Expert Insights on Cape Cod Waterfront Real Estate with Tia Lilly

Start With the Right Guide and a Real Conversation

[00:00:00] Tia Lilly: Find somebody you like that you trust and have a preliminary conversation because I’m of mindset that not everybody’s the same.

Welcome to Women Creating Wealth and Introducing Tia Lilly

[00:00:15] Christine McCarron: Hello, Women Creating Wealth. We have a real treat for you today. You know how I always tell you that if you’re going to do short-term rentals, it’s great to do it in a place where you want to visit. So today, Tia Lilly is with us. She is the founder and broker owner of Property Cape Cod Real Estate. She’s a seasoned real estate professional.

Cape Cod Waterfront Specialization and Why It Matters

[00:00:33] Christine McCarron: She’s got almost two decades of experience specializing in all types of waterfront properties on Cape Cod, including Waterfront Waterview. Lake Pond, water riverfront and beachfront properties. We have now Tia to educate us on, let’s say that I wanted to, first of all, Tia, welcome to the show. Thanks, Chris.

Diving In

[00:00:51] Tia Lilly: I really appreciate you having me on. So let’s dive in. I

[00:00:55] Tia Lilly: love this topic, my favorite.

Do Cape Cod Prices Drop in the Fall? Seasonality Question

[00:00:59] Christine McCarron: And now, so what happens now? Actually, this is a total detour, not where I was gonna go, but right now it’s September. So do prices sometimes come down when the season sort of is winding down? Do you find that like everybody wants to buy a place at the beginning of the summer or in the spring and then in the fall it’s like, oh, okay, let’s think about something else.

When the Cape Cod Buying Season Is Actually Busiest

[00:01:16] Tia Lilly: Actually, it’s probably the exact opposite of what everybody thinks. So now keep in mind, COVID has changed a lot here. It’s just changed our whole world really. But, um, in terms of investment property, waterfront property and purchasing, and, uh, Cape Cod, which is very much a resort destination. Not sure how much your listeners know about Cape Cod, but it’s just beautiful and we’re known for our beaches and the water.

Why Fall and Winter Can Be Prime Buying Windows

[00:01:43] Tia Lilly: There’s just so much to the water here. So the fall and the winter are the busiest times to purchase. A investment waterfront near water, waterview home on Cape Cod. Interesting. It’s, and

Waterfront Buying Concerns: Flooding and Risk Factors

[00:01:56] Christine McCarron: what sorts of things, I mean, one thing that pops immediately to mind because I used to live by the ocean, is like things like flooding.

[00:02:02] Christine McCarron: Like what are some considerations that people might not think about, might not be aware of when they’re looking to buy a waterfront home?

Why Waterfront and Near-Water Real Estate Is Different

[00:02:08] Tia Lilly: First of all, when you’re looking to purchase or, or even sell for that matter, it’s, it’s good. Yeah. So it goes. Both ways. So it’s good to talk to somebody with the experience because it’s very different than just buying or selling a traditional home in a neighborhood.

Define the Investment Goal Before You Shop

[00:02:23] Tia Lilly: Um, but there is a lot of factors to consider. It depends, like you asked me about the buy side and looking at it when people first. Start thinking about this and they’re in the planning stages. It’s really important to identify kind of, okay, what, well, how do you wanna use this investment property? So when I hear investment, I think of a couple different factors, right?

The “Use It and Enjoy It” Side of Investing

[00:02:43] Tia Lilly: First, it’s just great from an equity standpoint, you can have fun with it. You can’t do that when you invest in the stock market. You can enjoy it. You know, you can, you can, it can grow and enjoy it. Right? Then comes a lot like of what you do. You know, there’s like, okay, now you can have it work for you.

Short-Term Rentals, Long-Term Holds, and Making the Property Work

[00:03:00] Tia Lilly: You can do short-term rentals with it. Um, you can do long year round, but we will just keep it to short term. It’s what’s in our wheelhouse. So, um, but yeah, so you can look at it so other people can enjoy it, and then the investor can make money on it as well. It’s really important, like you hear all the time, location, location, location.

