Jersey City Short Term Rental House Hack

[Andrew O.]

Is anyone taking advantage of the language of the new ordinance to make deals work for them?

My wife and I are evaluating a deal in Jersey City for house-hack and even with conservative vacancy and covid based pricing numbers are coming in with CoC returns of ~12% if we self-manage.

Given the language of the new ordinance, if we bought a triplex and short-term rented two of the units I think we're in the clear so long as we're on-site to manage the rentals. We've found several triplexes with 2br/1br/1br and would occupy the 2br, with the potential to rent out the extra bedroom until we have a kid (this income is currently excluded from our model).

Text from Airbnb's site:

"Chapter 255 of the Jersey City Code of Ordinance imposes restrictions on short-term rentals in Jersey City. This includes prohibiting short-term rentals operated by tenants and prohibiting short-term rentals in rent-controlled units. Owners who can share their primary residence—including up to two additional units in the building that they own and in which they live—but cannot share their home for more than 60 nights when they are not on site and must apply for a permit with the Division of Housing Preservation. The Division of Housing Preservation has published a FAQ with more information on these restrictions."

link: https://www.airbnb.com/help/ar...

[Vaughn Smith]

@Andrew O. you might want to shoot some of the local AirBNB owners a message to see how things are going on they end and to pick there brain on current vacancy rates, pain points etc. The current owners can probably give you some of the best answers that you can find.