Austin Property Manager Lied about STR Operating License

[Brad Ferndale]

Hey all,

I have a condo in Austin that I spent a lot of time and money on getting STR ready. A highly respected well-regarded property management company took the property under their wing and told me they would handle everything related to getting me the STR Operating License. I was assured everything was okay and we were good to go, and the property has been under their management for awhile now.

I recently found out that all properties in Austin are required to list the OL # in the description for advertisements (which includes Airbnb, VRBO, ect.) from a friend that works at another property management company in Austin. I started trying to track down what the OL # was that was assigned to me and my property, started a thread with the city of Austin, and eventually came to the conclusion that it does not exist.

The City Of Austin is now likely aware of the fact that the property has been listed on Airbnb, VRBO, ect. for months without an Operating License. I'm not really sure what to do here. I should obviously drop my property manager and find a new one, but I don't know how difficult it will be to get the license on my own and if there are other managers out there that would take over the property.