All Forum Posts by: Paul Weller

Have you ever heard of the phrase Apples to Oranges? I see what your logic but you can not apply that logic to something that needs completely different set of regulation principles.  Do short term rental cause addiction and abuse?  Do people kill just to use a short term rental?  If you are implying that we should use the same principles for regulating Heroin use as short term rental use you are stretching it way too far!  

 Wow, you really took a leap there.  Short term rentals to heroin.  

Most hotels have a concierge, serve breakfast, offer room service, and clean your rooms.  These are services provided that short term rentals 95% of the time do not offer.  It has nothing to do with rooms, and not the amount of time you can stay.  I think zoning that states you can not offer your home for less than 30 days is regulation gone too far.  

I believe in efficiency.  If I am going on a trip for a couple of weeks during the summer and I have a nice house in a nice neighborhood, I think for efficiency sake, I should be able to rent out my place.  While I am gone, my house just being empty does no good.  It could be rented to a family coming into town that wants to stay in a home and not a high rise with no kitchen.  

I also believe in choice.  Airbnb and VRBO are websites connecting the supply with the demand.  The supply now for travelers is not confined to places only cities have zoned for hotel uses.  It expands and I have a choice of where I want to stay.  Do I want a cabin, a neighborhood, a high rise?  Do I want to stay with people or without?  Shoot, I can even choose a house boat or an RV!

Once again James, STRs are not hotels.  In fact, someone renting a home short term in an upscale neighborhood, like yours, probably wants to be in that neighborhood for the exact reason you do, for the moment of peace and quiet.  

My 2 cents...

STR are not hotels. Most hotels do not have kitchens- STR do. A lot of hotels don't have multiple rooms for children. STRs make it possible for a family to live on the lake for a week when they can't typically afford to. STRs allow a family to stay down the street from their family members home when they come to visit. STRs are easier for siblings coming in for a wedding and all stay in the same home and feel like they are in a home! Essentially, Airbnb and VRBO has opened up more of the world's housing supply to more of the housing demand. It has made this world more interesting!

Why is it so important that we know exactly who our neighbors are? I have lived on the same street for a while now and don't know the names of many of my neighbors.  Honestly, I am not sure what some of them look like.  I'm probably the one of the friendliest on the street and am out on the street with our kids frequently.  I don't care if someone is friendly or not to me - it's their life.  When I moved in there was a home three doors down that was run as an airbnb and had their listing for $350 a night.  I thought it was great.  It meant that if I were to leave town for a week in the summer that maybe I could cover the entire cost of my trip by renting out my home.  I completely understand that some people get freaked out by other people when they don't know them.  I don't!  Think about this... if you live in a larger city and you go to a grocery store, how many of those people do you actually know.  When I went to the grocery store that is less then a half mile from my house a couple of days ago, I saw many people that I have never seen before, in my life!  It's really okay!!!  If they live in a home for a week, two weeks, 4 months, or 10 years, it shouldn't matter, homes are for people to reside in.  

I don't think the government is intervening just for money. I think they are, in their minds, trying to do what is right but are jumping the gun with regulations too quickly. They think that the sharing economy or STR disruption has been a serious cause to affordability (see Seattle, SF, etc.). They think that by removing long term renters from homes and reducing housing stock it has significantly affected the rents and caused homelessness.

I believe in free market principles.  Sure, minor regulations may be required (noise, traffic, parking, etc) but applying a zoning or restriction on use is not the way to go.  

And for you people that don't feel safe not knowing who is staying nearby.  Sorry, we don't live in 1875 anymore.  

I'm interested.  [email protected]

Airbnb, VRBO, Craigslist, and TripAdvisor. In Airbnb and VRBO, there is a setting where you can indicate minimum stay requirements so when people are looking for the >30 days your listing pops up.  

For Seattle, what is proposed is a maximum of 90 days as short term rental in the calendar year. Short term rentals are typically defined by anything less than 30 days.  In Seattle and other major markets, there is enough demand for greater than 30 day usage and less than three months.  These are people relocating to the area, tech workers, traveling nurses, family visiting from other countries that want to stay longer than a typical hotel stay, etc..  You can fill your investment property with these users and use the maximum of 90 days to fill the vacancy.  You can make around 50% more rent this way than renting your unit long term.  Of course, this all depends if the investment property is in an ideal location for this and if you have the time and effort to do this.

I have been doing this for the last year and it works great and I have enjoyed it.  Some won't enjoy it because it takes more effort.  I have noticed that the people coming through take better care of my property than a long term renter would.

Help me out... where would you invest?

There is some legislation proposed by a Seattle Councilmember (Tim Burgess) that will put some limitations on vacation rentals.  I'd be concerned about that, but it might work to cash flow in the meantime and you could sell once the legislation goes through, if it even does.  There may be amnesty offered to some vacation rentals so there could be a way out of it.