While my family enjoyed Topsail beach and our time spent on the beach, we will never use Island Real Estate again nor stay in the property "Eastern Sails" on North Topsail. We arrived on Saturday a quarter before check-in and parked at a public beach access near the rental property to take a walk up the beach to stretch our legs and wait. Walking in front on the property we noticed that the roof was being fixed on the entire property. We had no idea that the rental had received any damage from the recent storm, so we called Island Real Estate to check in with them and to see if this was going to be an issue with our stay. We were told that the construction crew should be about finished and that it wouldn't affect our stay. Shortly after, we received our confirmation to check in at our place. Not only did we not have a place to park, as the construction crew had parked a large dumpster and truck in our designated parking, but we also found our front deck to be completely covered in piles of sand, the trash cans still full of trash, and the construction crew still working on the roof. We again called the rental office to ask for these issues to be taken care of and they said they would have to call the owner. We never heard back from anyone until almost 6:00 pm. (3 hours after checking in) when the owner of the property showed up to clean off the porch. The porch was cleaned off, but we were left with the trash canisters full of trash and when the roofing company did leave for the day, they left their large dumpster and truck in our designated parking under the house. We called the rental office on Sunday and sent an e-mail asking if the roofing company could move the dumpster and truck so we could easily unload our belongings, as I was 30 weeks pregnant during our stay, we did not hear back from anyone until we again had to call on Monday when the roofing company showed back up and continued to work from 9:00 am till 8:00 pm. That day. The construction crew was very loud and it was impossible for us to put our toddler down for a nap. While replacing the roofing the workers threw their trash, shingles, nails, and swept sand and debris from the roof onto our deck/beach access all day. We were unable to safely access to the beach for that day. When they continued to work past 6:00 pm, we found the noise to be so unbearable we had to leave the property to find a quiet place for dinner. Upon returning at 8:00 pm, we found the roofing company still working. At this point, our toddler was beyond ready for bed, so we asked the roofing company to leave immediately and again called Island Real Estate. At this time, we greatly expressed how upset we had been with our stay and how inconvenienced we had been. We asked that the deck/beach access be cleaned up immediately, as it was riddled with nails from the roofing company as was the carport, which they finally removed their dumpster and truck from. We were unable to safely use the parking or the beach access due to the number of nails left behind. We also asked that we be compensated for the many inconveniences we had had since arriving for our vacation. By noon on Tuesday we had not heard back from anyone about the property being cleaned up so we could safely use the driveway and deck. Again, we called the real estate office and were told that they would immediately contact the owners. An hour later, we had not received word from anyone, so we called back. This continued every day of our trip. Eventually, my husband had to spend over an hour sweeping the piles of debris on our deck and picking up nails on the porches and access, so we could safely use them. The real estate office NEVER once reached out to us to take care of any of these issues. Every day, we had to first contact them for them to initiate anything being done. The owner never contacted us, nor cleaned up the rental property during our stay. At this point, we have checked out and no one has reached out to apologize or to offer any compensation for our terrible experience at this rental. read more

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They say they will reimburse for buying a DVD player since the cottage did not have one. Lie number one. Don't rent near or at "clydes dream" . You will only enjoy noise and no privacy with a local living beside that cottage. Enjoy lawn mower going in your yard daily, when grass does not need cutting. If July 4th week, enjoy big tent put beside cottage with lots of noise and cars coming and going. Then when u check out a day early , expect a call when u r back home asking u to vacate the cottage. Never will rent from then again and will make sure to post this on other sites. read more

Stayed in A Bit of Bliss located at 1236 New River Inlet Rd. N. Topsail Beach, NC 28460 house that was offered by this company is August 2012, the air conditioner was not working, it was 82 degrees in the main area and hotter than that on the third floor where the master suite was. We called the company on day 2 of our stay, they sent an A/C repair person out that day but he discovered a problem with the duct work that could not be fixed at that time. It was well over 100 degrees out side every day and not much better in our rental home. They offered to move us to a smaller town house in a less desirable part of the beach for the remainder of the week, but it did not fit the needs of the people we had staying with us. I asked Linda, one of the brokers, before we left about compensation for this and she stated that she would look into it. On our second to last day the interent died and no one from the office would even return my call or email about that issue. Upon returning home I made at least 7 calls to the office to Becky and Linda and was told each time they had to talk to Cathy and they would get back to me. I called again today, a month after we left, and was told by LInda that they can not do anything about this issue. They can not offer any sort of partial refund and that they are sorry that we were hot and uncomfortable during our stay. 2 Thumbs down for poor customer service! read more