Where “Location” Means Beach Access, Water Type, and Demand

[00:03:21] Tia Lilly: When you’re thinking about it in the planning stages. It’s really important to sit down with somebody experienced to say, okay, where, okay, where am I gonna get, where’s can I get my best bang for the buck? We get a lot of, ’cause I don’t know if you knew this or not, but we are in the vacation rental market, so we do short term rentals and would love to be involved at the beginning in the primary stages only because people come to us after and we probably wouldn’t advise them to purchase that property.

Maximize the Investment: Beach, Walk-to-Beach, and What People Actually Come For

[00:03:49] Tia Lilly: Or the per Yeah, it’s okay. We make it work. But you wanna maximize your dollar. Look at, you know, like for the cape, there’s so much water here, there’s rivers, there’s lakes, there’s ponds, there’s docks, there’s beachfront, there’s little private beaches, association beaches. So, but people come for the beach for the most part.

[00:04:10] Tia Lilly: That’s where you. You really wanna focus in on, and you can even get walk to beach too. That could be a great investment as well. Being closer on the beach is, is ideal.

Condo Restrictions and Short-Term Rental Rules

[00:04:21] Christine McCarron: Did you run into any restrictions, for example, like say you had, didn’t, you were just getting started, you wanted to maybe buy a condo. Do you run into restrictions with, with Yes.

[00:04:29] Christine McCarron: Condos not allowing, yeah, yeah,

[00:04:31] Tia Lilly: yeah. Condo’s probably not the best way to go for, for that, for the, if you’re gonna plan on using it as a short-term rental, you know, and a lot of it is. Too, just looking at, uh, how long do you wanna hold it for? What are you doing? Because you did ask about does it have beach rights?

Beach Rights, Flood Zones, and What You Can (and Can’t) Change

[00:04:46] Tia Lilly: Is it just up to a certain part? And, and it’s a public beach, I think from investing anything beach goes and anything on or near water, you know, there’s definitely flood. Flood zones and things like that to consider as well, um, work on the property. Does it need work? What can I do? What can I not do?

Conservation: The Big Factor Buyers Miss

[00:05:05] Tia Lilly: Conservation is a huge, huge factor in, in that whole big picture.

How Conservation Rules Affect Waterfront Homes and Investors

[00:05:10] Christine McCarron: Well, let’s talk about that a little bit ’cause we haven’t even talked too much about conservation land and conservation rulings and stuff like that. How, give me some examples of properties that are affected by conservation and how that would impact the investor.

Orders of Conditions, Required Planting, Docks, and Erosion Work

[00:05:23] Tia Lilly: Well, a lot of the desirable investment properties are in conservation land because they’re near the water. Anything on near water, even sometimes it’s not as obvious that it’s near water and it’s still in conservation land. So it’s not just water driven. So when you’re looking at a. Property and conservation, there’s so many factors to consider.

[00:05:45] Tia Lilly: Let’s use an example of something that’s directly on the water, uh, whether it be a dock or a beach. Um, sometimes conservation will come in many times and say, okay, this is what you need to do every year. You need to plant. X amount of certain plants we’re gonna come out and inspect them. Or let’s say you need to repair a dock or you need to replenish the beach ’cause of erosion.

Avoiding Surprises: Recording, Sign-Offs, and Closing Things Out

[00:06:08] Tia Lilly: We do have erosion. These factors all need to run through conservation and they all need to be approved and they all need to be recorded. So there’s what’s called order of conditions. It’s really important when selling or buying to know. Are there any rules that I have to adhere to if I own this property when selling did I?

[00:06:27] Tia Lilly: Most people don’t realize they have to close these out. Oh, I repaired my dock, or I got approval to do something that’s near conservation land. Okay. They approved it. Did it get recorded? Did it go in front of the board? Did it get signed off on? Did you take Most don’t know that. So it’s important to look for these factors when buying or selling too.

[00:06:47] Tia Lilly: No surprises. You never want surprises. That’s it Could be avoided. Yeah.

