Matthew Maschler:
Welcome to the Real Estate Finder podcast. I’m Matthew Maschler, real estate broker with the signature Real Estate Finder and the signature real estate companies in the great state of Florida. And with me, the co-host of the Real Estate Founder podcast, VE
Staci Garcia:
<laugh>. JoVE JoVE.
Matthew Maschler:
Hi, joy, how are
Staci Garcia:
You? Oh, it’s so great to be here. <laugh>. Thank you for inviting me. Um, Stacy Garcia.
Matthew Maschler:
So today I wanted to talk about sh uh, short term rentals. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, and there’s a lot about short-term rentals. Uh, we’re not talking necessarily about Airbnb. I, we have, um, I have a Airbnb host that we interview sometimes on the show. I have someone that I’m looking to interview that works for Vac Casa, but let’s, let’s break it down and talk about short term rentals for a second as real estate agents, um, you know, before the internet and before Airbnb, um, you know, real estate agents did do the short term rentals that, that are, that are, that Airbnb kind of replaced that industry. Uh, I remember when I was renting a house on the Jersey Shore, um, a lot of rentals went Saturday to Saturday. And I, I worked with a real realtor to find the house that I wanted. Um, and I rented it for one week or two weeks. Um, I guess the real estate agents, um, if they help the person buy the house, then they made a commission. And then if there’s 12 weeks of summer rentals helping the, uh, owner of the house, uh, keep that rented and managing there, there’s, there’s money to be made there. Uh, I haven’t done that in a while. I, I’d imagine those owners are not using real estate agents anymore, and they’re using, I
Staci Garcia:
I know exactly what you’re talking about and how, you know, back in the day, we used to rent a place down the shore for one week. Imagine all the work that was involved just in that.
Matthew Maschler:
Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, I mean, I can’t imagine doing a one week rental. Yeah, that’s crazy. So that’s what I wanted to talk about is, um, what the, what the shortest rental a realtor can reasonably be expected to work on. Uh, there’s a lot of real estate agents that don’t do rentals at all. Uh, I don’t mind doing rentals. I think rentals, it’s one, it’s, there’s not a lot of money to be made. So it’s customer service. And I don’t want, I want people to think of me for real estate, right? Someone says, oh, Matt, I would’ve called you, but the house was too expensive. I, I don’t care about how much money a house is worth. I, I deal with people. So if my multi-million dollar, you know, house in St. Customer in St. Andrew’s Country Club, or some country club, if they have a mother-in-law in Century Village or Boca Lago, I wanna be their real estate agent, I’ll sell Boca Lago, I’ll sell Century Village.
I don’t, I, I refer that because that signature, we have the Century Village brand. I refer to Century Village, and there’s so much going on there that it’s, I’d rather leave that for an expert. That’s really the only thing I refer out. But again, if, um, I want to be your real estate agent, and I’m not gonna say no to you if your price point is too big or too small, or if you need a rental, because there are times when people need a rental. They’re in between houses. They’re having something built. So, you know, I spend all this time, energy, and effort advertising myself as a real estate agent, being your real estate agent. I don’t want you to not call me because you think I don’t do something. But, um, but generally we do one year rentals. Uh, there are seasonal rentals, which are less than a year.
Could be nine months, could be six months for me, less than six months. That’s really where I draw the line. Um, under six months, um, I was working with someone who, who wanted a rental, and then, you know, and, and sometimes you cultivate these leads and, uh, then it’s, it, it went from an annual rental to a seasonal rental. And then finally they said that they wanted to rent for, and I had, uh, one of my real estate agents working on ’em. And it finally went down to, uh, they went down to three months. There’s not a lot of, I
Staci Garcia:
Just did the best, most perfect deal with Jill. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Tell me. And, and the only, um, I think it was meant to be really, sometimes you just know they’re meant to be. My customer referred a really good friend, and she wanted to rent her Boca Lago out for three or four months next year. And so I went to lunch with Jill after one of our podcasts, and I mentioned it, and she said, oh my gosh, I have a client looking for a three or four month, uh, rental next year, same time. I said, well, let’s put them together. You wanna put them together? I, I haven’t even, I haven’t even put it, it, put it in my, uh, software. It’s not even a thing yet, you know, I just had the conversation and she ended up writing the contract to lease and the lease and it’s done deal. So getting paid on it tomorrow.
