HomeMy WebLinkAbout08-05-22 Public Comment - M. Brown - my short term rental experience compared to renting full time plus dataFrom:Marilee Brown
To:Jeff Mihelich; David Fine; Renata Munfrada; Brit Fontenot
Cc:Agenda
Subject:my short term rental experience compared to renting full time plus data
Date:Friday, August 5, 2022 7:53:21 AM
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Dear Bozeman Staff,
I sent the following letter to all 5 Commissioners yesterday and thought you would like acopy.
Marilee Brown
406-579-5447
Commissioner(s),
Without having seen the Staff work report I would still love to talk to you about myexperience as a short-term rental operator.
In brief:
I was a owner living at least 50 percent of the time in my home in Baxter Meadows (R-
3). This was to facilitate my daughter and I living there during the week while sheattended school and returning to her father’s place for weekends, holidays, and summer.
Most of the people renting were families that had special events to attend and wanted a
family home to cook in and spend time with family. All of our experiences were good.
In her senior year, we actively tried to rent our home out 100% of the time. We weretop rated and in high demand. But we found that we are not a full year round
destination and only were able to rent it about 20 weeks per year even with very goodrates. Our experiment proved that short term rentals do not pay as well as regular rent.
When Covid hit, I felt a moral responsibility to quit the short term rental business and
rented year round to a lovely couple. The results were that I increased my rental incomeby 340%! (net profit went from $5,000 to $17,000) without all the hassle of cleaning
etc. The down side was that I no longer had the home for visiting relatives to use so Inow have to pay for hotels.
My HOA tried to tell people that they could not do short term rentals. As a result I
know of two houses on my block (purchased as 2nd homes to visit family in town) thatstand empty for 10months of the year. What a waste.
My experience in talking to many many short term rental owners is that they rent for
summer months and go live with friends or family or in an RV so that they can haveaffordable living costs by renting. Many of them rent for a month at a time (to nurses
etc.).
I also subscribed to AirDNA.com which is a site to try and encourage people to rent theirhomes since there is such a shortage of them available for the demand. They have a lot of data
available (you really have to dig to understand it) which I will try to summarize here:
There are a total of 910 listings (in the month of July) in the Valley which includes FourCorners but not Belgrade.
When counting the rentals on their map, I estimated that about 350 were in the City
limits.
32% of those rentals rent monthly. So in July, only 238 homes are short term rentalswithin the City limits.
The estimator for how much someone could make is way off to entice people to invest
in Short Term.. They listed my $550,000 home at $300,000 and overestimated the daysrentable compared to year round vacation places like Ventura Beach.
Many of the homes only rent for less than half the year - some for only a few weeks
availability (while owners are on vacation).
I believe that short term rentals serve a great need in the community for both home owners,visiting professionals, and visitors. But if you expect to get rich running one, you will be
sorely disappointed. It’s a great way to be able to supplement one’s income but it is no way tomake a good living.
Please call and pepper me with questions. I have done a lot of reading on the subject and was
very involved in helping to form the original rules. My personal experience may also be ofhelp - such as the process and where the City could improve in getting compliance.
Thank you,
Marilee Brown
406-579-5447