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Our goal at Seahorse Homes is to provide a straightforward and transparent purchase and build process for you, and part of achieving that goal is sharing the research we have done of the market with you. Buying a beach house involves quite a bit of research before the search for the right home begins, it’s important to have a solid understanding of your budget, needs, and wants, think through any costs will be incurred or offset by making the home into an income producing property as a vacation rental, as well as taking time to become familiar with the financial and weather-related risks involved with owning a beach house. In this section we have created a list of important things for you consider when buying a beach house to help make the process easier for you from lifestyle to erosion rates, a list of local beach communities and what they offer compared to Seahorse Estates, and a list of active and recently sold comparable homes and how they compare to the homes Seahorse Homes will be building in Seahorse Estates.
The first question you should ask yourself when purchasing a beach house is what do you want to do with your time when you are there?
Think through your options: are you are looking for a project home where you spend your weekends replacing rotted wood, updating windows for energy efficiency, repainting, or are you headed to get away and escape from a “honey do list” and enjoy the beach life to its fullest?
If you’re looking for a project, then we may not be the right fit for you, and that’s ok. Seahorse Homes is designed for the buyer who wants to make the most of their time enjoying the beach and bay views, great fishing opportunities, and both beach and bay community amenities for all ages. We have designed our homes to withstand the elements so that you can spend less time on home maintenance, and more time enjoying your family.
Our homes should not be compared to an older beach house in value for a multitude of reasons: new home construction requirements dramatically changed in 2010 after Hurricane Ike, and they changed again in 2018 after Hurricane Harvey. These changes were implemented with the goal of safer homes being built that had a greater likelihood of withstanding the elements. A home built prior to 2018 is a different product than one built after the codes were changed, and a home built prior to 2010 has an even bigger variance in building code requirements.
Structurally, homes built on 10”x10” pilings are very different than a home built on 12”x12” piling, homes built below today’s FEMA elevation requirements are very different and face challenges that homes like ours which are built 4’ above FEMA’s elevation requirements don’t. Having those specifications in mind, a buyer may be inclined to refine their search parameters to newer homes and increase their expectation to match today’s standards.
If you’re looking for a turnkey experience, you will love your options at Seahorse Homes. We are so confident in our product, the beach and bay views, and the beach and bay amenities at Seahorse Estates that we will gladly take you on a home tour of the best beach houses available on the market and give you the opportunity to a side-by-side comparison in person for yourself.
The toughest decision you will make with Seahorse Homes is whether you want to enjoy panoramic sunrise or sunset views. With only two rows of homes at Seahorse Estates, beachfront or bayfront, you can choose a panoramic view of one, and enjoy unobstructed views of the other.
Seahorse Estates was developed strategically to maximize the views and enjoyment for every homeowner, not to maximize how many homes could fit on the land. The beaches here are considered stable, and are naturally growing, not eroding. Overtime, the additional sand deposits have helped us to grow over 250ft of natural dune protection. Mr. Howton saw the value in preserving the natural wetlands, and his conservation efforts established the lifelong views here that can’t be taken away because of established build lines, and bayfront nature preserve.
There are neighborhoods like Acquisitions Beach next to Jamaica Beach on Galveston Island, where homes are built staggered laterally in a way that some beachfront homes have views of their neighbors’ homes as shown in the picture. In other neighborhoods you are left wondering, “do you want to be staring at your neighbor’s ugly beach walkover and be left thinking about whether your neighbors are going to maintain theirs?”. Walkovers can begin to impede on your view, at Seahorse Estates the 7 planned community beach walk overs are maintained to standard by the HOA.
Most developments do not own the bayside property behind their beachfront investment, and the question must be asked, what could be built on the undeveloped land? Imagine buying a beautiful beach home on a one road subdivision like The Dunes or Sandhill Shores knowing that the undeveloped property across FM 3005 could be zoned commercial and you could potentially have a business developed behind you, maybe a new fish bait camp or another RV park. Do you want to compete with that traffic? This picture shows Acquisitions Beach, and you can see across the street and to the east is a large RV park, the property directly behind Acquisitions Beach may be developed in a similar way or something completely different, and the traffic and visuals that development brings may directly affect the resale desirability of the home in the future.
