STR Co-hosting Regulations

[Bill Wells]

My wife and I purchased a property in Gulf Shores back in March to run as a STR. We are self managing remotely from Denver and are doing quite well for running such a short time. We are already Superhosts and are currently outperforming almost all others in our complex and in the area with similar accommodations. I credit a lot of that success to absorbing all things STR, 24 hours a day. Additionally, my wife turns out to be quite the designer / host and I am good with numbers / tech / automation / research. We absolutely love hosting and are on the hunt for property #2. Since proving our abilities, we have been approached by several others to co-host their properties, both in AL and CO. We are truly passionate about STR's and were happy to help others achieve success. We have already setup an LLC and are ready to co-host. I was in a recent meeting with our Gulf Shores realtor (PM me if you need one, she is an investor and amazing!) and she brought up the regulations of property management in AL. It seems that PM's in AL need to have a realtors license.

My question is a co-host the same as a property manager? What is the technical difference between the two? I have found language in CO that since we are renting for less than 30 days, we do not need a license. I cannot find the same thing in AL. Does it have to do with who handles the money? We would like to host the listings under our account so we can offer the Superhost status but that might be a problem since we are accepting the money. Here is what we would be offering;

Listing management - listing creation-presentation-upkeep / SEO optimization / dynamic pricing / staging-design-picture guidance /  smart-lock automation / guest communications-issues / customized guest book

Vendor/Property management - cleaners / maintenance team / supplies / property presentation / vendor audits / property setup assistance

Investment consulting - providing projections / pro formas

We are fully confident in our capabilities to run STR's very successfully, but are trying to figure out all of the back-end details to make sure we are operating a legitimate business within the local laws. Any thoughts or experience would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks,

Bill

[Luke Carl]

Co-host is what wholesaling is to a real estate agent

just get your licenses and be a property manager 

But you don’t really want to do this. You just have green light syndrome. Remember how I taught you it happens to everyone?

Save your pennies and focus on the next deal. Otherwise you’re just creating another job. 

The whole point of real estate is freedom. Owning the asset. There are better ways to make down payment money than trying to compete with vacasa. 

It’s like buying a mac and being so obsessed with it that you decide to build your own computer. That’s a big old hill in front of you.