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[00:00:05] Sarah: Hello, listeners. Welcome back for another great episode. My name is Sarah Karakaian.

[00:00:09] Annette: I am Annette Grant. And together we are–

[00:00:11] Both Annette & Sarah: Thanks for Visiting.

[00:00:12] Sarah: Let’s start this episode like we do every week, and that is sharing one of you our incredible listeners who’s using our hashtag on Instagram. It’s #STRShareSunday. We’ll share you here in the podcast, to our newsletter every single week. Who will we share this weekend, Annette?

[00:00:29] Annette: @sea.sun.maui. Hello, it has Maui in it. What’s not to love? So again, that’s @sea.sun.maui. And I want to take a minute. They have three properties. Hosts always ask us, how do– I have multiple properties. What should I do?

[00:00:48] We always recommend, especially if they’re in the same area, keep it simple until you can get consistent. And one thing that they’ve done a really, really lovely job at in their listing, I love this, right away, they’re letting us know that their condo underwent a full renovation completed in December, 2023.

[00:01:05] If you have done something big like that within the last– I’m like, oh, I’m walking into a brand new spot, so that is worthy, and I love that’s the first sentence in there listing, because I don’t know about you, but I’ve been to a lot of beach condos, and they have not been renovated in December of 2023.

[00:01:25] The next thing that I think they do a really, really great job of, don’t miss out on the whale watching from the balcony during whale season. I ain’t getting that everywhere. You know what I’m saying? So that’s awesome. But here’s another great tip that I love. They’re letting people know it’s a quaint boutique style resort.

[00:01:41] This is in their other things to note. It is best suited for adults, couples, and friends. It does not have features specifically suited for children like a bathtub. I love that they highlight that, why it would not be kid-friendly because they’re going to have to take a shower. But they do say, we do recommend our other unit if you’re traveling with children.

[00:02:03] It has a ocean view and more amenities for young families. So I love that they’re saying, hey, this might not be ideal, but guess what? There’s more. And they tell you exactly what other unit you could stay in and why. And so that’s the wonderfulness. If you have multiple properties, you can always be pitching the next one.

[00:02:25] So well done @sea.sun.maui. Give them a follow. Go watch whales on their balcony. Book with them if you’re in the neighborhood. Sarah, this is a special episode with one of our members today, and she has been a member for years with us, but she just started hosting.

[00:02:46] Sarah: You can’t fail, Annette, if you quit. And that is the message that Ellyn will leave you with at the end of this episode. This episode, get ready to be inspired. Get ready to get your boxing gloves out.

[00:03:01] Annette: You’ll have some pain.

[00:03:02] Sarah: Yeah. To go through this rollercoaster ride with Ellyn. I don’t want to give too much away, but her story is especially excruciating in terms of, just like Annette calls it during the episode, the one two punches. They just kept on punching her.

[00:03:19] Annette: And by the way, we don’t normally go through these bio fun facts, but we just have to say this. Ellyn, I love it, she said her and her husband met when their dogs introduced us. So they met because of their dogs. And then last but not least, fun fact, Ellyn named Airy, the brand. She used to work for Pottery Barn, Airy, in American Eagle. That is more than a fun fact. That is some bragging rights. So let’s get into some other rights.

[00:03:44] Sarah: Ellyn, welcome to the show.

[00:03:47] Ellyn: Thank you so much. It’s so great to be here.

[00:03:50] Annette: It’s been a long journey. We’ve been on this road with you for a long time, huh, Ellyn? When did you–

[00:03:56] Ellyn: It is crazy how long it has taken.

[00:03:59] Annette: But this show is going to be all about perseverance and seeing it through. So let’s just start really quickly the date that you actually purchased this property.

[00:04:11] Ellyn: Yeah, we bought this around Thanksgiving in 2021, so towards the end of COVID. We were just coming out of COVID time.

[00:04:25] Sarah: And the whole plan was to short-term rent this property. And share with everyone where this property is and just a take 60 seconds and share why this property.

[00:04:36] Ellyn: Yeah, absolutely. So this property is in Oceanside, California, which is my husband and I’s dream town. It’s where we dream of living. Our life is here for now, but someday we want to live in Oceanside, California.

[00:04:51] Annette: Where is here?

[00:04:53] Ellyn: Yes. We currently live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, so we’re on the opposite coast. Our family’s here. We’re raising our kids here, but we both have a California soul. So we thought, hey, we should buy a house now before we get priced out of this market, and we can turn it into a short-term rental to, a, help us afford that mortgage and b, maybe even make some additional money.

