Remember, many of the new rules, particularly Dodd Frank Act, is the banks influencing politicians to pass such stupid laws with the claim that it is consumer protection when in reality, it is the banks protecting their own interests.

It's the messed up PC world where in now where if proactive measures were done on such politicians heads would be demanded for "saving the rich".

Couple with it the dramatic increase in currency in circulation caused by runaway spending by politicians of both parties and you get even higher inflation.

Who you vote for has consequences.Unfortunately, a lot of people are voting for politicians that want to take away private property rights and determine what you can do with your property, how you do it, when you do it, how much you can charge for it, etc.Thanks to the large percentage of illegal short-term rentals, and the poorly run ones, you can expect more and more crackdowns in the coming years.

Politicians seem to love fanning the flames of class warfare and blaming landlords and property owners for the ills of ****** zoning regulations.I read an article recently that some municipalities that banned STRs are reconsidering. 

But people vote for politicians that allow this so someone must like it....?

Not many IMO.We offer a firm approach and if treated with respect, respect is also what will be returned.If we offered diplomacy we would be in the lobbying business or politicians and not real estate...With that said, over the past 12 years of investing I feel like we have seen/heard it all.Some investors are satisfied and others aren't not matter what.Thankfully we have more satisfied investors than not and to the unsatisfied investors all I can do is apologize for not meeting their expectations.With that said, I have also learnt that many who aren't happy from within, will never be happy with anything or anyone else.No matter how much somebody goes above and beyond to meet demands and satisfy needs.They thrive on drama and creating drama.Problems must be had.

A friend of mine in Arlington is paving the way (SFR -> duplex) and I'm sure our politicians in Alexandria will use his experience as precedent.

The state politicians (Senator Wienkowski, etc) in CA behave as though they believe everyone who wants to live in those cities should be able to even at the cost of what makes some of the areas special.Changing rules statewide to increase zoning will lead to the highly desired low density areas to having increased density resulting in no desirable areas maintaining a low density situation.Many people love city life and are fine living in high density areas (like downtown San Diego).  

And political pressure, if the consumers want a change, will lead politicians to make that change.