Matthew Maschler:
That’s amazing.
Staci Garcia:
<laugh>. So, but I don’t, you know, she, it’s a lot of work for a really short amount of time. And Jill did it go, did the best job ever. And so it was just between the two of us. And she said, I’m gonna go meet your seller, you know, your landlord. And I said, okay. And she went to the place and she told me this, this is an awesome li you know, an awesome place and it’s really gorgeous. And she, like, I hadn’t, I hadn’t even been there. I haven’t even gone to meet her in person. So Jill did the work and said it, it was a great, um, location. She definitely wanted it. That’s great. The client wanted it for next year, Uhhuh <affirmative>. And, um, it, the whole thing happened and it was, we, it was like meant to be. Right.
Matthew Maschler:
Awesome.
Staci Garcia:
Yeah. And sometimes I think that that’s kind of, uh, I know there was a lot of work involved on Jill’s side for writing the contract lease, contract
Matthew Maschler:
Lease on lease.
Staci Garcia:
Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah. So I, I felt like, what can I do to make this easier? Cause I hadn’t even done a thing.
Matthew Maschler:
So it was, it was three month rental mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And then how much money did the person have to give for the three month rental? The
Staci Garcia:
Whole thing.
Matthew Maschler:
The whole, they wanted all three months plus a security deposit. Yeah. I find sometimes on the rentals, you know, the, the, the tenant gets a little wary of that. Well,
Staci Garcia:
What could happen between now and next year?
Matthew Maschler:
And how do you even know if the guy even owns the house, you know?
Staci Garcia:
Well, you know, they have to also apply to the association of Boca Lago. Yeah. Yeah. And pri prior to that, I had called and said, what’s your minimum? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, for, uh, rentals,
Matthew Maschler:
That’s important because if the, if the community has a six month minimum, you can’t rent for three months. Right. Exactly. What, what people do, they, they try to break the rules. They, they write the lease up for six months. Right. But then, and then they, you know, so then they take, let’s say it’s, uh, a thousand dollars a month. They, they make it $500 a month for six months, and this is $3,000. So spread. Yeah.
Staci Garcia:
Well, also, the thing is, I was telling the person who wanted to rent out her place, uh, your biggest nightmare is your, the neighbors finding out Right. That this person living above them is only gonna be there for a short amount of time, and then they get mad. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and they report you so
Matthew Maschler:
You can get away with it once or twice.
Staci Garcia:
Yeah. I, but it, it, the risk is that you’re gonna burn a bridge. Right. Right. And they’re gonna make,
Matthew Maschler:
Well, especially if it breaks a rule.
Staci Garcia:
Right. Well, they’re gonna make your life miserable when you are here. Mm-hmm. You know, also, she, it’s a place where she sends her family uhhuh, you know, says, go use my place in Florida. So, um, you don’t wanna make an make a nightmare out of the place that you think is like a resort. Right. You know, for yourself and your family. And she was like, yeah, you’re right. I should be legit.
Matthew Maschler:
Be legit. Yeah. It’s, and I was saying, people are forgetting always be legit. Right. It’s just, it’s not worth it.
Staci Garcia:
Definitely not worth it when there’s an HOA and everybody’s, and there’s a guard gate and there’s a protocol and there’s, its not easy to just get in the pool. Mm-hmm. Everything has, there’s directions for everything. I remember when I used to come down here and stay with my aunt, and she was always like, here’s the first thing that you do. Yeah. When you get to the pool, you have to ask for your card. Mm-hmm. You know, like to get free towels or something like that. When we used to go to the hotel and I was thinking, how could anyone else navigate all of this stuff?
