STRA Episode 10: How do I Protect my Investment if STR Regulations Change?

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[00:00:05] Hey guys. Welcome back to the podcast.

[00:00:07] We are John and Wendy Williams, the short term rental authority, your authority for all things, short term rental related to help make you the best operator ever. And we have a question from Todd Fleming, from Ohio, and his question is. how do you protect your asset if regulations, regulations change?

[00:00:35] And I thought that was a really great question in that we should address it on the podcast. So we get this question a lot, you know, are Airbnb's legal? Can I do Airbnb? What are the Airbnb regulations? That kind of thing. So I thought that we could talk about that. And what I'd like to talk about first is, so here's what we're gonna talk about today.

[00:00:57] We're gonna talk about a mindset shift that a lot of people. Don't realize that they need to make about regulations. Then we're going to talk about the different types of regulations that there are. And then we will address the, how do you protect your asset if regulations change aspect? Right. I think his was more of a, Hey, if I go invest in some area or so.

[00:01:27] what do I do? If it, all of a sudden they change it, like it's allowed now, and then they change it. How do I protect my investment? Right. Which is a valid question. Sure. Right. But we'll talk about that last. Okay. Yeah. So, so let's talk about first this mindset shift that people need to make. Regarding regulations and, and you were talking about it earlier and it was really good.

[00:01:55] So regulations don't tell you [00:02:00] what you can't do. They tell you how you can do it oftentimes. Yeah, so I, I would just say that, that it is a way to go look at the regulations is. not what it's telling me. I can't do, but it's it often is telling you how you can do it. Right, right. That there's a difference in, and I think that's why you called it a mindset shift.

[00:02:22] It is because it's a mindset shift. You, you kind of have to go into it with that perspective perspective. And you know, one of the things we always say is make sure you're actually reading the ordinance itself, you know, go find the actual ordinance because. Here's the thing, I think this question comes from a place of fear.

[00:02:42] It comes from a place of misunderstanding a lot, obviously. Yeah. And it comes from Facebook groups that you're on and things like this, like, oh my God, they're, they're banning short term rentals. What we, or they're banning Airbnb or whatever. Right, right. And, and what are we gonna do about it, or I'm afraid that, Hey, they're gonna do that where I am.

[00:03:02] Or, you know, I would never go, you hear things like this, like, well, you can't, you know, you can't do it in, in Los Angeles because it's so honors and I'm afraid, you know, we have a lot of students and coaching clients that are in the California market and they're constantly worried about. Hey, are they going to bring that here?

[00:03:23] Gonna bring that here? Cause there's a lot of markets where right. It is regulated Los Angeles being won a lot of Southern Californias that way. You don't see it as much in your vacation type destination. So I was thinking like you know, big Bayer national park and, and stuff like that. Those those markets tend to, or like in, on our.

[00:03:44] Side of the country, you know, your Myrtle beaches or your, you know, places like that, that are vacation destinations. Don't typically have this problem because it's just, it's been that way all along. Right. And the, the economy depends on it. Sure. So we're mostly talking [00:04:00] about, you know, your Metro areas, your cities, your, the big cities like places we operate C.

[00:04:05] You know, you're at your, Atlanta's your, you know, your cities is really where this in towns that aren't traditional destinations for leisure travel, right. That that's usually where these come in. so, and, and you talked about it just a second ago, is the, the ordinances. So let's talk about the different types of ordinances or regulations.

[00:04:36] So we've got the city or the town ordinances, which you should definitely research first, before you get started to see what you can do. Right. It's not talking about. What you can't do look at it as, okay. How can I operate within the confines of the law? What are they telling me that I can do? Mm-hmm and, and so you've got the city ordinances, and then within that, if you have an HOA, you've got the HOA CCNRs that you'll need to look at.

[00:05:16] And then within that, Yeah, you've got the, the specific landlord regulations too. So some landlords are, are, are more minimal than others. Yes. Yeah. So that's a good way to put it. Yeah. Right. So those three things that are, are the, the three types of regulations or ordinances that you need to look at. And you can have statewide ordinances too.

