1045 Maryland Avenue 1045 Maryland Avenue

The Cottage on Maryland Avenue

Enjoy your vacation at this delightful beach house with a great location that is both convenient and quiet. Originally a 1960’s cottage, you’ll enjoy just enough of the charm, coziness, and tradition of your memories of trips to the Jersey Shore, yet with all of the modern-day conveniences from recent renovations.

Rent direct from owner means no sales taxes no outrageous vrbo fees – not even realtors’ administration fees. This saves you about 25% in total. That’s a savings of around $1,000 on a 4k rental!

Options! We rent the house two different ways. Specific weeks are rented as 3 BR or 4 BR; see the Rates
tab for details.
– 1st-floor 3 bedroom cottage for couples or families of 2-6 people.
– 4 bedrooms for up to 9 people (first floor plus 1 BR mini-suite upstairs)
Either way, your family will be sleeping in beds and bedrooms – not cots, sofas or floors like some
rentals. We also offer select 5 and 6 night stays that are popular with people who want to avoid
traffic or enjoy a day or two at home and save some money. Plus 3 night weekends in the spring and
fall.

Overview of the house:

– Ideal location! Less than 300 yards to the beach.  3 blocks to boardwalk.  4-6 blocks to historic
district, shopping and restaurants. You’ll be close to the beach, boardwalk, and shopping, yet on
a quiet street with ample free parking.
– Some 4-6 night specials! We offer select 4 to 6-night stays that are popular with people who
want to avoid traffic, save money, or enjoy a day or two at home.
– Plus 3-night weekends in the spring and fall.
– Well-maintained! Unlike most beach house rentals, we make improvements every off-season, so
the house is very well maintained.
– Relax! Screened-in 1st-floor porch in the front, deck in the back, plus a nice rear yard for kids to
play.

Recent renovations include new bathrooms, windows, central air-conditioning, wireless internet, new
mattresses, LVP plank flooring on 2nd floor (no carpet anywhere), and more. We are constantly making
improvements (example: new navy blue sofas in the family room)

2025 Rates:
2025 season booking just opened this week. Don’t miss out!
Direct from owner rates. Renters that rent direct from owner are exempt from taxes per updated NJ law. This saves you hundreds of dollars (13.25% state/county/local tax) compared to renting on national

websites that must collect taxes, plus no VRBO fees (10-15%) or realtor administration fees. On a $4000 rental, that’s $1,00 in savings! We suggest you invest your 23-25% savings in CFAR trip insurance.

Process:
– After you review all information on www.surfrentals.com and commit to the rental, we will
email you a lease which you return by regular US mail postmarked and in mail within 2 days. The
amounts specified in lease (about 1/2 rent) is 1st payment with signed lease. Balance, $500
security dep, and cleaning service fee.
– Cleaning service: To keep the cost down, we use a hybrid approach. Renters will do a few things
like empty dishwasher and take trash out. $195 cleaning service fee ($175 when renting 3BR 1st
floor) are due with 2nd payment on 3/1 for summer rentals. If house is left excessively dirty, the service will charge more and that will be deducted from your deposit.
– Rates are based on payment made by check. For rentals $2000 or less full payments is made
with signing of lease. If house is left extra dirty and requires more cleaning, tenant is responsible
for the service’s additional charges.
– About a week prior to check-in, you receive a check-in and check-out sheet along with keypad
code. It is pretty easy!

Important Information:
– All rates and dates subject to landlord’s mistakes/inability to look at calendar correctly
– No pets. No smoking of any kind in house, decks or property. No parties. No exceptions.
Evidence of smoking or pets is cause for eviction, loss of remaining days and security deposit.
– Up to a max of 9 people are allowed for 4 BR house; up to a max of 6 people max for 3 BR house
option. Including children and infants. No exceptions.
– For any house you rent, we suggest renters consider travel insurance since reservations cannot
be refunded. We are not insurance experts so do an online search or ask your provider about
different types and what they do or don’t cover – CFAR Cancel Any Reason Trip cancelation or
interruption, medical, evacuation, theft, etc.
– Tenant provides all linens (sheets, pillowcases, towels) or may arrange for them with a local
linen service like Geareduprentals.com or linenladies.com  90% of our renters simply bring them from home. All mattresses are covered with special waterproof membrane full encasement
covers.