Flood Insurance: What’s Changing and What to Ask

[00:06:52] Christine McCarron: So flood, thinking about flood. Flood is complicated.

[00:06:54] Tia Lilly: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:06:55] Christine McCarron: And, and I just think about the expense of floods. Yeah. You know, flood insurance. Is there any problem? Have people had problems getting flood insurance? Lately

Local Insurance Knowledge and Coverage Reality Checks

[00:07:03] Tia Lilly: we’re not experienced that.

[00:07:05] Tia Lilly: I mean, there’s a lot of the bigger insurance companies that pull out and they’re not around. I know Florida’s experiencing that right now from other conversations I had, but there’s, we really try, we try to do all business local. There’s great companies here that understand the market because the Cape is so.

[00:07:23] Tia Lilly: Different from any other part of Massachusetts or the other part of the world. So it really is, there’s, there’s a lot of ways to ensure if you’re paying cash for a property, you do not need that, quote unquote flood insurance. It’s not to say that you don’t wanna carry some flood insurance, of course, um, be protected, but it’s not the mandate.

[00:07:44] Tia Lilly: That we hear about all the time, that really you’re only insured for a quarter million dollars. So if you’re looking at a, even a 1 million plus house, a quarter of a million’s, not a lot.

The True Cost of Flood Damage (and Why Coverage Matters)

[00:07:54] Christine McCarron: Yeah, you can, you can damage a house for a quarter of a million in no time.

[00:07:57] Tia Lilly: Yeah, exactly. So it’s uh, good to talk to a good insurance agent to make sure you’re covered, which we help our clientele with as well.

[00:08:06] Tia Lilly: Yeah, no, we’re not experiencing that as much as other parts of the country, I would say, at least in my world.

Cape Cod Rental Calendar: Weeks vs Weekends

[00:08:12] Christine McCarron: So another question I was thinking of is just about the seasonality. Like a friend of mine, so most of my properties are in the White Mountains, which is sort of a three season place. Yes. Right.

[00:08:22] Christine McCarron: People go for the foliage, they go for the, they don’t go in the mud season, but they do go in the winter for skiing and stuff like that. So I feel comfortable, but I also think that in the Cape. The rents are higher. Right. When you’re doing your short-term rentals, what is the major like calendar for that?

Peak Summer Weeks and Managing Expectations in Spring/Fall

[00:08:36] Tia Lilly: Uh, major calendar, definitely. The summer is the height of the season, right? Yeah. So that can be eight to 10 weeks and it’s better when you’re in your planning stages to plan on eight. Uh, we always go lower and then you’re, it’s great to make more. Um, the spring is very iffy on the Cape, so it’s something to be aware of going in the fall’s.

[00:08:57] Tia Lilly: Beautiful. We’re in the fall right now. It’s, it’s just gorgeous here. It’s typically very, very nice in the fall. You get more weekends though, long weekends in the fall here than booking out a week.

Weekly Rentals in Summer

[00:09:08] Christine McCarron: Yeah. So in the summertime, you can expect people would wanna be there for the whole week.

[00:09:11] Tia Lilly: For the whole week, yeah.

[00:09:12] Tia Lilly: We only rent for, yeah, a week at a time. But the, I’m not sure about your, what you. Like, what’s your average for a week that you get typically on a weekly rental where you’re at?

Rental Rate Comparisons: Bedrooms and Demand

[00:09:22] Christine McCarron: Well, I mean the, but the homes are smaller, but yeah. So maybe 700 or something like that for a week or maybe even a thousand.

[00:09:29] Christine McCarron: But that’s kind of the higher end for a, like a one bedroom place.

Cape Cod Pricing Examples: High Weekly Rates and What Drives Them

[00:09:34] Tia Lilly: But that’s one bedroom and that’s a lot when you bring up bedrooms, that a, that’s. Besides location, that’s the next, which I’m sure it’s the same for you, right, Chris? It’s bedroom driven, so you’d wanna Yeah. It makes a huge difference. And we have, we have big homes, like I can give you example of one that we just sold the end of the last, last year, almost coming up on a year now.

