Cocoa Beach New Rental Assessment for Airbnbs
 

Cocoa Beach has found a solution to curb Airbnb’s,

Cocoa Beach is raising short-term rental fees, increasing application costs from $525 to $2,500 and annual renewals from $325 to $1,500.

City officials say the fees will shift regulatory costs from taxpayers to rental owners and fund more code enforcement.

While some property owners object, many residents support stricter oversight to curb noise and disturbances.

That would be the case here also. The fees would discourage people renting out for short term. Living next to revolving door is no picnic.

Cocoa Beach rental property owners frustrated over sharp increase in fees | FOX 35 Orlando

Depending on the location highest fee is sometimes less than a day rental for something like our 3/3 on the beach. Or on a smaller unit block or two from the beach, a week rental depending on the time of year. Never a fan of short term, but as long as developers allow VLS agents to buy multiple houses then rent out short term to make as much money as possible, then sell at one year for more profit. Nothing is going to change

Bottom line we need something similar in The Villages. No thought that we could be living next door to a motel. Good luck getting this changed.

First off, I agree wholeheartedly with the entire premise.

Where I think folks who complain about STR's are missing the boat, the solution lies with the various towns/counties that make up The Villages.

Every County would love some extra revenue, at the expense of The Villages. I think it would be a fairly easy matter, to get municipal government to go along with local ordinances, that would make Short Term Rentals, less attractive for owners & renters.

Folks seem to be centered on complaining about The Villages not stopping it or not enforcing Deed Restrictions (that really don't prohibit STR's, per the rulings of most courts in the USA)... the municipalities can do it.

We all seem to forget about the governments that actually hold the power and focus on TV or the Developer. How about a movement to have our Elected Officials do something about it?

Added taxes, permitting costs, occupancy standards & more regulations are the answer.

That would be great, but it’s not happening for two obvious reasons.

1) Making short term rentals less attractive would have a negative impact on the demand for new home sales.
2) A certain entity, that benefits greatly from new home sales, has a very heavy hand when it comes to local government.

There you go.

Bingo. If it doesn't make $$ for the developer, it ain't happening.

And think about that if you (as a prospective buyer) want to stay in TV to get a feel for the flavor you cannot do that in a motel. Second, where are the motels around here? Many of the rentals here are stepping stones to purchasing unlike Coco Beach. All night parties at rentals are a rarity around here.

The Developer may control the local elected officials, but not the voters.

I'm sure there are plenty of folks in The Villages who have experience with Voter Initiatives.
Curbing STR's & generating tax revenue from the ones that remain, seems like it would be a fairly easy sell to John Q. Public.

I would disagree. Most STR are not prospective buyers. That's what lifestyle visits are for.
Plus there are plenty of hotels close by, some actually in TV, like at LSL.
We lived in a neighborhood that had a couple of rental homes that took short term renters. Needless to say, I'm glad I didn't live nextdoor.

Do you live in the same Villages as most of us?

We were short term renters before we bought. We did 3 or 4 1 week visits over 15 months
The advice given in every thread about newcomers is rent for a month - they would rent via STR.

Now, I agree, STR should be controlled.

In order to have a solution, you must start with a problem. "Curb Airbnb" is not a problem. It is a goal of the poster and obviously others.

People who have visited more than once, might very well wish to buy a home in The Villages before they are ready to move here. Short and long term rentals are a way that they could lock in a desired home today, postponing their personal move.

People who want to avoid location-based buyer's remorse might well want to try out multiple locations before purchasing. Long term rentals would be a costly way to avoid that.

The pejorative "snow birds" appears often on TOTV. It probably is used the most by the same people who want TV to be fully occupied by eliminating short term rentals - but they are not thinking that way, of course. That seems inexplicable, unless both positions come from those with a tendency to complain.

In order to do that, and maintain consistency across the whole of the Villages, there would have to be a coordinated effort from three counties (Sumter, Lake & Marion), as well as two municipalities (Wildwood and Leesburg). Probably never happen.

Where do you live?

Did you rent various homes in your neighborhood before you bought, to make sure it was "right neighborhood for you"?

If you interviewed a 1000 people on the street anywhere but in TV, if they "rented a few homes in their neighborhood before they bought their house", 999 would say .... "huh? Of course not, who does that"?

We did a one month rental twice before buying in The Villages.

Totally agree. We were still working full time and could only take a week of vacation at a time when we first came here. If it weren’t for a short term villa we would never have moved here. You don’t get a feeling for life here staying in a hotel and we did not know about lifestyle visits until after that first stay. Not everyone can take a month off for vacation.

It’s a giant house of cards. If there were no STRs or rentals the Villages infrastructure would collapse.
The reason there are so many restaurants, golf courses and venues is because of the demand that cycles through and money that it brings.
Without that demand this place would become just another seniors subdivision.

