Legal cities for non-owner occupied STRs

Jeez what kind of forum is this? Thanks for the kind words.

Ken is big on hospitality as you can see!

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Don’t worry, Ken is often very, er, direct in his comments, but he does know his hospitality stuff, all the same.

I think that those of us who’ve been in the STR business quite a long time, particularly those who started out as traditional B&B owners, like Jaquo and me are possibly a bit jaded about the new ethos of “Let’s leverage lots of rental flats and make shedloads of money” I’m not saying that this describes you, and you do seem to have good experience of the business but it’s undeniable that the attitude exists, and has probably led to panic regulations in cities where some local people are feeling that their communities have been “taken over” by Airbnb.

As for your original question, as others have said, none of us have any idea where the axe will fall next. Even cities which actually want to attract tourists will have the hotel industry’s objections to contend with. I sound pessimistic, but I do think that the original Airbnb idea of sharing hospitality in a private home or an apartment that is part of your property is sutainable.

Sorry, none of this is much help - and if you’re determined you’ll go ahead and try it and sink or swim like the rest of us - you’ll certainly have some experiences on the way, though!

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Makes sense. Definitely felt like a lot of the responses here were ego driven. Thanks for the level minded reply :slight_smile:

I think you’ll miss the point if you chalk it up to ego.

Airbnb is in a period of transition from the original idea of home sharing: “Come live like a local, with a local!” to a gold rush of “Investor style” properties where they throw some IKEA furniture in there, set a door code, and never meet their guests. In my own small town, which already had a housing crunch, much of the long term apartment/condo supply has shifted to STR and it really has affected the community negatively.

That’s not my ego talking, that’s speaking up for my community and love for the original idea of home sharing.

As for constructive help, have you considered going through the co-hosting program? That seems like it would give you a ready supply of property owners who would be happy to leave the operations and hosting side of the business to you. I’m afraid you’ll be doing a lot of legwork to find apartments/homes on the LTR market who would allow you to operate STR.

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They are coming from Hawaii too. Far lower cost of living.

I don’t know what you mean by ego driven.

You come to a forum of 99 percent owner operators, probably 85 percent of us are on site. Many of us have been doing this a decade or more. And you want to know how to be a host in a remote capacity for properties you don’t even own.

That sounds like a property management situation to me more than anything. So if you are truly interested in that type of field, go get your real estate license so you can manage multiple properties properly. In Hawaii you must have a real estate license to manage more than one. I imagine other states are similar.

Bottom line, Air is not some get rich quick scheme that can be built up leveraged and sold later as you say you want to do. My advice is to buy a place in your own neighborhood where you presently live to start. Or rent out even a room in your own home to get the feeling of it.**

This is not an easy venture. Especially remotely.

**only with the express written permission of your landlord of course.

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Ha, when you ask for advice on regulation and people call you a slumlord with zeo context.

Nope, I was just looking for advice on location/regulation. I have everything else covered, and I’ve done this before overseas.

Agree with the first point, disagree with the second - simply not true.

It’s a different market overseas. Regulation is coming everywhere in the US… in one form or another. Municipalities are beginning to view STRs like a runaway train, and in some sense it is. Hawaii Island never had regulation before; now it is on the table. Even though we have had vacation rentals decades before there was an ABB or VRBO.

I think you should continue in the hostel business. Seems more of a sure bet than what you are thinking of doing. Young people love hostels. They will always be popular.

But since you are so confident of your last assertion, please cite an example. Do you really know anyone who has started up a bunch of Airbnbs/VRBOS from a remote location that they didn’t own and sold them as a group? First of all they aren’t even transferrable, … but you know what, I’ll stop there. You sound like you already know everything… speaking of egos.

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Another forum member posted this thread.

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Yup, which is why I’m reaching out for clarity.

Yes and no. I’m not talking about starting them remotely - there’s a ton of legwork in the beginning. However, it is possible to transition to remote once processes are in place. I’d be the one securing leases, ordering furnishings, staging, cleaning for the first 1-2 months, then hiring people (and implementing technology) to manage my processes as I secure more leases, rinse and repeat.

Not true. You can secure leases under an LLC, and as long as revenue is predictable, you can sell it - the business would include all processes, furniture, and personnel. It’s rare, I admit, but it’s been done before.

Maybe but it seems like a hell of a lot of work and trouble to me. What if you made all those investments and suddenly the area introduced regulation?

Well that would be terrible. That’s why I’m digging around to see which major cities have the most lenient regulations towards STRs. There’s always going to be an element of risk, sure. But, the good thing is that I can break even on each property in under 6 months, max. It’s unlikely that regulation would be introduced and taken into effect in such a short time.

I can’t think of any major city or market that is quote lenient. Perhaps some of the burbs that haven’t really had a chance to address STR yet . Really, though, that ship sailed a while ago.

Aside from the cities question, I’m not quite sure who the customer for this STR business is. We purchased our Palm Springs home last year. It was already an Airbnb under contract with a Vacation Rental company. We had the option to continue the contract, but instead, I took it over and DOUBLED the revenue. And it was already a six figure revenue contract to begin with. STRs are a lot of work and I wouldn’t buy into a house with pre-booked income unless I knew what I was doing. And if I did, I would just do it myself.

Eric, were you able to find a solution to your question. If so I’d be interested to hear your findings.