Changing My Residency to STR...What Should I Know?

[Daniel Bedell]

I am in the process of building a STR in the mountains outside of Denver. Between the time I bought the land and started the build the county changed the STR laws, making them much stricter and more expensive. Now the law says that the amount of licenses issued will only equal 5% of the homes in the county, so about 150 total licenses. And of course I can only get a license the build is done, I won't be done for a few more months and the licenses are now gone.

The one caveat to the rule is that is you are renting as owner occupied you are not restricted by the 5% rule. So if I change my residency I think I am good to go and can be a resident in the new county at least until a license becomes available. I was planning on managing and cleaning the property myself at first anyway so being up there a lot like I was a resident isn't really an issue. My wife wouldn't change her residency so I think we should be fine with our kids school and all that. Also currently I have a private loan for the building costs and I could extend it a while, though I would like to eventually get a traditional mortgage which I know then starts make the whole owner occupant thing a higher legal bar, though I'm not exactly sure what the method is for legally determining how much time someone is "living" somewhere. 

What else do I need to know? Do I have to register a car in the new county, is this going to weirdly screw with my taxes or something else that I am not aware of?