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Today, I learned that the GA state house is considering a bill, HB 1121, that will put restrictions on individual cities to have ordinances that affect STVR owners. My city will hopefully get its ordinances passed and safely grandfathered before at GA Bill is passed.
Don’t get me wrong, I am totally in favor of protecting a persons rights to do what they want with their property, but they in turn must respect neighborhood covenants or HOAs. There are plenty of good STR owners.
When a guy from NYC buys a party house on my street, 1000 miles away, it feels like he’s lifting his leg on us. He should buy one on his own street.
I have a good friend who owns property on both Tybee and Kiawah islands. I was of the impression that Kiawah has some very restrictive convenants. Don't know about Tybee, I'll have to ask.
RM
We had friends who bought a house on Tybee around fifteen years ago with the intention of it being a VRBO. I don't know how that turned out because they split up shortly afterward and we lost contact with the wife, who was the main driver of the plan.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gentlearts
Today, I learned that the GA state house is considering a bill, HB 1121, that will put restrictions on individual cities to have ordinances that affect STVR owners. My city will hopefully get its ordinances passed and safely grandfathered before at GA Bill is passed.
Don’t get me wrong, I am totally in favor of protecting a persons rights to do what they want with their property, but they in turn must respect neighborhood covenants or HOAs. There are plenty of good STR owners.
When a guy from NYC buys a party house on my street, 1000 miles away, it feels like he’s lifting his leg on us. He should buy one on his own street.
That goes without saying. In my experience only, our VRBOs here, except for one and it was clamped down on early, haven't turned into "party houses". We started to regulate and license them fairly early (at my insistence) so that may have played a part.
The biggest issue that's ongoing is the owners "forgetting" to remit the local lodging tax. A couple have had their business license suspended to make an example.
That goes without saying. In my experience only, our VRBOs here, except for one and it was clamped down on early, haven't turned into "party houses". We started to regulate and license them fairly early (at my insistence) so that may have played a part.
The biggest issue that's ongoing is the owners "forgetting" to remit the local lodging tax. A couple have had their business license suspended to make an example.
I think the owners of the STR across the street got busted when I called the city and was asking why we hadn't gotten notification for the 24/7 property contact. The city said they didn't have a record of the place being an STR.
It's clearly an STR, there are only people in it on the weekends, mostly during peak times, and they almost almways have out of state plates. We have even seen what we believe to be BNSF rail crews there as well. No problem with that if they're respectful of everyone's preoperty and don't do anything stupid.
The city told me the owner freaked out when they contacted them, I suspect because they figured they would get hit with a fine over bed taxes and stuff like that, but who knows. They said they were going to send registered letters to us about the contact information. Yeah, right. That was two months ago. I'll be calling the city on Monday to find out what's going on.
On Monday, the city council had the first reading of a draft of a STVR ordinance. They voted for a 6 month moratorium on new STVR permits to give them time to taylor the ordinance.
Last night, Tuesday, over 100 people attended a town meeting, with the mayor and council listening to input from both homeowners against STRs in residential neighborhoods, to STR owners, who want to defend their businesses. Both sides were well represented, and it was very efficient and civil.
This whole issue started with one house on a residential street with covenants, but now it’s a citywide issue. My elderly neighbor who lives next door to the STR on my street was practically in tears last night, and the NY owner of the house in question, looked like he’d just rolled out of a dumpster. It’s taking a toll on everyone.
The more I think about this one local issue, the more I think that it is a symptom of something more sinister, like squatters having more rights than homeowners, homeless having more rights than taxpayers, and foreign countries buying up US farmland.
Home sellers need to please have a conscience when you sell your home. National companies with deep pockets are swooping into small town USA and they care nothing about your community.
I actually asked about this in a thread I started a few months ago. The feedback I received was that although I can have good intentions about selling to a family who would actually live in my home year-round and that I can either review or have my agent review offers, that there is nothing to prevent someone from misrepresenting their intentions.
I agree that this IS a problem, especially in affluent areas where most homes sell for well over $500k, and it is especially an issue when "ordinary" middle-income families cannot afford to live near where they work. As has been discussed in other forums, many (possibly most) investors usually can outbid the average middle-income couple who just want a home in which to raise their family.
There is really no way you can guard against this for the most part. Sure, you would know if it’s an investor when they’re willing to put down cash on a $500k house, in some instances. In others, like a property I sold about four years ago, the buyer was an individual with a VA loan who gushed about how much they loved the place and couldn’t wait to move in.
They never did. Someone else lives there, maybe it’s another family member, maybe it’s rented, who knows, but the owner does not live in the house, that I know. We would have no way of understanding this was the outcome of the sale.
We knew the people who owned the house next door. They got relocated by an employer when the market was lousy ten years ago. First day they got three offers, the highest and best was a cash offer from an institutional investor. They took it, and now the property is being managed by Invitation Homes as a rental, and poorly, at that. It’s an eyesore.
I think the owners of the STR across the street got busted when I called the city and was asking why we hadn't gotten notification for the 24/7 property contact. The city said they didn't have a record of the place being an STR............
This is important, people have to pay attention. Most jurisdiction have no way of knowing what's going on in the residential areas. Many don't have a rental license and inspection program and Code Enforcement is reactive.
We enacted the VRBO regs when it became apparent that many of our rentals (we have a license and inspection program and are small enough to have things be noticed) appeared to have a lot of turnover.
All it takes is perusing a couple of the vacation rental sites to track it down.
There was some hesitation to doing anything because, well because "a man can do what he wants with his house" and it was "anti-business". Those objections went away when I showed how much revenue was being lost by not collecting the 4.5% lodging tax (it was between 3 and 4 cents of our tax rate).
And that's the whole idea of having tourists, getting the burden of public cost off the property owners and property taxes and place some of it on tourists, whether it's lodging taxes, entry fees for amenities or a local sales tax (although that one does hit residents).
One local occasional tourist town came up with a “great?” solution.
STRs would require permitting, and only existing STRs would be allowed as of 2023. No new ones. So a seller of an existing STR will no doubt receive a higher price when selling the home than his neighbors who all lacked such a designation. So an automatic value jump.
The city has a rule that normally the shortest allowed rental period for the rest of owners is 90 days.
There is really no way you can guard against this for the most part. Sure, you would know if it’s an investor when they’re willing to put down cash on a $500k house, in some instances. In others, like a property I sold about four years ago, the buyer was an individual with a VA loan who gushed about how much they loved the place and couldn’t wait to move in.
They never did. Someone else lives there, maybe it’s another family member, maybe it’s rented, who knows, but the owner does not live in the house, that I know. We would have no way of understanding this was the outcome of the sale.
We knew the people who owned the house next door. They got relocated by an employer when the market was lousy ten years ago. First day they got three offers, the highest and best was a cash offer from an institutional investor. They took it, and now the property is being managed by Invitation Homes as a rental, and poorly, at that. It’s an eyesore.
RM
Just FYI, many people can pay cash if, for example, an older couple have $500,000 in equity when they sell their home in California and downsize to a retirement home in West Virginia that is listed for $250,000.
There was an emergency meeting yesterday morning, which was for the purpose of getting ordinances on the books before GA enacted their Bill. It was determined that the Bill has stalled for the moment, and so the Council decided to take more time.
At any rate, as far as our neighborhood goes. In order to enforce the covenants, we are on our own and must take a violator to court, at our expense. There is something in the covenants about the loser paying court costs.
There is something in the covenants about the loser paying court costs.
That is typical. Nothing new or unusual.
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