Seven Things You Didn't Know About Buying at the Delaware Beaches.

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This is a transcript of Episode 3 of the Dailey Duo Podcast- Seven Things You Didn't Know About Buying at the Delaware Beaches.

SCOTT

Actually wearing flip-flops right now.

DENIENE

I am only wearing tennis shoes. But okay, Scott, tell us about the seven things that no one ever tells you.

SCOTT

Okay, so in today's podcast, we're going to talk about seven things that you wanted to know if you're thinking about buying or selling real estate at the Delaware beaches that you may not have known. That's it. Yes. Free educational time. And so we're just going to very quickly go through those uh seven things and see where we land. It is a lovely day here in Lewis. This podcast is sponsored by Dailey Dailey Real Estate. Uh we are at daileydaileyre.com. That's D-A-I-L-E-Y. Twice. Um and we are dedicated to all things of the Delaware beaches, real estate lifestyle, you name it. This is welcome to episode three, the seven things that you didn't know about real estate. Okay. Here we go. We're jumping right in.

DENIENE

Okay, so Delaware has a sales tax on real estate. People don't know that.

SCOTT

So famously, Delaware advertises as having no sales tax. And when you go and you buy something, as long as you're not buying a car or a house, that's generally true. Um but where it is not true is a house. There's a 4% transfer tax. That's how they get away with not calling it a sales tax, that it's from the transfer of your property from one owner to another that are not related. That triggers a 4% tax. So that's 4% on the total sales price. And people don't realize this, but that adds up quickly. That means on a $600,000 house that there are is $24,000 in tax due.

DENIENE

And most of the time that's split, but most of the time that is split.

SCOTT

That's correct. So the buyer and seller are going to be paying about 2% each uh uh at closing. And the other thing is that there are certain exemptions to that uh for first-time home buyers, and um there are other exemptions.

DENIENE

There's some new construction and there's new construction, right?

SCOTT

And what happens in new construction a lot of the time is the buyer pays all four percent. Yep, which is um good to know a steep bill. So yeah. So that's uh that's number one. What's up next?

DENIENE

Okay, traffic is a mess in the summer, especially on Fridays and Saturdays.

SCOTT

Yeah, so you have to keep an eye out, and you know, people have started recently really complaining about traffic and road overcrowding. And what what's your take on that, honey? Where are you from?

DENIENE

I'm from California. So um that's traffic, in my personal opinion. I was literally on the phone with my dad just recently, and we were talking about how awful it is when I go to visit him and I'm sitting in traffic. This is at least moving traffic. So there's ways to get around, there's back roads, it's and there's timing.

SCOTT

And the timing is everything because a lot of times, like on a Saturday morning, yeah, uh, or on a Saturday afternoon when you still have a lot of changeover happening. So the weekly rentals go Saturday to Saturday, most of the time here at the beach. And so on a Saturday, you have everyone who is there who's been there for a week. You have everyone coming who's coming for the next week, and the traffic gets a little nutty. The other kicker is what happens when it rains, honey?

unknown 

Oh god.

DENIENE

Okay, so when it rains, and uh, we used to have an office in Rohoboth, and literally that first trickle would make one. Everyone gets off the beach and they're going to the outlets, they're going to the movies, they're going anywhere but on the beach, and they all are moving at the same time. So that is probably the worst traffic that you'll get.

SCOTT

Right. So everybody goes off the beach, and what do they do? They go out, oh, we want to go to the outlets, we want to go to the movies, we want to go to and do other indoor activities, and uh that's probably the worst, in my opinion, that Route One gets. Yeah. It's like you take like a Thursday afternoon in July and you drop a few thunderstorms on the beach, and all of a sudden the traffic is a nightmare. We don't have much of a rush hour because a lot of folks are retired down here. Um, although there is it's more pronounced than it used to be. And obviously there are times when backups happen, but by and large, we just don't think there's a lot of traffic issues here. So that's our take. But but man, if you go online, you would think that uh it was just 24-7 gridlock.

DENIENE

But it's not.

SCOTT

But it's not. What's next?

