All Forum Posts by: Evan R.

I just got off the phone with a code enforcement office in Spoken, a city that's been "cracking down" on vacation rentals.

So far the complaints have been initiated by neighbors and registered BnB owners filling complaints with the code violations office. The city investigates, and sends notices to the airbnb hosts. The notices say that the planning department is reviewing the law around short term rentals, and there will be no enforcement until August.

Howdy @Raquel L. !

Most of the full service property management companies that handle vacation rentals take about 30-40% off the top. Such a service would include cleaning(very important for airbnb guests), maintenance calls, and check in/out.

There are small operators hacking away at parts of the process.

• airenvy gives you turn down service and toiletries, but only in SF(1% fee)
• Super Host answers questions, schedules cleanings, and does the key handoff(1% now, 3% soon)
• beyondstays does more work, and they guarantee they will make you more money using their services.

Some good threads on BP have been: Vacation rental - how to begin? and AirBnB or FRBO - who out there is doing it or tried it?

Can you tell us more about your property? @Sue Hoyuela and I can help you with figuring out how much you could make with your place on AirBnB.

When I got insurance for a rental property, the policy had something similar to "rental income interruption". My agent told me it covers when the property is unable to be rented because of damage. It doesn't cover when the tenant moves out, and the house is still habitable.

@Kevin Dickson I was just commenting about the legal murkiness of Vacation Rentals in another thread.

In Monterey county, an ordinance approved by the board of supervisors allowing for vacation rentals in unincorporated communities was shown to not have been certified by the California Costal Commission, seven years after it was passed. In the interim two cities passed ordinances approving short term rentals.

Landlords are expected to understand the inconsistencies in the city/county ordinances, and the California Costal Commission policies to operate short term rentals in Monterey county.

This artical in the Monterey Herald covers the sitiuation very well.

Welcome to Bigger Pockets Valerie!

I've enjoyed seeing your posts on vacation rentals on the forums, and I look forward seeing more of your experience at VRBO shine though!

Regarding what Kevin Dickson and Joe Fairless have said, verifying the law can be difficult. In California, the county of Monterey passed an ordinance to allow short term rentals in the unincorporated parts of the county. A few years later two cities in the county approved short term rentals.

Recently, Monterey County has said the California Costal Commission didn't certify the new ordinance, and short term rentals are illegal.

Despite this, the county is collecting taxes from rentals, and fining landlords.

For the most part, there have only been a couple of token operators being fined, but it can happen to any landlord in Monterey county.

I read about the legal situation in the Monterey weekly paper. It was a super interesting article about the legal history short term rentals in Monterey County going back to the 1990's. Click here to read it.

CA PC 14620?

Has the estate finished probate? While the estate in probate, the executor can't do much, such as let one of the heirs rebuild the house, to increase the value.

Your friend will have to sell his other family members on the idea of more future profits.

Be sure to let us know how it goes!

@Karin Crompton

My company has software that generates these spreadsheets as part of the services we provide. For people doing Vacation Rentals, what sites do you look at to get this kind of data?

Thanks for the heads up availability. I took a quick look at the all the calendars for all the listings, I didn't see any differentiation between "booked" or "unavailable" You can take a look here: http://bit.ly/1dFsALi, and see all the calendars in costal orange county. My hunch is that if you're going to be unavailable for a season, then you deactivate the listing, but every one does their business differntly.

@Sue Hoyuela what kind of analysis do you do for determining which group to market to?

The rules around rent control (limits on raising rents while tenant occupies property) and eviction control(limits on why you can have a tenant leave) vary city by city, and year by year, when the building was built, and when the tenant started occupancy.

For San Francisco, all SFR are exempt from rent control. This includes buildings with commercial on the first floor, with a single apartment on top.

In Oakland, for a rent controlled unit, you cannot raise rent more than 3% or by CPI. However, you can pass 100% of the cost of capital improvements onto your tenants. The last Oakland city council meeting heard arguments about capping capital improvement related rent increases to 10% per year. Because rent and eviction controls are on a city level, you need to be aware of each cities idiosyncrasies.

State lawmakers are talking about placing limits on the Elis act, which enables property owners to evict tenants and convert the building into condos. One of the bills would require a landlord to wait five years before preforming Elis Act evictions. Click here to read more about the proposed bills.

Many real estate agents may not understand the nuance of rent and eviction control laws for the property they are marketing. By being knowledgeable about the controls, you may be able to find a good deal.