[00:05:41] That's true. Yeah. That's coming to play here in North Carolina, actually. Uhhuh . Yeah, that's true here recently. That's true. Mm-hmm mm-hmm so, so looking at that and you can do a simple Google search and, and just say short term rental regulations, Charlotte, North [00:06:00] Carolina, or short term rental ordinance.

[00:06:03] Tampa, Florida, mm-hmm, , you know, just short term rental ordinance or short term rental regulation, and then your city or town and your state. And that will bring up a lot of results. But here's the specific thing that I think it's important to look for is something.gov. Would be the most valid search result that you are looking for because it is government

[00:06:37] Yeah. Well, what you're really saying is don't read news articles. Don't read news. Yes. Avoid news articles. Yes. Cause that's what you're gonna get mostly on a Google search. Right? Exactly. And the news article very rarely is informative. In other words, they're well, it's. truth. Well, it is true. It's not that it's a fake news article.

[00:06:59] No, the problem is that they are looking at it from, it's not true ordinance. Well, they're, it's not the ordinance itself. Right. They're looking at it from the perspective of what can't you do. Yes, exactly. Right. And, and keep in mind that they think Airbnb is a verb. Right, right, right. There's, there's a lot of, you know, we're in the industry and to us, we know that.

[00:07:20] Airbnb is just a marketplace there's and short term rentals has been going on for hundreds of years. You know, it didn't get invented when Airbnb right came. Right. So it's, it's been going on forever. In fact, it used to be encouraged. Yes. Especially when you buy, were buying a house. Yeah. Like in the 18 hundreds, that was a thing.

[00:07:40] Yep. That's right. You know, it was actually easier to get a mortgage if you had a short term rental on your property. Right. Cause it was, it was the income, extra income. Right, exactly. And that's still true actually to a certain degree, but the, the point is that there, the, a lot of the times the regulations and the hype.

[00:07:58] Around it [00:08:00] comes from a non-industry perspective. Meaning that's it's. People don't really, I hate to say it this way, but they don't know what they're talking about. They really don't. They're well, they're not in the space. They're not in the space. They're not operating this space. It would be kind of like me trying to tell you how to chop up a, you know, be a butcher or something.

[00:08:18] I'm not a butcher. I don't know anything about it. Other than it's meat, any, I think you chop it up with the Cleaver. right. And there's blood involved and I don't wanna be involved in that. all. Right. Sounds horrible to me, but I like stay right. thank you, butchers. Yeah, but the, you know, it's, it's it's so it's, it's an it's ignorance is the word, but it's not meant to be negative necessarily.

[00:08:41] It's just, it's just, it just is what it is a non-educated point of view. Yeah. Right. And so, so I, I, can I bring my examples out? Yeah. Oh yeah. Go ahead. Okay. when you search for that. And I, and I picked the city of Atlanta because they recently passed some short number ordinances and it's been kind of a buzz.

[00:08:59] We have people in Atlanta too that, that do this and operate. And it's been kind of a buzz because, well, when you Google search it, you're gonna find, well, here's the news article for you. And the, the big headline is city of Atlanta cracking down on Airbnb short term rentals. About 4,000 short term rentals could no longer be allowed to operate in Atlanta because of a new ordinance cracking down on who's able to rent out their home.

[00:09:27] Right. Right. And it goes on to tell you that basically you can only have two of them. You have, one of them has to be your primary residence, which means you have to live there. And now there's this whole well now I can only have two of a max, how am I gonna scale that and make that a business? and well, I don't even live in Atlanta, so now I guess I'm out of business.

[00:09:50] Right, right. Like, and, and the news, that's what the news article says basically. Right. And then they interviewed some people that were short term rental operators in there, [00:10:00] like this lady who has a duplex and her primary residence, but she can only use one half of the duplex. and her primary resident.

