Beachfront Property Guide » Beachfront Property Upkeep

Build Your Dream Home on Oceanfront Land for Sale

Jack — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 13:25:19 +0000

Oceanfront land is a great investment and a golden opportunity to develop this beachfront property for you and your style of living. You can create a paradise designed just for you.

First, let us talk about the romance of the sea and why people want to build on oceanfront land for sale. Beachfront property has scenic beauty, unspoiled beaches, sprawling ocean, and magnificent sunsets. Children gleefully play in the waves as they crash ashore. Adults relax on the warm sand listening to the murmur of the tides.

The ocean offers activities for all ages. You can go sailing. You can get a surfboard and go surfing. There is always deep-sea diving or snorkeling in the shallow areas to see what the sea creatures are doing under the water. You can go deep-sea fishing and crabbing and catch a wonderful lunch. You can build a mammoth sandcastle and watch as sea washes it away. Sunbathing is a must-do at the seaside.

People want to live by the sea and will pay extra to live there. Many buyers covet oceanfront land for sale.

The main reason to buy oceanfront land for sale is you can customize the property to fit your dream. A house becomes a home when it completes your life style. Before you start drafting house designs, consider your desires and life style. Do you surf, do you have a yacht, or do you need an outside shower? When you build your beachfront home, you will have a fantastic view of the ocean, designed as you choose, and space for what you value. You will have decks for ocean viewing, long lingering suppers at sunset time, a quiet retreat to reflect on the many mysteries of life, and storage for your ocean play toys.

The ocean front property will brand new, modern and functional. You can add any of the energy-saving conveniences that are available today. Solar or wind power can be installed to reduce your electric bill. With added insulation and water saving planning, you can be as green as you want

In real estate investment, the most important thing is location, location, and location. With oceanfront property, you have it all: location, location, and location.

If you buy a house already built, you will probably remodel it. You will never be happy with some of the features the house has. Remodeling is expensive, time consuming and very messy. However, when you buy that oceanfront land for sale, you can build exactly what you want. You are not stuck with somebody else’s ideas, dreams, and mistakes. You will have a modern home with all brand-new appliances, wiring, plumbing, heating and roof. The doors and windows will fit tightly in their frames.

If it takes a while to build your house, that is no problem. The lot is sitting there waiting for you when you are ready for it and the only yearly costs are the real estate taxes and any grass control necessary. Y

Many people respond to the call of the ocean. People want beachfront property and are willing to pay for it, making it a good investment for the owner. When you buy that oceanfront land for sale today, you are creating your dream from the ground up with a fantastic just-for-you house plan and quality materials.

Dealing with Erosion on Ocean Property

Jack — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 14:30:53 +0000

One of the greatest dangers that faces properties directly bordering the ocean is the threat of erosion. No matter where you buy your property, the shoreline is constantly changing. Luckily, most of these changes happen from season to season and year to year and the shoreline generally maintains the same shape and distance from one’s home. But in some areas, there is a significant amount of long term erosion happening where sometimes feet are lost from the shoreline every year never to return. Shoreline erosion is particularly bad on ocean properties that border inlets because inlets constantly change their shapes and locations. There are some steps that you can take to prevent erosion and sea damage to your home, but unfortunately most of them are also very tightly regulated by local government because they can affect the entire shoreline, not just your property.

Reducing Damage From Storms

One of the major causes of huge shoreline shifts is the huge storms that can sometimes strike shorelines. In fact, if the area your buy beachfront property in faces a significant stormy season you can temporarily lose up to 100 feet of the coastline in front of your house every year. It usually reappears in the spring however. Major storms like hurricanes and typhoons also destroy and rebuild coastlines in new shapes and formations.

To protect your home and property against waves and short term shore erosion, build up all of the dunes between your property and the beach. Dunes protect the property behind them from damage in the event of storm surges so do your best to keep people off them and make sure they retain their natural shape. Also try planting some dune grasses on them to help the dune hold together during high winds or big storms. This may not help the beach directly in front of your home, but it will help prevent serious short term erosion and will dampen the blows your beachfront home takes from storm surges.

Dealing with Long Term Erosion

Stopping Erosion

Your options for dealing with the long term erosion of a shoreline are much less optimistic. You can build several different types of structures that can reduce the amount of erosion the sea does to your property. These structures can include jetties, breakwaters, seawalls, or bulkheads. Unfortunately for you, the construction of all of these is tightly regulated. This is because installing something like a jetty on your property will keep the sand on your side o the island, but it will increase the erosion that your neighbor’s property is suffering from. Rebuilding the shorelines is another option, but it must be done all along a coastline and is only a very expensive, temporary solution. Before taking any actions to try to curb the erosion on your property make sure you check with the local authorities.