[00:05:23] The big dream was once we finished the Oceanside house, maybe we move there, and we turn our Pittsburgh home into a short-term rental as well. And then we’d be able to go back and forth and then find another place we wanted to bop around too. So that was really why we chose someplace so far away. We felt like we were going to get priced out of the market, so we had to hurry up. COVID was like, yolo. We’re like, we better get going.

[00:05:58] Sarah: Okay, so then what was that process like? Any tips or tricks you can give our listeners about buying a property so far away? Let’s talk about the good and the bad of the transaction process. Did you have a trusted realtor? How did you find it? What was that like for you?

[00:06:16] Ellyn: Yeah, we were like, again, hey, let’s just go with this flow. We feel like the universe is on our side. It was a very COVID fuel, but we decided to buy the property, and we started looking at Zillow every day. We didn’t expect to find our dream property so quickly, but we did, and we were like, this is amazing. It ticks all the boxes. It’s in our budget. And so we just clicked find agent on Zillow, and that was our agent, literally.

[00:06:47] Sarah: How did that go?

[00:06:48] Ellyn: He was amazing. He was amazing in some aspects and a little green in others. So like everything, there were pros and cons, but his name was Devon, and he was like, go getter, where like, yeah, this guy’s awesome. And then from there, the home was already about to, whatever. They were getting all the final bids in, so there were nine other people trying to get the house.

[00:07:12] So we were like, never in a million years are we going to win this bid. But Devon, our agent, man, he knew how to get with the seller’s agent and make good friends with her and then tell the story about why we were the best purchasers. And what we had in our favor is that we didn’t need to move in right away. So that was a big bonus for us. And ultimately, yeah, we won the bid, and we were like, oh, dear. I mean, yay, but oh my goodness.

[00:07:47] Annette: It’s happening. It’s awesome.

[00:07:48] Ellyn: This is happening. We did the entire transaction over the internet, which I would not recommend, but we were just taking a risk, and we didn’t want to miss out on it. It just was the perfect property for what we wanted to do.

[00:08:08] Annette: What were some of those boxes? You said it checked all the boxes, so share with us what those boxes were. Did you have the short-term rental in mind though? Because it sounds like this is your property for yourself. But were you already, when you were checking those boxes, thinking about short-term rentals?

[00:08:23] Ellyn: So the boxes were more for our own personal– this is what we want. But we did have in mind like we want it to be a short-term rental, and in order to be successful, it has to be an amazing property. I think that was just what we kept saying. It has to be amazing in order to break through all the competition.

[00:08:42] The boxes were personal to us, but we also thought they would be, primarily, a beautiful pool, so that was a big one. And you don’t find a lot of single-family homes with a pool that were in our budget in Oceanside, California. So that was the first thing. It also had a really amazing layout. At the time we were like, it’s almost rental ready.

[00:09:04] Sarah: Yeah.

[00:09:05] Ellyn: There was an indoor fireplace, which we love for us. Of course, we aren’t using that for the guests. But those were some of the boxes that were checked for us. Oh, it had drought resistant landscaping, things like that.

[00:09:18] Sarah: Oh, nice. So you said you did the whole transaction online. Does that include the inspection process?

[00:09:25] Ellyn: Yeah, our agent just walked us through with the phone, and he looked at everything, and then he had an inspector come in, and the inspector went through everything. And we went through that, and there weren’t any huge red flags from the inspection report. So from there, we closed.

[00:09:47] Sarah: You closed. And you’re thinking like, let’s hit the ground running. So was the first order of business you guys going out to enjoy it for your own vacation, or were you like, got to make money on it? What was the first thing you had to do?

[00:10:00] Ellyn: Yeah, the first order of business was to turn it into an amazing Airbnb. We wanted to just get started. We were hoping to be able to be live by that summer, so the summer of 2022. But the first step was flying out there, seeing the house in person, and we knew we wanted to use an interior designer because that was our plan. We’ll find a great designer. She’ll have the contractor, and she’ll be the one boots on the ground, making sure everything turned out beautiful. So how hard could it be?

[00:10:38] Sarah: And also, I want to weave this in too, Ellyn, because we know you because you belong to our mastermind. You belong to Hosting Business Mastery. And so at what point in this whole process do you join our group?

[00:10:50] Ellyn: Yeah, so I hired the designer, and then I just started thinking, I don’t know that this is going to be as easy as I thought it might be. And I started listening to your podcast. I started listening to several podcasts, but I gravitated to yours because I just really loved you’re hosting with heart message and how you talked about the whole experience and a lot of the more male-oriented podcasts were very much like, get your spreadsheets and figure out your profits.