[00:10:09] Right. And, and you have to get a license and it's, it's not honors. Really. It's 150 bucks, I think, for the permit. Oh, that's not too bad. And, and that's fine. But, but that's what it is. That's, that's the type of information you're going to get from a news article. Okay. So what I did was I, I took the news article and I said, okay, well, let's go read the ordinance.

[00:10:31] So, so I pulled up the actual ordinance. That's what you really need to do because this is the actual rules. Right? Right. So, and what it basically comes down to when you're reading an ordinance, you'll find that they start out with a lot of wear as is. You know, it's lawyers write these things, right?

[00:10:47] So you get this, whereas, you know, thousands of Atlanta residents rent their homes on a short term basis. Whereas, whereas, whereas whereas, okay, fine. Skip the whereas is and get down to, and what you're really looking for. Right up front. The definition is what's the definition. Yeah. What, what is a short term rental appear?

[00:11:06] How do they define a short term rental, correct? Yes. Like what is it? What is, first of all, we need to know what we're regulating, right? and it says in here it's got the intent ah, definitions, short term rental means an accommodation we're in exchange for compensation. Yeah, we do wanna get paid. A residential dwelling unit.

[00:11:30] So we'd need to define that as well. Right. But for now, we'll just assume we know what that is. A residential dwelling unit okay. Is provided for lodging for a period of time, not to exceed 30 consecutive days, not to exceed 30 consecutive days. 30 consecutive days. Yeah. So they they're talking Yoda speak, cuz they're kind of saying it backwards, but what they're really saying is if you.

[00:11:55] Do it for less than 30, if you do it less for, if you, if you rent out a [00:12:00] space, I'm just gonna use that word for less than 30 consecutive days, then, then you're not considered a short term rental. No, it's the other way around then you are considered a short term rental. Yeah, they just said it backwards.

[00:12:10] Gotcha. So you said it the way that makes sense to most people, right? If you rent it for less than 30 days, it's a short term rental. If you rent it for 30 days or more, then it's not anymore. Which means the rest of this doesn't apply to you. Right? Right. So if you do an extended stay model, then you don't fall under the shortterm rental guidelines.

[00:12:32] Right. Extended your mid consider. I think people are starting to call those midterm stays now midterm stays. Yeah. But yeah, if you, if so long as you have 'em in there for 30 days or more, the rest of this doesn't apply to you, which means this news article is wrong because. It didn't say anything about whether it was on Airbnb or not, or whether it was on VRBO or not, or where I advertised.

[00:12:59] It just said, how long did they stay? Right. And that's the definition. So what it's telling me is I can have an Airbnb, an Airbnb. I can have an Airbnb in the city of Atlanta so long as people stay for 30 days or. So what happens if I want to rent it, rent it out less than 30 days? Well, in that case, it's gonna tell me how I can do that.

[00:13:27] Okay. Tell me how I can do that. So the way I do that is I need to obtain a license. Okay. It does say that I can be a renter and obtain a license. Okay. It says that I must have a primary reside. In the city of Atlanta. Okay. And I can home share that one. So I can, it has to be your primary residence.

[00:13:47] So you have to live there. So I guess I could rent out a room in that home. Okay. And then I can have a second one. Okay. That is totally just for short term rentals. Okay. So, and it says here that you can't [00:14:00] have more than one primary resident. So basically it's saying me, John can have one primary reside.

[00:14:07] and an additional short-term rental. Okay. And then I have to get a license. I have to pay $150 for it. And I have to, there's some things I have to do, like have a way for people to contact me 24 hours a day. Okay. Right. Sounds like a phone number or a messaging. Yeah, so, but there, it has to be posted in the unit.

[00:14:31] So the name and contact information of the registered agent is what they're calling it. Ah. Gotcha. And it has to be posted in the unit. I'm sorry, the short term rental agent. So the agent is a person or organization, so it can be an LLC. Okay. Designated by the owner or the long term tenant of a short-term rental on the short term rental license application.