Cathy means well, but she has too many properties and she does not maintain them well nor does she provide good customer service. We used her agency to manage our beach house, and several renters complained about the lack of cleanliness due to poor cleaning in between tenant stays. When the tenants complained, she emailed us calling the tenants "crazy complainers" who "ruined her weekend" then turned around and emailed the tenants saying that we did not maintain our property well and it was our fault. She likes to pit tenants against owners to take responsibility off of herself, meanwhile she pockets a good portion of our rental income...for causing drama on line when she is supposed to be managing the property. Furthermore she allowed smokers into our property when we had a strict no smokers policy. I could go on and on. DO NOT RENT FROM THEM OR LET THEM MANAGE YOUR PROPERTY!! read more

If you're looking to rent a house at Topsail Island, stay away from Cathy Medlin's Island Real Estate. What an AWFUL experience. We referred to their website (www.topsailvacation.com) and discovered A Peach at the Beach. On the website, it looked like a rock star's oceanfront mansion - gourmet kitchen, luxurious appointments and all the high tech bells and whistles. I was the coordinator for 5 families but had a wedding that day so I was the last one to arrive - around 8 pm. At about 6 pm, one of my friends called me to let me know what a dump the place was -- and how FAR off the beach it was. The sinks were leaking, the walls were beaten, scuffed and dirty, the bedding was ripped (a dog had chewed a hole right in the middle of one of the bed covers), the furniture was so nasty, nobody wanted to sit down. Our kids feet were immediately filthy as soon as they walked on the floors. You might expect that after several days on the beach - but not upon check in. Heck, our "high tech" house had no batteries in the remotes and the VCR's had no cords to attach to the TV's!! We called the rental office and spoke with Cathy Medlin directly. She defended the listing on the site. I invited her to come down and walk through the house with me and she vehemently refused to "put herself in that situation". We arranged a meeting with her the next day at her office. She once again defended the house and when we suggested her site and office folks were misleading, she stood up asked us to leave and then threatened to call the police!! We didn't even raise our voices - even though we had plenty of cause to do so. To smooth things over, she said she would contact the owner and work on some kind of partial refund for us. I've called and emailed countless times and she has been "out of her office" every time I've called and my emails have gone unanswered. Topsail is a nice beach, but steer clear of Cathy Medlin and her Island Real estate. read more

I just spent two weeks at a Cathy cottage and it was the best two weeks I have ever spent on the ocean. There were a couple of things I hope are changed by next year but that is true of anyplace that is not home. I have been using a different realty for six years but due to poor customer service left. I feel I have found a home with Island Real Estate. I am so looking forward to next summer. Barbara read more

Nice house but customer service is non-existent. Within an hour of leaving the home three weeks ago, we phone the Island Real Estate office to notify them of an article left behind accidentally. Despite several phone calls on our end inquiring about the item and pointing their cleaning crew exactly to its whereabouts, we have thus far had ZERO response or follow-through. Zero. A total disappointment. We will not use them ever again. read more

Nice view and pretty nice condo, but when the Air conditioning failed on two consecutive days in the condo we stayed in, neither time was it fixed until the following day. Have you ever tried to sleep in an non-air-conditioned third floor condo, in North Carolina, in July? Not fun. I would personally this place if I were you. read more

