Saturday, June 01, 2013

Some East-End Long Island Residents Temporarily Ditch Million Dollar Homes & Join Parade To Local Trailer Parks While Pocketing Ten$ Of Thousand$ On Sizzling Short-Stay Summer Rentals

From way out on the east end of Long Island, the New York Post reports:
  • Hamptons residents are trading in their luxury million-dollar homes for the summer — to live in a trailer park.

    The savvy folks are squeezing into digs the size of a tiny Manhattan studio so they can lease out their sought-after houses and rake in thousands of dollars during the sizzling summer rental season.

    “We call it ‘glamping,’ or glamour-camping,” said real-estate agent Danielle Becker-Wilson, 36, who jumped on the bandwagon and is temporarily ditching her million-dollar pad for a trailer at “Montauk Shores Condominiums” — also known as the Ditch Plains Trailer Park — in Montauk.

    Becker-Wilson is now living with her husband, George, 36, daughter Lila, 7, and son Liam, 4, in a 400-square-foot trailer in the park, where Mercedes and Audis can be seen coming and going daily. It’s a far cry from the family’s quaint digs on a lush property in the village of East Hampton.

    But the deal was just too good to pass up: In just two months, July and August, she and her husband will have collected $50,000 in rent. And they can use their $60,000 trailer year after year.

    “It was an affordable investment for us to make so that we can make our house in the village of East Hampton work for us,” Becker-Wilson said.

    Daniel Shapiro Real-estate agent Danielle Becker-Wilson, husband George Wilson, and their kids, Lila and Liam, go “glamour camping” in their temporary home.

    She said the couple plans to use the cash to add a pool to their primary residence — which also will allow them to jack up the rate on the rental next summer.

    “For us, it was just the cheapest way to have somewhere to go while we rent our house,” Becker-Wilson said of the trailer, where she put in bunk beds for the kids and a pull-out couch for her and her husband. “You have to be really strategic with the space,” she added.

    The family leases the land for their trailer for $1,400 per month, or $16,800 a year.

    Becker-Wilson, who works for Halstead, currently has a double-wide trailer on the market for $700,000.

    The 200-unit trailer park boasts two swimming pools and a playground and has attracted scores of other families who are renting out their homes for the summer.

    “Everyone's doing it. Montauk is hot,” said a retired city fireman who also lives there and asked to remain anonymous. He said he’s renting out his 3,500-square-foot, million-dollar home in Montauk to help put his kids through college.

    His primary home — a brick mansion with five bedrooms, two living rooms, pool and hot tub — rents for nearly $60,000 for July and August.

    Two East Hampton teachers also have been renting out their home — a $1.2 million gem on more than an acre — for more than $30,000 for two months. The pair didn’t want their name used, but their 23-year-old son, who lives with them in the trailer, called the trailer park “beautiful.’’