Putting my Las Vegas home up for Airbnb when I'm not in town

We moved to Vegas recently and put our house in California up for AirBnB. We are looking to buy here in Vegas and plan on being in CA for the couple months every summer. During this time, we would like to put our house in Vegas up for AirBnB. I’m reading that it has to be owner occuppied and something along of 25%. Am I reading this right?

I just looked at the Las Vegas short term rental laws. It reads that you have to be physically living there when it is rented. I.e. you can’t rent it out and go to Ca. It seems that you would only be able to rent out rooms or a suite or outbuilding when you are there and not at all otherwise.

I don’t see anything referring to “25%”.

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These are not Airbnb requirements.

Perhaps you’re thinking of requirements in your town. Some municipalities require that short-term rentals be owner-occupied or that it be the owners’ primary residence.

I’m not sure what the 25% might be referring to.


You’ll want to check what local requirements might be for your city.

Here’s what I found for Las Vegas. But you’ll see that the property needs to be owner-occupied during the rental period.

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He didn’t say he thought they were Airbnb requirements.

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I didn’t say the OP thought that; I didn’t know where the OP was reading what it was reading.

I’m either not understanding this or it’s incorrect.

While the OP is not residing in the Las Vegas property “it” [the property or any room in the property] cannot legally be rented out as a short-term rental in Las Vegas.

I’m not sure what you mean by ‘outbuilding’ but the law says no ‘accessory structure’ may be used for dwelling purposes – though, inspired by you I might add that the OP didn’t ask about an outbuilding. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Legally the OP could rent it out (or any part of it that meets legal requirements for rental residential purposes) for 31+ days since such a rental is not a short-term rental.

I see now the reference to 25%.

One of the ‘tricks’ that has been used to try to get around rules/laws on short-term rentals (whether by municipalities or homeowners’ associations) is to sell a small fractional interest in the property to the would-be short-term renter. The argument is that the person has just bought a fractional ownership in the property and therefore is not a renter/guest.

The link I provided earlier says that the person occupying the property is a guest and not an owner unless:

a) that ownership interest is at least 25% AND
b) that ownership interest must be recorded in the property records for Clark County.

So that’s a Clark County legal requirement to prevent the fractional ownership gimmick intended to circumvent short-term rental laws and rules.

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I honestly didn’t drill down into the law completely (you’re a much more thorough reader than I :wink:- I was just looking for the “host onsite” info), I just meant the owner couldn’t str the house they live in if they aren’t resident. (And since they obviously can’t rent out the entire house if they are living in it, that only leaves private rooms and attached studios or suites) I didn’t realize that a str guest house isn’t allowed at all in Las Vegas.

And if the owner is going to rent for more than 30 days, I sure wouldn’t do that through Airbnb if I was out-of town for 2 months. I would rent with a proper lease, security deposit, references.

Thanks for the feedbacks, I posted hoping that someone here had a similar situation and know if it is possible to do something like this.

You might want to explore longer term rental sites like Furnished Finder. If you could find someone like a travel nurse, or a doctor on a lokum, and rented it for the entire 2 months you’d be away, with a proper lease and security deposit, that might work well.

As far as I’m aware, Vegas has had pretty strict str laws for several years.

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We are generally not in the habit of encouraging people to publically share ways to circumvent the spirit of the laws. This is a public forum. Posts here have been screenshotted and used in the past in articles about Airbnb. It’s not a good look for us to platform lawbreakers.

There are plenty of other sites that specialize in those shenanigans.

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You mean me suggesting another rental site? I thought they could rent without the owner being home if it was for more than 30 days.
I just wouldn’t want to use Airbnb for that. Too risky if you get a bad renter or they renege on payment.

Yah I’m not sure what KKC means, as STR is define is rental of anything less than 31 days. So your suggestion is actually a great option. Traveling nurses can stay several months. This would definitely be an option in my opionion.

Just looking for ways to help pay the mortgage.

If anyone is interested, here’s the link to Las Vegas guidelines

https://www.lasvegasnevada.gov/Business/Planning-Zoning/Code-Enforcement/Short-Term-Rentals

I’m not referring to you or any one post in particular.

In reading the LV information it is clear to me that someone buying a house that they want to put on Airbnb while they live part time in CA is not going to be legal. LV has put very specific language in to anticipate these efforts to find a loophole. Something like renting to a travel nurse or having a roommate or house sitter for 2-3 months might be allowed I don’t know.

But any appearances of trying to help a host get around the law might not be advised. I certainly don’t want to see my posts on “here’s how to get around that” cited in an LA Times article.

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Oh, I certainly wasn’t suggesting that he try to “get around” anything. As I read the Las Vegas law it pertains to short term rentals, less than a month. Of course, if I were the OP, I would make sure I wasn’t in contravention of any regs before trying to rent out in my absence.
I have tons of sympathy for people who don’t want to have an Airbnb next door with a constant stream of strangers coming and going, and absentee landlords.

Thing with STR is it disturbs the neighbors with parties etc… but I think on the bigger scheme of things, it takes money out of the local hotels and casino that are the big contributor to the state. I agree with this political views and is not looking for an illegal way to get around but rather trying to learn how to legally do this without breaking any laws.

Many people operating STR as a full time business. But having some source of income to help pay the mortgage for times when the house is vacant for individual such as myself help us maintain the property and allow us to live at two places.

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Well, since the majority of people can’t even afford to own one home, it’s hard for me to drum up sympathy for those who own 2 or more when they say they need to rent to pay the mortgage. :wink:

It isn’t just hotel lobbies and neighbors complaining about parties that lead to areas coming up with strict str legeislation- a big part of it is that it takes affordable housing off the market for locals who live and work in the area.

I live in a thriving little tourist town in Mexico which has no str regs, aside from having to pay taxes on the rentals- many people who work here serving all the tourists in restaurants, shops, cleaning houses, etc, have to commute daily from outlying towns, some an hour away (and most don’t even have cars- they ride the hot, crowded buses) because you simply can’t find anything affordable to rent long term here anymore unless it’s some hovel.

Sounds like New York City’s “recent” legislation change regarding STR. It seems like, basically, you’re either a Home-Share host, or you go LTR. No in between.

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It’s not that recent in Las Vegas either.

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Yikes! I’ve just changed my profile picture so that it’s not the same as my ABB and work headshots O_O

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