If your property is suffering from serious erosion, sometimes the only option may be to move your home back away from the shoreline and hope the current shift in the near future. Most states require homes to be built a certain amount of feet from the high water line of the ocean. Usually, this is the average amount of shoreline erosion in a year times thirty to forty years. It’s not an ideal situation and it doesn’t solve the problem, but it does let you enjoy your oceanfront property for a few more years before you have to give it up.

The biggest danger that faces any ocean property owner is the threat of shoreline erosion leaving him with a highly priced piece of ocean in the place of his property. If your area is only subject to short term erosion, you can build and strengthen sand dunes to cut down on the erosion and make sure that your home doesn’t suffer from the worst blows of a hurricane or other major storm. If your home is facing long term erosion however, you options are much more limited. There are structures that you can build to protect your property, but they will most likely be in violation of local ordinances. Always check to make sure that you are legally able to build a structure in the ocean before you do.

Best Way to Beautify Oceanfront Property

Jack — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 12:33:11 +0000

One of the best ways to add value, beauty, and functionality to any property is to install landscape lights. When done properly, they let you enjoy your property late into the night while also adding an element of security and a lot of curbside appeal. However, if you plan on using landscape lighting on your oceanfront property, there are several hurdles that you need to overcome and limitations you will have. Most of the problems with lighting by the shore come from the corrosive atmosphere of seawater and salty air present at the shore.

Dealing with Corrosion

Unfortunately, most garden lights contain metals that will react with salt and moisture, two things which are in abundance if you own ocean front property. The metal has a chemical reaction which causes it to break down, how fast it does so depends on the type of metal, any protective coatings the metal has, and how much exposure the metal has to the salt and water. Whatever metal the light fixtures you are going to install is made out of, studies have shown that it corrodes at least ten times faster when its placed eighty feet away from the ocean than when its placed eight hundred feet away.

Because of the incredibly harsh nature of the environment around your ocean front property, all the light fixtures and components that you plan on using in the system need to be chosen for their ability to resist corrosion first and foremost. This affects not just the fixtures but also the transformers and wiring used. For your light fixtures, solid bronze is by far the best metal to use. It is incredibly resistant to corrosion and will actually begin to look better as it ages instead of worse.

On final note, because beachfront property is subject to more violent storms than properties further inland, make sure that you have all your light fixtures securely staked down or fastened to objects. It will prevent you from losing them in high winds, and perhaps more importantly prevent them from becoming high-speed projectiles.

Using Landscape Lighting Effectively

How you actually use landscape lighting actually differs for oceanfront property than it would be on landlocked properties. Lighting should always complement the natural surroundings of the landscape. For properties right next to the sea, that natural beauty comes from the light of the moon off the ocean. To complement this, you could try to use moonlights perched in some trees on your property along with some dimmer fixtures along paths. The paths should look natural and draw the eye to the ocean. If you are lucky enough to have a dock or a pier, you can light that as well, but it should be with glare-free lights.

Whatever you do, do not use lights that interfere or distract from your home’s view of the ocean. You paid a lot of money for an oceanfront view – enjoy it!

One of the best ways to beautify beachfront homes is to install landscape lighting. However, you need to take special precautions when using lighting next to the ocean. Make sure that you use corrosion resistant light fixtures, wires, and transformers to protect against the salty sea air and water. The lighting techniques you use will be a little bit different as well. You won’t need as much light because you have the natural light of the moon reflecting off the water. Instead, use lights to draw the eye out to the ocean to admire the all-natural beauty out there.

Don’t Let Your Ocean Front Property Leave You All Wet!

Jack — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 13:29:15 +0000

Ocean front property is very different property further inland and carries one very unique risk. If you own oceanfront property, along with all the positive benefits of it, including the sea views, gorgeous sunrises or sunsets, and the sound of waves crashing against the shore, comes the risk of heavy erosion. Depending on where you buy property, erosion can be a very major risk and can leave your dream home of being inundated. If you want to prevent this, make sure that you do research on the areas where you’re looking to buy your land and talk to as many people as possible to make sure your land is not disappearing out from under you.

Effects of Erosion on Ocean Front Property

On inland land, property lines are for the most part unchanging. Once you buy a parcel of land you can be pretty sure that you will have complete control over that area until you decide to sell it barring an eminent domain case by the state. However, on beachfront property, property lines are always changing. This is because your property generally starts a the high water line, and anything below this is considered public beach. The high water line can change from day to day and in stormy seasons may even more as much as 100 feet inland! It is important that you know exactly how much erosion your property is likely to face in the future to make sure that you can enjoy your parcel of land for years to come.