DENIENE

Okay, so we're gonna talk about second home financing, it's more strict. That is definitely true.

SCOTT

So if you're buying a second home, so second homes are financed differently, it's still a can be a 30-year mortgage and in still some cases be tax deductible, but it also depends um on a slightly more stringent underwriting standard to buy that second home. And so some folks don't realize that. Um and that's important to take note. In a future episode, we're going to have a mortgage broker come on the podcast and break down a lot of financing stuff, and that will hopefully be a very educational episode. But in the meantime, um just know that if you're looking at buying a second house, the financing is a little tougher than getting your primary residence.

DENIENE

But if you're dealing with Dailey Dailey, we will hook you up with a great financing person. Right, we can take care of that for you. And I would say 100% you need to get a financing person from Delaware if you're going to buy a house in Delaware.

SCOTT

Okay, what's next time?

DENIENE

Okay, short-term rentals can vary by community and municipalities.

SCOTT

Get that word, you want to do that one more time? Municipalities. Municipalities.

DENIENE

Thank you. Sorry about that one.

SCOTT

It's okay. Yeah, so a lot of folks now um seemingly after COVID, all of a sudden they want to maybe rent, they're gonna buy a place at the beach and they want to use it, but they maybe want it to be an income-producing asset when they're not using it. When it's and so they're looking at VRBOs or Airbnbs or just doing it through by themselves, where they're getting some kind of local short-term rental. And that's actually very popular. And you'd be surprised what people will rent because as you get away from the beach and you get a little less expensive, you can get a nice place and um maybe not have to deal with all the hubbub that is right around the ocean, um, and then have opportunities to go and see other towns and do other things because it's easy to get in and out with your car. So um the backlash to that has started, and so you have to be careful about where you're looking. And that is certainly something that you want to come up with that you want to speak early on. So it's one of the questions that if you're working with Dailey Dailey, that we would ask you is you know, are you planning on renting this out? And if so, are you planning on renting it out for short term? Because we want to make sure that you're able to do it in a community. Um, you want to make sure some um municipalities have started restricting uh short-term rentals in the entire town limits, uh, which is actually a pretty small percentage of uh Sussex County. But so there's definitely things you need to look through. A lot of the communities are allowing rentals, but they don't allow rentals like less than 30 days or something like that. So you can't really do the weekly rental thing because everyone has these nightmare stories in their heads about Airbnb, and maybe that's true, I don't know. Um, so that's just something that if you're thinking about doing that you want to ask up front because it's not as easy to do. Uh Delaware also has a lodging tax, which applies to those in in most situations, and so you have to make sure that you're actually keeping up with that as well. There's a little extra paperwork involved.

DENIENE

Exactly. So things things to know. Okay, so now we're gonna talk about spring weather can be cold and wet. So the ocean lags.

SCOTT

The ocean lags. Uh what's your favorite season around here, honey?

DENIENE

Um it's probably September.

SCOTT

Okay, and that's that's a great answer. Why is September the best month to live at the beach?

DENIENE

Because everyone has left and went home, and it is so nice and calm, and the weather's beautiful, and it just seems like the most peaceful time.

SCOTT

September. How's October?

DENIENE

I love October too. Those are those are my favorite months, to be honest.

SCOTT

Right. I think that's fair. I think that's a lot of that's the opinion of a lot of folks that live here full time. What's your take on March, honey?

DENIENE

March is a little bit colder depending on the day. I mean uh honestly, our March was a little bit up and down, right? We went from 70 to 40 in a week.

SCOTT

And how's April usually?

DENIENE

April can be can be awesome.

SCOTT

Right.

DENIENE

Depends on the year.