[00:14:50] Gotcha. Such a person. Shall be available for and responsive to contact at all times. So it can be my team. Okay. It can be queen city suites. That's the agent. Got it. And that's it. That's pretty much it that's it. Yep. Yeah. There's no other requirements in here that I saw. I didn't yeah. You know? Okay. I may have missed something.

[00:15:10] Somebody's gonna say no, but it's this other thing too. Yeah, basically. You have, you have to tell how many parking spaces you have and they can't violate the Nora's ordinance. And well, we don't wanna do that anyway. That's that's pretty much it that's it. You have to have written rules posted in the short term rental that include Them acknowledging that they won't exceed, violate the laws as opposed to noise.

[00:15:33] Acknowledgment of the maximum occupancy is limited to two adults per bedroom. So that is an additional requirement. Okay. Two adults per bedroom. Yeah. So if we had our two bedrooms there, we couldn't put a sleeper. So in right. And say we host six, we could only host four. So they've limited it occupancy two per bedroom.

[00:15:49] You have to notify everyone around it. So if this is a house or an apartment, you have to notify all the neighbors for a certified mail that you've applied for the license. Oh, okay. [00:16:00] Interesting. And that's pretty much it just little stuff like that. So, so you can, you can operate in, in the city of Atlanta and.

[00:16:09] Technically, if I were going to operate there, I would simply go to 30 days or more stays. Yeah. Then you're not gonna and avoid the rest of this altogether. Right. Probably. And I'm, and I might, well, I don't live in Atlanta, so, but if I lived in Atlanta, I might I'm apply for a license and then have one that's short term.

[00:16:27] Like I could do that. So it hasn't told me I can't do it. Right. It's just told me how I can. Right. And, and that's the way I looked at it. So if you're in the city of Atlanta, Simply go 30 day more stays and you'll be fine. I would say that that's probably the case in the majority of metropolitan cities, the majority.

[00:16:47] Yeah. There's a few places that I've seen exceptions to that yeah. Where they really make it difficult. Yeah. But it usually comes down to length of stay length stay. Yeah. And the reason for that is there's a lot of people that rent month to month mm-hmm well, they can't do away with that. And they're trying not to.

[00:17:05] you know, make it illegal to rent month to month, right. And at the same time control. So it comes down to length of stay. It very rarely comes down to where your customer comes from. Mm-hmm . Now I will say there are some exceptions to that. Baltimore is one of those. Oh yeah. Baltimore has written theirs in such a way that it does matter where they come from.

[00:17:26] I feel like it's gonna be challenged if somebody challenges it, but they're basically theirs is 120. Interesting. If you use an online travel way for them to pay, like they made it very vague. It didn't say Airbnb. Oh really? Yeah. So there's some, it's all how they pay online. Yes. It's about, that's interesting.

[00:17:47] Yeah, they were very, I, I think they were trying to be, what they're really trying to say is if you come through everything B you have to stay for 120 days or more. Gotcha. Okay. With that. And, and they're trying to get around the problem [00:18:00] of. Month to month, but you know, there's an argument to be made that well, we pay our.

[00:18:05] Rent online. Right, right. For the, for lots of people do for sure. So how do they, I don't know. I think that could be challenged and it'd be difficult to, to get around it. But that's interesting for now. That's the way it's actually written. Huh? Yeahinteresting it's one of the few places it's actually that way, most places it's, it comes down to length to stay.

[00:18:25] And it's something that's doable, right? 28, 30, 31 days. Right? Sure. And so there, because there are people who. Need to need a place to stay 30 16 all the time, 90 days. So in fact, a lot of our reservations are just that. Yeah, I know. So, so don't be discouraged by, yeah. By that. If you, if the, if your ordinance says, well, you know, you, you, you have to do 30 day stays are more the, just know that that's doable.

[00:18:56] I mean, there. Yeah, we should probably do a whole podcast on that, that need that, that type of stay. So, and, and we get 'em all the time. Yeah. And I know people in those markets and that's what they focus do very well. They do Seattle. We've got some, some Seattle's one of those some coaching clients in Seattle that do places very near that way.

