I wrote about an issue raised twice at a public meeting by a taxpayer of the town. I'm glad you will participate in our democracy and state your rights.
Dear Scott, Thank you for this. I must have called a different person by your name who has a real estate business in New York. I would urge you as a stakeholder to participate in the the Land-Use Ordinance Committee's review of short-term rentals. It would benefit from your perspective. I don't think it's legal to set a fire on a neighbor's property. I also don't think Burlington has been free of this issue created by Airbnb and VRBO. In fact the Burlington City Council just voted in some extreme measures in July. See this article in the Burlington Free Press. https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/2022/07/01/burlington-airbnbs-new-short-term-rental-regulations-are-here-to-stay/65364328007/
Scott Jerutis has shared his side of the story to benefit his position. However a few things are incorrect. The fire pit was in fact on the property of the Golf Course and it is the root cause of the inconvenience we are experiencing. Mr Jerutis’ caretaker was informed of the fire pit location by us. He assured us it would be addressed. It was, but the fire pit was used again by the same renters later in the week. The fire chief was called by us. The fire was extinguished and the pit was removed by the caretaker. The issue here is short term renters not fire pits. The question is, must a neighbor be subjected to a continual turnover of the property by renters who can and in this case do rent for a couple of days at a time? Imagine that you have a small hotel’s front door and parking lot within 25’ of your bedroom window. The fact is the property is an investment not a vacation home that wants occasional income. The Town Selectmen must decide how they wish to treat this type of property. Our position is that if the intention of the property owner is to produce income by rental, then it should be considered a commercial property subject to all the rules of taxation and zoning. We would support the Town Selectmen if they adopted rules governing rental of private property, in residential neighborhoods. Other communities have set limits, find the best fit for the culture and desires of the local and summer populations and let that be their guidance. It’s not so attractive having an unregulated investor property next door.
I'd like to add to Norman Beamer's comments that not all vacation homeowners are the villains here. I'm afraid that unless the problem is identified correctly the proposed solutions will make the situation worse.
The problem is not short term rentals. The problem is conversions of something that wasn't a short term rental, conversions of a year round house to a seasonal house, and owners with no ties to the community renting irresponsibly with AirBnB and VRBO. This is a tiny percentage of the overall short term rentals in these communities. Unless the solutions are targeted to those problems the communities will exacerbate the problem.
Look at local brokers listings from 20 or 15 years ago, there were hundreds of people with long term connections to the community doing responsible short term rentals through local brokers in order to be able to afford their family places and keep them safe with someone there when the family couldn't be. If you look, we all the same people still renting short term (weekly) today with the same local brokers. If there was not destruction of the community 15 years ago then short term rentals themselves are not the problem. We've been part of the community for 50 years, use the house 4 months of the year, rent it 3 months, and because it isn't winterized it is shut down in the winter.
If families such as ours are forced to sell to rich people from outside the community there will be more houses rented for more weeks through online services not local brokers. VRBO will make a lot more money from such a person than they do from us as we spend a lot of time here ourselves and rent almost all our weeks through local brokers. AirBnB would love to see their competition from local brokers, who are part of the community, go away.
I don't see how driving away families with generations of ties to the island and driving local brokers out of business helps the community. Continuing to talk about the problem as 'short term rentals' generically will be a disaster for all the generations of summer residents who inherited beloved seasonal family homes that they cannot now afford and who have been renting responsibly for many years. It seems sad and ironic that we'll all be being penalized for not being rich outsiders.
I hope that there can start to be more nuance in the conversations around this issue to specify what the real issues are that need to be resolved so that solutions can be found that will not result in penalizing the 95% or more of owners who are not part of the problem.
No. Weekly only. VRBO used to let you list as weekly with only weekly rates. They moved to making everything look like it's daily. After the listing still said weekly only, Saturday to Saturday. I just looked and couldn't find that so I'll try to add something but we've only been asked a couple times about shorter rentals and have said no. It's not worth the work and cleaning.
We are lucky enough to now have all but one week booked with returning guests, many of whom have been coming a long time. All but that one week are booked with LSRobinson or Davis brokers. VRBO is a last resort for us and if the brokers book that one week first that would be even better.
One note, all our neighbors know us. If there was ever a problem they would just call us to deal with it. So far we've had only really nice families treating the house respectfully. We email with prospects first and wouldn't ever rent to a group of friends, only a family.
There definitely needs to be a town wide Tax opposed on Homeowners that strictly occupy their homes only for summer, draining the pipes on the homes. This has an effect of making the town look abandoned. These home owners are negatively affecting the property values in town. They should be absolutely forced to rent out their homes on an either long term basis or short term to help out the local businesses all year around. This will be proposed at the next town meeting.
My husband George commented on the previous posts, and I want to make sure this issue is not turning into a spit war between neighbors, so I am not going to disclose any incorrect and misleading information written in Scott Jerutis comments. I am grateful for discussions and informations brought to the attention when it concerns the communities on Mt. Desert, and hopefully through the efforts of selectmen/women, we can enjoy our town as a peaceful and loving community for all!