My husband and I returned yesterday from a week long stay in one of Cathy Medlin's properties, Beach Mania on Topsail Beach. We arrived June 15 and departed June 22. Though we love Topsail Beach we were so very dissatisfied with Island Realty that I felt compelled to share this information. Upon arrival it was clear neither the phone or Internet was working. This was very important to me for this trip in particular. My best friend had just been diagnosed with breast cancer and I was anxious to be in close communication with her and needed the ability to plan and book air travel to be by her side. So, I sent an email from my cell phone to info@topsailvacation.com June15 7:18 pm describing the issue and asking for assistance. I knew I would not get help until Mon., June 17 but wanted to give the staff a heads up ASAP to get this advertised amenity working quickly. I also called and left a phone message June 16 11:30 am. I asked if the staff could call my cell phone Mon. with an update on when this might be fixed. No call Mon. morning so I called June 17 9:49 am. The staff indicated that the situation would be looked into. I asked that I be updated when a course of action was determined. Did not hear back so called again at 4:35. At this time it appeared my earlier email and 2 phone calls were ignored, and nothing had been done. The representative told me to call Charter at 1-800-getchart and I should take care of this myself and do the trouble shooting, etc. This seemed weird but I needed the service so badly I called the number for Charter. After enduring one of those frustrating menu driven help lines I finally got to speak to a person and the Charter rep said there was no account to provide Internet at 435 n. Anderson Blvd. and that someone was not being honest.... That I was being led down the garden path, so to speak. Called the office again at 4:55 and shared the information from Charter with your office. I was told the owner would be contacted. Again I asked to be update and was not. So I again called your office 9:18 on June 18 to check on status and was told it being worked on. Note: I asked for updates from staff after each call I placed, and I was never updated.. Called the office 9:55 on June 19 to check on status and was told Century Link was supposed to be out to fix it that day. This seemed a change .... The day before I was told to call Charter but now Century Link was the provider. More disturbing was the fact that the girl answering phone was very rude and irritated with me, as if I was the problem, and as if I should not expect this to be fixed and I should just leave her alone. She actually said if nobody came to work on the problem there was nothing that could be done and it was not her problem. Again, I asked for updates and a call to my cell phone, and got none as the day continued. And of course the problem was never fixed. During the week I realized the dishwasher wasn't working either but my frustration level on the lack of assistance was so evident I did not bother reporting. And my husband reminded me that we rented the same property last year (2012) and the vacuum cleaner wasn't working and we got the same run around. He actually went and got the parts and fixed the vacuum cleaner himself, as despite the staff's promises, nothing ever happened to assist us. Seems there is a pattern here. There was another strange incident. An agent came by one day to show the house to a potential buyer. We thought the fact that the owner was selling probably explained the disconnect of Internet... But honesty would have been appreciated. When we returned home we had a message on our home phone asking if the property could be shown for sale... How funny is that?! We weren't home (duh) and I had only given your staff my cell phone number a dozen times while asking for those non-existent updates! Amazing. read more

DO NOT gp through this company for your vacation rental!!!! We were completely jerked around by them and it really messed with our vaction. First, when we arrived, (AFTER thier posted check in time I might add) the house wasn't ready. There were still cleaning trucks there when we pulled up. Then, when we finally got in the house, we discovered that the upstairs ac unit wasn't working. Now, I understand things happen. But, you can't tell me that while the cleaners - who had JUST finished in the house - didn't notice that the upstairs ac was not operational. Esp since that day it was over 100 degrees outside! So our first day at the beach we have to wait around for thier ac guy to come and take a look only to be told that it was going to need to be replaced and that wouldnt be done until at least Monday!! If we hadn't called and made a stink this realtor was prepared to let us deal with no ac upstairs (which one of the bedrooms was there and that's where the main living area was). So finally they say we can go to a different house. Ok great. Well two days later we get a call at 9am saying the ac in our origional house is fixed and we have to pack up our stuff and move back RIGHT AWAY bc they are putting someone else in the house we have been cheltered in. Annoying but ok. We get everything together and get out within the hour. Well, we get to our origional rental and guess what - the ac IS NOT fixed. They had flat out lied just so they could rent the other house and get more money. so we go over to the office and park ourselves there and let them know we are not happy. At first they tried to LIE and say they were told that it was ok if the ac was still not fixed. When called on thier lie they double backed and scrambled to get ahold of the workers responsible for fixing the problem. They say they will get right on it and make sure its fixed. Meanwhile, we are wasting YET ANOTHER day of our vaction dealing with this. Finally the job is done and we start to unwind only, an hour or so later, the ac stops workign YET AGAIN. So we have to call, one more time and get them to fix it which they FINALLY did and it worked for the rest of the week. apart from all this mess, there were no linens which were supposed to be included in the rental, and a few other issues as well - we just got tired of calling the real estate office. And, do you think we've gotten any sort of compensation for all this - not a thing! We had to demand it - it wasn't even offered - and the story we have been told is that "it's up to the owner of the house to give compensation". Umm, shouldn't it be the owner of the real estate company since they jerked us around so much? Hoping this company end up doing the right things but I highly doubt it. So to recap - DO NOT RENT FROM THIS COMPANY!!!!!! read more