Matthew Maschler:
Right, right. The other, um, yeah, the, you know, the other thing about breaking the rules or trying to ignore the rules is like, these are, these rules have been around a long time. They’re people are very, very sophisticated here. It’s always people that are new to the area, they wanna break the rules. Yeah. They think the rules don’t apply to them. Yeah. And they got something figured out and No, no, we, these HOAs and these communities, they’re a hundred steps ahead of you no matter how fast you are in New York or New Jersey, the, these, the kind of, you know, these, these
Staci Garcia:
Communities, the kind of
Matthew Maschler:
Command us Yeah. These communities, they, they’ve seen it all and they’ve done it all. And, uh, um, yeah. Just, just, just just listen to the rules. Uh, my mom was in an h HOA community in Las Vegas, and, uh, she lasted three weeks before she had to move back to her old house. She kept breaking the rules. And I said, I told her, I go, so she lived on a, on a cul-de-sac. She was like the second or third house from the left. Right. Not a cul-de-sac, a circle, but it was a one-way circle. So she kept driving the wrong way cuz her house was like right there. So I’m like, she’s like, Matt, they’re driving me crazy. They keep sending me these notices. I go, why are they sending you notices? They send me notices that I’m driving the wrong way down the street. They send me notices about my, um, about my garbage cans. I go, what are your garbage cans? They’re like, well, you have to bring it in within 24 hours. I go, so bring it in within 24 hours. Well, sometimes I don’t get to it. I go, well, it’s
Staci Garcia:
Almost a pet peeve of mine. I go,
Matthew Maschler:
Well, if garbage day’s Thursday, when do you get to it? I’ll get to Sunday, Saturday, Sunday. You can’t do that. You can’t have garbage cans lying around. Yeah. You’re driving the wrong, driving the wrong way down one way streets, you got garbage kids li lying around. No wonder these, this, they keep sending you letters.
Staci Garcia:
They’re gonna leave a hot bag of duty on their <laugh> doorstep. And I mean, that’s the reason why I don’t like H hoa. Yeah. But also at the same time,
Matthew Maschler:
You have to know what the rules are before you move in. Yeah.
Staci Garcia:
In, in my neighborhood we have city rules. Right. Which I expect. Also, we have the same people will say, oh, I don’t wanna live in a no h HOA community because it’s gonna be like the guy next door paints the house bright yellow or pink. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and there’s no rules. There actually are rules, there’s city rules. Sure. And so, and they’re pretty strict actually. Uhhuh <affirmative>. So as much as you think that it’s gonna be chaos if you block the sidewalk,
Matthew Maschler:
That’s also, cuz you’re in the city of Boca County in city, you’re not unincorporated.
Staci Garcia:
I’m not in West Boca. Yeah. Yeah. So we do it for city rules and I mean, I think people in, in, they can do whatever they want in their neighborhood. I’m jealous of them too. Uhhuh, you know, if they could, uh, grow a crop of corn and make, I was saying that if I had enough space, I would be a tree farmer. A tree farmer. Because all you do is plant the tree uhhuh and nothing else. And wait. Yeah. And one day it’ll be a humongous royal palm <laugh> and it’ll be worth $50,000. And now you have like 12 of them in your backyard.
Matthew Maschler:
What do you do? Farming?
Staci Garcia:
I’m a farmer,
Matthew Maschler:
But I don’t do it. All right. So go back to short term rentals. Okay. So the question, uh, to me was, uh, Hey Matt, how do I handle telling the customer that there are no one month rentals in South Florida? And, and it’s tough if a and I’m saying how I, I cultivated this customer that went from a rental to a seasonal rental, now it’s down to one month and it’s, and it’s tough, um, going back to that Jersey shore analogy where the people rented for a week, I think I looked in, um, in Boca Raton for rentals up to three months and there were 25. Right. And you know, half of them were priced so obscenely high that that wouldn’t work for anyone and the other half for properties that you wouldn’t really wouldn’t wanna rent. Right. Uh, you know, as, as a tenant.
So, and that’s three months. So if you go down to one month, it’s, there’s even less. So I think three months or less that that’s not a realtor’s job. Right. I mean, what is the real, you know, and, and, and it’s, I think it’s a little gross when the realtor won’t take that what you’re listing, right. You’re being, I think the realtor’s being a little bit of a snob. Oh, I, oh, I don’t do rentals, but I think under three months, I think it’s, and I’m trying to answer the question, right. So if you’re listening to, you’re listening to my show and you’re asking me a question, how do I handle this customer wants to rent for one month. I think you have to, I think you have to tell that customer, listen for a rental that short, you’re, you’re not using a realtor anymore.