[00:11:21] And that wasn’t really my angle. So I just resonated with the way you were teaching what you had to teach, and I had to pitch it to my husband, but I was like, I heard on another podcast like, if you were starting your business and you had $5,000, how would you spend it?

[00:11:40] And she’s like, I would spend 4,000 of it on education. And so I was like, honey, we got it. We got to get in here. We got to learn from the best. And so we joined right away, thinking in just a few months, we’d be able to put into practice all your-

[00:11:57] Sarah: Yes. Spoiler alert, it wasn’t so simple. So when does it start to get complicated, Ellyn?

[00:12:04] Ellyn: Yes. So the contractor that the designer pitched for us was someone she’d never used before. So big red flag. Don’t recommend doing that. But we didn’t know. We’ve never done anything like this, and I really believed in her. I knew she had the vision. So we took a chance with that, and he just ended up being way too inexperienced. He didn’t know what he was doing.

[00:12:33] Ended up disappointing both her and us, and a lot of problems. He underbid things, and then he said he could build things that he couldn’t build. And that created a perfect storm because they underbid things.

[00:12:51] So we’re like, yeah, amazing. Let’s build a pergola. It’s not that much more than buying outdoor furniture. Well, yeah, turns out he was way, way off. But then we’re halfway through building a pergola. So we got in deep with all these big exciting plans, and then he couldn’t execute them, so then we had to let him go.

[00:13:15] And from Pittsburgh, now I’m basically the project manager trying to coordinate all these different people to come and finish the work. So that was painful. And in the middle of that, we actually had a neighbor or somebody complain about the construction happening because they knew we were going to be a short-term rental.

[00:13:37] So they just said to the city, hey, they’re doing a lot of construction. I don’t know if they have the permits they need. This being totally green, I was like, permits? We need permits. We’re just building little things outside. We’re not–

[00:13:51] Annette: Not adding on rooms.

[00:13:52] Ellyn: Right. We weren’t doing anything too complicated. But anyway, yes, we had to get a permit for various things, and that in itself was really painful. That took three months until we finally got the green light that we could continue forward. So we thought, yeah, this has already been pretty rough.

[00:14:12] But we just kept chipping away, and we were ready for the inspection. And this is my first big tip, which is do the inspection as soon as you possibly can. You don’t have to be guest ready. You don’t have to have everything perfect. At least, in our city, we had a checklist of this is all the things you have to have, and then you can have an inspection. What we should have done is just made sure we covered the fundamentals that the city cared about, and then had them come in and do the inspection. Then we might have–

[00:14:45] Sarah: This is the inspection to be able to apply for a short-term rental permit, Ellyn?

[00:14:51] Ellyn: Yes. It’s part of that application process.

[00:14:53] Sarah: Got it.

[00:14:55] Annette: That’s sophisticated. A lot of towns don’t have the checklist where they’re physically coming to your home, which I know you don’t want to hear this because it was a pain point for you. But we actually do wish that that would happen in more cities, so there was a second set of eyes on things that are permitted, if you will.

[00:15:10] Ellyn: Absolutely. And I do think the trend is going to be going that way more and more just because the pendulum is swung towards– you guys see the writing on the wall, so I think that will happen more. But make sure you’re very clear on what you need to do to be a short-term rental in your city, and then do the bare minimum to get approval to do that. And that will help you identify if there’s some big issue that you had no idea about that was going to be really expensive and time consuming.

[00:15:46] Annette: So you applied for the first round. You checked the boxes. Were you there? Did you have to be present for the inspection?

[00:15:54] Ellyn: Yes.

[00:15:55] Annette: Woo. So that’s a whole other trip for you. So you’re there on this first inspection. Are you nervous? Are you like, we are going to sail through this thing with flying colors?

[00:16:03] Ellyn: I was nervous about all these things that they didn’t even look at. Also, it wasn’t me. I sent my husband because I literally went once a month for the beginning of 2023 to get the house ready. Like I said, I was getting it totally guest ready. So I was like, I’m tired. It’s your turn.

[00:16:24] But I took care of everything. Yeah, the day of the inspection, my husband calls me afterwards and is like we’re done. I was like, what? What happened? He’s like, well, that shed on the back of the house, our supply shed we were so excited about, a previous owner built that, and they didn’t get a permit, and we have to have a permit for that shed before they will approve us to be a short-term rental.

[00:16:53] And so it was like, oh God. And again, okay, how hard could that be? But that was the real like record scratch, like, oh my gosh, we have to deal with this shed before we can make any money.