SCOTT

Sometimes, so what happens is this area um is a microclimate that is impacted by the ocean water temperature. And so in the fall, the ocean water stays warm longer, so it sort of extends our fall season. And so when you talk about some of the best months at the beach being September and October, what you're getting is you're getting warmer temperatures than surrounding states, surrounding areas. And you're do you're getting that because the ocean is still uh cooling down from the summer. Uh, the opposite hits you in the spring. And in the spring, you get lower ocean temperatures and warmer air, and again, the ocean temperature kind of uh drags things out. I mean, gosh, Memorial Day temperatures were in the like the upper 50s, low sixties. Yes. Is all we get sometimes. And so March, April, and May can be very, as Danine described, hit or miss. Where you can have these wonderful days. You can also have these dreary 47 degree cold, damp days that the the air must feels like it's 27. It's it's a little mess. And that's just a part of the ocean. There's not much that you can uh do about it. Um, but it does make the falls absolutely splendid and the springs kind of lame. Not gonna lie, kinda lame. What's next, honey?

DENIENE

Okay, dining and entertainment entertainment is year-round now. And I will say, because I've been here for 25 years, um coming this January. You'll be 25. And when I first came here, they did not have a Starbucks.

SCOTT

And now How did you ever survive without a Starbucks?

DENIENE

Sorry, I'm from California. I was a little snobby, not gonna lie. And but I found I found a place, and then this area has just continuously just boomed, and we've got the most amazing restaurants, and the best thing about this area is we do not have a massive chain of restaurants.

SCOTT

So what do you mean? Why don't you expand on that? Okay, so like our Friday's closed, our Applebee's closed.

DENIENE

Um yeah. So we have these really quaint restaurants all over the place, and they're just awesome. And I can talk to you all about it, or hit me up on Danine's Favorite Picks, and I'll tell you about each restaurant and why I like it.

SCOTT

Right. So even we've covered that in previous episodes about some of the dining opportunities, and very few of what we're talking about are chains, they're usually locally owned and operated restaurants, and actually they even call it the Culinary Coast, the Delaware Culinary Coast, because the dining is so good here that it's as good or better than even some big towns. Um and so what's another upside to being here year-round with all these good I uh restaurants, honey? What what can you get in the in the off-season?

DENIENE

Oh, oh yes, oh gosh. There's the there's a whole list um that you can get off season prices, and it it's kind of amazing. So they'll like have burger night at one place or maybe taco night at another place. I know arenas does uh half price sandwich night. So there's there's a list, and it's it's literally called the list.

SCOTT

And there's deals.

DENIENE

Yes.

SCOTT

And it's only in the off season, only in the off-season that which usually now is really like October through April. Um and there are just you can eat very well in the off-season. And it used to be that these places closed and they don't really close anymore anymore, or maybe they're open seven days a week in the summer and five days a week in the off season. Yep.

DENIENE

They're at least open from probably Thursday to Monday.

SCOTT

Right. Very, very much so um on the weekends because people still come down here uh every weekend, even if it's in the wintertime, because now there's stuff to do. And there's also uh indoor stuff for the kids to do, which we're gonna talk about in future episodes.

DENIENE

Yes. Super excited.

SCOTT

So um and when she mentions these chains, is what she's really saying is that I think when you come here, you want to come here and and experience something that's unique to the area. And it's like you drive down for a couple hours to the beach and you're ended up at TJI Fridays, and you're there's nothing wrong with TJI Fridays, it's just it's like I can get that where I'm from. Right. I if I want to have something unique, and we have steakhouses, we have seafood places, we have uh Italian restaurants, Indian cuisine, Thai cuisine, you name it. Uh a lot of different specialties, and a lot of sort of what I would call American fare, which is you know sort of a steak and seafood type of menu with some pastas at a lot of different restaurants, and you can eat incredibly well. I used to be able to say it was a lot cheaper than uh city restaurants, excuse me. Uh, but it's really not anymore. The the prices have really caught up. Uh so it's not an inexpensive dining experience, but at least it's a really good dining experience.

DENIENE

And uh probably the best subs that you know.

SCOTT

Yeah, the the advantage is there's enough Philadelphia influence here that you can get good cheesesteaks, which is not always pop possible in a little bit of a ship.

DENIENE

We had one last night and it was it was phenomenal.

SCOTT

Chicken cheesesteak with some sauteed onions. I mean with. That's just if I was in Philly, I'd say we had chicken cheesesteak with uh and provolone, not cheese with. Um so that would be the proper ordering. I guess you can't get a chicken cheesesteak. Maybe in Philly they think that's cheating, but I liked it. It was amazing. It was amazing. Okay, what else?