[00:19:17] Denver mm-hmm they do very well in Denver. So places like that in Philadelphia, Indianapolis. Yeah. I don't think Indianapolis actually has a restriction, but there just know that there are lots of people who need that type of accommodation. So, so we've covered the, the city or town ordinance.

[00:19:40] Let's talk a little bit about if you're in an HOA and your HOA has. They're called what you need to look for. If you're, if you're in an HOA, what you need to look for are the CCNRs. And that stands for covenant. Yeah. You just set yourself [00:20:00] up, not to know what that means. Restrictions you're the one that's licensed yours.

[00:20:05] No, right. I really should know. It's been a hot minute since I've. Yeah, but basically it's the rules, but it, that those are the rules that, that are going to. Cover that type of, of information, not just the bylaws. I think the bylaws are just, the bylaws are something else. It's how though HOA is organized, right?

[00:20:24] Like it's gonna have a president and it's gonna have a secretary, right. That's not what, it's not the rules. It's not the rules, the CCNRs, covenant, something and restrictions that I can't remember what it is, but feel free to let me know if you know what it is. Right. let me just cut that out. Cause right.

[00:20:41] Get off the fat jokes. F, but we actually do have some short term rentals in an that have an HOA and well, first advice would be avoid HOA. Yeah. Avoid condo associations, avoid HOAs, avoid areas that have that. Oh, condo associations are the worst. Yeah. I mean, not any worse than HOAs. It's. You call it a condo association when it's a condo, that's the only difference.

[00:21:10] Yeah. But they're why do you say they're the worst? Well, because they're, I'm thinking of it as

[00:21:21] a lot of times they're in vacation destinations, for example, beach. Oh, well, those are the ones where I would, that that's the exception to the rule for me that are, are typically vacation destinations, but those are the ones that might actually be okay. Yeah. I would say that's the exception because it's typical, right?

[00:21:45] It's it's like a, a common thing to do in that area, right? Yeah. Like everybody has a short term rental at the beach. Like all the condos at the beach are, yeah. There are buildings term rentals that are condo buildings where like they're. Vacation rentals. Cause they're, but if you're, [00:22:00] but if you're not, then you really need to watch out if you're, if you're looking to short term rental a condo, because they're, they're definitely going to be some restrictions in the, in the condo associations, for sure.

[00:22:15] Yeah. Well, even if there aren't the risk is that they'll change it. Mm. Yeah. See. Right. Cause an HOA is just a, a group of six people that. volunteered a lot of times just to do it, cuz nobody else would want to right. Nobody supposed to be on the board, you know, and then they can propose amendment amendments and things that get changed.

[00:22:36] And condo associations are very much the same way. Mm-hmm yeah. Now typically the group passed a vote on, right. I was gonna say. the fact that it's there at all is usually driven by who's on the HOA. Now, if you could control the HOA mm. Or you can control the condo association, meaning you own most of the condos in the building, then maybe it's not as much of a risk.

[00:22:57] Right. That's interesting. But it is a risk and it's something you want to mitigate first by just avoiding it. Sure. And two, by reading the current rules, right? You gotta read the rules, but realize they can change. And one of the, a, one of the HOAs we're in right now is proposing to change. The rules to, and it's a time again, they're saying, Hey, you can't lease a property for less than 30, less than six months.

[00:23:22] Oh, six months. Okay. Six months, the neighborhood we live in is 12. Right. So it makes it very difficult. Well, is it possible? Yeah, but I would rather go to lower hanging fruit, you know? So in those cases you end up having to. Generally mm-hmm or go back to a long term rental model, right? Mm-hmm so that's a risk.

[00:23:45] So I would just stay out of them to begin with. so that's how you mitigate your risk there. right. Is just avoid them. Right. But it's hard to avoid your local government and it's hard to avoid your state government, you know? So in those cases, I think that's really what [00:24:00] more people are more concerned about.