Given the vacancy rate of 54% in Mt Desert (44% in SWH) that is cited in the article, I would argue that wealthy, seasonal homeowners are more problematic, more destructive to community than STRs are. The uber-rich who buy up multiple homes, creating sprawling compounds for themselves and staff who spend 4-6 weeks here, are turning our communities into ghost towns.
Other wealthy communities have instituted vacancy taxes to help ease housing shortages. Those taxes generate revenue that can be used to create affordable housing and encourage people who have empty houses to sell or rent them.
I hope that I don't end up having to subsidize more "affordable housing" projects ...(like the one on Main St for COA students) with extra fees on my STR just because two summer people from away can't be better neighbors. They might be taxpayers, but that doesn't put them- or you- in a position to decide that STRs are destructive to community.
What a great read about Alisa. Thank you for sending the link. A lovely interlude in our afternoon. We are currently well settled in our winter nest in mid-coast.
I don't know whether Scott Jerutis bought this house as an investment, or as a second vacation home. I wish the concerns about short term rentals focused on the investor owners, rather than the vacation home owners. I assume folks who buy a vacation home, and use it for less than a half year (and thus are not "residents") are not regarded as the "villain's" here (even though they do contribute to some extent to the problem of house sitting vacant during the off season). Vacation home owners may well do vacation rentals, but they usually do it for week-long rentals (or at any rate, should be required to), and if they don't do vacation rentals, they certainly aren't going to do long term rentals. So unless you want to just require everyone who buys a house to be a full-time resident of the house, the fact that a vacation/second home owner does vacation rentals has no effect on the availability of long term rentals or affordable housing. In contrast, the investment owner does do harm to those markets. So any regulations should be directed at them. How would you tell the difference? The IRS allows the owner of a second vacation home to deduct the mortgage on that home. And anyone who earns rent has to list the dwellings rented.. So providing a tax return showing that a house is a second home, or showing only one house rented, would be one way. I assume there could be other ways.
I wrote about an issue raised twice at a public meeting by a taxpayer of the town. I'm glad you will participate in our democracy and state your rights.
Dear Scott, Thank you for this. I must have called a different person by your name who has a real estate business in New York. I would urge you as a stakeholder to participate in the the Land-Use Ordinance Committee's review of short-term rentals. It would benefit from your perspective. I don't think it's legal to set a fire on a neighbor's property. I also don't think Burlington has been free of this issue created by Airbnb and VRBO. In fact the Burlington City Council just voted in some extreme measures in July. See this article in the Burlington Free Press. https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/2022/07/01/burlington-airbnbs-new-short-term-rental-regulations-are-here-to-stay/65364328007/
Scott Jerutis has shared his side of the story to benefit his position. However a few things are incorrect. The fire pit was in fact on the property of the Golf Course and it is the root cause of the inconvenience we are experiencing. Mr Jerutis’ caretaker was informed of the fire pit location by us. He assured us it would be addressed. It was, but the fire pit was used again by the same renters later in the week. The fire chief was called by us. The fire was extinguished and the pit was removed by the caretaker. The issue here is short term renters not fire pits. The question is, must a neighbor be subjected to a continual turnover of the property by renters who can and in this case do rent for a couple of days at a time? Imagine that you have a small hotel’s front door and parking lot within 25’ of your bedroom window. The fact is the property is an investment not a vacation home that wants occasional income. The Town Selectmen must decide how they wish to treat this type of property. Our position is that if the intention of the property owner is to produce income by rental, then it should be considered a commercial property subject to all the rules of taxation and zoning. We would support the Town Selectmen if they adopted rules governing rental of private property, in residential neighborhoods. Other communities have set limits, find the best fit for the culture and desires of the local and summer populations and let that be their guidance. It’s not so attractive having an unregulated investor property next door.
I'd like to add to Norman Beamer's comments that not all vacation homeowners are the villains here. I'm afraid that unless the problem is identified correctly the proposed solutions will make the situation worse.
The problem is not short term rentals. The problem is conversions of something that wasn't a short term rental, conversions of a year round house to a seasonal house, and owners with no ties to the community renting irresponsibly with AirBnB and VRBO. This is a tiny percentage of the overall short term rentals in these communities. Unless the solutions are targeted to those problems the communities will exacerbate the problem.
Look at local brokers listings from 20 or 15 years ago, there were hundreds of people with long term connections to the community doing responsible short term rentals through local brokers in order to be able to afford their family places and keep them safe with someone there when the family couldn't be. If you look, we all the same people still renting short term (weekly) today with the same local brokers. If there was not destruction of the community 15 years ago then short term rentals themselves are not the problem. We've been part of the community for 50 years, use the house 4 months of the year, rent it 3 months, and because it isn't winterized it is shut down in the winter.
