4 ms·

I live in Los Angeles and new rules make it very difficult to do short term rentals (you need a permit, it can only be your primary residence, and they cap it a

I live in Los Angeles and new rules make it very difficult to do short term rentals (you need a permit, it can only be your primary residence, and they cap it at 120 days of rentals per year). Medium term is better, no special permit required for 30 days or longer. We listed on AirBnB and got a 90 day booking the same day. we got a lot of messages from Facebook Marketplace, nothing from FurnishedFinder. If you find tenants directly, keep in mind that AirBnB is convenient for tenants since they can pay by credit card and there is no security deposit. You have to compete with that. It is annoying if you move from place to place every 3 months. but you have security deposits tied up and you have to write checks on the first.

toomuchtodo 2y ago
Any experience or ground truth with VRBO you can report?
- byoung2 2y ago
  No bookings with VRBO yet. I have a feeling the audience there is more vacation rentals, and we are going for more of the traveling nurse, primary home under renovation, or just divorced and I moved out crowd.
  - toomuchtodo 2y ago
    If I may be so bold, I recommend reaching out to local traveling nurse agencies, insurance adjusters (homeowners who need temp housing while their house is being repaired due to a catastrophic loss event), and divorce attorneys to serve these potential markets. Word of mouth is still very real and powerful, as well as networking in the RE space. Make it easy for lodgers to not only become repeat customers, but also to share your info, relying on tech as the logistics for managing occupancy vs lead gen.
    - byoung2 2y ago
      We live walking distance to the major hospital in the city, and my wife works there. So she is tracking down the travel nurse agency they work with to partner up with them.
legitster 2y ago
> no special permit required for 30 days or longer 30+ day rentals allows people to establish residency, and you run the risk of getting a tenant you have to evict using the court system. My parents ran a motel where they had to go through this process a few times, and on their advice we don't take medium or long stays.
- byoung2 2y ago
  Yeah pick your poison...under 30 days and you need a permit and you have to follow all the restrictions for the city. Over 30 days and you run the risk of squatters, evictions, etc. Though a solid background and credit check, deposit, and/or renters insurance is a good defense against that. In Los Angeles, you can only legally have one short term stay (unless it is an licensed motel/hotel)
- byoung2 2y ago
  Your parents' motel, was the problem with offering weekly and monthly stays and then people squatting? Our AirBnB guest has great reviews and multiple medium term stays, so I'm hoping they won't want to throw that away to squat. If we get someone on FurnishedFinder we will definitely do a background and credit check, and hopefully someone won't want to ruin good credit over 2 free months of rent.
  - legitster 2y ago
    It was with monthlies - 3-4 months in they might just refuse to pay. Rare if you work with them, but still happens. On Airbnb, if you want to maintain superhost status, you are only allowed to reject a few guests a month. And if someone comes in through Instant Book - you are not allowed to reject them at all. So we definitely had some guests come through with "gamed" reviews. We only have a few horror stories, like a lady who tried to squat after just 3 days. Luckily, I don't think she understood squatters rights before making her attempt, and the police were pretty respectful.

toomuchtodo 2y ago

Any experience or ground truth with VRBO you can report?

byoung2 2y ago
No bookings with VRBO yet. I have a feeling the audience there is more vacation rentals, and we are going for more of the traveling nurse, primary home under renovation, or just divorced and I moved out crowd.
- toomuchtodo 2y ago
  If I may be so bold, I recommend reaching out to local traveling nurse agencies, insurance adjusters (homeowners who need temp housing while their house is being repaired due to a catastrophic loss event), and divorce attorneys to serve these potential markets. Word of mouth is still very real and powerful, as well as networking in the RE space. Make it easy for lodgers to not only become repeat customers, but also to share your info, relying on tech as the logistics for managing occupancy vs lead gen.
  - byoung2 2y ago
    We live walking distance to the major hospital in the city, and my wife works there. So she is tracking down the travel nurse agency they work with to partner up with them.

legitster 2y ago

> no special permit required for 30 days or longer 30+ day rentals allows people to establish residency, and you run the risk of getting a tenant you have to evict using the court system. My parents ran a motel where they had to go through this process a few times, and on their advice we don't take medium or long stays.

byoung2 2y ago
Yeah pick your poison...under 30 days and you need a permit and you have to follow all the restrictions for the city. Over 30 days and you run the risk of squatters, evictions, etc. Though a solid background and credit check, deposit, and/or renters insurance is a good defense against that. In Los Angeles, you can only legally have one short term stay (unless it is an licensed motel/hotel)
byoung2 2y ago
Your parents' motel, was the problem with offering weekly and monthly stays and then people squatting? Our AirBnB guest has great reviews and multiple medium term stays, so I'm hoping they won't want to throw that away to squat. If we get someone on FurnishedFinder we will definitely do a background and credit check, and hopefully someone won't want to ruin good credit over 2 free months of rent.
- legitster 2y ago
  It was with monthlies - 3-4 months in they might just refuse to pay. Rare if you work with them, but still happens. On Airbnb, if you want to maintain superhost status, you are only allowed to reject a few guests a month. And if someone comes in through Instant Book - you are not allowed to reject them at all. So we definitely had some guests come through with "gamed" reviews. We only have a few horror stories, like a lady who tried to squat after just 3 days. Luckily, I don't think she understood squatters rights before making her attempt, and the police were pretty respectful.