[00:24:01] Mm-hmm cause that those you can't avoid, you know, they're going to do it and they are dominion over you, right. Yeah. Right. Well, you can't avoid the, the landlord either. I mean, if you are doing the rental arbitrage model, then. You have to, the landlord's gonna give you a lease. True. Right? Like there, there are some apartment buildings that just won't let you do it.

[00:24:24] Yeah. I just don't. Yeah, basically it did. And it's okay. Next. Right. So you just don't operate there. Yeah. Please don't operate under the radar. You don't want to go to business on no. Any of these scenarios, by the way. You don't want build a business on hiding no, that is poor ethics, right? It's it's poor ethics, but it's also not a very good business foundation.

[00:24:45] I mean, and that's just risky. It's a house of cards waiting to come down, right? Oh boy. Yeah. It's only a matter of time. So I actually enjoy operating in areas that have regulations. I was gonna say that, well, you say it then. Well, because it takes out a lot of competi. Well okay. For that reason, but it also gives you more certainty.

[00:25:07] Well, that's true too. So if you're in an area like Charlotte, that has no short term rental regulations, so it's kind of a free for all. Yeah. Now you have to worry about what if they put some in. well, now that, and I don't know what they're gonna be. Well, now that brings us nicely to Todd's question. Right?

[00:25:26] What do I, how do you, how do you mitigate your risk or how do you protect your asset is actually the way he said it. Mm-hmm if, if regulations change right. Well, at first I would point out that there's very few indu, well, there's no industry, there's no industry. That's not subject to regulation risk.

[00:25:49] there's not a single one. Well, yeah, that's a really good point. Great example. The government says, okay, car companies, your average fleet now has to get 35 miles to the gallon, [00:26:00] right? That's a regulatory risk. They're not set up for that. They make most of their money selling big Ford trucks. Like that's a regulatory risk to.

[00:26:10] right. And so their job now as a business, as entrepreneurs, I guess, is to navigate that. So as entrepreneurs, that's what we do. We navigate changes. Things always change and there's always regulatory risk, no matter what industry you're in. That's true. So there's that but a lot of what we advocate is the, the systems and processes that you put in place.

[00:26:34] Should be anticipating that like this noise section of this ordinance here says, Hey, you know, we're gonna find you if. Your gas, violate noise, ordinances. Mm-hmm and a lot of times that's gonna come from well, neighbor complained and said that you were loud. Right? Right. So one of the things we put in all of our units is a noise monitoring device.

[00:26:57] Yes. And it, it monitors testable levels, 24, 7, 365. Yep. So one, we know if it's happening and we can put it in a stop to it before it becomes a violation. And two, we have the evidence to defend ourselves. If it didn't happen. Right. If they say, Hey, they were loud at one in the morning, what are you gonna do about it?

[00:27:19] We can actually go back to the device and say, well, actually the decimal levels were this inside the unit. Right? Right. And so if you, if you get caught cutting corners and skipping kind, some of these, these steps that are in place, then all of a sudden new regulation, now you've gotta put the cost out to do that thing.

[00:27:39] Or you get a violation, right. And it says in here, I think if you get more than three in a year, they take your license away. Mm. So there's, there's that? So you gotta, part of it is having the systems in place. Other things I've seen in ordinances are around health and safety. Like you, you have to keep a record of.

[00:27:58] When the batteries are [00:28:00] changed and the battery levels in your smoke detectors and the smoke detectors. And we do that. Well, the system that we have does that right for us. So since we use a security system, that's integrated into the smoke detectors and the carbon monoxide detectors, we actually can see that remotely.

[00:28:14] Yeah. So we already have a record of that. Yep. That is kept already. So if the regulation changes, it's kind of like, cool. We already do that. Right. Right. So, so having these things in place, you know, already yeah. Having a team in place, having a number that okay, here's where you can call, if you have a problem.

