Looking for a recommendation for a realty company for our beach trip next spring/summer. Midgett has treated us well recently but they don’t have much available. No to Vacasa. Looking in Avon, Buxton, Frisco area. Thanks!

I was going to say Hatteras Realty, but I see on their site they are now "by VACASA" so...

Our next door neighbor in Frisco uses Surf or Sound and I always see the inspectors checking behind the cleaners turnover morning and then the hot tub people doing their thing. Our neighbor is pleased with them he says.

We used Hatteras Realty as our “go to” but the switch to Vacasa gave us a couple of bad experiences, so hard pass on them.

Vacasa is absolute garbage on all of Hatteras Island I only know of one owner who is happy with Vacasa since they took over the big companies on the island.
Would look at VRBO. Surf or Sound

Watch for Vacasa when looking on VRBO. They will be listed as the contact or mgmt company, sneaky devils.

We exclusively rented through Hatteras Realty for 5+ years. No more, even their rental search is frustrating.

Never had an issue with Midgett, except availability as you now know.

Stayed with Surf or Sound 3x so far, a tad pricier but otherwise zero complaints.

Brindley Beach has properties there now. Not sure how much inventory, but might be worth a look.

Brindley Beach bought Shore Details a few years ago. It is still the same local team that I am part of. We have some great houses on Hatteras Island from Waves to Hatteras village! Currently have close to 60 houses, from Condos to 8 bedrooms.

Village Realty or Seaside Vacations
Midgett Realty fired me in March, 2025 as the PM in Avon so wouldn’t recommend them at all..just sayin

Village Realty or Seaside Vacations
Midgett Realty fired me in March, 2025 as the PM in Avon so wouldn’t recommend them at all..just sayin

I primarily use Midgett. We get good service from them. This summer we were in our 6 bedroom house in Avon with a pool by noon on check in day.
Surf or Sound has too many fees.
Vacasa… no. They won’t let you in till 6pm no matter when the house is ready.
Inventory is always good in our experience

We have been lucky with Surf and Sound. We used to rent in South Nags head but wanted to rent further South. It’s been ten years renting down here used Midgett no issues but mostly Surf and Sound. Only one battle which they finally agreed with us. Houses have been very clean, they call after we get in asking if the house was cleaned to our liking and leave check in message later in the week. We will be there next week in a house we never rented , hope the beach is in good shape.

Hatteras Realty returns home: ribbon cutting marks official relaunch on Hatteras Island

Hatteras Realty returns home: ribbon cutting marks official relaunch on Hatteras Island

This is great news. Stewart Couch was such a wonderful person who always strived to make doing business with Hatteras Realty a positive experience.

Try sunrealtync.com I checked they have nice houses on the island. Used them for years when I was up north. They are fair with renters

Hatteras Realty returns home: ribbon cutting marks official relaunch on Hatteras Island

It didn't work out too well anywhere. They borrowed millions and millions and millions and when Vacasa was sold to Casago earlier this year for $130 million the shareholders got $5.30 per share.

"Dec 30, 2024 — At the time of that public listing in 2021, Vacasa had a valuation of $4.4 billion coming off a quarter when it reported revenue of $330 million"

Wrap your mind around this one => "for the period of 2020 through Q1 2024, Vacasa's total losses reached $851 million."
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"US: Property management franchise company Casago has finalised its acquisition of Vacation rental platform Vacasa, marking a significant shift in the North American short-term rental market.

The transaction, valued at approximately $130 million, was completed on 30 April 2025, following approval from Vacasa’s stockholders on 29 April. Under the terms of the merger agreement, Casago acquired all outstanding shares of Vacasa at a price of $5.30 per share.

As a result of the acquisition, Vacasa’s common stock has ceased trading and is no longer publicly listed on the Nasdaq."

From a stock market high of $200 per share to $5 per share in 3 years. Vacasa investors hit rock bottom with a big thud.

"Dec 30, 2024 — At the time of that public listing in 2021, Vacasa had a valuation of $4.4 billion coming off a quarter when it reported revenue of $330 million"

Wrap your mind around this one => "for the period of 2020 through Q1 2024, Vacasa's total losses reached $851 million."

Graph:

When your rental company is managed by not one, not two but 3 different equity investment funds ( Silver Lake, Riverwood Capital and Level Equity) the outcome was determined they day they signed the paperwork. Vacation rentals require a very hands on approach and when they acquired Hatteras Realty and Outer Beaches they kept the management staff juuuust long enough for them to see how they were doing things then tried to manage it themselves with different people and it didn't work out.
Then them pitting vendors against each other in bidding wars to get lower prices on work didn't help.
As far as renters calling a 800 number to a call center in central India did not help in resolving issues in a timely manner when in the past a call to the office in your rentals village office would usually generate some response that day depending on the severity of the issue.
I will say the Hatteras demographic of a small island also worked against them as the workforce realized very quickly they didn't treat help well nor did they pay them a good salary

So confused about how these larger property management companies work alongside the owners. WE always chose the outside vendors for work that needed to be done for various scenarios that could occur and passed those vendors names to the mgmt company.

When a renter called about the HVAC, for example, the mgmt company had the vendor's name that WE had approved after having already vetted and established a rapport with that vendor. The mgmt company then put in a work order for the job and then passed that info to us about the problem at hand and that vendor was handling it. We asked that the mgmt company call us if the amount was above a certain range. If it wasn't, then full steam ahead and a go or give us a second to chunk over a few thousand dollars.

I guess the magic word though here is hoping someone will answer the 800 line, so my narrative is blown above if no one will answer the phone....

Just never heard of the bidding war for maintenance issues/vendor probs and 800 numbers across the globe. Guess that's where the smaller hometown realty companies shine.

I am not sure how other management companies do things, but at the one I work at they ask owners to tell them what vendors they approve of to use. Some have none and others have several. It's getting them to come to the job site that can be problematic sometimes if they are busy.