Short Term Rentals/ AirBNB in Asheville NC

[Account Closed]

Hello BiggerPockets community,

I'm a new to real estate and was hoping to get some advice on AirBNBing in Asheville NC.

The reason for my inquiry is because I'm hoping to buy a house and use AirBNB to househack it.

If any additional info is needed please let me know.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You,

Evan Morales

[Michael Tierney]

Asheville has taken a pretty firm stance on vacation rentals. A lot of folks that were doing it for years have been shut down as the city enforces the rules firmly. Home stays are okay in the city limits, but strongly suggest getting educated on the definition of "home stay". A number of people have been burned thinking they had a "home stay" when the city had a different definition (the city does not want potential long-term rentals diverted to STR's, so they are interpreting "home stay" very narrowly).

CREIA (Carolina Real Estate Investors Association) had a specialized sub group that met monthly just to discuss the short term rental business in the Asheville area. I attended one of their meetings about a year ago and there were a bunch of people there that had figured out how to work within the rules. I decided not to go the STR route with my properties as they were not a good fit. Suggest you check in with them to see if the group still meets.

FWIW, I spent some time chatting with the folks in city government down in Fletcher (just south of Asheville) about converting a property to STR. Fletcher is pretty much copying Asheville's approach. Definitely do your due diligence on this one. A bunch of people have figured it out - if you want to go down the STR path, I would definitely piggyback on the work they have already done.