STR in Primary Residence

[Nancy Revill]

Hey everyone! We just purchased a new build in February and have an unfinished basement of 800 sq ft. We are in the process of framing out two bedrooms, one full bath, a kitchenette/living room space and a closet for a stackable washer and dryer. We plan to live here as our primary residence and rent out the basement. We are trying to determine whether a STR or a MTR (traveling nurses/professionals) would be a good route in our area. Anyone in Salt Lake County have any experience in these type of rental markets? We are located in West Jordan, west of Bacchus Highway, so I'm concerned we are too far from tourist attractions to be successful in STR.

We are located in a HOA, but the CC&Rs do allow STRs luckily! Any input or tips would be appreciated!

[John Underwood]

Look on Vrbo and Airbnb to see if other people have sucessful rentals in your area.

[Logan McKay Zylstra]

Agreed. Look at nearby properties and see their nightly rates and how many nights are already booked. This will give you an idea for STR income. For MTR look at furnished finder or I know STR platforms have the optionality for longer stays.

[Jimmy Woodard]

@Nancy Revill why not do both? Sign up for Airbnb/VRBO and Furnished Finder and connect calendars so that bookings on one platform don't affect the other. Also check out Rabbu to see the STR potential of your address. Good luck and feel free to DM me for further questions!

[Leo R.]

@Nancy Revill I think you're probably correct to assume that West Jordan is too far West and South to be a big attraction to most tourists...however, if you're near a hospital, then MTRs for traveling nurses could be feasible. I don't do MTRs, but I've always been interested in them--there seem to be a lot of advantages (higher cashflow than LTRs, but much less of a time investment than STRs, and sometimes very high-grade tenants like traveling nurses).

As others have mentioned, you'll want to do some market analyses for your neighborhood...

I'm not 100% sure, but I think that in Salt Lake City, STRs are illegal (but, that doesn't stop people from having STRs--as you can see if you look up SLC on the airbnb map)...I've heard that although there's a law against STRs, there's also another (rather weird) law that prevents police /municipality personnel, or other public officials from searching for STRs-- which would make it pretty difficult for them to enforce any laws against STRs...but again, I'm not 100% sure about all that; you'll want to do your own research on the topic.

Other things to consider: is the unit you're building in your basement permitted? It's very common for people to build un-permitted units in their basements, but please keep in mind that if you do this, you're taking on a risk and exposing yourself to more liability. For instance, if there was a fire and a person in your basement was injured or killed, and the inspectors determined that the basement unit was un-permitted and the ingress/egress points were not up to code, you could be facing a big lawsuit. If you ever sell the property, an un-permitted unit could lower the value (particularly in a softer market). Also, you do hear stories about people building un-permitted units, and then the city finds out and drops the hammer...sometimes the city finds out about the unit because a neighbor who is disgruntled by the STR traffic, or upset about some other issue, calls the city...the city inspectors show up, and require the owner to rip out all of their un-permitted work, or they fine the owner, or they require the owner to bring the unit up to code (how the city responds often varies from one municipality to the other, depending on various local and state laws and regulations)... ...There was a long thread on the forums not long ago about this very topic...

If you do pursue either the STR or the MTR approach, I'd be very interested to hear how it turns out.

Good luck out there!

[Nancy Revill]

Quote from @John Underwood:

Look on Vrbo and Airbnb to see if other people have sucessful rentals in your area.

 Thanks John! I did see some in our area, but for the most part they are private room rentals.  Ours is a whole private basement, but I can't seem to find a similar option on either platform.  Would you think that listing as a guest suite would be appropriate?

[Nancy Revill]

Quote from @Jimmy Woodard:

@Nancy Revill why not do both? Sign up for Airbnb/VRBO and Furnished Finder and connect calendars so that bookings on one platform don't affect the other. Also check out Rabbu to see the STR potential of your address. Good luck and feel free to DM me for further questions!

 I never thought of that before! I will definitely look into this option.  Thank you so much for the advice! 

[Julian S.]

I stayed in a converted basement Airbnb in Sandy Utah before, which is not too far from you. It was very easy access to the ski resorts. I liked the privacy and didn't hear the people upstairs really at all. To entice winter season stayers to go the extra couple miles away from the mountain, you might put in a little extra effort on making the place stand out in photos with the decor and furniture quality. And you at least have a leg up on your local private room competition--I typically prefer a private unit rather than a private room, unless I'm solo traveling and want a local's input (which you can still offer anyway, being right upstairs).

I also agree with @Jimmy Woodard to list on both STR and MTR marketplaces.