[00:17:11] Sarah: It’s so interesting, Ellyn, that they caught that shed not being permitted in order for you to get your STR license. But apparently, it wasn’t a lean on the title for them to be able to sell the property. So that stinks. You know what I mean?

[00:17:29] Ellyn: It stinks. Yeah, in some cities there is that thing. More experienced real estate agents might have been a little more attuned to, hey, this was added on. Is this properly permitted? But we didn’t [Inaudible] those things in that case.

[00:17:46] Sarah: That’s pretty nuanced.

[00:17:50] Ellyn: Yeah.

[00:17:50] Annette: I’m going to be naive here. Could you just demo it? Was it like, hey, no worries? We’ll demo this thing this weekend, and you can come back on Monday. Was that ever part of the plan?

[00:18:00] Ellyn: No, no. It was absolutely an option, and we definitely considered it. But the way that our property is set up, we had to have a pretty sizable storage area because our garage was a game room. And there we’d used up all the closets in the house for owner storage.

[00:18:17] So we really needed a substantial storage space. That was part one. Part two, the way they built it, it actually had extended the length of the house. So it looked like it was part of the house, and it really completed the view from the pool deck. So by demoing it, the house would’ve looked a lot stumpier, and we’d still have to put something there for storage. And there were weird regulations around buying a prefab storage unit that made that difficult. And to build it again, we’d have to get a permit to demo it and then get another building permit to build a new one. So it was like, all right.

[00:18:59] Sarah: Just get this permitted.

[00:19:01] Ellyn: Yeah, exactly. It was like, we really need this shed.

[00:19:05] Sarah: So I want to make sure we have enough time to go through the juicy stuff. So speed us through this shed permitting. How long did it take you, and any good tidbits that you can share with the listeners about that process?

[00:19:18] Ellyn: Yeah. Definitely, try to talk to other people who have been through a building permit process in your city. I didn’t do enough outreach and talking to enough people to better understand the process. I was really just trusting in the person who had helped us before.

[00:19:38] But that was a handshake type of thing. It wasn’t a professional. So talk to people about the process and then hire a professional with a contract who has– those are my main tips. And also, just be prepared. It is a lengthy process, especially in California, but most cities, you need to submit the building plans. They need to be approved. It took us three tries to get our building plans approved.

[00:20:12] Sarah: Oh wow. How long did it take you to get it approved?

[00:20:15] Ellyn: So we found out about it in the end of May. It wasn’t until November for a million reasons that we finally had approved. They were like, okay, yes, your building plans are approved. And this is the part I haven’t said yet. The problem with the shed was it was inside the setback.

[00:20:37] So the setback had to be 10 feet, and we had an eight-foot setback. The shed was two feet. And so I think part of what took so long was like, we just really didn’t think it was necessary to cut off two feet of the shed for this. It’s been there for all these reasons. So anyway, we really spent some time trying to just keep the shed as it was. But the law is the law, especially with building regulations. So that’s another lesson learned. Even if it doesn’t really make sense and it’s not fair, it’s still the law, and you just got to suck it.

[00:21:13] Annette: You got to do it. Yeah.

[00:21:14] Ellyn: You got to do it.

[00:21:15] Annette: Welcome to California.

[00:21:18] Ellyn: Yes, that’s right. That’s right. I sent a lovely email to the head of the building department, like, is it really necessary to create all this noise and waste for something that nobody lives in? It’s just for storage. It’s been here for 10 years. Yes, it’s necessary.

[00:21:39] Sarah: But you know what? Even though they told you yes, it’s necessary, and you abided by the law, this is a great segue into the rest of your story because you didn’t just listen to the “law.” You persevered.

[00:21:52] Annette: You fought the law, and the law won. Wait, I should say it the other way. You fought the law on, and Ellyn won.

[00:21:57] Sarah: That’s right.

[00:21:58] Ellyn: Yes.

[00:21:59] Sarah: We’re giving a little foreshadowing, but okay, Ellyn. So you get the permit.

[00:22:02] Ellyn: Let’s fast forward to that. The contractor cuts off two feet of the shed, and there’s a whole bunch of things that go wrong, but finally, it’s March 19th, and we have a shorter shed with an approved building permit, and we’re like, yay, we did it.

[00:22:23] So I sent an email to the code enforcer. Hey, we did everything you asked us to. Give us our permit. And he wrote back. Oh my gosh. I literally felt my stomach drop to the floor. He was just like, oh, hi there. So sorry, but one month ago, we officially banned short-term rentals in your location, so no permit for you.

