Resort Realty OBX Reviews 15

I booked a home with Resort Realty from the online reviews on their site. Clearly, they only use the favorable reviews.  The pictures of the house I rented were at least 10 years old; the home was not in the same shape as in the online pictures.  I also chose this home as it had a game room with a pool table, card table, and area for our family.  It also had a movie room with a TV, surround sound, DVD player, and reclining chairs and a large sofa for family time. I thought with all of this if the weather were bad, we would still have a pool, game room, and movie room.  All we were able to use was the pool table.  There was a hole in one of the refrigerators, a cupboard door was hanging as the hinge was falling off, another cupboard was splitting at the corner.  One of the beds on the second floor had screws on the floor and the support board was on the floor with the headboard leaning towards the floor, not ideal for sleeping.  The boards on all the deck areas are very old and not treated; several nails sticking up in the boards and some areas where boards were splintering.
Before booking I called about the indoor/outdoor pool being usable for the week I needed and was told it would be usable.  We arrived and both the indoor and outdoor parts of the pool were green and full of trash including a 5-gallon bucket floating in the outdoor area.  I called that day and was told it would not be usable until April 18th as it was not a heated pool.  When I asked why I had been told before booking it would be usable and that there was no information on their website about when pools open or were usable, I got a response that the person I was speaking to was sorry but nothing could be done.
The game room was okay, the pool tabletop was very old, it was blue in color, and some areas were turning white, it was so used/old. The card table that was in the game room was not usable as the felt on the table was covered in mold.  There as a three-light chandelier with glass globes hanging over the pool table—not the best idea ever. One of the globes was broken and hanging from the light bulb, I removed the globe and set it on the countertop, so no one was hurt from this.
The movie room was very dated, and the TV would not give us a picture, maintenance guy said we needed a whole new tv and he would put in the work order.  Did not see him again the rest of the week.
We arrived on April 4th, I submitted an email on Sunday, April 5th with pictures of all the issues and received an email that maintenance had been included and a work order was put in.  The maintenance man came once; he checked all the issues took pictures and we did not see him again the rest of the time we were there.  I received a call on Tuesday April 7th from Resort Realty to inquire if the maintenance man had been out and taken care of the issues.  My response was “honestly I don’t know what he did, I am on vacation and don’t plan to sit around for maintenance issues."
The Resort Realty staff I dealt with on the phone for booking and questions was very helpful. The representation online of the house and when access is available to home and pool was not great.  Issues should be handled before quest check-in or at the least taken care of within a day or two of reporting these issues. There is nothing online about when pools can be used, if they can only be used if heated, and that check-in is 4pm at the earliest but could be 6pm or later.  They do offer early check-in for an added fee of $150. If you don't pay, they will contact authorities to remove you if you arrive early and are waiting in the driveway. 

We stayed at a Resort Realty property and while the home has a lot of potential, our experience was unfortunately overshadowed by major cleanliness, maintenance, and health-related issues.
What We Appreciated:

The floorplan is spacious and well-designed, making it easy for our group to enjoy the space.
The location is excellent, just steps from the beach, and the private bathroom hut near the beach access was a standout convenience.
The country club pool access was a nice bonus.
All of the Resort Realty staff we interacted with were friendly and courteous, and some maintenance issues (like leaking faucets and pool debris) were addressed during our stay.

What Went Wrong:

The house was not clean upon arrival. It wasn’t just dust in corners—hardwoods, carpets, and tile floors clearly hadn’t been mopped or vacuumed. Our kids’ white socks turned black within hours, and we ended up cleaning the floors ourselves.
Sinks hadn’t been wiped out, and the dishwasher filter was filled with mold, corn, and about two inches of debris. Many dishes and utensils were visibly dirty in the cabinets.
The bathrooms and basement smelled strongly of mold, and every vent had visible mold growth. We had this tested and confirmed it was black mold, which was crawling out of vents and walls—despite being told by Resort Realty that “mildew is common.”
We found plastic shot glasses left behind in the basement and pool area, white pet hair throughout the house, and blood stains on one of the bedspreads.
We encountered ants throughout the kitchen, which got into our food, and killed three cockroaches during our stay.
While Resort Realty offered to send a cleaning crew and pest control, this should have been done before our arrival—not something guests should have to manage during a high-cost vacation.
Most disappointing was the lack of follow-up. We requested a partial refund (at least for the cleaning fee) after our stay and received no response. It felt like the priority was protecting the homeowner’s asset, not ensuring a quality experience for paying guests.