[00:09:55] Tia Lilly: They purchased for investment. Um. And to use it, but they didn’t want the responsibility of taking care of the house. So we said, no problem. We’ll take care of it for you. Let us know how long you wanna come. They didn’t come a whole lot, maybe a week or two, and they came off season. We rented that for four years, for 13,000 a week.

[00:10:15] Tia Lilly: Yeah. And that, and now you can go, I mean, on the beach you can get, uh, you could get up to 20,000 for a, a week. Yeah. Just to, wow. Yeah. We have one house that has a pool that’s not on the water that rents for 15, almost 16,000 a week. It’s a big house. It’s a big house, but yeah, big is better.

Managing Party Risk and Guest Quality

[00:10:33] Christine McCarron: But do you find any problem with, one of the reasons for my stuff that I wanted smaller properties is ’cause I had one that had nine beds, became like a party place and I.

[00:10:42] Christine McCarron: I wasn’t comfortable with that. We’ve had, we have problems with parties and stuff.

Why Higher Rents Can Mean Fewer Problems

[00:10:46] Tia Lilly: We haven’t, we really, we am not saying they don’t come and they don’t have parties. People do, but we’ve had, because I think the rents are so high. Yeah. You’re not gonna get the Yeah.

[00:10:57] Christine McCarron: You’re not getting college kids jumping out the windows drunk.

[00:10:59] Tia Lilly: Correct.

Using Leases to Protect the Property

[00:11:00] Tia Lilly: Correct. Because And that’s part of Yeah, exactly. Yeah. When the rents are, and that’s why we try to, we don’t wanna have anything be. Too low, and then we sign leases regardless of what platform they book on. Yeah, I know Airbnbs, they don’t have leases or anything, but in order to stay at our house, they do have to sign a lease.

[00:11:19] Christine McCarron: Perfect. Because then you’ve got more legal ram, you know, legal recourse. Something should go wrong,

Cleaning, Wear-and-Tear, and “You’d Never Know There Was a Party”

[00:11:24] Tia Lilly: but it does it. It’s really been, you know, it, some weeks it’s a lot more work on our cleaners than other weeks, but of course it balances. And the house, once you see the house after they’re done, you would never know there was a party.

[00:11:36] Tia Lilly: But it’s rare that we come through that.

A Cautionary Tale: Low Rates and Big Problems

[00:11:39] Christine McCarron: It’s the clientele is better. Right? So maybe they drip some barbecue sauce on the grill, but then did not trash the place. Like I had a, just a funny, sad story. Uh, oh. My New Hampshire place, the this, this kid told me he was renting it by himself. He wanted to work on his doctorate.

[00:11:56] Christine McCarron: He said, I’m working on my dissertation. I just wanna, you know. Come up there to have some silence and peace. Next thing I know, the state police are calling me. The guy had 23 people at this party and when the police came, ’cause the neighbors naturally called the police. You can imagine it was not, the neighbors aren’t even close, but they were close enough to hear whatever the heck was going on there.

[00:12:16] Christine McCarron: And when the police came, one of the kids tried to jump out the window, which was not actually open at the time. Oh no. So he took most of the window, the screen, and it was a second floor window. With, I’m surprised the kids survived. There was rocks down there. I thought, oh my, you know, just like nightmare time when COVID came, someone wanted to buy it and I said, yes, take it.

[00:12:35] Christine McCarron: Take it. It’s yours. I’ll see with the small ones, you know.

Pricing Strategy and Guest Behavior

[00:12:39] Tia Lilly: Also, this was on a bigger house. Yeah, it was on,

[00:12:41] Christine McCarron: yeah, it was a bigger home and that’s just, you know, and, and unfortunately because it was less expensive, right? It wasn’t as expensive per night. It was not thousands of dollars for the weekend or whatever, it was just hundreds.

[00:12:51] Christine McCarron: So yeah, that makes a huge difference. So people can. The numbers could work then for a very expensive home that you’re gonna love to have as your second home.