When we came for our lifestyle visit, we stayed at a hotel, visited squares and open houses, etc and got a golf cart. Got a great taste for the villages without renting a bnb. Anyone who is doing short term rentals is doing it for the income and the higher risk of people who are undesirable because what do they care, they will be gone in three days! Who cares about your neighbors!

Developer rentals
 

You can bet Properties of The villages will still have rentals for their lifestyle programs.

short term rentals SUCK. they ruin neighborhoods. Thats why there are motels and hotels. We had to move from Fort Myers Beach because of short term rentals. Loud parties screaming kids ignorant people.

I wonder how many people that are supporting STR actually live next to one?

Imo, anything less than a month should not be allowed.

A small minority
 

I agree, only those that wish to rent or realtors is the answer to your question. Most homeowners don’t. I can see Wildwood passing an ordinance, but see it unlikely that unincorporated Sumter would. The ilk of money grabbers can’t be that large of a group. Of course they all ride on the backs of regular homeowners and residents who aren’t so keen on Airbnbs.

Let me understand this: You knew enough to find a STR in a villa, but you didn't know about lifestyle visits that are advertised prominently on the Villages website?????? OK.

There are about 800 Airbnb listings in TV, and pushing 80,000 homes. Yep, the whole place would collapse without STRs:1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl:

Actually, who cares about the golf courses. Played with a guy this week who was in a rental for a week to play golf. He had no interest in buying anything in The Villages. With (Every) t-shot he took at least a 4”x6” divot and left the old T sticking in the ground. He didn’t try to repair anything, obviously he didn’t care about our courses. Just came here for a week for the free golf that somehow came with a weekly rental. He belonged to a country club in the north east. I’m guessing that he doesn’t get by treating his course that way. Bottom line, if every weekly renter treated our courses this way, they would be in terrible shape for the home owners of The Villages. Free golf included with a weekly rental is quite a perk for the owner and the renters!

[QUOTE=Normal;2411442]Cocoa Beach has found a solution to curb Airbnb’s,

Cocoa Beach is raising short-term rental fees, increasing application costs from $525 to $2,500 and annual renewals from $325 to $1,500.

City officials say the fees will shift regulatory costs from taxpayers to rental owners and fund more code enforcement.

While some property owners object, many residents support stricter oversight to curb noise and disturbances.

That would be the case here also. The fees would discourage people renting out for short term. Living next to revolving door is no picnic.

Agree with everything you wrote, but there is on important caveat that would not apply to Cocoa Beach. Coco Beach is not a for profit business. The Villages is a for profit business, therefore while it might greatly enhance the quality of life here (you are quite right having even one or more of these STR's on your street is a nightmare), curtailing in any way the buying of strings of properties (many by villages employees themselves, perfectly legal of course) would NOT be in the best interests of this for profit business. The Villages is not a charity endeavor like retirement developments built by churches and other NPO's where the primary goal is to provide a quality life for seniors without, of course, loosing money. The Villages stands only to gain from allowing and even promoting investments in building an income steam through property acquisition. Don't think we will ever see that discouraged here in the V's.

Seldom a week goes by that we do not see that kind of behavior ! Difficult to pin it all on the AB&B people, but one thing we noticed (it it means anything, who knows ?) is most villagers have their names on their golf carts. We did get curious enough about things like stepping ON the hole around the edges(!), hammering the head of a putter into the green when a putt is missed, never repairing ball marks or divots on tees or fairways, and definitely do never using sand ..... seems to be people in carts that have NO name(s) painted or decal, sooooo that could indicate and support what you suspect. We've heard many comments (one from a guy on the phone last week at the pool, literally calling friends and yelling into the phone "I'm telling you Dave, this is THE best deal you'll find in Florida, yes... again he said YES, ALL included, Yes, all the golf you want to play and about a thousand other activities, I'm telling you, this beats the H--- out of that all inclusive place we went in Cancun" . So, the word spreads fast what a great deal this resort actually is and the demand just keeps growing, and the villages is delighted that buying up income properties is so in demand.

That equals 1%. Now of that 1% how many have caused a problem ? Only first handers need reply. Have you had a problem ? Did you call the landlord ? Did you call the police ? MY instinct is there are many times more bad neighbors in absolute numbers than bad renters. The problem with that is a bad neighbor stays but the bad renter will disappear in a few days.

All for it, where do I sign the petition ? However, I know the truth is the villages development inc. long ago made sure they bought themselves every politician in the area, if not the state. If you are making a million a year from stiff STR taxes and such, and a billion a year from the private business that does NOT want any discouraging taxes, fees, and restrictions... well, think that says it all !