Your property values are directly affected by what is built around you, and not all beach views are created equal. Can someone build their home in front of yours? Seahorse Estates offers panoramic beach views for our beachfront homeowners because Seahorse Estates controls the build line, unlike some neighborhoods in Galveston where you step out to your deck and your beach view is obstructed by your neighbor’s house that is built closer to the beach than you are, like this example on Galveston Island. Seahorse Estates is designed to keep the views you purchase today in place tomorrow. Seahorse Estates owns the property all the way to the bay, and they have marked a conservation area as a nature preserve, nothing will ever be built there.
Depending on where you purchase your beach house, it could be a matter of time before someone builds something that can block your view, once you see the views at Seahorse Estates, your expectation of what a beach house can do for you changes. Now it’s not just buying a beach house or a bay house, it’s buying a home that gives you direct access to both.
For your budget do you want beachfront, beach views, bay views, or a canal house?
Which lifestyle are you hoping to enjoy when you are down here? The ease of walking to the beach whenever you want and being able to kayak out to the bay versus living on a canal and staring down one channel of water instead of enjoying beach and bay views.
Are you hoping for easy beach access to enjoy whenever you want? If easy beach access is important to you, take note of the ratio of beach walk overs to the number of homes and available homesites and how far of a trip it will be from your home. For us, Seahorse Estates is the clear winner between the neighborhoods. We can’t tell you who is going to build next to you, but at Seahorse Estates you know that you will always have unobstructed and panoramic views thanks to our established build lines, and you won’t have to worry about what will be developed behind you.
We counted 12 beach walkovers in Pointe West, a large beach and bayfront subdivisions less than 15 minutes from Seahorse Estates, and those 12 beach walkovers must service the hundreds of homes and condos located in Pointe West. Only 2 of those walk overs offer designated parking for residents who live 2-13 rows back from the beach, and their bayside homeowners have to load up for the day and travel by vehicle or a long walk before they can start enjoying the beach. The bayfront homeowners in Seahorse Estates are 2nd row beach owners, bayfront homeowners in Pointe West can be 20-25 rows back from the beach, and Seahorse Estates has planned for the 50 homeowners to have much easier access to the beach via 7 strategically spaced beach walk overs.
The residents and guests in Beachside Village share 8 beach walkovers that are built onto the actual dune instead of a walk over that is elevated over the dune to allow for the vegetation growth needed to strengthen dune protection, and they have no parking available near their walk overs which means their owners who are 10-15 rows back from the beachfront are forced to make a decision, do you make the trek from your home to your community beach walk over with all of your necessities in tow, or do you load the car up and drive over to a different beach that offers you easier access? Beachtown residents are in a similar situation.
Seahorse Estates is right down the street from 2 marinas, and when you’re ready to take the boat out, you can call them, and they’ll have your boat ready for you when you get there. With easy access out to the bay or gulf, launching your boat from one of the nearby marinas is a faster trip out to open waters than most have from their canal home. If you’re family is staying home for the boat trip, they’ll enjoy the in-home amenities that Seahorse Homes offers, as well as creating memories and enjoying great conversations while enjoying the beach or bay amenities at Seahorse Estates. The joy of owning a boat grows when someone else is helping you to care for it and have it prepared for you, and you will enjoy your boat even more because your family will also be entertained and waiting for you to get back home. If you’re a boat captain, wouldn’t you want to own a beach house that you can rent it out and sell as part of a fishing package?
Having a beach house is not just about how fast you can get to the beach or where you get to take your boat out to, it’s about your big picture and all of the small things that add up to offer you the widest array of benefits, like your family having access to a playground for the kids while you’re out fishing or being able to take the family for a sunset stroll out to the bay on our community boardwalk that no other neighborhood nearby offers. You’ll be able to go out and enjoy your favorite hobbies like fishing/boating and come home to your family much faster than if they were to stay back in Houston, Dallas, Austin etc.