Real Numbers: Appreciation Plus Rental Income

[00:13:00] Tia Lilly: It definitely could work. Like the, the example I was giving you with the 13,000 a week, they bought that for 2.2 million and, and it’s okay if somebody doesn’t have that.

[00:13:10] Tia Lilly: Money to start with it just Right. It’s just a conversation you have upfront. But we just sold it in four, they owned it for four years and then we sold it for 4.4 million and they made the residuals off. It was booked solid throughout the entire summer and in fall for the most part, some spring. So it, it is there, I mean, location wise it’s, it’s all about the location and the bedroom.

[00:13:35] Tia Lilly: And the bedrooms,

Entry Point: Can Someone Start Under $1M?

[00:13:36] Christine McCarron: but, well, so if somebody wanted to get started buying, investing in the Cape, is there an entry level position? You have to have six figures, or is there a, a le a le lower, not six figures, but six zeros I should say. Yeah. Yeah. I was gonna say, ah,

Education, Patience, and Waiting for the Right Opportunity

[00:13:50] Tia Lilly: yeah, it’s C’s. It’s a great question, by the way, but COVID D’s changed so much.

[00:13:56] Tia Lilly: Um, but yes, you can, you can, it’s not, if somebody said to me today, Hey, I have, let’s just say 900,000. I wanna find a, an investment home to rent and have the numbers work. It can be done. It doesn’t mean I could take ’em out and show ’em, okay, let’s go see, you know, let’s go looking all day. It’s gonna be be get ready, get educated, be ready.

[00:14:20] Tia Lilly: When that opportunity comes along, there’s always opportunities. It’s just patience. And I say more to people, I look with purchasing more no than yes. This is the right one. So, and I think, yeah, it’s just so important. If you really wanna maximize value to be in the right one and be patient and wait, not be in a rush.

No Urgency: Long-Term Relationship Over a Quick Sale

[00:14:43] Tia Lilly: Don’t let anybody, there’s no urgency. And, and that’s what we do. We, it’s, we’re onto it for the relationship for the long run, not to. Sell someone a house that’s not gonna reach their goal, you know? Yeah.

New Investor Energy and the Risk of Rushing

[00:14:56] Christine McCarron: But, you bring up a great point because I know that there’s, especially with new investors, there’s a lot of enthusiasm and also we have to do it right.

[00:15:04] Christine McCarron: There’s is a feeling of urgency. Like we have to, the prices are going up, we’ve gotta hurry up and buy something. We’ve gotta, and then. That’s when you can make a mistake. So I really appreciate that you’re, you know, holding back your customers, right? You can say, you can say yes all by yourself. You need somebody to say, now let’s review your goals here.

Aligning the Property With the Goal (and the Person)

[00:15:20] Tia Lilly: Exactly. It’s more like, okay, I’m just repeating back what you mentioned to me, but you didn’t, you wanted this and. But here on the other side, I will say this, on the flip side, it is finding somebody that you can trust and that you, ’cause it’s a connection, right? And it’s a relationship. It’s not, I just, when you’re spending that kind of money and if, if your goals for the long haul to, to be comfortable with that person, whoever it is.

When the Right House Shows Up Fast

[00:15:48] Tia Lilly: Because it can happen where you could go out and if you have someone that really knows what they’re doing, they’re gonna hone in on that right one. And you could say, wait a second, we just started this. I’m not ready. You know, but they’re looking, they’re weeding out all the ones that don’t work and not even bothering you with, so that’s what I, sometimes I do run into that.

Getting Educated So You Can Move When It Counts

[00:16:08] Tia Lilly: And if you haven’t looked already and seen, it can be a challenge. And it’s, it’s tough. ’cause it’s like, well, should I look around? Well, you can look, but this is a, you know, and, and it’s not to say Yeah, yeah, but well, if it’s a good one, they go quick here. So it’s not to say another opportunity won’t come along, it will.

[00:16:28] Tia Lilly: I mean, but you do have, it’s better to get out there and get educated. So when that they do come, you’re ready though, is I guess the point.

