Are There GOOD Rental Restrictions?

[Courtney Lebedzinski]

Hi all!  It's hard to believe this is my first post as I'm a long-time BP fan!  

We have a small townhouse in a little beach town in NW Florida.  We have lived in the property and fixed it up for a while, but are planning to move in the next few months and convert it to a short-term rental.  The community we are located in consists of 12 1-bedroom townhomes, all on pilings since they are near the water.  About half of the townhomes have converted this "dead space" into an efficiency unit below to provide additional rental income, and we plan to do the same. 

The problem is once we leave, we will officially "flip the ratio" where there are more rental units than owner-occupied units.  We already have some deferred maintenance around the property, and I feel that once it becomes a "rental community" that the property could deteriorate quickly.  

There are currently no rental restrictions, in fact the HOA has basically been completely silent for years. Recently, my husband joined the board and they have started implementing some welcomed changes. We're now considering making additional changes to protect the community from losing value.

It seems a bit counterintuitive to desire more restrictions as a landlord, but I feel that it may be necessary to maintain community integrity.  

We obviously enjoy the ability to make money off of the two units, so completely restricting short-term rentals isn't ideal.  What other options do I have?  How can we balance allowing short-term rentals with keeping community standards? 

I've heard of having a minimum night stay, but I hoped some of you wise people might have other creative solutions!  Thanks so much!