DENIENE

So the last thing that we're gonna talk about is small town Delaware loves a good parade. Yes, they do.

SCOTT

So, honey, let me ask you a question. What is the biggest single day of people coming into Rehoboth Beach?

DENIENE

It is Halloween.

SCOTT

Halloween. Well, it's not actually the day of Halloween, but it's the weekend before Halloween.

DENIENE

So they put on the most amazing parade I've ever seen. I'm not, I mean, Macy's Day.

SCOTT

It's got nothing on us on it. No. No.

DENIENE

We got the coolest, coolest parade on earth. What's it called?

SCOTT

The Sea Witch Parade. There you go. They have a giant inflatable green-headed witch that they run in front of it. And it is it is a parade that um has gotten so big and so serious that they've had to pass parking ordinances because people would go down and leave a car like a week before the Sea Witch Festival and just leave it there so they have this primo tailgate spot on the path uh of the parade. Um, they'd have people that would literally leave their beach chairs the night before, just leave them on the sidewalk so they could get good seats. There's a lot of flying candy going in both directions. Candy going.

DENIENE

We've been in the parade.

SCOTT

And anyone can be in the parade. The fun part is to get in the parade, you just line up and then you're in the parade.

DENIENE

If you have a costume, it's much cooler.

SCOTT

It's much cooler to go in costume, and then it is just a hugely social, fun event, uh, and that outdraws the Fourth of July in Rehobith Beach.

DENIENE

And people come like from Pennsylvania, Virginia, like to be in this parade.

SCOTT

It's a big deal.

DENIENE

It is kind of the coolest thing. I remember one one year a whole family dressed up as KISS. They were on a platform and they sang the entire way through the parade.

SCOTT

How about that? I mean rock on and some of the floats low-key here. Some of the floats are pretty intricate, a lot of them aren't. Um and then that evening you can go trick-or-treating in downtown Rehoboth to the local businesses. Yes. And so Halloween uh weekend, which is here, is the weekend before Halloween, wherever Halloween falls, yes, is a mob scene in a good way here.

DENIENE

Yeah, and it's by local love our neighbors.

SCOTT

Yeah. Now the funny thing about the Sea Witch Festival is at its core, it's a Halloween parade for the city of Rehoboth Beach. That's the that's how it started. And the interesting thing is that lots of of these little towns have wonderful parades for Halloween, for Christmas, for 4th of July.

DENIENE

Milford, Milford. Yeah, they all have amazing parades.

SCOTT

Lewis has its its own slate of parades. Doodah parade, doodah parade in Lewis. There are just a lot of the shriners are out there. Yeah, they have these little go-karts. I think they're the shriners.

DENIENE

Yes, so cute. These 70-year-old men in these little go-karts. It's adorable. Zipping around like crazy. How can you not love that?

SCOTT

Right. Lots of fun things. Um, even Lewis will do a parade of boats uh the 4th of July, and they will do one in the spring called The Blessing of the Fleet, which is just it's a boat parade. You want to be in it? You just you get on your boat and you go. Yeah. And it's that simple.

DENIENE

And so if you want to be involved in an area and you're moving here, there's so many ways to get involved.

SCOTT

So that's it. Is that our seven?

DENIENE

That's our seven.

SCOTT

That are seven things maybe you didn't know about the Delaware beaches. That now you know. Hopefully, that was a good, quick, educational thing. If you have any follow-up questions or anything like that, uh follow us in the Dailey Duo Podcast on Instagram and uh slide into our DMs there, and we'd be happy to get you information. Uh, or you just want to leave a comment, uh, that's great.

DENIENE

Or something you maybe want to hear about.

SCOTT

Right?

DENIENE

Any topics more than willing to learn and and share with you because we've been here forever.

SCOTT

Feel free to reach out. But until then, I'm Scott Dailey.

DENIENE

And I'm Deniene Dailey.

SCOTT18:52

And this has been the Dailey Duo Podcast.

DENIENE18:54

Yes, thank you for joining us.