[00:22:53] I was like, what? I’ve been working with the city for all this time. No one has said one word, a. B, I did all this work explicitly to be a short-term rental. So I was devastated, but also just infuriated. I was like, no, this is not okay. You don’t string someone along for all this time then change the rules on them and then not give them what they work towards.

[00:23:30] But yeah, that is what happened. So he’s like, here’s the ordinance, and it was like, short-term rentals banned in residential areas. And I was like, there was no wiggle room.

[00:23:43] Annette: Were other ones grandfathered in though? 

[00:23:47] Ellyn: Yes.

[00:23:47] Annette: So it wasn’t completely. It was just new permits. All right, so you see a ray of light there of it’s not the current. It’s like, wait a second. It’s still possible. You did see that.  And I want to share with the listeners, because you are in our community, that you actually listened to our other podcast episode too, where a woman had a similar situation to you and you took literally her protocol, the way that she presented to the city, and you leaned on that message from her and how together she was in that permit. 

[00:24:25] I just want to share a little, you said your stomach dropped to the ground, but let’s be real here. I’m devastated for you. Were there tears? Were you and your husband, like, what’s going on? What is that emotional– hosting is emotional, and I think we are very real about that.

[00:24:39] You hadn’t even hosted yet. Really, what was that feeling that day? Did you sit in it for a while? Were you defeated, or was it you and your husband? Were you guys at each other, or you should have done this faster, you should have done this faster? What was at the household that day?

[00:24:57] Ellyn: Yeah, so I got the email. My husband was at work. I was home, kids were at school, and I get the email, and I’m all alone, and I’m just, I think, shock. I just was shock, but also like, of course, because I cannot tell you every single step we took over the past 10– something went wrong, not just once, but usually twice before we passed through that step.

[00:25:21] And so I was like, of course. We felt like the universe was against us now. So it was shock and also like, ugh, another hurdle. But in my gut, I was like, this is not the end. I refuse to accept this as the end of our journey. So I waited till he came home.

[00:25:46] I didn’t want to call him at work and be like– it just felt like something– and it gave me time to really think through like, hey, it’s just new ones. We’re not technically new. They don’t have any language about people that were in the process. So that is a gray area, and that’s where we are.

[00:26:06] And so opportunity to fight. So that’s how I presented it to him, but we were both just shell-shocked still. It was still just very heavy. I cried all the tears. I was going to cry long ago through the whole shed saga. So it was truly–

[00:26:27] Annette: You shed those tears, no pun and intended.

[00:26:30] Ellyn: I shed those tears. Oh, I love puns.

[00:26:34] Annette: I got them. Don’t you worry. And I just want to share, just because we have had this conversation too that again, financially, this is a burden. I’m just going to say it. We understand this like when you’re furnishing your short-term rental, you and you husband, it’s month.

[00:26:53] I’m telling you, doesn’t the first of the month like come up so quick? It’s like smacking you in the face. It’s like a one-two punch, like you’re in a Rock movie, but you’re financially getting beat up too. And again, welcome to California.

[00:27:05] Ellyn: Yes. And it’s like month after month. It just seems like it was never going to end, and then we finally got to what we thought was the end, and then it was like, oh, no, we still have to keep going. And it just felt like we had no choice but to keep going.

[00:27:22] It was worse to try to sell the property at this point because we’d been carrying it so long that it was like– and also, I was like, I’m not giving up. I’m going to do everything I can until I’ve exhausted all avenues before I give up on this.

[00:27:39] Annette: I’ll tell you my reaction. Did you hire an attorney right away? What was your next step?

[00:27:45] Ellyn: Yeah, not only was it like we have to fight this, but it was also like, we have $0. That’s our budget to fight this. So I was like, all right, I’m going to put on my big girl pants and do what I can. But it was definitely like, I’m going to try to do it myself, and if I can’t, then we’ll call a lawyer. And if the lawyer doesn’t work, I’m going to go to the press because this is unfair.  So that was my plan.

[00:28:13] Sarah: You had a backup for your backup, and I like that.

[00:28:15] Ellyn: Yes, exactly.

[00:28:16] Annette: And I see on here, as you’re fighting for the right to host, you had made some notes for us, Ellyn, that you recommend bypassing code enforcers, bosses, going directly to the city council person. Can you give us that direct route? Let’s fast track some of our listeners if they run into this same situation because were emails being back and forth, falling on deaf ears or inboxes? How did you get to the city council person? Why is that important?

[00:28:42] Ellyn: Yeah. Like I said, I was like, okay, I see this gray area. Let me go listen to all the meetings where the city government was discussing these regulations. What did they say about the people in progress? And so I then watched probably 20 hours worth of city meetings and fast forward.

