All Forum Posts by: Kimberly Jones

@Jimmy Nguyen Airbnb is very good in New Orleans, as long as you don't mind being absolutely ostracized and despised. Supposedly we are singlehandedly destroying the very fabric of this city with str's, even though it only represents 2% of the housing stock. It is a very big fight here at the moment, one I hope they get a handle on soon. 

@Joseph Pumilia are you familiar with New Orleans? Do you have friends or family here? I can't help but to be curious why a new investor living in Cali wants to try to take on deals in New Orleans? This city is not easy for us old timers. I am not trying to be an ***, but I would suggest that you be cautious. If you don't know this place well you stand a good chance of getting screwed right out of the gate. We have a saying here, "New Orleans is OZ, everywhere else is Kansas." Very little is as it appears to be from the outside looking in. @Braden Smith is a good local Realtor to hook up with, but you are going to need more than a Realtor if you plan on doing any rehabbing without being here yourself.

Technically the title company is there to protect the lender. As you probably know, the lender can make the borrower jump through pretty much any hoop they choose. If the borrower doesn't like the lenders requirements, they can choose another lender.  You have to keep in mind, it is the Bank's money. Buyer and seller can write up any agreements they want to, but the money dictates the rules.

@Nicholas R. For starters, I have very good relationships with my neighbors and I talked with them about it before I started doing it. They don't have any issues with it whatsoever. 

Greedy?? Not at all. We don't really make much more than we would if it were ltr because we choose to charge rates that regular folks can afford. I don't rent all of my units out str, I have others on the block with regular tenants in them. I happen to enjoy hosting visitors in the one unit and my ltr tenants enjoy it as well. We have people come from all over, France, Germany, Spain, Texas, Maine. We appreciate the diversity and we love sharing our home, our block, and our city with all of them.

You say we should wait until Landrieu and crew get their ducks in a row and figure out how to regulate. We wish they would hurry. We are all for it! The thing is, this is New Orleans. You can literally die waiting on things to happen here. Do you know how long airb&b has been working here? Seven years. I know people who got on that bus in the first days. Seven years and still no real end in sight. Ponder that. Also ponder the fact that this city wouldn't even be working on regulation were it not for the people already doing it. Somebody has to start the process and you know good and well the city of NO would not be the one to do it.

We can talk about how str's are taking rentals away from locals, but then we need to talk about all of the blighted properties that are still rotting away. The vacant properties that have been burned to the ground, taking occupied units with them. The gutter punks that sleep in them, the drug dealers that work out of them, the women who are raped in them, and even the folks who are murdered in them. If people were half as passionate about hating on abandoned properties as they are about str's, we might have enough rental stock to keep everyone happy.

To use your phrase, "you people" act like folks haven't been renting rooms out of their houses for an eternity. You ever watch old black and white movies? Rooming houses were common a heck of a long time before I was even born. 

But...that is not Bywater. 

I have pondered this post more than a few times just because it is a little bit scary to "come out of the closet" as an airb&b host in this city. Folks are so "passionate" about str's right now I am afraid they are going to start burning us at the stake soon. I figure this is one of the safest places to try this though so here goes ;)

Who else out here on BP is doing, or would like to do airb&b in New Orleans? The people trying to block us are pretty well organized, we need to find each other to prepare for what comes. I am local and it is still hard to keep track of the rules they are trying to push through. I can't imagine how hard it would be if I were out of State!

@Account Closed As one who regularly obtains financing as an LLC I gotta ask....don't the folks at Region's make sure the LLC's are legit BEFORE they close the loans??? Every lender I deal with surely does. Not only do they vet the LLC's, they also have strong language in the closing docs that prevents changes to the LLC after closing.

Bought one to rehab and rent, ended up living in it myself. There is a hella story behind that house, we even kept the front door with a bullet stuck in it. But this is New Orleans, just about every house is 60 to 100+ years old and they all have stories to tell. Around here funerals are celebrated and ghosts are expected ;)

I have seen this conversation so many times and I just shake my head every time. There are more than a few lenders that only lend to LLC's. There truly is no reason for covert moves that risk triggering due on sale clauses and no reason to make things overly complicated.

Getting an elevation certificate is the smartest thing you can do. I recently was able to lower the cost of flood insurance on one of our properties from $2,200. a year down to less than $500. Hands down the best $250. I EVER spent!