Final Thoughts:
Moongate 1 has a great layout and location, and the amenities are solid. But unless Resort Realty addresses the serious cleanliness, pest, and mold issues, we cannot recommend this property. Guests deserve a clean, safe, and well-maintained space—especially at this price point. Resort Realty also does NOT post reviews on their website, so we would not have seen honest reviews if just looking at the Resort Realty website (look elsewhere as well).

In Sep 2024 we rented a house from Resort Realty for July 2025. We paid everything in full on or before the due dates. In June 2025 one of our young family members experienced a critical medical emergency (Cardiac ICU, heart failure, sepsis), which required we cancel. I was told on the phone there would be no problem re-renting this house since it rented in full every summer. Imagine my surprise and disappointment when the agency re-rented the house for $1745.82 less than what we paid. They only had it on the market for 3 1/2 days. When I asked for a full explanation, I received no response. So, we had to absorb this loss. This is a terrible company to deal with. I suggest you be very aware of how they operate!!

I had to cancel a vacation reservation with Resort Realty due to unforeseen circumstances. While I understood that refunds were subject to their cancellation policy, I was shocked to learn how they handled the rebooking.

After I canceled, they re-listed the property and successfully rented it for the exact same dates. However, without notifying me or giving me any input, they lowered the price and then deducted the difference from my refund—penalizing me even though the property did not sit empty. I asked for a simple goodwill adjustment, especially since the home still generated income for the owner, and their response was essentially, “tough luck.”

Legally, their contract may allow it—but the way they handled it was cold, dismissive, and entirely profit-driven. Even when I reached out to the North Carolina Attorney General’s office, Resort Realty simply pointed to their fine print and made no effort to address the core issue: they prioritized quick rebooking over fair treatment of a paying customer.

This kind of behavior may be technically compliant, but it’s not good business. I strongly encourage anyone booking with them to read every word of the cancellation terms and know that if something goes wrong, you will have no say in how your canceled booking is re-marketed or refunded. And you’ll get no flexibility or understanding.

I won’t be booking with them again, and I hope this helps others make an informed decision.

we drove 7 hours to a beach house I had rented online months ago. an hour before we arrive, actually RIGHT AT 4pm CHECK IN TIME, I get a call that our house is not available to us now due to a competely dead AC. This was upsetting enough as I'm hurtling along the highway bone tired from driving 6 hours but as I'm talking to the agency rep, it becomes apparent she really doesn't care that this is happening. After various calls back and forth to the other members of our group who are also driving long distance and this rental person, I'm having to ask her what they're going to do about this? she talked about the refund, but we're 7 hours from home at high beach season with two dogs, three kayaks, several people and no where to stay. She offers a couple properties, one had limited water access, the other had none. We come down to fish and kayak so we specifically rent a house on the sound. She made it clear they will not spend one additional cent to get us a property on the water if it costs more. Since those properties weren't rented for the week, the owners could've at least had some income. They also would not pay to put us in a hotel for the night. We were all still driving so we couldnt research properties and obviously there wouldn't be much left. I asked if she was calling other rental agencies for us and she claimed she called one. It was now almost 5 on a Saturday so other places were going to be closing. She seemed impatient for us to make a decision. Basically I was dealing with a robot and if she represents the company, they have no feelings and are just horrible for doing this to us. Most of us work high stress jobs, so hitting me with this as we arrive for our only family trip of the year was just hideous. this agency could care less about your hard earned vacation, so do not entrust it to them. I have rented beach properties for my family for at least 30 years. problems do occur and we have always had realtors that do their utmost to correct things and go the extra mile to make us happy. They made it very clear they would do only what is on the contract & too bad for us if we're stressed to the max. We ended up paying $750 for 2 rooms in a not so nice hotel. All our belongings luckily were not stolen from our cars that night. We rented from another GREAT agency, SUN REALTY, but couldn't move in til the next day since it was a Sunday rental. So we literally lost one day of our vacation, just figuring out what to do. Sun Realty treated us wonderfully. We will definitely never use Resort Realty again.

From cockroach in our bed (while we were in it) to black mold, broken ceiling fan, broken balcony rail, unflushed broken toilet, rusted out grill and a host of other issues at Sun Kissed #7255 in Avon, I wish I'd seen these reviews before I booked this house. Resort Realty doesn't seem to care about their customers. Just the money they charge. The maintenance man however was very nice and fixed what he could.