[00:28:34] Well, we kind of already have that. Right. And we have that 24 hour here's contact information stuff. Right. Mm-hmm we already post that so that the guest knows where to contact us. Right. Right. So a lot of these things you can do preventatively so that you don't get caught flat footed when the regulation comes, cuz it's probably coming.

[00:28:54] It's prob some form of regulation is coming sometime. Sure. Whenever there's money involved, , , that's funny. The government gets involved, right? because they always want a piece of it because the demand is there that it's not short term rentals are not going away. Yeah, no, there's no way that genie is out the bottoms.

[00:29:11] There's no way it's already become established in our society of the lives. Yeah. The demand is there. And it always will be. And people aren't just gonna say, oh, well, I guess we'll go back to hotels. That's not what's gonna happen. No, it's not for sure. The demand is there and the industry will provide, find a way to provide it.

[00:29:28] No doubt about it. So there's that. So don't, don't assume that, Hey, if they would they say. Crack down on Airbnb in Atlanta, that it won't go back the other way at some point, because the demand is there. Yeah. For it. And we saw that actually happen in Anaheim, California. They came out pretty draconian restrictions and then kind of eased back off of that because there needed to be a balance there mm-hmm

[00:29:54] Yeah. And frankly, the, you know, Atlanta didn't go full. [00:30:00] Crazy on it. right. They just said, here's how you can do it. Right. Right. I feel like most of them are that way. Yeah. They are because they've seen what's happened in other places. So as time goes on, these kind of things are gonna get way more predictable because they're going to be more, I'm gonna use uniform, the word uniform mm-hmm even though they're that's true.

[00:30:21] Different localities. Mm-hmm I feel like that's true. Like they're all gonna require you to have the noise thing. You know, you know, check the battery levels on the smoke. You have a contact, have a contact. And frankly, if you're operating correctly, you're already doing a of those things anyway. And I think that's the whole point of, of this mm-hmm if you're operating correctly, you should already be doing those things.

[00:30:46] So if the regulations change, you're not stuck. Saying. Okay, well, crap. I gotta put this system in place. You're already doing it if you're operating correctly. Yeah. You know what? I think one of the biggest things that we can do as operators to protect our investment is, is simply to educate. Mm. Yeah.

[00:31:06] Cause a lot of the times the, the city council or, you know, whoever's making these decisions. They're not in the industry. Right. And they just don't know that and they read headlines like this. Right. They, or, or something like it, like something's happened at an Airbnb and they're like, oh shit, what do I do?

[00:31:27] Right. Yeah. Like there was a shooting at an Airbnb. Yes. Right? Like you used to see those headlines. When I think the Ford Explorer made SUVs popular. And when they first came out, you would see these headlines that says SUV. in an accident, SUV mows down pedestrian or something, or SUV kills a child or right.

[00:31:47] Yeah. Nothing about like, Hey, somebody was driving the thing right. That actually did that. Right. Right. And, and you see that in, in this instance too, because frankly people aren't educated. They, [00:32:00] they think Airbnb means party. They think Airbnb means vacationers, right? They think Airbnb means, oh my God, there's gonna be these people next to us that we don't know who they are.

[00:32:13] Oh my God. And they're gonna constantly coming in and out. Right. Or when, when it's, they don't know, we live in a neighborhood of 500. we don't know half the people that live our here. Oh God, I wouldn't. Oh, well it could be somebody either third. That's a criminal. Well, you know, somebody can buy a house in the neighborhood without a credit.

[00:32:31] I mean, well, they probably get a credit check. Well, without a background check, that's true. There's no background check required to buy a house in your neighborhood's true. That's a very, and you don't know who they are and you don't know what friends they have coming over and what their record is. Right.

[00:32:44] But we don't think about those things because. It seems normal to us. And a lot of times there's this irrational fear of something. That's actually a better situation because it's more controlled rather than somebody, anybody can just it's. It would always be it's like anybody can just come in our neighborhood and buy a house.