[00:29:06] But I wanted to hear what everyone had to say. And I took down the quotes of what everyone said. And many people were like, oh, this is just new applications, not people in progress. So I was like, okay, great. Cut and dried. So I sent that to the code enforcer boss, so senior code enforcer because he was in the meeting.

[00:29:27] So I was like, clearly this is like cut and dried. And he writes back, yes, I appreciate all your quotes, but none of that language made it into the law. So still no permit for you. And I was like, okay. So clearly, they are just letter of the law, and they are not going to help me.

[00:29:49] And then I realized that everyone that had been in those meetings besides the city council people were all trying to serve the city government. They weren’t fighting for the residents. The city council person is the person that’s supposed to fight for the people in their jurisdiction.

[00:30:07] And by listening to these meetings, I saw all the city councilmen. I saw who was pro short-term rental, anti, and I knew who ours was, and we were very, I feel, lucky that he was pro short-term rental and he was also the deputy mayor. So yeah, once the code enforcement was like, I see all your very good evidence, but I can’t do anything, I went straight to the city councilman.

[00:30:40] And what I would recommend is send an email, also call, because it was the phone call that was answered. So the deputy mayor’s aide got my phone message and called me back, and she was the first person who was like, tell me your story. Let me see. This doesn’t sound right. Let me see what I can do.

[00:31:05] And if you call and you don’t get a call back and it’s something like your livelihood is at stake, wait, three days, two days, call again. You deserve to have your story heard, so don’t just throw stuff into the wind and expect that they’ll come back. Fight for them to hear you out.

[00:31:31] Sarah: What was it about hearing you out that tipped it in your favor at this point? So what did you share and what was their response?

[00:31:40] Ellyn: Yeah, so I had many emails at this point making my case. So I forwarded all of those to the Deputy Mayor’s aide, and then she reviewed them with him. He had her take them to the city attorney, the city manager, so the highest levels of government, and that included like all the quotes from the meetings.

[00:32:01] It also included my argument that we technically already had a short-term rental permit. It just was in pending status, not approved. So definitely, if you’re in this limbo area, just look at all the records, and make sure you’re paying attention to when you submit things. I took screenshots of our pending status, thank goodness, because after I sent the message to the code enforcer boss, they closed my application. So now it’s closed.

[00:32:40] Sarah: Sneaky.

[00:32:40] Annette: You had the old one that said pending. Woo, that is good. All right. One thing that you also wanted to make sure that everyone knew, and this was, I think you took from our previous guest, how important a slide deck– actually having that professionalism, coming with stats, data over drama.

[00:33:01] Most of you know the story how Sarah and I met at a city council meeting, and I can tell you, there were so many people. It was just them standing up there with all this vomiting drama. But then when someone would get up with, and I’m telling you, old school poster board had facts, and figures, and data that packed a punch.

[00:33:19] People took that so much more seriously when it was actual numbers instead of just– obviously, you want your story heard, but once your story’s heard and it’s time for you to present, what was your slide deck presentation? I know you were were so kind, you sent it to Sarah and I. We were super proud when we saw that, but can you just go through really quick some of the data, some of the facts and figures that you put together that you think were the strongest that you had found?

[00:33:42] Ellyn: Yeah, absolutely. Well, I started with what I learned from that podcast, the previous podcast, where she said, I really just figured out what the pain points were. What were the main pain points, and then come up with data to refute that or talk about like, here’s how we address these pain points.

[00:34:02] So my deck had two parts. The first part was, as you said, there’s all this drama, and in Oceanside, it was very negative. It was very us against them and short-term rentals are the devil, and they are all party houses. And the short-term rental group wasn’t super unified, and they didn’t have a cohesive voice about, hey, these are the positive things we do for the community.

[00:34:28] And it’s really just a problem with enforcement and a few bad apples. It’s not short-term rentals as a whole. But no one was getting that message across clearly. And I had spent so much time digging through all this stuff, fighting my own cause that I felt like I have to present this, and I wasn’t sure at the point when I was putting together if we were going to get our permit or not.

[00:34:56] So I was using it as, if I need to, I’m going to present how great shot-term rentals are, and then say, hey, by the way, give me my permit. But as it turned out, I got my permit two hours before the meeting. So I was like, okay.

[00:35:14] Sarah: And how did that happen? Did the deputy mayor call you and present it to you on a plotter? How did it happen? That’s what I would have done.