If you want to rent a house with amazing views on one of the nicest beaches in the Outer Banks check out Resort Realty. With Resort Realty you will spend your hard earned money for a vacation that is anything but relaxing and have none of the basic comforts of your own home! Resort Realty has many homes to choose from. If you are lucky you may rent one that has at least some of the basics you are accustomed to such as working appliances. If you like furniture that smells like moldy wet dog, pool heat that doesn't work because the pool leaks and showering in 62 degree or less water Resort Realty is for you!! Resort Realty doesn't believe hot water is a necessity in a home that sleeps 21 people . They will send a tech out who will laugh and say warm (62 degree ) water is "good enough" If you want to spend your Vacation waiting for service techs and on phone calls that are promised but never made then book immediately!! Resort Realty will ignore you if you have any issue with your rental home. We did not call about no cable or burned out light bulbs but no hot water for more than half of our vacation and no pool heat that we paid extra for definitely deserved some attention . So if u want to pay full price and have some of the homes main systems catastrophically fail during your "relaxing week" and a rental company that will laugh and say Oops nothing we can do, I recommend renting from Resort Realty.

The housekeeping and maintenance were horrible. The house was not clean upon checking in. One of the bedrooms was unusable due to the smell of smoke. One family member had to sleep on a dirty couch during the stay. The furniture needs to be replaced in the upstairs family room. The pool was full of sand the entire week even though I placed 5 service calls. The drain in one of the King masters shower was clogged as well as the garbage disposal in the basement sink. The deck around the pool was mostly covered with sand. Upon talking with Management at Resort Realty it is obvious they don’t care since their properties are already booked for the summer. I was told that since I initialed the contract I would not receive any refunds even for the unusable bedroom. First and last time using Resort Realty.

I will start with saying that the home itself is fantastic. It has enough room, and the pool is fabulous with outside speakers.
We did not get a message saying we were ok to arrive. When we got in there was a dead bug on the dining room table, a chunk of what appeared to be egg on a living room chair. Cigarette butts by the pool, and old bar of soap and razor blade cover in the upstairs bathroom. Which makes me wonder if they even cleaned the place before we came in, yuck. The trash hadn't been picked up and it was not picked up the whole time we were there so that was pretty awful. This house is right by the road. Traffic all night long. If you wanted peace and quiet this isn't the place for you. Make sure that anyone playing volleyball has shoes right outside the court because they are some pretty awful stickers that draw blood if stepped on. No ricocheting the volleyball unless you want to lose it to traffic or the bushes of death. (We did find three other volleyballs that were not ours in there, we couldn't get to them because apparently that is where they go to die). The volleyball that was there did not hold air I'm assuming from the thorns of said bushes. There were only three plastic golf balls on the putting green. The sinks and tubs drain if you take the stoppers out. Make sure you read carefully because they do not provide sheets on the bed or towels unless you pay for linen service which is an additional $156. We spent $35 at Walmart for our party of 8. There is nothing extra here so don't expect it. No salt and pepper, no dish soap, no hand soap, no extra trash bags or toilet paper. We have been many places and at least had these items. We spent a fortune at Walmart for the week just to have to get rid of it when we left.

We have rented from Resort Realty for 9 years and have found them to be professional, responsive and friendly. The staff ALWAYS tries to correct issues. Even in spite of COVID, heavy use of properties, and staffing challenges everywhere, we have had NO issues.

Within 1/2 hour of arriving at our beach rental, 1878 Dolphins Den in Corolla NC, on July 10, 2021, we called Resort Realty to complain about the state of the house. There were spiderwebs with spiders on the walls, not just the ceilings, but on the actual walls that you walk past. There were spiders on the sliding glass doors to go out to the balconies with webs that you had to duck under in order to walk on the the balcony. My husband wasn't paying attention and walked face-first into a web with a spider in it!!! There were spiders on the screens, on the the chairs, on the railings...There were traps all throughout the house, a repellent sack underneath the kitchen sink, a huge can of spider/scorpion spray...there was a cocoon under the kitchen bar. We had to leave a message for someone to call us back. When "Scott" called around 5:15, he was defensive about our complaint and said that the house had been rented out since May with no complaints but said he would have it taken care of by 6pm. Three flights of spiders and webs and cobwebs and he was confident that it would all be cleaned up in 45 minutes. He sent two young gentleman with two brooms to clean 3 flights of spiders and webs and cobwebs. It was a joke and it was very clear that Scott couldn't care less about our complaint. But, I will say that even the gentleman who came said that it appeared that we had a nest of spiders and we needed to call Resort Realty to let them know that we had a spider situation. Based on all of the spider deterrents throughout the house, I'm going to go ahead and take a wild guess that they already knew!!!! I called Scott back and left a voicemail advising him of our situation and that if he did not care about it, I wanted somebody over him to call me back. No one ever called us back. I emailed Resort Realty that night telling them the same situation about the state of the house and never received a response. One week after check-in, I received an automatic email asking me how our stay at 1878 Dolphins Den went. I filled out a very detailed email complaining yet again about the state of the house and still, no response. And, the spider situation isn't all. There was a socket hanging out of the wall where my son slept, a yellow-stained pillow (did NOT use), past renters shoes and underwear left in the drawer, cob webs running from the fan over our bed to the window at the head of our bed, with dead insects in the window sill....we slept all week with our heads at the foot of the bed. My son was bitten by something one night and then didn't sleep well the next night because he had to get out of bed twice to kill two different spiders running across the walls. There were dead insects in the cabinets where the plates were, cracked tile with broken grout that had been swept into a corner, opposed to a trash can, screens that were ripped and/or hanging off the windows, dust piled up on the decor, long blond hair all over the kitchen floor. I actually took videos of the filthy blinds, traps, spiders, etc. and showed several people. One person actually gagged when I showed her the kitchen videos......GAGGED!!! This house screamed NOT WELCOME!!!!! During that first night I visited the Better Business Bureau site and found that there have been 20 complaints in the past 12 months against Resort Realty for the state of the houses they rent out. There is a common pattern from Resort Realty when they respond to these complaints.....blame the renter, blame the owner, remain completely innocent of it all. It is very clear that Resort Realty does NOT take ownership in the state of the house, which said to us that they didn't care about our peace of mind. They did not care that we worked all year for this one week to sit and relax and enjoy time with our family. There were no nightly card games, no sitting on the balcony to drink my coffee and stare at the beautiful ocean, no eating dinner in while watching a movie. The only way that Resort Realty will be forced to change their ways is if people stop renting from them. Dont be like us, do your research first. Check out reviews; go to the BBB website to read formal complaints. Do your homework because once you book it, you're basically stuck, especially if you book through a company with the same low standards as Resort Realty. Trust me, the work up front will be worth it in the end. You deserve it!!!!