The “Perfect House” Problem: Buyers Don’t Want It to Be the First One

[00:16:35] Christine McCarron: I feel like the same in the residential space for, you know, around here that if the person sees what is really the perfect home for them right away, right, it’s, it’s not ideal because they feel like, oh, I can’t just buy the first one.

[00:16:48] Christine McCarron: Like, but that’s the, you know, believe me, I’ve seen 300 others. This

[00:16:52] Tia Lilly: is, you know, because you’re looking at everything every day seeing them. So, you know, when that. Special House comes along.

[00:16:59] Christine McCarron: Yeah, exactly.

COVID and Scarcity: The Inventory Shift

[00:17:01] Tia Lilly: Exactly. And that will change eventually. I think COVID’s brought that because before you could go tour, right?

[00:17:06] Tia Lilly: You could go look at, you know, how many hou you could go for a weekend and not see all the inventory. Now it’s so far and few between. So yeah,

Work-From-Anywhere and the Pull of Resort Living

[00:17:15] Christine McCarron: so I think. COVID had that effect on a lot of resort places, because if you can work from anywhere, why do you wanna work from a crappy little, you know, condo

[00:17:23] Tia Lilly: Yeah.

[00:17:23] Christine McCarron: In the middle of nowhere. You, I mean, in the middle of downtown someplace unpleasant. When you can be at the ocean every day and walk on the beach and have a really beautiful lifestyle. Right.

Space, Privacy, and Outdoor Living

[00:17:32] Tia Lilly: And have that space. Right. Everybody’s, you know, wants more space and some, you know, than being in the cities or real close to your neighbor.

[00:17:40] Tia Lilly: Where our, our, the Cape Cod does offer that. It’s outdoor living.

Outdoor Living as a Value Driver

[00:17:45] Christine McCarron: Yeah. That’s true. That’s Beau. Yeah. That’s a beautiful phrase. I love that. Yeah.

[00:17:49] Tia Lilly: Outdoor living. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, a lot of the homes that are set up for outdoor living, they, they attract some very high prices just ’cause they really invested in that outdoor space. That’s attractive, I think, to most people.

Adding Value: Improvements, Equity, and “Buying With Vision”

[00:18:03] Christine McCarron: So you sort of, um, inadvertently brought up another topic that we could talk about that I’d love to talk about with you, and that’s buying a property that could use some beautification, some fixing up, some, not staging, but like you say, adding a beautiful outdoor living area so that when people come, they can imagine themselves there.

[00:18:22] Christine McCarron: I I, I’m not thinking that someone would wanna like flip a half million dollar or million dollar property, but what opportunities are there for people to add equity and add value to their properties?

Quick Wins vs Bigger Projects (and Knowing What’s Worth It)

[00:18:35] Tia Lilly: That’s a great question. And again, it comes back to the beginning and that preliminary and having some vision too, and then knowing, or even not having vision, but we can take a look at it and see, okay, if you did X, Y, and Z, this is gonna give you back it’s worth doing, you’ll increase the equity instantly.

[00:18:53] Speaker 2: Yeah.

Why Cape Cod Has More “Make It Better” Opportunity

[00:18:53] Tia Lilly: And then also the residuals. So there’s a lot of opportunity for that here on the Cape. Because the cape is older, we’re a little bit more behind the times here. Uh, it’s so I work so much, like, especially I’ll say the New Yorkers and they’re awesome. Um.

[00:19:08] Tia Lilly: They’re just, it’s a different world in New York and the city, and they just come in and they’re just like, okay, what’s these bees and what’s this and what’s that? And it’s like, look, we’re like in another world. We’re just solely laid back. And, um, it’s, it’s interesting. But the, the homes are older too, for the most part.

Even High-End Homes Often Need Work

[00:19:27] Tia Lilly: They’re older, so they do need work. And if you can kind of look at that, 3, 4, 5, $6 million homes need work. So it just. It just depends. So there’s a lot of opportunity for somebody that is willing to, um, do some projects.

Staging Rentals and Pre-Market Improvements

[00:19:49] Tia Lilly: And I will share this like with our rentals. All of them we stage. Our homes, we stage two, it, it’s amazing.

