Serving Northeast Jacksonville, Intracoastal West, St. Nicholas and Atlantic Beach, Florida
ARC Houses
Atlantic Restoration Council, LLC
Our Blog
An ongoing series of informational entries
Our Latest Blog Entry
June 10th, 2022
Why Us?
Meet our Chief Executive Officer!
Nicole Story, EDS, Chief Executive Officer, joined Atlantic Restoration Council (ARC Houses) in 2004 and brings more than 2 decades of professional real estate experience, balancing a data driven business strategy approach, real estate expertise and a demonstrated proficiency in leading consumer-facing initiatives while personally interfacing with her tenants on a human level.
She obtained her Bachelors degree from Rollins College, Winter Park and her Masters and Post-Masters degrees from the University of Florida - Go Gators!
Her CEO and Landlord positions includes acquisitions, marketing, advertising, property listings, digital strategy, property research, screening tenants, completing lease agreements, collecting payments, managing any necessary repairs/property upgrades/remodels, interior and exterior design, HOA communications/compliance, and enforcing lease agreements.
Nicole has served on the boards of numerous local agencies and home owners committees, including the Queen's Harbour Yacht and Country Club Strategic Planning Committee. She also served the as president of 2 local PTSAs helps her tenants navigate local resources and our A rated Duval County Public Schools system including magnet and charter schools.
With a leadership background in non profit and a compassion for people, children and animals, Nicole offers all of her properties as Pet Friendly, and considers ALL applications to rent (with no application fees).
For this personable approach to property management she has even been recognized by Zillow as a Community Pillar Landlord!
Our Latest Blog Entry
January 3rd, 2022
Why are rents so much higher today than 5 years ago in the Jacksonville and beaches areas?
Beach and suburban properties are always fairly scarce and in very high demand. However, the Covid-19 pandemic brought with it a surge in migration as 2020-2021 saw a significant migration increase to the Jacksonville Beaches areas. According to the Tampa Bay Economic Development Council, July 27, 2001, Florida ranked #1 in net migration for the fifth consecutive year. According to the the most current net migration data from the U.S. Census, Florida saw the largest gain of residents between July 2019 and July 202 with more than 252,700 new residents. "These stats bring the total daily number of people moving to Florida to 692."
According to ABC-7.com, relocations to Florida show no sign of slowing down. "Between January 2020 and April 2021, at least 555,710 people have moved to Florida from other states. That data is only accounting for the number of people who have switched over their driver's licenses, according to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FLHSMV)."
CBS 47 FOX30 Action News Jax covered a segment called "Priced out of Jax: Local families face affordable housing crisis, Part 1 and 2," stating that the cost of homes in Jacksonville have doubled in the past decade, from an average of $150,000 to $300,000+ for the same home. Before 2020, a home would get on average one offer, but in 2020 the average home gets around 15 offers, many from cash investors. That leaves an average of 14 buyers still looking for a home for every home that goes under contract."
In fact, in Mayport Landing and Atlantic Beach, townhouses that were listing and selling at $60,000 5-10 years ago are now listing at $200,000 - $350,000+ which is a whopping 300% to 600% market value increase. Therefore, Landlords are either forced to cash out or raise rents to attempt to make a dent in higher property taxes, insurance and overall costs. Then consider that many homes in the beaches, west beaches and St. Nicholas area were built in 1945-1985 and need constant remodeling and repairs to stay current and up-to-date. Since the Covid-19 pandemic we have witnessed an increase in lumber costs, fuel and shipping costs, construction costs, delayed times for building permits and an overall decrease in available labor and construction workers. All of these things force a landlord to increase rents, though, they will still take a huge decrease per property unless the rents also rise 300-600%, which is certainly not feasible given that income/salaries have not risen much at all.
On January 4th, 2022, News 4 Jax Morning Show reported "Jacksonville lands No. 2 on Zillow's hottest housing markets" second only to Tampa. In fact, Zillow predicts that Duval County home values will "jump 22% through November (2022) - and that means the housing market is expected to be even more competitive." "The spike in home values will also mean that rent prices will soar... Tampa, Jacksonville, Raleigh, San Antonio, and Charlotte top Zillow's ratings," in that order.
