Welcome to another Ask Me Anything (Ask Us Anything?) episode! Each week we’ll answer your questions on STR, real estate, OTAs, and everything in between.

Addie asks:

Our township wants to impose their own licensing and taxes on short-term rentals, and while they deliberate, they’re proposing a one-year ban on all new STRs. This poses issues for our business and we’re just finishing up a new property and getting ready to list it. What can we do?

Thanks to everyone who submitted questions. To hear your voice on the show and send a question to Sarah & Annette, visit Speakpipe.com/ThanksforvisitingAMA

Resources:

• Go to rentresponsibly.org to get involved in your local community’s STR industry.

Thanks for Visiting is produced by Crate Media.

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[00:00:05] You are listening to the Thanks for Visiting podcast. We believe hosting with heart is at the core of every short-term rental. With Annette's background in business operation--

[00:00:14] And Sarah's extensive hospitality management and interior design experience, we have welcomed thousands of guests from over 30 countries, earning us over $1,000,000 and garnering us thousands of five-star reviews.

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[00:01:01] Hello, listeners. Welcome back with a great episode. My name is Sarah Karakaian.

[00:01:04] And I am Annette Grant, and together we are--

[00:01:06] Thanks for Visiting.

[00:01:08] And this is an AMA Episode, Ask Me Anything except you're asking us. That joke will never get old. If you go to thanksforvisiting.me in the upper right-hand corner, we have a big red button that says Ask TFV. And what that button is for is for you to record your voice, record your question. We review these questions. If we think it'd be great for everyone to hear, we will put them here on one of these episodes for all of your fellow listeners to think about and ponder for their own business and just get some inspiration.

[00:01:36] What seems specific is most general, so get your questions out there. All right, let's give it a whirl today. This is a good one for everybody to be on their toes about.

[00:01:46] Hi, ladies. I love your podcast. My name is Addie and my Instagram handle is Ellie Log Cabin. We have been licensed by the county and the state ever since the beginning. And now recently our township wants to impose their own licensing and taxes, which is fine. But while they figure out what they want to do, they also want to put a one-year ban or moratorium on all new short-term rentals. And we've just spent the last year building out a brand new cabin that we're going to use as a short-term rental. And we also already started developing that property to put up to 2 to 4 cabins on that piece of property. And I'm worried that we will be shut down and we'll have to sell the property because we won't be able to afford the payments if we aren't able to legally rent it out. So I would love your help. What should I do? Should I go to their board meeting? Should I be writing the board members' letters? Should I hire a lawyer? I know that you two both met at a board meeting. So you're very familiar with board meetings. Thank you so much. I appreciate your help. And I love your podcast.

[00:03:06] That is tough.

[00:03:07] All right, Addie, we got some answers here. Number one, this year long, can you go get your license right now?

[00:03:12] I was wondering, like, does she just go get all of them?

[00:03:14] Just go and see if you can get it ASAP. Just walk in like, do, do, do, do, do, hey, here's my address. I'd like to get my short-term rental license. And I would try that to be honest. Let's get this thing going. Number one.

[00:03:28] My other hustle idea was-- because my other fear for Addie is if she goes to sell it and a buyer understands what's going on, is it going to be harder to sell when they know that ban is in place without any end in sight? So my next idea is could your family move into it in the interim? Again, I know that's worst-case scenario.

[00:03:47] The other scenario, too, if you're looking to develop the whole entire property, is maybe there's a way to create some recreation area where it's more commercially zoned and not short-term rental. But before we get into all of that, yes, you should absolutely- once you try to get it immediately, please representation matters. Go to all the things. Find out who all the people are. You want to be as tightly connected as you can. And for everybody listening, Sarah and I champion rentresponsibly.org. If you haven't gone to their site, please go to their site and find a group in your area where you can start to advocate ahead of time and get to know people in your area in case something like this were to happen. So yes, please attend those meetings. I don't think it hurts to at least just chat with your attorney if you have one of like, hey, can they really do this and this in our area? I will say also reach out-- if your state has an Airbnb Facebook group, every state and most cities have ambassadors. And speaking of when Sarah and I met at a city council meeting, I will let you know that Airbnb was actually sending emails out to us and our ambassador here was very active in a Facebook group and sending messages that we all needed to show up. And we did show up and it mattered. And so if I know that's a possibility too, I would dig in there to see who your ambassador is in your area.

[00:05:21] Another idea too, Addie, is to when you do that, either in tandem, get together with your other vacation rental owners and send them a letter. Become that ambassador if no one stepped up yet. I know, I'm sure that's the last thing on your plate, another thing to do. But again, this is your family's livelihood. This is your real estate's livelihood. So say when you write those letters or when you show up the meetings, if you show up, not just you and your partner, your family, whoever is involved, but you have a line of fellow vacation rental owners behind you asking for certain things, showing up and saying certain things-- when we had ours, we all wore the same color to show--

[00:05:58] How many hosts were there.

[00:06:00] Yeah, how many hosts were for Responsible Renting. So those are just some ideas for you, Addie. Keep us posted. But I will say to everybody, this, especially in vacation rental markets, where it's mostly vacation rentals, is to if you're thinking of investing in that area or like people will say to us, like, no, our whole ecosystem is dependent on vacation rentals. This is why it's important to get involved and stay involved, even if you feel secure because you don't know who's being voted in, who wants to do exactly what's happening in Addie's township.

[00:06:34] And it sounds like they're excited about it and it's growing, but they want to slow down, to speed up and see what it's going to do to impact their whole community. I would say obviously tread lightly, but think positive at the same time and really get to know exactly what's going on, what the time frames look like, and see if maybe you can get in, get that license before that moratorium. And then start getting really creative with what potentially you could do with the property.

[00:07:06] Another question too, Addie, is, is there any sort of mid-term rental that would make sense there? I don't know. But if there's a certain day over 28 or 30 or whatever, as in your market, could you in the meantime, I don't know how close hospitals are or could it be a work from anywhere? I know that Bolt Farm Treehouse, they were on our podcast over a year ago at this point, but this happened to them where they were no longer allowed to short-term rent out their tree homes. And so they did it where if you wanted a book-- they were so special, if you wanted a book, sure, you can come for a week, but you're paying for the month and people did. So again, I want you to think creatively, how can you just make ends meet while you go and show up and figure out what this means for your township and make sure you bring your fellow vacation rental owners next to you? Because I don't know, it sounds to me like your township sees how successful these are and they want a piece of the pie, and so they need to know what this does to your ecosystem and all of you who are already paying taxes to your township and whatnot. And you need to show up and speak up and say, hey, we live here, we work here. Here's how we feel about this.

[00:08:14] And you could supply them with some data too because the trickle down of the money that's being spent when people are coming to visit, not just in the short-term rental, but the grocery stores, the coffee shops, the restaurants, whatever other activities are there, there's a lot of tourism taking place. So great question. Again, everybody go to rentresponsibly.org and see how you can become involved in your local area.

[00:08:37] With that, I am Sarah Karakaian.

[00:08:39] I am Annette Grant, and together we are--

[00:08:41] Thanks for Visiting.