All Forum Posts by: Sherylyn Holden

 Hi James! I’m a SA native as well, & I also did my first full gut rehab a few years back. It was a disaster!! However, it was an invaluable lesson, so I can totally relate to you on your journey. 

I honestly get most of my tenants from Zillow, even if I'm posting to the MLS as a realtor. I also get a lot of calls from the yard sign in the front yard of the rental property I'm listing.

Hope this helps! 

As a reminder, the San Antonio City Council approved new STR rules (you can see my post regarding this here!). One of those rules required the STR platforms to remit the San Antonio HOT tax directly rather than having the operators/hosts remit and pay that.

UPDATE: The Hotel Occupancy Tax (HOT) compliance timeline has been moved to now start on February 1, 2025 (this was previously set to start in October)

Any short term rental advertised through a platform remitting the hotel occupancy tax to the State of Texas (such as Airbnb or VRBO) will begin paying the San Antonio HOT directly to the city monthly through the platforms. If your short term rental is advertised on a platform not doing this, then the operator must continue to report and pay HOT directly to the city every month. All operators must still file a monthly tax report through Avenu. (FAQ sheet can be found here)

San Antonio short term rental rules are changing for all us hosts so I hope this helps! 

The table below further summarizes this new timeline of the operator’s responsibility to report and pay HOT for the upcoming months:

Thanks everyone for your feedback and suggestions!

@Collin Hays yes this is in a residential neighborhood

I will definitely try and push back to the city and see if they will honor their previous issuance of the permit without having to go down the path with the Board.

If they say no we'll see what the Board says. If that does not go in my favor I may need to seek legal counsel. In any case, I will definitely post any updates here!

I posted awhile back about the new short term rental rules in San Antonio here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/530/topics/1200417-new-...

Wanted to share a brief update on my experience and some other helpful notes:

The city is getting serious about these rules. I had one short term rental that was granted a permit earlier this year and I have been operating it for months now as an STR. The city emailed me not too long ago informing me that there was some "system error" and they approved that permit by mistake. They even sent someone from the city to the house to tell us to stop operating it as a STR. Here is the email received

"An internal audit has been completed for STR permits and our records indicate that your STR permit was issued in error due to exceeding the maximum 12.5% blockface density. Upon further review, there is 1 active Type 2 STR permit on this blockface prior to your STR application submittal, but a system glitch did not capture it on the OneStopMap. Therefore, your request for a Type 2 STR exceeded the maximum 12.5% blockface density and the only way that staff can approve this request is for the Board of Adjustment (BOA) to grant a Special Exception for the rental.

Based on this information your STR permit has been cancelled. If you would like to continue to operate as a short term rental, you will need to submit a new STR application for this property and must go to the Board of Adjustment and be granted a special exception for staff to approve this request for a Type 2 STR Permit.

The Board of Adjustment consists of eleven (11) members; you will have to get a concurring vote from nine (9) out of eleven (11) members in order to be granted the special exception. The fee to submit an application is $600.00. Please note the fee is not refundable, even if the Board denies your application. You will need to compile a convincing case as to why the cities established maximum blockface density should be exceeded in this instance. Please note that if the Board does approve your request for a special exception, you will need to get a new Special Exception every three years when you renew your STR permit."

Needless to say this is no fun. I'm being required to pay another application fee and then $600 application fee to hopefully get this approved by the Board to allow me to continue running the STR that they approved 6+ months ago. 

All this to say they are getting serious about permitting so if you are planning to invest in San Antonio in the short term rental space, MAKE SURE to check that the property is eligible for a short term rental permit given the density limits above and have a Realtor experienced with the San Antonio permitting requirements and rules. 

If you have any questions let me know! 

@Jeremy R. Agreed! Enforcement was definitely lacking in the past. I hope this brings some good for the city. Good luck to you too!

San Antonio has been one of the cities with the largest increase in short-term rentals in recent years. Given this, the city of San Antonio has changed their short-term rental rules and regulations. Below you can find a quick FAQ sheet of the updates they have implemented and will be implementing soon.

Quick Overview:

- The cost of application fees has increased

- Platforms will remove listings without legitimate permit numbers

- Platforms will have to remit the Hotel taxes directly to the city of San Antonio (Operators still have to file revenue reports monthly)

- STR operators can change the operator of the permit without a new application being required (it seems the permits are still non-transferable upon sale, however)

- Updated Party Prevention measures

My Take:

This should weed out some hosts that have not been abiding by the permit requirements. The fee increase for the permit was not exorbitant so that likely won't be a deterrent for professional hosts and investors. Having the platforms remit the taxes should ease the burden on most hosts having to do that each month currently.

 Hi Zach! I recently have steered away from the arbitrage model and am looking towards the full ownership business model. 

That's what I'm getting too... I assume you didn't end up starting a Converse STR?

Hi everyone!

I've heard a lot of mixed reviews about the STR community in Converse, TX or near there. Can anyone share their experiences? Ive seen a lot of up and coming apartments and houses being built in that area, which will lead to the value of properties going up. Is this a good place to invest in?

TIA!