Worst rental company I have ever used! I don’t even want to give them a star! The pictures online don’t seem to be updated, when we got to the home the house had NOT been cleaned. It was a pet friendly home, so a little pet hair is to be expected, but no - it was floating in the air! The deadbolt on the door could be seen through. My 3 yr old almost stepped on a roofers nail - barefoot! - on the screened in deck. Later that same day my husbands foot went through the deck, NO ONE at the rental company asked if he was okay. Then the following day, our one year old found a sharp piece of metal that she almost swallowed! IN THE HOUSE. There were ants, big and small, everywhere too. We cut our vacation short and left the following morning - the home was unsafe, dirty, and the people were rude. PLUS the handyman that came out to fix the deck said that this home ALWAYS has problems. They also lied about ME calling them about the home being dirty and denying having a cleaner come to the home - that did not happen. I didn’t call them, or turn down someone to come out and clean.

Resort Realty is the worst renting I have ever used and this is based on over 30 years of rental experience. The house was not well cleaned, the cover on an outlet was broken off so that live wires were exposed, and the dryer didn’t work. Trash had not been picked up and It was impossible to reach them by phone. My advice is to use almost any other rental company.

My wife and I rented a vacation house from Resort Realty in Nags Head, NC and upon entering the porch smelt urine and a lot of mosquitos on screened enclosure because of rusted broken spring to hold door closed. I had to drive all the way back down to Lowes with the crowded red light to red light traffic 5 miles with all the people driving in on Saturday to check in. I had to buy disenfectant to put on a garden hose to spray the outdoor shower where people from the beach had been using it as a toilet because it was so close to the beach. Also fogger to apply on the screened in back porch to rid the misquitoes before we could even unpack. Refrigerator wasn't working upon starting to put away groceries just purchased so I had to buy a cooler with ice to keep our perishables cold. I called them and they dispatched a technician the next day which had no parts and the only resolution was to give me a loaner refrigerator which was brought while I was at the beach and to my amazement I had two refrigerators sitting in my kitchen for 3 days. The door locks on the back entry were unlockable because the wood was so rotted out that there was a great big hole for dead bolt to go into to. After returning back from beach on the third day the rotten steps broke while my wife was walking down which made her fall onto both of her knees. She had swelling and pain walking on them the rest of our trip but nothing bad enough to risk getting covid-19 going to emergency room. The back porch had peeling paint around windows and thats where underneath the outdoor shower was where the smell of urine rose up from. When we finally visited their office after no one returned our calls for two days we asked for Scott and talked it over with him. He sent pictures I sent to him to owner and the owner had the nerve to tell us he would refund 100 dollars of our trip and my wife's knees didn't look that bad back so I filed a BBB complaint. We are waiting on that to bring new light to this. I will update this upon their compensation and I am a fair person.

We stayed in Nags Head, NC right after Hurricane Dorian passed through. Resort Realty had the house open and ready to use the same day the island reopened to visitors. Any issues we encountered with the house during our stay were dealt with promptly. I would definitely consider renting a house from them again.