Short-Term and Long-Term Erosion

There are two different types of erosion that you will have to deal with on your oceanfront property. First, you will have to deal with short-term erosion. Short term erosion is caused by hurricanes (or typhoons in the Pacific) and other strong seasonal storms. These violent storms move tons of sand and other debris around when they crash into the land. They can make new inlets, destroy old inlets, and completely reshape coastlines. However, most of the damage done by storms is eventually reversed and the shoreline returns to normal in due time.

The more serious form of shoreline erosion is long-term erosion. Long-term erosion is caused by a variety of factors, including rising sea levels, strong longshore currents, and other more complex factors. This type of erosion is not easily stopped and permanently reshapes coastlines. If your property looks right out onto the ocean, it is imperative that you ask your realtor what the amount of erosion in the area is. It is not necessarily required by all states that the buying party be made aware of any of the risks of eroding shorelines.

The areas most at risk of long-term erosion are inlets. These areas are hard to replace and are many times constantly changing. If you are buying property on or near an inlet, make sure that the coastline is not moving underneath you!

What Can Be Done

Once you find out that your home is threatened by erosion, what can you do? Unfortunately, there are not many good options that you can undertake when trying to deal with erosion. One option could be to install so-called “hard-breaks” that stop erosion and waves from further damaging your property. Hard breaks include sea walls, jetties, breakwaters, and bulkheads. While these will protect your property, they will generally do so at the expense of adjacent properties and are not allowed in most areas. Check your local regulations. Another option that some people may consider is to try to replenish the shoreline by dredging up sand to replace the sand that’s eroded. Unfortunately, this is incredibly expensive and would have to be done along long stretches of the shoreline, not just around your home to be effective. It is also only a temporary solution and within a few years you could find yourself back in the same situation, but a few dollars poorer.

Beachfront properties are among the most desirable pieces of real estate in the world. However, they have their own unique challenges and dangers associated with them. Make sure that you’re fully aware of all the risks of buying a certain property before you sign any paperwork.

Caring for Beach Front Properties

Jack — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:23:48 +0000

Beach front properties represent a huge investment of your hard earned money. But too many people jump in the deep end too early when they purchase their first property with a view of the ocean. Many beachfront property home buyers will only think about the monthly mortgage payments instead of thinking about how they are going to upkeep the property to help it retain its value. Unfortunately, in addition to the great views and location, beachfront homes are come with high levels of degradation due to the salty air and usually a much higher frequency of storms with high winds and heavy rains than places further inland. Before you purchase your first home by the sea, make sure you factor in the costs of maintenance so your property retains its value.

The first thing that you should do is if you bought the property as an investment or to rent it out most of the year is have a maintenance man on call who can look after the property. Most beachfront communities will have this service widely available and your realtor should be able to help you find one, or you can most likely find one yourself in the yellow pages. These people will keep your yard mowed and looking presentable and make sure that nothing happens to your home while you are gone, such as break ins or burst pipes. If something like this were to happen they could report it immediately, instead of your house sitting with broken windows and flooding for weeks until you visited the beach again. A maintenance man is not an option if you a planning on renting out your oceanfront property.

If you are building a home on the property that you bought for the first time or you are remodeling an existing home, one way to keep maintenance costs down is to choose products that resist corrosion. This is particularly important for any metal fixtures that you may have outside. The salt in sea air causes a chemical reaction with metals that makes them become weak and degrade much quicker than in inland settings. By choosing corrosion-resistant metals you’ll go longer without having to replace objects and it’ll make your home look more presentable and newer for longer.

To resist the strong storms that coastlines are many times subject to, you should make sure before you buy your home that it was constructed using quality methods and materials. On top of this, every beach home should be equipped with storm windows that aren’t going to shatter when they’re hit with high winds. This will keep your home safer and minimize the amount of damage that it takes in storms. If a storm actually breaks a window in your home, the clean up process can be very costly depending on the amount of water that gets in.

Don't Let Your Beach Home Turn Into This

Finally, when you’re caring for your beach front property also don’t forget to properly landscape it. Placing plants in strategic locations can help stop erosion and will also make sure that the land around your home drains much easier. This cuts down on flooding, even in big storms, and will make sure that you property stays in the best condition that it possibly can.

Beachfront properties are a great investment and also a great place to put your second home. However, they are not buy and forget investments. If you want to get the most from your property and preserve its value, make sure that you put the proper amount of time and money toward maintaining it.