Vacation Rental Amenities:

This is a well maintained and renovated house with a & shore cottage & feel. The rooms are not large, but renovated or new and very well maintained.  Unlike other listings, this house sleeps up to 6 (when renting first floor) and 8-9 in beds (when renting the 4 BR house) not on floor or sleeper sofas like most places. There are no sofa beds nor is there extra floor space for more people…but there are 3 or 4 bedrooms and beds for the amount of people allowed

First floor:

The Family Room provides a great place to come together as a family, play board games or watch a
movie on the wall-mounted LED TV with a DVD player with a library of movies. It has LVP wood floors and new comfortable sofas this year. It is bright from the 9-foot sliding door leading to the screened
front porch.
The screened front porch is great for reading the morning paper before others rise. It has a small table plus a wicker loveseat and chair. At night you can hear the ocean waves in the distance when there is an ocean breeze.
“Ocean Breeze” Bedroom 1 is in the front corner and has a Queen mattress.  It has double windows on the front and a single window on the side.  There is a wonderful cross breeze and sounds of the ocean in the distance when the weather is moderate and the AC is off. Also, a full-size armoire for storage.

“Palm Plantation” Bedroom is the master bedroom in the rear left corner.  Light and bright with a Queen mattress and wall-mounted LED TV – plus an attached half bathroom.
“Kids Hideout” Bedroom is where the kids sleep, as I did during the 1960s!  Twin over twin bunk bed with stairs plus single bed (keep your suitcases on upper bunk if you don’t want your children to use it.) Nice big double window overlooking the big backyard plus a big armoire to hang clothes or put them in drawers.
The full bathroom has a double sink vanity, brightened by a window, and complete with a tub/shower. Next to it is a stacked washer dryer if you really want to do laundry while on vacation but most people just bring enough clothes.
The kitchen has bright white cabinets and a neat refurbished butcher block table that seats 8+.  The adjacent dry bar seats another 2 with dry storage below.  The kitchen has double windows on the side and another 9-foot slider, opening to the big back deck.

Outside: The back deck is where you’ll want to hang out before going to dinner, with its large table and umbrella. Wide stairs off the deck open up to the big backyard where the kids can play.  A beach cart/wagon to tote the provided beach chairs and umbrella. When you return from the beach, you’ll enjoy a full hot and cold enclosed shower. We provide beach buckets in each room to carry your shower supplies to alfresco showering. The charcoal grill is ready for an old-fashioned cookout – perhaps while sitting back having a beverage as the kids enjoy the private backyard for playing soccer, lacrosse, horseshoes, or more. Bring your bikes and chain them up to the clothes pole when you’re not exploring Cape May.

Second floor:
Our 4 bedroom beach house includes an additional bedroom upstairs, with a full bath upstairs, facing the rear yard. “Lighthouse Room”  – a mini-suite because it is similar to a lighthouse, being that it is at the top!  Moderate in size, but cozy with its own full bathroom, Queen- size bed, and wall-mounted LED TV.  Note that there is a lock-out section in the rest of 2nd floor, including 2nd floor front porch which is not accessible to renters.

Convenient location.
See the aerial shot of Cape May. The yellow push pin at the upper right shows where the house is
relative to the beach – You pass by 6 houses and a hotel on walk to beach. (2 houses on each block going toward the beach) Historic/shopping district is the push pin to the upper left (5-7 blocks). Boardwalk shops/Convention Hall is push pin at bottom left. Boardwalk starts at push pin at bottom right.

Clean and well-maintained
You are renting from the owner, not a realtor or big business.  This is our shore house and it has been in my family since I was a little kid staying there with my Grandparents.

We do a lot of work each year to keep it very well maintained, which is somewhat unusual for beach rentals and even hotels at the shore.

The house has a "shore cottage" feel. It was a one-floor cottage until 2004 when we renovated it and added the 2nd floor. We intentionally kept the 1st floor true to the original cottage feel, except we updated it. Therefore, it is cozy, not massive.

Nice yard. Ample free parking.
Nice rear yard for kids to play or adults to relax. Rear deck now has new deck furniture and umbrella.
Front porch is now screened.
The usual people that rent the house as the 1st floor are families of 4-6, or couples that want room to spread out or have their kids down for a few days. When people rent it with the extra bedroom suite upstairs, it is often a 2nd family or grandparents in the mix.

Hope that helps! 🙂
I know it isn’t easy comparing houses to rent…they’re all so different and hard to tell how nice they are inside…I know because I check out other places to make sure our rates are fair.