Tisbury rentals and year-round homes, done right

A year-round town with a strong rental side

Census figures show about 4,810 residents and about 3,130 homes in Tisbury. Unlike Chilmark or Edgartown, the homes are well outnumbered by people, which suggests more of the housing here is lived in through the winter. About 64 percent of occupied homes are owner-occupied, the lowest share among the six Martha's Vineyard towns, so roughly a third are rented.

The housing is also on the older side: about a quarter of homes predate 1940 and the median year built is around 1979. About 86 percent are single-family detached, which leaves room for two-families and houses with an apartment added at some point. The town is small, about 6.5 square miles of land, and at about 39 miles southeast of Raynham in a straight line it is the closest island town to our shop.

That mix of renters and owners shapes what people call us for. Some of it is an owner who has lived in the same house for years and finally wants the kitchen redone. Some of it is a landlord with a unit that needs a new bath and flooring before the next lease starts. Both are real work, and both get the same planning.

You decide what to do about it, but you hear about it while the access is easy.

Work for landlords and investors

A rental unit has different priorities than an owner's kitchen. Finishes need to stand up to turnover. Bathrooms need to be built so a leak does not ruin the ceiling below. Flooring needs to survive moving day. Schedules matter because an empty unit is lost rent, so the written scope lays out the sequence and what has to be ordered ahead, with the honest caveat that an island job adds lead time for materials.

In a two-family or a house with an added unit, separation between units, egress and smoke and carbon monoxide protection all come into the permit and inspection process under 780 CMR. Electrical and plumbing go to licensed trades. Houses built before 1978 may have lead paint, and renovation in a rental follows lead-safe work practices, which matters even more when tenants have children.

Landlords also want to know what a unit will need next time as well as this time. While the walls are open we point out what we see: an aging water heater, a window that will not last another winter, a roof edge that is starting to go. You decide what to do about it, but you hear about it while the access is easy.

Older owner-occupied houses

For the owners in town, the older stock brings the usual list. Plaster walls, original framing that may not be square, wiring added in layers over decades. A kitchen remodel in a house from 1920 often means opening walls that have not been opened in a long time, and we tell you what we expect to find before demolition and what we actually found the day we find it.

The standard is the same for an owner who lives in the house and a landlord who rents it out. One point of contact, changes written and priced before work changes, a site left clean every day. Steve started Modern Remodeling because he was tired of jobs where nobody told the client anything, and that does not change based on who owns the building.

Being the nearest of the island towns to Raynham does not make the logistics disappear. Materials still cross on the ferry, and anything special ordered still needs lead time. What it does mean is that the crossing is part of the routine plan rather than an obstacle, and the schedule accounts for it from the first day.