Too bad it's illegal.
I Bought An Apartment To Rent Out On Airbnb
361–370 of 386 posts
Re: I Bought An Apartment To Rent Out On Airbnb
#362Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you live across the street from me and have a garage sale every day of the week, we're going to have a problem. Your casual dismissal of licensing and oversight, as merely protections for the entrenched, overlooks the fact that there is more than one interested party here. I have to agree with the upstream commenter's general sentiment that this idea gets all the support here because it lends itself to an easy nar…
Ok, so the issue is not really licensing, if we get honest. Instead you don't want your next door neighbor to rent out his apartment on a full-time basis and see requirement to obtain a license as a measure that would prevent that from happening. I do agree it's a valid concern - but I'm not really sure why we need extra laws for this. The guests are either doing something illegal or they are not - in which case, I d…
No, you don't know what the point of licensing is about.
If you drive badly, what will the police do with your license?
Re: I Bought An Apartment To Rent Out On Airbnb
#363Having had more than my share of asshole neighbors, I'd be very worried about their representation in such a constantly churning population.
And I would have little sympathy in compelling the local authorities to enforce any and all laws and regulations that would put a stop to the resulting disruption.
I see far too many instances, today, of people thinking of and acting on "me, me, me", while ignoring those around them whom they are screwing over.
Re: I Bought An Apartment To Rent Out On Airbnb
#364Earlier quoted context omitted.
The general "sad" for me is that HN has so many strong libertarian types who start from an assumption that government regulation is practically always wrong and done for corrupt purposes. Learning that this is not the case is a lesson one could easily pick up much earlier in life, so it's sad that they made it this far without understanding that.
I put it down to the poor state of our mathematical education. The naive understanding of economic systems libertarians display is actually fairly similar to what you see in introductory dynamical-systems courses. You can, with great care, construct some "well-behaved" systems where you present a set of rules, and the expected thing happens: you push lever X and Y happens. Raise the minimum wage and unemployment rise…
If you keep treating your intellectual opponents like this, you're going to get trounced the next time you run into a smart one.
To be very brief, you seem to think that libertarians believe, roughly,
(1) "the world is simple, so we should have simple rules."
Instead, you suggest:
(2) "the world is complicated, so we should have complicated rules."
But this claim is entirely unresponsive to:
(3) "the world is complicated, so we should have simple rules."
which is what most libertarians I know actually think. If you respond to (1) when your opponents are arguing for (3), you will not have productive conversations.
Re: I Bought An Apartment To Rent Out On Airbnb
#365Earlier quoted context omitted.
Buddy just asked a question that solicited an informative answer for all of us to read. Not sad.
The general "sad" for me is that HN has so many strong libertarian types who start from an assumption that government regulation is practically always wrong and done for corrupt purposes. Learning that this is not the case is a lesson one could easily pick up much earlier in life, so it's sad that they made it this far without understanding that.
Our attitude towards any law really should be a presumption of doubt, especially laws that interfere with consensual activities. Laws are blunt objects that come with their own enforcement costs and unintended consequences. We should be especially wary about regulations whose benefits are sharply concentrated among a small group (say, hotel owners), and whose drawbacks (say, slightly higher hotel costs for everyone else) are widely dispersed. That's standard public choice theory. That doesn't mean that no regulations are ever justifiable (far from it!), but it does suggest that we not favor regulation for the sake of regulation.
I don't like to psychologize people, but I wonder whether this attitude is a sort of mental heuristic on the left, which often finds itself fighting with folks on the right who seem to believe, roughly, that regulation is intrinsically bad, and should be abolished. This has encouraged the counter-formation of the view that regulation is intrinsically good, and should be preserved. I guess that's a little easier to remember than the subtler view that regulation is intrinsically bad, but should sometimes be preserved when it can still improve outcomes over the status quo.
It's almost as though you have to examine things case by case and decide whether a dangerous tool should be applied, instead of just forming a mental affiliation with it.
Re: I Bought An Apartment To Rent Out On Airbnb
#366Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you live across the street from me and have a garage sale every day of the week, we're going to have a problem. Your casual dismissal of licensing and oversight, as merely protections for the entrenched, overlooks the fact that there is more than one interested party here. I have to agree with the upstream commenter's general sentiment that this idea gets all the support here because it lends itself to an easy nar…
Ok, so the issue is not really licensing, if we get honest. Instead you don't want your next door neighbor to rent out his apartment on a full-time basis and see requirement to obtain a license as a measure that would prevent that from happening. I do agree it's a valid concern - but I'm not really sure why we need extra laws for this. The guests are either doing something illegal or they are not - in which case, I d…
[deleted]
Re: I Bought An Apartment To Rent Out On Airbnb
#367Earlier quoted context omitted.
Former HOA president here (for a 77 unit building in downtown San Diego). Short-term vacation rentals are forbidden here and they are absolutely shut down when found out. You can't 'manage' every single guest that comes thru - most will be respectful, but it won't take long before a group of college students use it as as a party pad. I lived next to one used for that purpose, and while I was on the board we had 4 oth…
Did you ever consider changing the rules to allow short-term rentals?
You might want to reread my comment more carefully. I was actively stopping it in my building.
If anything we were trying to push an ammendment to make tenancy a 6 month lease minimum.
Re: I Bought An Apartment To Rent Out On Airbnb
#368If anyone is interested, this looks like the link to the place: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/643721 Another thing to add to the "if you're thinking of doing this" list - don't write a post about it where you and the location can be identified. This is probably against the HOA agreement (short term leases are prohibited). It also could be a safety issue if you aren't actually living there. Once someone knows the apart…
I was wondering about the HOA restrictions too. Our condo in San Francisco that we live in came with CC&R's that limit how we can rent the unit out. It's permissible only for periods over 30 days and you're not allowed to offer typical hotel services like changing sheets, towels, etc.
I'm curious if the author looked into this.
Re: I Bought An Apartment To Rent Out On Airbnb
#369Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not quite that simple. Building up can ruin the character of the neighborhood, which is often a big part of the allure. I do think we're chronically underbuilding in a lot of places (SF being an extreme example), but the existence of steel and elevators is not a panacea for the "gentrification problem".
It's not quite that simple. Building up can ruin the character of the neighborhood, which is often a big part of the allure. I don't think I've ever seen an example of this reflected in prices. Do you know of any, or of any studies of this phenomenon?
I don't know if this is a great example, but: http://www.leavenworth.org/
It's sort of a Bavarian themed down-town and city in Washington state. Its allure and attraction to tourists depends on its theme.
I say I don't know if it's a great example because I have no direct evidence about prices, but I assume the reasonable volume of tourists and business must raise prices compared to other cities.
Re: I Bought An Apartment To Rent Out On Airbnb
#370Average monthly revenue: $1,634 Rough monthly profit: $1,134 (after cleaning, bills and other expenses) subtract $200 for the monthly maid service, $196 for Las Vegas' 12% hotel tax. HOA fees, utilities, cable, and everything else is only $104 per month? Something doesn't add up here. (But I'm a botanist, not an accountant, so I may not understand something)
He's not paying the tax.