Short Term Rental in North Las Vegas?

Question

I understand short term rental is getting a lot of regulation in Las Vegas, but North Las Vegas has more lax regulations. Does anyone have thoughts on 1. regulatory environment 2. rental appeal of NLV.

Bill B. · Answer

@Matt O.

Cool. Let me know if/when you’re in town. I love to talk real estate.

Ps. If you do buy here don’t forget to look at the “opportunity zones” if any of them would work for you the tax savings are just icing on the cake.

Bill B. · Answer

I tried googling NLV STR laws and didn’t find much/anything. I would call the city and ask...

1) is it legal today?

2) is there any pending regulation/laws?

3) do you guys want STR’s here? Do you like them? (For future direction)

3 of my 12 vegas rentals are in NLV. Many people don’t know and most don’t care. The divider is on Decatur.

For long term rentals, Vegas is better, as NLV handles the billing of water/garbage/sewer/recycling. And if the Tennant doesn’t pay during or after lease they just tack a lien against your house. They’ve never bothered to chase a tenant in my 20 years of experience.

Stephan Kraus · Answer

We had two properties in Vegas on airbnb and are currently in escrow for a house in NLV, so out of curiosity i researched about NLV rules and found the exact same thing, only that its apparently coming from unincorporated clark county, not the city of NLV itself.

The city of Las Vegas is cracking down on illegal airbnb's and charges room tax and yearly business license fees (IF you are lucky enough to get your Special use permit) which makes it hardly worth the extra work that comes with short term rentals.

If done right in the right location it can still work out pretty well, but it depends a lot on the house. The 3bedroom house downtown would hardly break even with the new rules and fees, while our 2bedroom with pool (which is almost north las vegas, so far from the strip) could basically fetch the mortgage on a single weekend - we attracted a different kind of vegas tourist (the one that has done the strip-hotel thing before and wanted to stay away from it)

Also keep in mind, it is a lot more work to maintain a great listing, schedule cleaning, communicate with guests, put out fires, pray for good reviews and navigate around the legal cliffs and pitfalls. it can still be very profitable, but i agree with Bill, if the numbers don't work without STR, dont do it, since the rules can change so quickly

Matt Zale · Answer

@Bill Brandt It's pretty much city-specific, from what I gather here in TX. Austin, for example has a similar ordinance to Las Vegas and their code enforcement is strong. I have a friend who Airbnb's his house (1 mile from downtown) full time and is crushing it.. but he applied for the license before new rules came in, which essentially grandfathered him in. Like Vegas, new licenses are hard to receive or maintain. But I think my friend is an anomaly.. he's super into it and is willing to sleep in the garage/man-cave while he travels for work rest of time. His location gets him a higher rate from hipsters and corporate types and he's always booked. He showed me his monthly revenue on the Airbnb website and I was impressed.. Actually, I'm gonna ask him to show me again just in case he's messing with me.. Lol.

In my case, I intentionally did Airbnb just outside the Austin city limits 2015-2017 so that I wouldn't have to deal with regulation. It was a tiny house community, so also kind of an anomaly. I think STR's work well for 'destination points' or theme-based venues. So that's what I would do in your South Dakota MN lake cabins. Sell the experience, become a superhost, hire a friend or someone willing to live there and do laundry, tend to guests. It'll start to become more passive after awhile as the routine gets familiar. Get enough reviews to become a 'super host' and get more bookings.

If STR is not a landlord's thing, then they can go back to long term rentals. I like both options. With STR, I like how it reduces deferred maintenance costs since every guest is likely to either complain or praise any bad/good property issues (perceived or real), which helps keep property in tip top shape.

I'll try it out in Vegas too since I'm getting property there. We'll see how the legal climate goes. Maybe the city wants a hostel or tiny house community with full time residents managing the 'hotel' section. But that's a different thread.

Bill B. · Answer

@Matt O.

is it illegal or unprofitable to do it in Texas? I have friends and relatives doing it in the black hills of South Dakota and Lake cabins/homes in MN. But only by the week for $1-$2,000 a shot to make it worth their time.

Most of that goes unreported I’m sure.

Matt Zale · Answer

@Bill Brandt I agree. It's hard to beat a $30/night hotel.. even if semi-seedy. I would need at least $80/night with Airbnb to compete and the few NLV houses that are doing it under the radar don't seem to come close to the rate or frequency needed to compete. I see some hoping for the off chance they'll get a quick $1,000 by renting their entire NLV house for the weekend. They have zero reviews too. Ok then, I'm putting NLV on the shelf for now.. unless a great business idea comes along.

Bill B. · Answer

@Matt O.

Thanks for the research but you kinda proved my point. In less than a year the exception, the only legal place to do it, became illegal. It almost doesn’t matter what the current law is. If you need STR to make numbers work, don’t do it in Vegas. The laws can change over night here.

This is the town that outlawed selling pure breed puppies. Too bad if you have a pet store that sells only pure breed puppies. (Luckily they overturned themselves later, but little help if you went out business in the meanwhile.)

Ps.  150,000 hotel rooms, some as cheap at big name casinos as $30/night. And when people say they’re going to Vegas, 99% mean a couple mile stretch of The strip actually called “paradise city, Nevada”

Matt Zale · Answer

@Bill Brandt Any luck in finding North Las Vegas STR clarification? All I could find was this July 29, 2016 article with the excerpt: North Las Vegans — for once — you’re in luck. “The city of North Las Vegas does not have a short-term rental ordinance,” Greg Blackburn, the city’s public information officer said. “We have not experienced problems with these rentals so we have not taken any steps to require business licenses. Accordingly, we do not charge any fees and do not have any restrictions on rental periods.”

And this article written June 22, 2017 with the excerpt: Las Vegas is the only local jurisdiction that allows short-term rentals if owners comply with regulations. Short-term rentals are prohibited in North Las Vegas and unincorporated Clark County. In Henderson, there’s only one eligible location for short-term rentals — Montelago Village in Lake Las Vegas — but the city has not approved any in that area

So pretty much a complete reversal for NLV. I agree that calling the city is maybe the only way to know current law. Maybe one of us will be lucky and get an experienced employee to send us a code excerpt so we know how to move forward.

Here is the city of NLV online code. I couldn't find any clear language even after searching "airbnb", "short term", "hotel", etc. Any research gurus out there? Unless the consensus is that NLV is not worth looking into..

Terry Lao · Answer

I had a 4plex in North Las Vegas a few years back. The city of North Las Vegas made me get business license, and had fire department inspector come out and walk through property to pass safety inspection. Needed to get fire extinguishers, smoke detectors in bedrooms and kitchen.

Pain in butt. City of Las Vegas did not have these inspections.

Terry

Short Term Rental in North Las Vegas?

Most Popular Reply