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How it works

Shorebook LBI helps you see whether your shore house pays for itself, and then run it as a rental, one year at a time.

  1. 1

    Answer a few questions about the house

    In the Calculator. Where the house is, how big, which weeks the family keeps, what the bills are. About five minutes. “I’m not sure” is always a fine answer: we use a typical figure and say so.

  2. 2

    Read the answer

    The report leads with one number: what the house leaves you each year after every bill and the mortgage. Then what it costs before anyone books, the three changes worth the most, and what the family’s weeks really cost.

  3. 3

    Save the house

    One button on the report. The house then has its own page in the Overview, with this year’s plan already filled in from your answers.

  4. 4

    Run the year in the Overview

    Mark each week booked, family or open. Log the bills as they come. The house file keeps the guests and their payments, key dates with reminders, the people you call, and where the papers are. Needs you, at the top, says what to do next.

  5. 5

    Look ahead in Future

    Ten years of the house: what it may be worth, what a renovation would pay back, and how keeping, raising, rebuilding or selling compare.

The three places

The bar at the top of every page moves between them.

Overview
This year, for every house you have saved: money in and out, the weeks, the house file and what needs you.
Calculator
Whether a house pays for itself: the questions, the report and side-by-side comparisons. For owners and for buyers.
Future
The next ten years: value, renovations, raising or rebuilding.

Common questions

Is my information private?
Yes. There is no account and nothing is sent to us. Your answers, bookings, guests and notes stay in this browser on this device. A link you choose to share carries the calculator’s answers only, never your records.
Where is it kept?
In this browser’s own storage on this device. Clearing the browser’s history and site data clears it too, so keep a backup.
What if I change phones or computers?
Make a backup first: in the Overview, open a house, then Settings, then Back up. It saves one file. On the new device, open the same page and restore that file. Everything comes back: houses, seasons, bills, the house file.
Is this tax or legal advice?
No. It organizes your numbers and points to the rules, with their sources, so the conversation with your accountant or attorney is shorter. Every figure is an estimate until they confirm it.
What do the colors mean?
Dark blue: booked weeks, and the figures that matter most.Brown: the family’s own weeks, and anything that needs your attention, like a late payment.Sea green: what you have chosen, and notes about the island.Light lines: open weeks, nothing booked yet.
Where do the numbers come from?
Every rate, tax and cost is listed with its source and date on the Method page. Where we estimate, we say so.

Ask a question

Something unclear, a number that looks wrong, a town we have not got right: write to us.

Email a question

hello@myshorebook.com

Words, A to Z

Every money and insurance word on the site, in plain English. Words with a dotted underline open the same note where they appear.

#

10-year return
Ten years of what the house leaves you each year, plus what a sale in year ten would leave after selling costs and the loan, less the cash you put in.
1031 exchange
Selling one investment property and buying another of equal or greater value through an intermediary, so the tax on the gain is put off until a later sale.

A

Annualized return
The ten-year result as a yearly rate, the way a fund reports its returns. It counts when each dollar arrives, not only how many.
Appreciation
The yearly rise in the house’s value. We assume a steady rate; real markets move in steps and sometimes fall.

B

Base flood elevation
The height FEMA expects floodwater to reach in a storm with a 1% chance each year. It is printed on your flood map and your elevation certificate.
Booking deposit
The part of the rent a guest pays to hold the week. The rest, the balance, is due by a date you set, usually a month or so before arrival.
Break-even
How many booked weeks it takes for rent to cover every cost of the year, the mortgage included, at your rates.
Building value
What the house itself is worth, without the land under it. Flood rules measure work against this, not the price of the property.

C

Cap rate
Rent left after running costs, as a share of the price: what the house would pay a buyer with no mortgage. Shore houses run low because the land costs so much.
Capital reserve
Money set aside each year for the big, predictable replacements: HVAC, decks, roof, windows. Salt air shortens all of their lives.
Cash invested
Your down payment, or your equity if you already own, plus closing costs and the cost of furnishing for rentals.
Cash-on-cash return
What you keep in a year, divided by the cash you put in: down payment, closing costs and furnishing. Read it like the rate on a savings account.
Cash-out refinance
A new, larger mortgage that pays off the old one and hands you the difference in cash. The whole balance takes the new rate.
Changeover day
The day one group of guests leaves and the next arrives, usually Saturday at the shore. The house is cleaned in between. Also called turnover day.

