This forum is dedicated to connecting hosts with other hosts. Sign up to get the latest updates and news just for AirBnb hosts! Note that we are not affiliated with Airbnb - we are just passionate hosts!
Just received a request to book for a month beginning next week from someone registered on airbnb as Patsy. The email is “signed” David. So I looked at the profile thinking maybe David is her partner, but her profile only has the most minimal of details and doesn’t reflect a couple. The verification shows only that she has 300 FB friends. She joined this month and no reviews.
David said he needs a place for about a month, he’s buying a home and will need a place until the closing. My gut tells me to decline, but I’m wondering if I can vet him by checking with the closing agent.
Are the dollar signs clouding my instinct to decline this request?
I would ask him or her for a link to the house that has the accepted Purchase and Sale. 30 day closings don’t happen anymore with the new regulations. Unless it is a cash sale, not closing happens with less than 60 days.
And the closing agent could be anyone answering a phone. I would ask him to provide the name of the lawyer who is in charge of the closing. Lawyers can be scum, but they don’t generally lie about this kind of thing.
Sounds ‘fishy’ to me. I’d decline. I’m not that broke. I declined a 30 day peak season request from some folks who wanted to come “check out the place”.
@KenH I hear you. I declined a month long stay from a craigslist ad BC she was a political consultant for a Trump clone. I’m involved on the other side and I just didn’t see how it could work. I did, however, refer her to airbnb and gave her the zip code to search.
We have closed on all our housese (2 in last 2 years) in sub 30, not all cash. We were even offered a loan that closed in 15 days, which you actually need to be competitive with all cash offers here in SF.
The regulations changed as of August 1, 2016. Standard closing is now 60- days due to new federal laws in the USA that require new documentation to prevent underwater loans.
Can we agree to disagree?? We were jut speaking with our mortgage broker (we are buying another ABB property) and he is still doing 15 and 30 days loans. These are Jumbos with 20-30% down.
I wouldn’t get caught up with all the closing whoha above. I also wouldn’t be providing you the details of my home I bought or my lawyers details of asked, this is really going beyond the bounds of privacy IMO & I’m not going to pay my lawyer to speak with an ABB host either! Clearly David is using Patsy’s profile maybe his wife or GF, maybe a friend or maybe a scammer but you are going to need to ask David some hard questions that we couldn’t possibly know. If you get some more clarity from him, I’m sure people could help you further.
@Emily I won’t need to get into his business, just call the closing agent to verify that he has a pending closing. I do it routinely in my real job and have never spoken to an attorney. Most of the time closings go through a title company in my area.
I think you must have very different laws in the US, it would be quite illegal to obtain that information in Australia. We have very strict privacy laws and penalties. I would prefer to go through the person myself and ask questions & be honest about my concerns but we are different cultures & I am sure you will deal with it in the best way for you. All the best and let us know how it goes.
All my long term guests, 1 month plus have been a delight, except 2 girls who were scared of the city, and it takes the pressure off financially a bit so hopefully he’s legit.
Interesting. We just closed on a property, and were told that the kids had gotten their loan application submitted just before the regulations changed so that they could get 30-days, while if they had applied the next week it would be 60-days. Nice to know that this isn’t universal and just a MA quirk. Thanks.
We were supposed to have a 30 day closing when we bought our house 3 years ago, but this, that and the other thing happened at it turned into 45 days. This was before I had heard of Airbnb, we were really lucky and found some facebook acquaintances who were in the middle of moving out of town but weren’t selling their house yet. They were thrilled to have us pay rent (and it was a very fair amount) and we were over the moon that it was affordable and extendable. Those 45 days were the most stressful event in my whole life, what with the lender $%^&# up and not processing the paperwork and almost losing the deal, plus all the fun regulations and endless re-doing forms.
Your potential guest might sail through the home-buying process with no issues, but after we went through our experience we talked to everyone we knew and they all said that it was a nightmare of epic proportions. Deals can fall apart for so many reasons. What happens if this person has an issue and is now homeless? You are stuck with a long-term tenant. I would verify the status of his or her situation thoroughly and also write up a contract in case things go south on their deal and they have no place to go.
It’s always good to be paranoid within reason. I’d start by asking them about the Patsy/David thing. Get their full names, and try doing an online search. As others have suggested, it also definitely makes sense to check on the house closing thing, since that is a verifiable and public detail. And as @Artemis said, be prepared for problems with the closing.
It’s different everywhere regarding closing times. Like my realtor said, “It’s not all over until the fat lady sings!” (No offense to ladies who may be fat here. )
@smtucker because I was ridiculously curious about this(not to one up you, or anything negative, just plain old curiosity) , since we are planning on buying another property in the next few months, I called 2 of the mortgage brokers we used and asked about it. They both said they didn’t really know what I was talking about and the are still, and most frequently, offering 30 day closes. The 15 day close loan is still available as well. When I asked about the 60 day close, they ‘guessed’ it may have been a FHA or VA loan, or some other type of loan that has lot of restrictions. (Most of the loans my guys do aren’t FHA/VA/ or anything like that, bc being in SF they are competing with all cash offers are need to close ASAP)
That being said in order to close in 15 or 30 days you the buyer have to be on top of EVERYTHING paperwork, appraisal, phone calls, etc. We closed our condo in 25 days bc we had to move out of our rental, I’m surprised y mortgage broker still speaks to me.
As @Artemis and @konacoconutz said, deals fall apart ALL the time. I would be 10000% go through the ABB platform for this. Maybe even break it into 15 days increments, or something else, so you can asses the situation and possibly boot him/her?
)