[00:35:20] Ellyn: Yeah, no. The aide called me and said, okay, yes, and gave me a verbal commitment, and I was like, yay. But then I was like, okay, this is great, but I don’t have anything written, and I’m not celebrating until I have written confirmation. So I emailed her back. I was like, great conversation. Documented what we talked about. I need written confirmation. And so I got the email from the city manager two hours before the meeting.

[00:35:52] Annette: And did you still show up to the meeting and present?

[00:35:55] Ellyn: Yes. Oh yes. Because I’d been preparing this slide deck feverishly for days. And I just felt like it was so important to share the positives of short-term rentals, but also just to show that I am involved with this community.

[00:36:15] I’m part of this discussion. Even though I don’t live in this house, I’m as invested as someone who does, and I’m showing up here to fight for our right to host, hopefully by bringing some positivity into the discussion. That will sink into the heads of the city government more so they’re not just hearing the loud, angry residents. They’re remembering the key things that are important.

[00:36:44] So to talk about how I did that, a lot of the data really came from listening to the city council meetings because the planning department is presenting, here’s what we think we should do with short-term rentals. I basically was like, here’s the five reasons why we are amazing for Oceanside. 

[00:37:10] And to extrapolate this to other cities around the world the thing that a city government listens to is like, is the city making money?

[00:37:24] Sarah: That’s really it.

[00:37:26] Ellyn: That’s really it.

[00:37:27] Annette: Let’s dig into that a little bit though because when you’re saying, is a city meeting making money, do you think they want to hear, there’s tax dollars? Do you think they want to hear that there’s jobs? What were exact points that you made for how the city was making money?

[00:37:43] Ellyn: Yes. So I started with, we’re the tax dollars. So there’s occupancy tax for all of the places to stay. So that is generating revenue. Then I got data from the Visit Oceanside arm. So most cities, if they’re bigger cities, they’ll have a marketing group that’s trying to entice visitors and businesses to come to the area.

[00:38:12] So that’s a really great source of information that can help support your argument. From them, I got like, okay, here’s how much tax we got. It also talked about how the lodging spend is only 30% of the total visitor spend.

[00:38:29] So when the visitor comes, they’re not just spending money on the lodging, they’re actually spending all this other money in all the businesses, and so that was half a billion dollars in Oceanside. So it was not small. And short-term rentals were half of that.

[00:38:49] So there was half hotels, half short-term rentals. So if you’re starting to kill short-term rentals, we’re talking a quarter of a billion dollars that you’re messing with. So that was first and foremost. And then next was, yeah, we’re hiring all these people, and we are a part of the business community, so we’re hiring people. 

[00:39:15] We’re investing in these properties. So we’re helping to improve the overall housing stock because houses, if they’re not really kept up, they start to go downhill, and then the neighborhood goes downhill. And we had neighbors come up to us and thank us for investing and making the house look so beautiful.

[00:39:35] They were like, all these other houses started doing little projects to look better. So we’re beautifying the housing for everyone. We’re creating jobs. A few other important things. So hotels, they’re there, and people talk about, we don’t need short-term rentals.

[00:39:58] Everyone can stay at the hotels, and short-term rentals are hurting the hotels. Well, again, similar data. I was like, look, actually, hotels are growing faster than short-term rentals, so we’re not hurting the hotels. So it was like, nice try on that one, but the numbers–

[00:40:18] Annette: That’s interesting. Were there any other hosts along with you that were in this pre-approval or were you sharing this same issue with anyone else at this time?

[00:40:29] Ellyn: Yeah, so I just heard from the aide that there were two other parties, so there were three of us that were in this gray area. I never connected with them. I didn’t really know how to find them. I felt a little awkward asking the aide to give me, other people’s information. Ideally, it would’ve been nice to– but once I heard there were only three of us, that also felt like, okay, this seems like not that big of a deal. You know what I mean? It’s an easy yes, is what I was hoping to hear.

[00:41:02] Annette: So what was the date that you got the yes?

[00:41:06] Ellyn: It was 4/24.

[00:41:09] Annette: 4/24. And you bought the property 11/21.

[00:41:13] Ellyn: Yes.

[00:41:14] Annette: And you got the permit 4/24. All right. The listeners want to know, Ellyn, have you hosted your first guest yet?

[00:41:25] Ellyn: Oh yes. We have hosted four.

[00:41:28] Annette: Awesome.

[00:41:25] Ellyn: Oh, I know. And it’s so funny because it was such a whole journey just to get to the starting line because now we’re just at the beginning. And so now it’s been super exciting just to finally be able to have people enjoying the property and getting to talk about how should we do this, and how do we handle this?