If families such as ours are forced to sell to rich people from outside the community there will be more houses rented for more weeks through online services not local brokers. VRBO will make a lot more money from such a person than they do from us as we spend a lot of time here ourselves and rent almost all our weeks through local brokers. AirBnB would love to see their competition from local brokers, who are part of the community, go away.
I don't see how driving away families with generations of ties to the island and driving local brokers out of business helps the community. Continuing to talk about the problem as 'short term rentals' generically will be a disaster for all the generations of summer residents who inherited beloved seasonal family homes that they cannot now afford and who have been renting responsibly for many years. It seems sad and ironic that we'll all be being penalized for not being rich outsiders.
I hope that there can start to be more nuance in the conversations around this issue to specify what the real issues are that need to be resolved so that solutions can be found that will not result in penalizing the 95% or more of owners who are not part of the problem.
Thanks for writing. Is this your VRBO listing? https://www.vrbo.com/232231ha
Lincoln,
Yes. My in-laws really picked a good spot. It's only 100' wide but we think it has one of the best views anywhere!
Ann
Do you do less than a week?
No. Weekly only. VRBO used to let you list as weekly with only weekly rates. They moved to making everything look like it's daily. After the listing still said weekly only, Saturday to Saturday. I just looked and couldn't find that so I'll try to add something but we've only been asked a couple times about shorter rentals and have said no. It's not worth the work and cleaning.
We are lucky enough to now have all but one week booked with returning guests, many of whom have been coming a long time. All but that one week are booked with LSRobinson or Davis brokers. VRBO is a last resort for us and if the brokers book that one week first that would be even better.
One note, all our neighbors know us. If there was ever a problem they would just call us to deal with it. So far we've had only really nice families treating the house respectfully. We email with prospects first and wouldn't ever rent to a group of friends, only a family.
There definitely needs to be a town wide Tax opposed on Homeowners that strictly occupy their homes only for summer, draining the pipes on the homes. This has an effect of making the town look abandoned. These home owners are negatively affecting the property values in town. They should be absolutely forced to rent out their homes on an either long term basis or short term to help out the local businesses all year around. This will be proposed at the next town meeting.
My husband George commented on the previous posts, and I want to make sure this issue is not turning into a spit war between neighbors, so I am not going to disclose any incorrect and misleading information written in Scott Jerutis comments. I am grateful for discussions and informations brought to the attention when it concerns the communities on Mt. Desert, and hopefully through the efforts of selectmen/women, we can enjoy our town as a peaceful and loving community for all!
Given the vacancy rate of 54% in Mt Desert (44% in SWH) that is cited in the article, I would argue that wealthy, seasonal homeowners are more problematic, more destructive to community than STRs are. The uber-rich who buy up multiple homes, creating sprawling compounds for themselves and staff who spend 4-6 weeks here, are turning our communities into ghost towns.
Other wealthy communities have instituted vacancy taxes to help ease housing shortages. Those taxes generate revenue that can be used to create affordable housing and encourage people who have empty houses to sell or rent them.
I hope that I don't end up having to subsidize more "affordable housing" projects ...(like the one on Main St for COA students) with extra fees on my STR just because two summer people from away can't be better neighbors. They might be taxpayers, but that doesn't put them- or you- in a position to decide that STRs are destructive to community.
Lincoln
What a great read about Alisa. Thank you for sending the link. A lovely interlude in our afternoon. We are currently well settled in our winter nest in mid-coast.
Susan and Tom
Wow, Lincoln, this is sad. You don't know me at all, despite our many conversations--and then you try to trash me like this.
All Val had to do was to explain this. I've given her many opportunities. Democracy dies in darkness.
I don't know whether Scott Jerutis bought this house as an investment, or as a second vacation home. I wish the concerns about short term rentals focused on the investor owners, rather than the vacation home owners. I assume folks who buy a vacation home, and use it for less than a half year (and thus are not "residents") are not regarded as the "villain's" here (even though they do contribute to some extent to the problem of house sitting vacant during the off season). Vacation home owners may well do vacation rentals, but they usually do it for week-long rentals (or at any rate, should be required to), and if they don't do vacation rentals, they certainly aren't going to do long term rentals. So unless you want to just require everyone who buys a house to be a full-time resident of the house, the fact that a vacation/second home owner does vacation rentals has no effect on the availability of long term rentals or affordable housing. In contrast, the investment owner does do harm to those markets. So any regulations should be directed at them. How would you tell the difference? The IRS allows the owner of a second vacation home to deduct the mortgage on that home. And anyone who earns rent has to list the dwellings rented.. So providing a tax return showing that a house is a second home, or showing only one house rented, would be one way. I assume there could be other ways.
Not just a Burlington issue according to this .... https://vtdigger.org/2022/06/23/in-a-razor-thin-rental-market-airbnb-is-getting-a-lot-of-the-blame/