[00:33:06] right. That's true. But, but there's, there's not much concern over that. There's this concern over? Well, anybody could just stay there. Right. But no, we actually do guest screening and we actually do run background checks on people. Oh, go figure. And we do look to see, see that they have good reviews. And so those people are probably gonna be better neighbors than potentially someone who's gonna buy next to you.

[00:33:27] Mm-hmm . But in, in, in, I think educating the public and educating. Elected officials on yep. Not only the benefits, but how it's some oftentimes better for the community. Because it, it actually can raise property, manual values, which that's another thing, you know, you, you see this back and forth, back and forth of two things that can't be true at the same time.

[00:33:55] right. Like, Hey, there's so many short term rentals that it. [00:34:00] Decreasing housing stock and making the price of everything go up. Right. And now there's, you know, we're gonna get rid of 'em so that we can have more affordable housing in the area. and then at the same time you have people saying, well, we have this short term rental in our neighborhood and it's negatively affecting our property value values.

[00:34:17] Right. So, which is it like, are they going up or down? , you know, which, which thing are you talking about? Right. Right. And, and both of those things can't necessarily be true at the same time. So a lot of it, I think is, is it's a need jerk reaction. It's a fear misunderstanding, frankly, of what. A good short term rental really is.

[00:34:38] Cuz there are people that just allow anything right. And don't control their properties and don't keep them up.

[00:34:45] And that's why I actually like the idea of some regulation that says, okay, you guys, you need to be doing it this way. So I would rather see regulations, frankly, that say, Hey, here's the stuff you gotta have in your unit. Mm-hmm, , you know, here's the control you need to be able to have of your property. Here's the you know, you can't just have 20 people in a one bedroom apartment.

[00:35:07] And then on the flip side of that, The police department, frankly, let us be able to call them and say, Hey, we have people in violation of the short-term rental ordinance that are in our unit. Can you please help us with that? Right. And, and not tell don't tell me, well, there's nothing I can do about it.

[00:35:24] Yeah. Cause that that's, that's what would really make rentals from my perspective, better for the community. Mostly if we could get assistance from the city, when there is a problem. so not only can, you know, instead of us having to go over there and take care of ourselves, at least have some teeth and some backup to say, Hey, what you're doing is actually gonna get you escorted out by the Charlotte MC brick police department.

[00:35:53] Right. That would be really great that that would make the quality of the neighborhood [00:36:00] better. That would make short term rentals more of a benefit to the community. Then a detriment sometimes. Right. And I will say the vast majority of guests are fine. So it's that one in 10 that you get and that's the one you need help with.

[00:36:14] Yep. And being responsible operators. We only, we don't want that either. No, goodness gracious. No. , you know, I, I value the quiet enjoyment of my yes. Neighbors. I, I value, I have a large investment in that place. Yes. You know, I don't want somebody tearing it up either. Right. For sure. I don't even want 'em smoking in there.

[00:36:34] I mean, we, we wanna be good neighbors, so it's in our best interest to operate that way. Please help us with that. So that's the kind of regulation I would rather see actually. Yeah. Mm-hmm, . But unfortunately it, it often comes down to, okay, well, we're gonna restrict the number of that you can have or how close together they can be.

[00:36:56] Doesn't make any sense. Or, and it's, it's not really the, in my opinion, it's not really the proper solution for what I think they're trying to get at. And I was mostly concerned with safety and security, I would say. Yeah, it's always trash, trash noise, trash noise. And. Safety. Yeah. So it's, it's those three things, and those can be addressed if you're operating a system.

[00:37:20] Yes. Like, like we advocate and that we were taught and that we teach others and that we teach others. So if you, if you wanna know more about that system follow more of these videos, if you like this like, and subscribe. Do you have anything else you wanna say about that? No. Okay. I felt like we were kind of in a natural yeah.

[00:37:37] Place to finish that. Yep. Okay. It was really great. Great, great information. We hope that you found some value. Please do like and subscribe. If you'd like to hear more and we will see you next time onto the next, onto the next.

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