[00:41:51] And so that’s the phase we’re in right now, is just learning about our house and guests. So we still have a long road ahead of us to be anywhere near profitable. But we’re in it for the long haul, and it’s been–

[00:42:10] Annette: And you did it.

[00:42:12] Ellyn: Yes.

[00:42:12] Annette: Did you and your husband go out for the most amazing dinner and just like relax? I know we get me to get that money flowing in the bank account the other way, but hopefully, you celebrated a little bit.

[00:42:25] Ellyn: We did. We celebrated, as you know, in style that befits our financial status with at home date night, which is a box of wine and some stakes.

[00:42:36] Annette: Hey, I’m here for that.

[00:42:38] Sarah: So everyone, Ellyn sent us an email because she had joined the group. She was really active, and then of course all this happened, and she just paused her membership, which was totally fine because she’s like, I’ve got to focus on getting this open.

[00:42:53] And so once she did, she sent us a slide deck and I was floored at the fact that you took initiative to listen to the city council meetings and take that data and use it for good because we do need hosts like you out there showing off California and showing off that property. And so I was very impressed with your tenacity and with your unwillingness to let it just die at that point.

[00:43:18] And I know you’re going to continue to be a source of inspiration as we share these stories of people knowing that they’ve got a place in the short-term rental market in their communities knowing that it’s a good fit. And I’m just real proud of you, and I just love you.

[00:43:32] Annette: Oh my gosh. For sure.

[00:43:34] Ellyn: Thank you, guys, so much.

[00:43:36] And we love too, the other part, is when you’re listening, I would say, you’re an active listener. When you heard that other story, you had something to reference. Wait a second. That’s right. What did she do again? That were her key takeaways. And that’s why we do the show, is for there to be someone out there that listens and then takes action on it.

[00:43:59] So I know, Ellyn, that I am sure that you would be more than happy to share your slide deck also, or your story, and we have that. So listeners, please feel free to email us. But also Ellyn, couple of things. We got to give you some shout outs here. Where can people find you? Where can they book?

[00:44:17] Everyone needs to go to Oceanside, California, but you can only stay with Ellyn. But can you just share with everyone where they can find you, where they could book their stay and if they want to hear more about you or this amazing slide–

[00:44:31] Ellyn: Get in touch with me. So with all the long journey, we had time to build a pretty beautiful website. So you can find us at www.stayblueskies.com. So our home is named The Blue Skies. Yeah, so we have stayblueskies.com, @stayblueskies on Instagram. And then I think if you search Blue Skies on Airbnb, you will find us as well.

[00:44:59] Annette: But go direct. Book direct with Ellyn.

[00:45:01] Ellyn: Oh yes. You can book direct through our staylueskies.com. We already have that set up.

[00:45:07] Annette: Ellyn, crushing it. Well, we are so happy for you. Hopefully, we’ve all learned some lessons. You’ve learned some lessons, and also encouragement. Listen, your contractor story, I want to let you know, that’s an everyday contractor story, so don’t beat yourself up about that. I think even people have dealt with 100 contractors. They underbid.

[00:45:26] Sarah: But also, Ellyn, you just posted in our private Facebook group. She declared that she’ll be at all of our calls this month, and I just love that.

[00:45:38] Annette: She keeps showing up.

[00:45:38] Sarah: You keep showing up, and you’re going to crush it.

[00:45:39] Ellyn: I feel like have to push myself, and so putting that out there gives me accountability that I’m going to do it, because there were many months where I wasn’t able to participate too much. But now, I’m drinking from the fire hose. I’m like, tell me all the ways that I could make more money and have happier guests. But yeah, definitely, it’s not comfortable. Standing up in front of the city council was very uncomfortable, but also amazing because I had a strong message that–

[00:46:18] Annette: You had a strong why, for sure.

[00:46:20] Ellyn: Yeah, yeah. I was like, I feel compelled to say we’re not all bad. There’s a sunny side.

[00:46:29] Sarah: There’s Blue Skies

[00:46:31] Ellyn: There’s Blue Skies. 

[00:46:33] Annette: You got puns. 

[00:46:35] Sarah: I don’t know it’s a pun. I’m just bringing it full circle. Ellyn, you so much for joining us here on the Thanks for Visiting podcast and for sharing your story and for being brave because you fought for your short-term rental to be there, but you’re also helping other hosts do the same and to host responsibly. So thank you for that. And with that, I am Sarah Karakaian.

[00:46:57] Annette: I am Annette Grant. And together we are–

[00:46:58] Both Annette & Sarah: Thanks for Visiting.

[00:46:59] Sarah: Talk to you next time.