condo.
If your condo is located in an area that’s prone to hurricanes, you would do your future self a favor by investing in getting hurricane shutters. These shutters are specifically designed to protect your windows from the strong winds and rains that come with a hurricane. If you’ve never lived somewhere that has these types of natural disasters, it’s especially important to do your research to find out how you can protect your home from the elements.
When you’re purchasing condo insurance for your property, you’ll also want to ask questions about what the policy covers and what it does not cover. Preparing to prevent damage to the condo is the best way to avoid having to file claims with your insurance company down the road or invest your funds into repairs that you wouldn’t have to make if you prepared for an emergency before it happened. Even if you think you have a great condo insurance policy in place, you should still have an emergency savings account to handle unexpected repairs and problems in the condo related to weather conditions. Failing to save for the future can force you to take out high-interest loans or put money on a credit card that you may not be able to pay back later, so it’s best to plan before you’re faced with a financially devastating problem.
2. Improve Your Water Supply
When you live or stay in a beachside condo, you may think that the water that goes to the property is safe to drink and use automatically since it’s so near a body of water. Unfortunately, water of all kinds can get contaminated or lose quality over time. Even if you think that the water supply in your condo is safe to drink and use for bathing or cooking, you’ll still want to have a professional inspect the water source, water heater, and water softener before you put them to good use.
A professional in this industry may also be able to give you practical advice on how you can remedy issues with your water supply to make it healthier or more pleasant to use. Sometimes, water may be too hard to use to wash your hair or body. There may be ways to fix the quality of your water to your liking, so you don’t have to suffer needlessly if you don’t want to do that.
3. Add a Fence
When you own a beachside condo, you’ll want to consider how you’ll be able to maintain a sense of safety and privacy when you go to the property to stay permanently or for a few nights. No matter how safe the area where the condo is located feels, it doesn’t hurt to install a fence by calling fence contractors to do the job. For folks who want to save some money on this project, it might seem like it would be a wise idea to do the project themselves and set up the fence using supplies that they procure on their own. While it might be possible and favorable for someone who has experience creating fences to make their fence for a condo, it’s usually best to leave these kinds of tasks up to professionals who have not only gone to educational institutions to learn how to do the job right but also have access to professional-grade materials that may hold up better than the materials you find at your local DIY hardware store.
If you have pets or children, a fence can also give you peace of mind when your little ones or four-footed family members spend time outside. If you have a dog that likes to jump, you should get a fence that is high enough that it will prevent your dog from jumping over it. To determine how high your fence should be for your dog, you can consult with your vet, dog trainer, and fence builders to come up with the right dimensions for the fence to serve the purposes that you intend it to do.
4. Keep It Cool
After you’ve spent a few days in a beachside condo in the thick of the summer months, you’ll probably find that you’ll have a hard time surviving in that environment without some sort of cooling system. Some condo owners may opt for central air systems while others may use window AC units to cool their home. Although there’s no right or wrong way to cool your house in the summer, some options may be more cost-effective and efficient than others so you should consult with professionals like an air conditioner repair professional before you decide on a specific form of cooling.
When you want to keep your condominium cool, there may be a few ways you can reduce the amount of warmth that enters the unit while also reducing the amount of cool air that leaves the unit. Having good insulation can go a long way in making sure that heat or cool doesn’t escape and cool or heat doesn’t infiltrate the unit. If you’re concerned that your cooling measures aren’t as effective as they could be due to reasons outside of your AC system not working properly, you should call other types of contractors who may be able to let you know if they notice problems in your condo that are unrelated to the HVAC system’s performance.
5. Find Storage
When you have a lot of stuff and you can’t fit it all in your beachside condo, it can be beneficial to consider storing items in another setting like a climate-controlled storage unit. Some condo buildings will have storage units for rent while others may expect you to store excess items off-site. If you can afford a storage unit, it could be a good idea to place the seasonal items you don’t need right now in the unit and rotate them throughout the year so you always have what you need in the unit with you.
Since many people like to take advantage of the nearby beach if they have a condo near the beach by having a boat, you may need to factor expenses like boat storage costs into your budget for staying in a condo. If you’re struggling to get your boat from your primary residence to the condo, you may be able to get some assistance from a moving and storage company that specializes in moving folks into beachside properties. When you’re trying to store a large item like a boat or vehicle, you’ll probably need a larger storage unit, which can drive up the cost of the storage unit as a whole.
6. Add Decorations
As you move into your beachside condo, you should add personal touches that make it feel more like home. While you might not want to get too comfortable in the condo if it’s a short-term rental, there may be some ways that you can personalize the unit so that it feels like your place when you come home after a long, blissful day of surfing, eating seafood, and tanning on the beach. If you find that your unit gets too much light for you to rest or relax, you may be able to contact a window shades company and have them install new shades. Of course, you should consult with the appropriate associations or other authorities if you don’t own the unit or your unit has a housing association that dictates what you can or can’t do to the units while you live there.
For condo owners, there are plenty of options for how you could decorate the unit so you should let your imagination run wild. You can go with a nautical theme if you want to keep a classy look that reflects the ocean nearby. You can also choose non-traditional art elements to make your condo look as unique as your personality is. The sky’s the limit for what you can do to bring a touch of your personality to the condo that you now rent or own.
7. Add a Deck
One of the benefits of having a property by the beach is the opportunity to entertain. Still, when you own a condo, you may find that you have limited space on the inside of the unit. This is where it can be helpful to call your local deck builders to construct a deck and increase the square footage you have for entertaining, partying, and relaxing with your loved ones outside on a lovely day near the beach in the summer.
If you don’t own your beachside condo, you might not legally be allowed to install a deck based on the conditions of renting it. Before you build anything, you should see if you need permission from certain parties or if you need to get a permit from your local municipality or other authority. Building without the right permissions or permits could cause you to lose your condo, so it’s not worth it.
8. Enjoy Water Activities
For many folks who own or rent a beachside condo, it can be fun to spend more time outside of the condo in the water than it is to spend that time inside the condo. If you want to own a boat or another watercraft, you should see if any local boat sales are going on when you move into the area. You can also try renting a boat first if you’re not sure if you want to commit to making such a large purchase at this time.
Once you have a Yamaha vehicle to take out on the water, you’ll want to make sure that it’s properly insured with watercraft or boat insurance so you don’t have to worry about whether or not your vehicle is protected on and off the water. Watercraft insurance providers may have multiple types of policies, so it’s important to look into all of your options before settling on a specific policy or agency. You should think about liability, repairs, replacement of a stolen boat, and other aspects of coverage that might be appealing to you before you speak with an insurance agent about watercraft insurance policies. If you already have condo insurance, you may be able to get watercraft insurance from your current condo insurance provider to avoid having to pay multiple insurance providers in the area.
If you live in a beachside condo year-round, you might apply the tips we offer differently than someone who lives in their condo for a few months out of the year during the winter or another season that they spend away from their typical home. When a condo is too small for you to occupy year-round or too far away from work and family obligations, it can present a wonderful opportunity to escape from the trials of everyday life, especially if it’s located in a scenic space near the sand and water. For those who live in cold or uncomfortable climates, going to your beachside property can feel like you’re stepping into another world where all of your fears and worries melt away with the waves.