Many landlords are being offered to cash out with full price, current market value offers on their non-listed properties by national investment groups and hedge funds, who will then manage the rentals through massive, national management companies such as Progress Residential who manage over 70,000 rental properties across 29 metro areas, who are currently facing a class action lawsuit by Story Griffin, Consumer Justice Law Firm, for imposing predatory fees, such as late fees when payments are not paid late, and failure to return security deposits while not notifying the tenants of that intent, etc. These national companies take away the human element of property management, with one size fits all arbitrary rules, leasing criteria and global/predatory fees.
In short, small family run landlords/property owners, such as Atlantic Restoration Council/ARC Houses are becoming more and more difficult to find, and with that great perks such as being pet friendly, working with bad credit, allowing co-signors, lack of rental references, offering a slightly larger security deposit in lieu of first, last and security, and personalized perks such as providing beach access via an annual state park pass, etc., are becoming more and more scarce too. These are some of the reasons that our tenants are so happy to sign a lease with us (often including tears of joy and hugs) and most continue to renew with us for many years.
Our Second Blog Entry
December 14, 2020
We are pet friendly!
Many pets are relinquished to shelters due to the lack of local pet friendly rental homes, which can also contribute to families ending up homeless due to lack of housing that meets their needs.
At Atlantic Restoration Council, LLC/ARC Houses, we aim to help with those statistics by purchasing, renovating and restoring local houses to provide long term pet friendly homes to local residents.
Many of our homes are multiple pets friendly with hard flooring, fenced yards and we NEVER charge "pet rent." We have accepted Pit Bulls, Dobermans, German Shepards, Huskys, etc., at several of our eligible properties.
In fact, at our Mayport Landing townhouses we even offer our tenants an annual pass to Hanna Park for pristine beach access and dog friendly trails!
Our First Blog Entry
January 15, 2020
We are Zillow recognized Community Pillar Landlords!
As a Zillow recognized "Community Pillar" Landlord and Property Manager, we often approve applicants with potential "barriers to leasing" such as; previous foreclosures, evictions, bankruptcies, students, veterans, multiple pets, active military and first time tenants with no rental references!
Community Pillars are recognized by Zillow as helping to curtail the homeless situation by approving tenants who may not usually pass the application process. In fact, we don't even charge our applicants for any background, credit or application fees and we place more weight on who the applicant is/ability to pay rent than on credit scores, etc.
We also offer executive rental housing and work with out of state and in town executives, families, students, law students, retired and active military applicants.
Check out our website for a list of available properties, request to view forms and rental applications!
Most of our single family homes have custom renovations and are located within minutes to the ocean in highly desirable Atlantic Beach and the Intracoastal West/West Beaches or the Historic St. Nicholas areas of Jacksonville, Florida.
Read more from Zillow:
Press Releases -
Zillow Adds Community Pillar and Income Restricted Properties to Rental Search
Feb 3, 2016
SEATTLE, Feb. 3, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Zillow announced the addition of a new search filter to the rental search experience, "Community Pillar and Income Restricted", which bring a new way for renters who qualify as low-income or may have an imperfect housing history, to search for their next home on Zillow.
"We are so excited to add the 'Community Pillar and Income Restricted' filter into the rental search experience on Zillow," said Rebekah Bastian, Zillow vice president of product. "We've heard from renters who qualify for low-income exemptions or may have rental barriers that finding a property is often the biggest hurdle. This new filter will allow them to easily find properties that meet their needs and to connect with landlords and property managers that can help them."
The Zillow Community Pillar program, originally launched in July 2015, allows landlords and property managers to self-identify as someone who is willing to modify his or her standard tenant screening process in order to help applicants with potential rental barriers secure a new home. Participating landlords and property managers display a Community Pillar badge on their profile and renters can search the directory by those who registered as Community Pillars. Now, this badge will also be seen on the property's listing page on Zillow.