I hope you can help me! I am organizing a group to go to OBX for New Years, but we cannot find any realtors that will rent to us. We are a group of 16-17 adults (at least 21 years old), most of which are couples.
I am sure you understand the issue associated with renting to a nonfamily group. It is not insurmontable to find a place just very hard. I hope you have read our article on Non-Family Groups. If everyone in the group agrees to abide by these rules, and you let the rental company know that you will live by these rules, you may stand a better chance of finding a house. Ultimately, though, it will require the owner to agree to it. And, as you can imagine, given the images (and what they have done in their "senior week" experiences) will cause great hesitancy to rent and risk damage to something they work so hard to maintain.
If your group has no one over 25, you will need a parent to sign the lease and take financial responsibility. If you can clear that hurdle you will need to then be willing to agree to a security deposit of around $1,000 and also spot inspections during the week by the rental company to make sure the house is in good order. By the way, if the police are called to the house because of loud parties, you can and will be evicted. I am painting a dour picture so that you understand the seriousness by which the Outer Banks wishes to keep its family image.
We have rented to nonfamily groups in the past and have had successful experiences with no negative incidents. If you are interested in possibly renting one of our homes, look at the right column and send me a note for consideration.