All Forum Posts by: Paul Weller

Well done!!

I'm loving this thread.  Thanks!!  I have a condo in downtown Bellevue and I started renting it out on Airbnb and VRBO in December 2015.  We have it now booked up through August 6th with mostly 1 or 2 month stays which doesn't require too much effort and the rent is about 50% more per month and the summer months almost 100% more.  It took us about 4-5k to get it furnished because we wanted nice stuff. 

Now on to the bad news. I had another owner call me out and cited me for a violation of my HOA bylaws. I was aware of an issue (no rental terms less than 30 days) but had ran it by more board and they were fine with it since it would be mostly more than 30 day terms with a few shorter terms to fill in the gaps. They said it would be complaint driven. Although there was no complaint with any of my guests, when an owner complained that I was doing this, they had to shut me down. The odd thing was that the owner that complained was an investor and not owner occupied. I did approach all the owners at an annual meeting and did a straw poll to evaluate the interest in changing the bylaws to allow short term (<30 days) and I got 50% in favor. To change the bylaws you need 70%. Now I am selling the condo.

It has been very unfortunate because I was really enjoying the people that were coming through.   I may look at taking the proceeds of this sale and invest in a duplex or 4-plex - maybe in seattle area.  I can control the units (no hoa) and run one ore more of the units as a short term.

What jurisdiction are you in?  Sometimes City code requires one of the units be owner occupied unless it's legal use is a duplex.  Not sure about the enforcement, but something to be aware of.

My first thought when I read this was, oh no, what about Kirkland but turns out no relocation just addition.  Yeah, Seattle still going crazy!

Thanks for all your help. I know it is going to be a tough sell but I thought I would atleast try before I give up and put it on the market. Considering how hot the market it, I could cash out and then find another place with no HOA and do it again.

Hello all,

I own a condo in downtown Bellevue, Washington. I have been running it as an airbnb/short term rental for about 4 months now and it has been very successful. Now here is the problem... another owner got word of me doing it and has turned me into my board and I have been made stop. Now I am presenting my case to the entire HOA and requesting an amendment to the declaration to allow short term rentals (less than 30 days). Has anyone ever experienced this? To all the HOA lawyers out there, what percentage of ownership would I need to vote in favor for me to change the declaration. And, I would love to get a sample declaration and if there are any policies to allow for a regulated approach, ie. "no more than 5 units can be used as short term rentals" or...

Thanks in advance!

Paul

If I were to buy a duplex and wanted to live in one of the units, can I kick out one of the tenants so I can move in?  Do you have to go through a formal eviction?  Or do you inherit the leases and have to honor them? 

@Adrian Chu I like this idea.  Just pulling zestimates and rent zestimates and making some assumptions of expense costs you could come up with a reasonable ball park cap rate.  This would only be for singlefamily.  I wonder how you could do this for MF easily? 

A cool map that could pan around with darker colors for lower cap rates would be interesting.

Does anyone have a general cap rate map for the Puget Sound area?  I know a lot goes into cap rates and it can vary within each geography but I am curious if there is such a thing out there?

Paul

@Timothy Daniels Welcome!  It sounds like you keep yourself busy.  I love a good breakfast at a B&B - I may have to come up and stay a night.