1 BINGO and BINGO, you take home the grand prize today ! The whole idea is to encourage buying not one home, but several to pay for the initial investment. Had friends who did this very thing, bought a home here, continued to buy one or so a year, made mind boggling profits with their string of rentals, sold everything in year 15 and bought a live aboard boat to sail the world.... everyone has a dream, they saw an exceptional opportunity to make money easily. husband was skilled at doing any repairs and upkeep himself, and they really "cleaned up" as the old saying goes. It's win-win for everyone except those of us who live here full time and our dream was a stable, friendly, street/block/villages of same minded folks. Not going to happen ! Most of the in and outs don't even wave back to you, let alone bother to introduce themselves, chat a bit, etc.

The difficulty is getting those experienced and fair minded individuals to be bullet proof once they get into the swamp ! That's the problem, many a fine, fair minded, sincere individual has gone to Tallahassee, or D.C. to selflessly "serve" his or her country... and stayed for 40, 50 years and became a multi millionaire.... and when the voters get fed up, finally elect another, same thing happens once the lure of the $$$ and the "high" of the high life is introduced.

In Fort Lauderdale there is. Bed tax on rentals. Good for the City

Enforcment?
 

If you're Familiar with AirBNB, They don't display their addresses, nor their exact location. So, how would this be enforced? I very well know how AirBNB is disruptive, having run a legitimate B&B, they pretty much destroyed that industry.

Simple
 

It can be enforced with almost zero problems. Anytime a neighbor suspects an AirBNB operation they can call the municipal tax authorities. If the place is already registered, no problem. If they aren’t, hammer them with fines and permanent restrictions. You don’t need to patrol the issue. Complaining neighbors will be enough. Heck, even offer a stipend if you turn in someone who is in violation of registration.

Let me get this straight - the people who oppose STR’s are only upset at AirBnB’s? What about rent from a Villager or any of the Realtors who rent out homes?

Let me say right out that I am FOR STR’s. As I’ve said before, if you do get someone next to you that is a problem tenant, be glad they’re short term. They’ll be gone in a few days.

I rented here myself twice, as I expect other homeowners did, and I bought as soon as I found something. Think about residential real estate values.

I prefer continuity
 

I prefer continuity myself. If a neighbor is doing something wrong we can confer and discuss long term solutions for both of us. Brevity in a neighborhood just means “Who cares, I won’t see you for the rest of my life. I’m on vacation.”

Besides, why should landlords benefit from the rest of us? While we all keep a tight ship and landscape etc, an STR tenant may not.

There is a solution, just require landlords to stay at the residence when they are renting their unit out. Make licensing expensive so not everyone will take the leap to decide they want to run a hotel next to all their neighbors.

Some like a stable cohesive neighborhood without the disruptions of renters. I would measure most over age 60 would. Besides, how many buying a home are hoping they neighbor with a rental?

Here’s an idea - mind your own business and stop trying to take away my property rights.

STRs are bad, but what is a STR?
Short Term Rental? Okay but what is “short term?”
Is one year enough for continuity? One season? Is one month enough? Maybe one week? Who decides who gets to decide?

I talk to two of my neighbors semi-annually, see another maybe monthly (we don’t talk, we just pass by and wave), and wouldn’t recognize the other four. I believe two are renters but really don’t know. I laugh at Gladys Kravitz, I don’t try to emulate her, perhaps more should do the same.

And yes, residents can be annoying. The one in my neighborhood has been here longer than me - I wish they were more short-term than that. We already have rules and laws and enforcement agencies to deal with problems. Perhaps we should use the tools that already exist before we demand new ones.

Ok, I’ll answer all three of your arguments.

1) The big problem isn’t Villager’s renting out their home for a month or more when they aren’t using their homes. The issue is people living in their homes and renting out one or more rooms to third party strangers while they are concurrently living in the home. That is not in harmony with a single family residential neighborhood or not running a business out of your home. Granted, some Airbnb landlords run a decent operation, but some don’t. Without checks and balances on the industry, Villages residents are exposed to a crapshoot of good and bad landlords.

2) The problem is that bad landlords tent to have predominantly bad tenants. Biting your tongue while waiting for the bad tenants (business customers) to leave doesn’t solve the problem of a revolving door of bad tenants. More will be following.

3) As a resident who isn’t planning on selling I really don’t care about real estate values, I care about the quality of life in my neighborhood. In fact, lower real estate values might help limit increases in both property taxes and homeowners insurance, which is not a bad thing.

Lol
 

No one wants to take anyone’s rights. Many just don't want their rights to live in a residential neighborhood removed for the sake of a couple of greedy landlord wannabes.

Why not have these landlords pay more for amenities, have higher upkeep standards, and live with what they chose?