VENT/RANT about the wholesaling of neighborhood homes with corporations and individuals as property management companies owning multiple ABBs and not watching them. This is why ABB is getting a black eye and Chesky needs to rethink the direction his company is going in - ALL STR platforms need a rethink. I’ve never liked the corporate owners of multiple STR properties in a neighborhood. It brings down property values and now we have had a 3rd party booking and the police here on my little street (gosh, I miss the cows and tomato farms that used to surround us).
My formerly hidden, slightly off-the-beaten-path yet halfway between Sarasota and Tampa neighborhood now has multiple AirBnBs on every block and all are owned by property management companies. They were purchased from the hedge fund companies (Open Door, etc) when they didn’t sell for the inflated purchase prices. I have another set of thoughts on the economics of the hedge funds in that market, but that’s not today’s rant.
Recently, a home up the street was sold to one of those companies (owner has 5 homes within a 3 block radius, all newly acquired). It’s been rented out for a couple of weeks, but I didn’t realize it was an AirBnB because up until this weekend, the guests have been adults and quiet.
This past weekend they rented to kids for Homecoming Weekend and the kids (shockingly, ha!) threw parties and ran amok on the streets.
Friday night, 10pm ish and I’m watching TV in the front room. I hear noise in the street (we’re a quiet, family oriented residential area) and go outside (phone in hand) to find 7 kids in 2 cars trying to break into the clearly empty house across the street. I yell at them to get lost and get sassed in return (of course, figured I would get grief) and called the police (who never came). Kids go up the street and hang out in the driveway of the ABB (which I thought was an empty house). Police never come. Kids are loud. Finally leave around 1 am (I find out later the actual renter arrived then to let them in).
Saturday night it’s even worse. Not only are the original 7 kids in 2 cars racing up and down the street, more kids in more cars are blocking the entrance to the street (it’s a cul de sac so one way in, one way out), partying in the street, and walking up to the empty house across from mine trying to get in - again - (all homes are clearly numbered) and knocking on doors to find the party that they passed to get further down the block (smh on how high they were). Noise is amazing, and the police officer who lives down the street calls it in and the police come and shut down the party. In the meantime, we’re chasing off the kids who are trying to park to go to the party (they had to drive past the police cars at the front of the street and still wanted to party!! stoned out of their gourds) telling them it’s all over and to go home.
The entire neighborhood is outside, on the streets, telling kids not to park on lawns, block driveways, and to slow the f-k down and stop speeding.
Yes, I found the owner. Yes, I contacted him. Yes, I’ve contacted ABB (awaiting CS to respond - ha!!). He pushed back and said he was there at midnight with his wife and daughter. He wasn’t. I was outside his house at midnight (with a bunch of other folks) and it was all kids cleaning up and shutting down. Instead of apologizing to an entire street and saying he’d like to meet us all and introduce himself and make sure it didn’t happen again, he pushed back the blame. Saying he didn’t know (bs), didn’t realize the kids would party on homecoming weekend, etc. Said “guest” didn’t check in until 1am (probably, but doesn’t negate 7 kids partying in the driveway from 10:30pm to 1am). No apology, just gaslighting bs when told he now had people out for his STR being shut down and kicked out of the street.
Because of my status as a 6 year homeshare host - which I told all the neighbors about at the start so they’d feel comfortable with the different cars and people coming around - they’re all looking at me to get this guy shut down and now they want a law passed to limit ABBs owned by property management companies and limit the number on every street and every neighborhood. Which, frankly, I’ve always believed should be done. We’re 1,100 family homes on canals opening to Tampa Bay. We don’t need 3 of every 12 homes being STRs. The percentage is higher on some streets.
I know some folks here will flame me. Go ahead. The house across the way is owned by the 3rd generation of a family that comes and goes at-will and have been here for over 50 years. They don’t deserve to have their home ransacked by bored kids because the “guy with the door code” didn’t show up for 3 hours. I’m the 2nd generation homeowner. Most homes on the street have been passed down to families or sold to friends. We know our neighbors. We go to holiday parties and each others’ pool parties. Everyone in the 1,100 homes bought here because the elementary school is walking distance for the kids, the nature park is max 2 miles away, manatee center is around the block. Everyone I speak to when I’m out and about HATES the STRs run by property managers or corporations. I have a LTR right now so my ABB is on hiatus right now, but folks know I ran one and man… I’m getting heat to figure out how to shut down something that was so special and still is to so many of us, our fabulous guests included.
So, constructive thoughts on what to do appreciated. Criticism of how my neighbors and I dealt with this is arm chair quarterbacking (for the international set, that’s giving the ref and players sh**t well after the fact and the play is over - not helpful and you’re not here so keep it to yourself). Thoughts on what’s going on in your areas with the proliferation of corporate-owned STRs in quiet family neighborhoods - appreciated. Personal attacks about living in Florida, the guns you assume we all have, how the kids could have been shot (yes, a possibility if they picked the wrong house, but that’s the breaks during a B&E felony), and how whatever could have been done better is a waste of time.
What would you like to see going forward so you can keep your STR as local laws are cracking down without understanding the value we long-term hosts bring to an area? How do you feel about some 30something with no idea of personal responsibility co-owning or co-managing 5 rentals and not being responsive? Or the hedge fund management companies? Should they have to divest?
Yes, it’s NIMBY, except it’s not. The house across the canal from me has been an STR for at least 6 years and the owners are ON IT when anyone contacts them about an issue. Police were called once for a noise complaint at 4am with kids cannonballing in the pool and the owners showed up while the police were there and threatened to toss the kids at 4am unless they behaved. Then we all got apologies for the trouble. THAT STR I am 1,000% behind. That’s a good neighbor. Heck, some of the folks who have stayed with me because they’re moving here are now friends with my neighbors. That’s what ABB was and should be.
Knocking this guy off the ABB platform won’t stop him on VRBO or BdC. But passing legislation like NYC’s that limits ABB to owner-occupied units (homeshares) or owners who rent out while not there full-time (with caps on number of nights rented) have opened up quite a few apartments to people who need homes.
So go ahead, flame me. But when the little old lady (me) is standing in a street yelling at smart ass kids who are trying to break into the home of another little old lady, something needs to be done.