Maybe, maybe back in the old days. And, you know, people think about these communities, Jersey or Hilton Head or, uh, or other resort communities, Boer Town’s not a resort community. There’s these resort communities with one week and, and one month rentals. That’s not this area of the world. This is a residential community. This is, even though it’s a resort like Boer Town’s, a residential, Palm Beach County is a residential community. It’s not a resort community. You don’t find one week rentals. You don’t find one month rentals. So you just, you tell your customer, listen at one month or whatever the time period is, you, you need to be going, going to Airbnb or V R B O or, or HomeAway or one of these, of those websites where people rent their house by the night or by the week, uh, at one month. That’s really just not what, uh, realtors do.
Right. And, and maybe it used to be before Airbnb existed, um, I I, if someone asked me, I I, I did some research. I don’t do a lot of research, but I did some research. I asked a lot of people that I respected, what’s the minimum amount of time that a, a realtor could be expected to, to find a rental for? And, and the answer that a lot of people gave me was three months. My answer’s still six months. You know, you, you did that book, Lago deal kind of came together great. But if someone wants to rent for three months, I don’t want to, you know, start finding the house, doing the contract, the offers, the contract, lease, the deposits, all that work for, it’s the same amount of work for as buying a house. It’s the same amount of work as renting a house for a year to rent for three months. To me, um, my line is six months. Yeah. Or greater. Um, I think industry-wide, three months is a good dividing line between Airbnb and what a realtor does. Um, and that’s how I’d end. I I do you think, did I answer the question?
Staci Garcia:
I think so. I would definitely refer to Airbnb. I mean, my next door neighbor asked me, she said, my sister’s coming from Philly, can you get us a place for her, uh, for a month? And I was like, listen, well if you go to Philly then she’ll have your place. Right, right, right. And she was like, ha ha. That’s so funny. I’m like, it’s really hard to find one place, especially, we’re in the city of Boca, you cannot rent for less than six months and one day, uh, legally. So, um, Airbnb is the place. So I was just reading this morning on,
Matthew Maschler:
And, and, and think about this. If you’re the owner of a property that’s renting per night or per week or per month, are you listing with a real estate agent or are you putting it on Airbnb or vrbo? Right. You’re putting it on the, these, those websites that’s gonna get you the most exposure. So as the owner of the house, you wouldn’t list it with a realtor. If someone came to me, I wanna list my house for one month, I’m gonna put one month realtor isn’t one month listings, unless I tell ’em, no, I’m sorry you go to Airbnb. But I wouldn’t even have that conversation. It wouldn’t happen. They would just, if that, that person would already be Airbnb or VRBO o’s customer. So, um, and, and that’s what you have to tell. So hey Matt, how do I handle a customer that wants to run for one month? Say, I’m sorry. That’s just not what we do here and it’s okay. Yeah. That it’s not what you here, you know, if someone wanted a commercial, um, property and you don’t do commercial, you and, and you did a referral agreement or someone asked you about an area that you weren’t familiar with, you did a referral agreement, that’s fine. But at one month, I’m sorry, that’s one. Not what I do here. I
Staci Garcia:
Think that, uh, it would be really great if there was uh, one, um, one company where that’s all they did though. Like in Boca there used to be, and it might still be there, but I never, it might be, it’s a different building. Uh, it was campus housing or off-campus housing, and it was Boca rents Uhhuh and that’s all they did.
Matthew Maschler:
You know, it, you get in trouble with that because, you know, if you’re a school right, and you build a dorm, you’re fine. But if you’re a private, uh, developer mm-hmm. <affirmative> and you build a college dorm style building, right. You have to be very careful that you’re not going to, uh, do age discrimination. Oh, right. Realtors are not allowed to discriminate based on age. Right. Uh, and, and there’s all these hou fair housing rules. So if you make student housing for-profit student housing, and I think that’s why you saw it. Yeah. And that’s why you don’t see it anymore. Maybe because, um, I, my guess is they ran a foul of fair housing rules. Right. Um, but you still, I still do see student hou, you know, for-profit not associated with the school, a student housing out
Staci Garcia:
There. I think it should be a service. It’s definitely, and when we were in Maryland, there was a student housing, an off-campus housing agency in Yeah. Let’s the student union and you could go there and put your name in and say what you’re looking for and they would match you up. Yeah. And it was for off-campus or on-campus housing. Yeah. Um, I was reading that the Hyatt was trying to accommodate people that were using Airbnb instead of regular hotels. And so in, in order to do that, they changed their, um, their, their typical, uh, room to include an air of convection oven, like a kitchenette. They included in the hotel. It’s called, uh, Hyatt Studios. And they’re including in the hotel fresh, uh, food so that you don’t have to go out to eat. And so the people that are going there now would be people that would get an Airbnb, but they’re in a Hyatt. So when you ask for a studio, you’re getting, and it’s, and it’s called the Hyatt Studio, but it’s not like a studio apartment. But in order to capture the people that would normally go to Airbnb and have an extended stay, um, this was is what they’re introducing to retract people back to the hotel format. So they’re reforming their, their rooms to include a kind of like a kitchen.