D

Debt service
Mortgage principal and interest for the year. Taxes and insurance are counted separately.
Depreciation
A yearly tax deduction for the wear on the building, never the land, spread over the years the IRS sets for a rental. It is taken back in tax when you sell.
Depreciation recapture
Depreciation lowers your tax while you rent the house. When you sell, the IRS taxes that much of the gain at up to 25%.

E

Effective tax rate
The town’s tax rate applied to market value rather than assessed value. It is the general rate times the county’s equalization ratio.
Elevation certificate
A one-page form, signed by a surveyor, that shows how high the house sits against the flood level. Insurers price flood cover from it. It is often in the closing papers.
Equity
What the house is worth less what you owe on it.
Extra flood insurance
Private flood cover for the part of the building the federal flood policy does not reach. The federal policy stops at a fixed amount; above it you are uninsured unless you carry this. Also called excess flood cover.

F

Family weeks cost
The rent you give up by keeping weeks for yourself, after the fees and cleaning you would have paid on them. It is the true price of a family week.
Flood level
How high floodwater is expected to reach in a storm with a 1% chance each year, printed on the town’s flood map. Its official name is the base flood elevation. A house raised above it pays far less for flood insurance.

G

Gross rent
Every dollar of rent guests pay you before fees, cleaning or any other cost. Guest taxes are not included.
Guest taxes
Sales tax and occupancy taxes added to the guest’s bill on taxable rentals. They pass through you or the platform to the state and town. They are not income.

H

Home equity line of credit
A line of credit secured by your primary home. You borrow what you need and pay interest at a rate that moves with the prime rate.

I

Interest-only loan
A loan whose monthly payment covers only the interest, so the balance does not go down. Some home equity lines work this way.

M

Maintenance reserve
Routine repairs between guests and between seasons, set as a share of the house’s value.
Management and booking fees
What the agency or platform keeps from each booking. Full-service local agencies charge the most, platforms less, and doing it yourself least.

N

Net investment income tax
A 3.8% federal tax on investment gains and rent for households above an income threshold.
Net operating income
Rent left after running the house (taxes, insurance, cleaning, fees, upkeep), before any mortgage. It shows what the house earns on its own, however it is paid for.

O

Occupancy
The share of weeks you offer that actually book. Peak weeks book far more reliably than the shoulder or off-season.

P

Payback
Years of added rent, after fees and the bills, to earn back what the work cost and the rent lost while it was done.
Peak season
The busiest summer weeks, when rents and bookings are highest. The quieter weeks either side of them are called the shoulder season; everything else is off-season.
Principal
The part of each mortgage payment that pays down the loan rather than interest. It comes back to you when you sell.

R

Renovation loan
A loan sized on what the house will be worth after the work, paid out as the work is done. Usually interest only until it is finished.
Return on equity
A year's total return divided by your equity. It shows how hard the money tied up in a house is working.

S

Security deposit
Money a guest pays up front against damage, returned after the stay less any repairs. It is the guest’s money, not rent.
Shoulder season
The quieter weeks either side of high summer. Rents are lower and fewer weeks book, so they cost the family less to keep.
Stepped-up basis
When someone inherits a house, its tax cost resets to its value on the day of death. The gain built up before then is never taxed as income.
Substantial improvement
FEMA's rule: work costing half or more of the building's value, land excluded, means the whole building must meet today's flood standard. In practice, raising it.

T

The bills
Everything it takes to keep the house for a year except the mortgage: property tax, insurance, utilities, cleaning, fees and upkeep. Accountants call these running or operating costs.
Total return
What the house leaves you in cash, plus the mortgage paid down and the rise in its value. The last two you only collect when you sell.

W

What the house leaves you each year
What is left each year after rent comes in and every bill is paid, including the mortgage. Negative means you write a check to keep the house. Accountants call it annual cash flow.
What you still owe
The loan balance on your latest mortgage statement: what it would take to pay the loan off today.