[00:19:49] Tia Lilly: We have a stager on board that just works for us and we go in and do we even do projects before they go to market so we can get our homeowners more money. Um, just make changes, rearrange rentals always. So it’s, it’s amazing what it can change you as you know, when you just make a few tweaks and then there’s real projects, but.

Small Cosmetic Tweaks Can Be Huge

[00:20:10] Christine McCarron: It’s true. Some cosmetic tweaks can make a gigantic difference. ’cause people don’t always have, most people don’t. They don’t have the vision. Have the vision. Right.

Making Spaces “Sellable” vs Livable

[00:20:17] Tia Lilly: They don’t.

[00:20:18] Christine McCarron: What if this room wasn’t, you know, this ugly shade of pep, Pepto, Bismol pink, like, believe me, it would, right? I mean, what if this wasn’t green. What if this wasn’t whatever. Right. And, and, and just that small change.

[00:20:30] Tia Lilly: Mm-hmm.

[00:20:31] Tia Lilly: Just even moving furniture around that they have. ’cause it’s how we live and how we sell are so different. I say that all the time to people. This is perfect the way you have it. It’s your comfortability. But what’s our goal here?

[00:20:43] Tia Lilly: Sell it fast. Get top dollar. So do you mind? Let’s rearrange some furniture. And it’s just a transformation that that’s what I love actually. It’s so fun. And, and to see that come together for anyone really. So Yeah.

Decluttering: The Fastest “Value Add”

[00:20:58] Christine McCarron: And even the clutter, right? Even

[00:20:59] Tia Lilly: the

[00:20:59] Christine McCarron: clutter.

[00:21:00] Tia Lilly: Clutter. The clutter, yeah. Yeah. Our, our stuff, right?

[00:21:04] Tia Lilly: We all have our stuff and we love our stuff, and our stuff’s great. But we gotta sometimes find a home for it or to we’re collectors of stuff.

[00:21:15] Christine McCarron: Well, and plus we’re being humans. It’s like an avalanche too. You’re being, you know, as fast as you’re recycling things, they’re coming through the door like no.

[00:21:23] Tia Lilly: Yep. Yep.

[00:21:25] Tia Lilly: So, yeah, but you’re right. That’s the huge, huge one. The declutter is probably the top one right there alone. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

[00:21:32] Christine McCarron: That makes a huge difference.

[00:21:33] Christine McCarron: Absolutely. Mm-hmm.

Advice for Resort-Community Investing: The Big Picture

[00:21:33] Christine McCarron: So Tia, what advice would you give to people who are thinking that they would like to buy in Cape Cod or in any resort type?

[00:21:40] Christine McCarron: You know, seaside community,

Investing Should Support Life, Not Just Numbers

[00:21:42] Tia Lilly: Find somebody you like that you trust and have a preliminary conversation. Because I’m of mindset that not everybody’s the same. Not everybody’s budget, not what they want, and. Look, when you’re investing in a property, you probably wanna use that property as well. So you want something that you are happy with too, that you can enjoy, that you can come.

Quality of Life: Memories, Time Together, and Why People Do This

[00:22:04] Tia Lilly: And that’s the other fun piece of it, is every I, I love, I, I stay connected to my clients as, as best I can, and most of them. They’re always so, so happy. It’s just the quality of life. You’re changing people’s lives. They spend more time together with their family, with their friends. They have memories and do things they never would’ve done.

Investment Portfolio Growth With Real Estate as a Tool

[00:22:25] Tia Lilly: And that’s an important piece of this as well. As well as to also grow your investment portfolio and make some money and use real estate as a, um. As a tool to leverage that, but, and have fun with it too. So we’re all different. So it’s real hard to answer, like, and, and we’re all different as humans. What we want, what we enjoy, what we like.

Asking the Right Questions: Fit, Towns, and Value Over Time

[00:22:46] Tia Lilly: So it is, it is worth a conversation to just kind of start exploring that. And like you’re asking me questions, Chris, that person’s gonna ask them questions, get to know them, get to see what they like, where they wanna be. Let’s weigh out. Where you can get the most, you know, the most money for your investment.