Matthew Maschler:
Oh, that’s, that’s that’s a very interesting, you know, the, cuz the hotels are nervous about Airbnb and VRBO and vacation rentals.
Staci Garcia:
Yeah. I think they’re losing a lot of people to them for
Matthew Maschler:
Sure. Right. So, um, so yeah. So that’s a, a good, um, a good way for the hotels to compete with the short term rental companies. Yep. All right. So that’s it, that’s what we have about short term rentals. Um, I I wanted to just reminisce about the old way of realtors handling one week and one month rentals. I wanted to talk about, um, resort communities versus Palm Beach County and Boca Raton. That’s not the same as Gatlinburg and, uh, Galveston and the Jersey Shore. Um, even though people think it is, they, they think, oh, go down to Boca, get a house for a week, or go get a house for a month or get a seasonal rental. You can get a seasonal rental 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 months. Um, you know what happens also? Mm-hmm. Let, yeah. In these communities where the landlord can only rent one time a year Yeah.
The landlord knows how much money they need. A minimum. Right. You know, if they need, uh, $60,000, so they rent for 5,000 a month, someone comes down, they want six months, and the landlord says, okay, now you could have six months thousand a month. $10,000. Right. Right. You could have nine months, $7,500. Yeah. Right. So, um, so the landlords aren’t stupid, right? No. Um, I I only want the best months. I don’t want July and August. Right. So, um, so yeah, annual rentals, six month rentals. Give us a call@realestatefinder.com. Three month rentals. Yeah. I’ll give you someone Junior. Uh, anything less than that, uh, please check out our friends at the short term in the, in the short term vacation rental industry. Shout out to, uh, uh, Steve Cro, who owns, uh, a couple of short term rentals, uh, in, uh, St. Augustine, Florida. A beautiful area.
If you would like a, a few days in a vacation area, uh, let me know. I’ll put you in touch with Steve, who owns, uh, the St. Augustine Rentals. We actually have to get him back on our show. Yeah. Um, he’s coming back at the end of the month. Yeah. Yeah. So we gotta get him back on our show. Um, unless, uh, we already had him because we’re recording the show in advance because I have some summer plans, so, um, so anyway, yeah. So do, do let us know. Um, I want, you know, who else has got into the short term rental game? Who Investments Limited. Oh, really? They, they own a lot of shopping centers and properties in town and everything else. So, and then, and they own a lot of houses, so they set up their, they set up a separate brand of, uh, short term rentals. Interesting. Um, because they, they have the units available, so, uh, uh, as a way to, uh, to market it. And they made a real, really nice brand. I forget what it’s called, but it has a nice logo, nice colors, and it’s like, and it’s short term rentals in, in Boca Raton. Um, so I will, I’ll also, I’ll get that ad for, uh, for that agent that asked me the question. Thanks for joining us on the Real Estate Finder podcast. Check us out@realestatefinder.com and, uh, I’m Matthew Ashler on Twitter and Instagram and the Facebook,
Speaker 3:
The Future looks bright and the storms pass by the sky blue. It’s light shows cameras moment. They best for last. Matthew Mania. We about to make. Splash Life is a marathon full of sharp turns, gotta pace while hands on five star run show you electricity, energy vibrate. I’m always make dreams come true. Living life.
Speaker 4:
You know, you know, you knows,
Speaker 3:
You know what it’s says, you know what, its, you know whose, its, you know whats Yeah. Got. We’re not big bad wolf. First comes the.
