All Forum Posts by: James Carlson

Thanks for the mention, @Drew Fein. It's an interesting question @Account Closed raises. I guess the occupancy limits only apply to long-term tenants? Otherwise you'd run into the same issue if you rented it to two friends through Airbnb. 

If you and your partner live in the basement, you could definitely Airbnb the upstairs. Because you can have only one Airbnb license, you couldn't rent out each room separately. (You can read Denver's STR ordinance here.) But there is plenty of demand for two-bedroom units on Airbnb so you likely wouldn't have a problem getting STR tenants in there. Plus, you could make a lot more on Airbnb than you would if you rented each bedroom individually to a long-term tenant.

If you do that, be sure to get short-term rental insurance, which is different from a homeowner's policy or a rental policy. I'm happy to talk with you, if you decide to go this route.

About the legality and insurance issues with living in a non-conforming basement, that's another issue. 

Interesting story today in BusinessDen about how less than 3 percent of Denver's Airbnb hosts have applied for a license with only eight weeks until the law goes into effect. Similar numbers to what I heard at the short term rental advisory committee last week.

@WEN HAN , that's a great strategy. Reviews are one of the few factors Airbnb has publicly said go into their search ranking algorithm. I always started my prices about 20% lower as well, got a few great reviews and then bumped up the price. 

Keep it up. 

@WEN HAN , what a beautiful desert oasis you've created. Congratulations! I would totally love to stay here. For a place with your design and proximity to cool things, your price seems exceedingly reasonable. Is that what Airbnbs are going for in that area? 

Welcome, @Dael Parker! I wouldn't undermine your Airbnb experience. It's a much more hands-on endeavor than long-term tenants, so you're not afraid of the work, that's for sure. You'll find loads of great information here. Good luck!

Welcome, @Bob Huggins! And I love to hear about people doing Airbnb with their rentals. Sounds like Nashville's rules are up in the air after a judge struck it down last week. It will be interesting to see what happens with that. Does that affect what you're doing at all?

Good for you, @Adina Edwards. If you get it up and running, let us know how it fares. 

@Thomas Mattausch

@Paul Weller is right about the kind of medium-term rental. I think location is key. I have a furnished 350-square foot studio that my wife and I have been renting successfully to traveling nurses. It's in a cool neighborhood in Denver close to bars, restaurants, arts, etc. I'm not sure if Paul is talking about his Seattle place being furnished or not. In my experience, it helps. This model is a bit more effort for two reasons. One, you have to spend the time and money to furnish it. Two, you have turnover a few times a year so you have a little more cleaning duties than a traditional long-term rental. 

The plus side is that you get, as Paul said, about 50% more rent than a traditional unfurnished long-term rental. That's nothing to sneeze at, and I'm more than happy to do the little extra work for that cash.

How do you find tenants?

Craigslist is great. Post your listing under "apts/housing for rent" AND "sublets & temporary." Be sure to have some nice photos taken of your place. Some of your tenants won't even see the place in person, so their entire idea of your place rests in those photos.

Airbnb can work as well. Post your listing there and set a 30, 60, 90 day minimum stay (or whatever minimum you want). 

Go specific. I posted my listing on a few Facebook pages for traveling nurses.

Hope some of this helps.

Hey @Neal Collins . That's really interesting. I remember reading that just after the new Airbnb law went into place in Portland, the compliance rate was less than 5 percent. Then I found a story from the Willamette Weekly in August that said it was under 25 percent, so it was obviously growing. The city's actions must be making a dent in that. Sorry to hear about your experience. Most people are ambivalent or at least partially interested short-term rentals. But some ... whew! ... some are angry! (I remember a guy from a neighborhood association standing up at one of the townhall meetings here and literally waving his finger in the face of the majority-host audience, saying, "You are bad people!)

Are you saying you're being fined for something even with a permit? If so, I hope you win any skirmish with the city and really hope you can bring any reluctant neighbors over to your see that you're not running a brothel or anything. As a side note, I've always struggled with whether it's best to notify neighbors of your intentions. It's either a good thing, seen as a courtesy. Or it's a bad thing, putting them on notice that they should start fighting you pre-emptively. 

Keep us up to date on what's going on with Portland and Airbnb. 

"It's not that [Airbnb] customers are particularly worse...there are just more and different types of people looking now so there are more bad eggs."

Well said, @Blair Russell.