[00:23:04] Tia Lilly: And look at the long term as well. How long do you wanna keep it? So a lot of people have memories, right? They come here. Have you ever been to the Cape, by the way?

Shared Experience: Visiting Cape Cod

[00:23:12] Christine McCarron: I have been many times, yeah.

[00:23:14] Tia Lilly: Oh, okay. All right. Yeah. All right. Good, good, good. So there’s like a lot of, like, we hear this all the time, there’s so many memories of a certain specific place where they used to go for an ice cream or go to the penny candy store or go to the beach.

Keep an Open Mind: Beyond the “One Town I Remember”

[00:23:28] Tia Lilly: Like we all have these memories that. We’re fond. They stay in in our brains, right? So I would encourage those that have always said, yeah, I really want a house on the Cape, or whatever it is. Just keep an open mind, because where you had those, not to say that you can’t have ’em where you had it before, but there’s so many cool places here that you wouldn’t even know existed.

[00:23:50] Tia Lilly: So. Sometimes you hear that, well, I wanna be in this town, this village. ’cause that’s where they remember and that’s great Village. Let’s, ’cause there’s no inventory, so it just broadens where you could be. Yeah. So they all have, they’re all special though. There’s no, there’s no right or wrong or really are.

[00:24:10] Tia Lilly: In the areas we’re talking about. They’re all so special. Yeah.

Why People Love the Cape: Town Centers, Walkability, and Charm

[00:24:14] Christine McCarron: Oh, it’s true. Every town, they’re just cute little shops and little places to wander around the beautiful town centers where you can just relax on the grass. And I mean, I, I, I’ll have a lot of more as an adult. I didn’t go to the Cape as a kid, but as a, an, I know adults, I’ve made a lot of wonderful t you know, treks there and enjoy it very much.

Exploring New Areas and Constant Change

[00:24:34] Tia Lilly: But it’s, it’s. Funny because I go to different places all the time. There’s like a couple houses on the street, you wouldn’t even know the streets there. And it’s just like, it’s just so fun to explore and see. It just keeps you, it keeps it interesting. So you don’t ever know everything. Or every place, but yeah, it’s true.

Two Decades of Market Change

[00:24:53] Christine McCarron: I’m sure you’ve seen a lot of changes in those 20 years.

[00:24:56] Tia Lilly: Oh, drastically. Yeah. Haven’t we all though? I think everywhere we’re all it’s true, but yeah, it’s true.

How to Contact Tia Lilly and Property Cape Cod

[00:25:02] Christine McCarron: Oh, so Tia, if people feel that the Cape might be the right place for them, how can they reach out to you? How can they get in touch with you?

[00:25:10] Tia Lilly: I would encourage ’em to, just to keep it simple, to go to our [email protected].

Resources, Offers, and Booking Time

[00:25:17] Tia Lilly: We do have a podcast menu there and there’s a lot of offers that go more into detail about what we talked about today as well. And there’s also a spot where they could book time, we can talk or I’m, I’m very open. You’ll see. Information there as well, and you’re just happy to pick up the phone and call too.

[00:25:34] Tia Lilly: So, but that’s the easy property. Cape cod.com.

Closing: Share the Episode and Listen Next Week

[00:25:36] Christine McCarron: Yeah. Okay. Super. Well, we’ll put that in the show notes. And listeners, if you know somebody who lives in Massachusetts or somebody who loves the cape or loves the idea of a seaside home in a beautiful location with lots of quaint, cute, adorable streets and towns, uh, absolutely forward this episode to them so that they can hear all of Tia’s wisdom.

[00:25:58] Christine McCarron: Actually, if they’re thinking of purchasing in any seaside community, they should listen to Tia because she’s got a lot of excellent tips and make sure that you come and join us next week. Tia, thank you so much for being with us. I really appreciate all your wisdom.

Final Thanks

[00:26:12] Tia Lilly: Thanks for having me, Chris. It was great.