Before deciding on your dream beach house, compare access and amenities between the neighborhoods as well as the type of homes that neighborhood offers. Are there any amenities besides beach walk overs and green space? Not in most neighborhoods, and when you shop to compare your options, building brand new with us in Seahorse Estates becomes the clear and easy decision. You cannot get our views, access, or amenities anywhere else.
Take time to think about what you want to do when you go to your beach house, do you want to relax, fish, hang out at the beach all day, take the boat out, or be able to enjoy local restaurants and attractions without the hassle of traffic or a long drive? The definition of a beach house can vary per buyer, is it a canal home with a short drive to the beach, must it be beachfront or a couple of rows away, can it be land locked on an island with a beach 10-15 minutes away with n view or should it be bayfront so you can enjoy the sun set?
Canal homes are all about the boat, and your view is staring down one strip of water and the other houses on the canal. You step outside your back door, and you can see when the neighbors across the canal step out of you, and when you want to go to the beach how do you get there? If you buy a canal home where rentals are allowed, not everyone knows how to drive the boats and the potential for damage dramatically increases List out the pros and cons of short-term rentals.
What are your entertainment options when the weather is bad? Does the home you are viewing have a game room, or enough living space for everyone to spread out and relax or gather round for fun and conversation? Seahorse Estates offers you an opportunity to create the lifestyle that you have been dreaming of. If you’re into fishing, Seahorse Estates has the best fishing opportunities with both beach and bay access, your family can play at or walk on the beach.
Are you shopping for an income producing property that will rent out well while you’re not using it? We are the right answer for you. Beachside properties typically rent out better than canal properties because most canal homes can’t offer amenities other than boat access and fishing. Every home at Seahorse Estates has easy access to one of 7 community beach walk overs to wade out into the surf, and to the community boardwalk and fishing pier that leads out over a nature preserve to Drum Bay. There are new beach and bay community amenities coming soon to Seahorse Estates, and every beachfront and bayfront homeowner will have easy access. We offer exclusive amenities that you can’t get anywhere else, and they’ll be exclusive to our 50 homeowners. Seahorse Estates is the best vacation property on the Texas Gulf Coast; we want to show you how we are the better alternative with better beaches, better views, better rental values, better usability, better fishing options, and better boat storage options.
Rentals can mean different things to different people, and different subdivisions have different rules. You could be thinking about renting out the home for 6 months or a year to one tenant, or a by the night as a short-term rental. Some beach communities, even on Galveston Island, do not allow homes to be short term rentals, and that one factor can help narrow down your search of available inventory that can fulfill the lifestyle you are looking to create here.
If you want a blend of enjoyment and want to make a return on your investment, consider purchasing a beach house in a community that allows you to do short term rentals. You can enjoy the home on any weekend, peak-season or holiday that you would like, and put the remainder of the time that the house would normally sit empty, with a trusted property manager who can help you maintain occupancy levels and nightly rental values.
If you can offset your costs of buying a beach house, would you? Do you want to maximize profit margins? Seahorse Rentals will be our exclusive onsite property management company to help maintain quality control of the experience guests have when they visit your home in Seahorse Estates. If may have no interest in short term rentals yourself, accessibility to be able to offer short term rentals will serve you as a benefit and feature that you can talk about when you are solidifying your resale value in the future.
With our developer and property management onsite, we will optimize rentals to benefit all sides. This is a divisive topic because some people absolutely hate them, and some rely on them to help offset the costs of owning a beach house. The way Seahorse Estates is platted, we will have the best of both worlds. We will have the benefit of rentals without the negatives, and here is how we are going to do it: From a spacing standpoint, you have 70’ wide large sized lots with us, and long driveways. You don’t have to worry about limited parking in the driveway and community restrictions like Beachside Village or Beachtown where the home itself can sleep 15+ people but the driveway and garage maxes you out to 4 cars, and deed restrictions prevent parking on the street, which also limits your accessibility to using the beach access. Seahorse Estates has a parking lot designated for amenity access for our community members, and guest overflow parking with access granted from the onsite property management company, Seahorse Rentals.
If you’re interested in learning more about renting your home out, and the property management services that will be offered by Seahorse Rentals, please let us know. We want to see you maximize your ownership by enjoying the home all to yourself, and make sure it is well taken care of while you’re away.
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