question about renting a beach house

Factual Questions
1

I’m thinking of renting a beach house with some friends next summer somewhere along the Virginia/North Carolina/South Carolina coast. I’m most interested in the Outer Banks but I’ll take what I can get. The problem? Every realtor seems to have the policy that they will only rent to families.

I understand that they don’t want huge influxes of noisy or destructive groups–but how can I get around this rule? I don’t want to lie on the lease–I’m looking for an alternative that will make both me and the realtor happy. We’re not a bunch of kids, we’re all between 25 and 30 and we’re all responsible people. We’re not planning huge parties, we just want somewhere to eat dinner and sleep after a day at the beach.

Have any of you rented in this area with a group? Are the realtors really as strict as they sound? Can you recommend any realtors that work with non-family groups? Would providing references or offering to pay an additional security deposit help? Any advice you have would be welcome.

2

You could offer a security deposit (beyond the standard one) to be held in escrow, or possibly check the classified ads for a private party renting a house.

Alternately, if someone is bringing a sister/brother/cousin/etc along, couldn’t that be considered a family? Not sure if they would go for that, but might be worth a try.

Otherwise, I’d just try to get someone on the phone who sounds reasonable, and explain the situation to them. Hopefully someone will be reasonable enough to listen to you and understand that you don’t want to trash their house.

3

OBX?
beautiful country. in north carllina there are cabins with glass ceilings on the top floor so you can “sleep under the starts” (they are spaced far enough apart that your neighbors cannot see in your cabin). i have no advice on dealing with realtors, i’ve only visited family out there, but i wanted to let you know about the glass ceilings-i’ve heard only good things.