I owned one of their properties and have switched due to poor service on both the renter and home owner side. Poor organization prior to a hurricane so that we were arriving to secure our home with an evacuation and the renters were never informed that we were arriving to board the home up. Avoid this agency read more

Tried to get a long term rental through this company. Out of the 3 houses I liked (Most looked run down), only one was potentially available but had a possibility of being renewed. One was already renewed and the other was going up for summer rentals. ALL OF THESE WERE ON THE WEBSITE AS AVAILABLE! Won't deal with this person. read more

This is the most terrible company that I have ever came had to deal with in my life. I used the company and my a/c and my refrigerator broke while I was renting from them. I called them and they said someone would get back to me which they never did. I called them back and asked them if someone was coming to repair it and they acted as if it was the first time I had told them. They promised someone was on the way and they never showed. The next morning I received a call from their office telling me the repairman was on the way. HE NEVER SHOWED. By this time the weeks worth of groceries we had bought had spoiled in the refrigerator and it was scorching hot in our place. We left two days early, we received no compensation for the horrible time we spent there. I WILL NEVER USE THIS VACATION COMPANY AGAIN. read more

This is our third and last year renting through Cathy Medlin's realty group. It is very telling when the last two properties we rented through her group are now being managed by other firms. She will rent you a dirty house and one working shower, when there are supposed to be two showers. Once she gets your money, you are out of luck. Her firm will do nothing for you. Once you inform her that there is only one working shower (on the first day of a seven day lease), you will be told that the shower might be fixed by the fifth day. Do not ever rent anything by Cathy Medlin...we learned our lesson after the third year! read more

AWFUL SERVICE AND BUSINESS TACTICS ! My wife and I went to Topsail for a "GET-AWAY" vacation and dealt with Island Real Estate ( owner is Cathy Medlin ). We had several issues with the rental that were never resolved but the the BIGGEST issue was that the day before check out, we were promised our $250 deposit refunded by her employee CONNORS. My wife and I went to the local super market and purchase cleaning materials. We left the house SPOTLESS . A month later,we recieved our deposit check but it was minus $75.00 for cleaning. I called Island Real Estate to question these charges but no one knew why. They recommended we talk to the owner Cathy Medlin but she was not in. We left a message for her to call us and waited a week but no phone call from the owner, Cathy Medlin. I did this 4 more times and she never, ever returned our phone calls. I filed a complaint with the BBB (Better Buisness Bureau) and then the owner, Cathy Medlin responded that they found a hair on the bathroom floor behind the door... At that point I saw her and her buisness's true colors. If you check on www.bbb.org you will see several complaints from other customers about her poor buisness tactics, including that she never returns phone calls to customers with complaint. IN MY OPINION, THIS IS A AWFUL COMPANY TO DEAL WITH . read more

please believe me when i say kathy medlin is one classy lady she litterally saved my familys vacation after a horrible experience with another realty company on the island...i showed up in her office almost in tears and she had us in another beautiful ,clean ,comfortable rental.at a reduced rate which she was under no obligation to do .we have rented from her on several occasions and on one visit had a few problems which she made right as soon as she was made aware of them. my self and Several members of my family and friends and casual aquaintances. have rented from her and i have heard nothing but great feed back from them all. anywhere from there rentals to problems being solved quickly and in a very friendly manner. cuddos to kathy and her team ....i hope to be able to afford another fantastic trip to that beautiful island and look forword to being greeted with the wonderful island hospitality kathy has always given us HOPE TO SEE THEM SOON .SANDY BOGGS AND FAMILY OHIO read more