Elizabeth Hirschhorn AirBNB Squatter From Hell

This is episode number 269 of The Homeowner Show. Whether you're DIY or looking to hire, we're here to help you find the best information and options for you and your home. My name is Kevin Hackett, and here with me is Craig Williams.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to The Homeowner Show. We're so glad that you could join us for another live episode here in the studio. Welcome back, Kev.

Yeah, already back from Thanksgiving.

The Thanksgiving festivities.

That's right, man.

Your family's too big, man. Dude, did you see? I did. I saw the group picture and I was like, that just gives me anxiety looking at it.

Yeah, man. There's like— this was probably about the most that I think it's ever been there since I've been there.

It's time to weed some people out, man.

Yeah, well, here's the thing, like, a lot of people weren't even there. I— a lot of people weren't even there. I know, I know at least Uh, 6 people that are there every single year, that this was a weird year they couldn't show up, that would have been 87 that would have been there. And, and all week that would have been 51. So yeah, it's a, it's a lot of people, man. But that's a lot of turkey. Oh, there wasn't very much turkey. There's a lot of meat there, but it was not a lot of turkey.

Oh man.

So we spent a lot of time at the smoker.

Okay, so, well, so I mean, to tease an upcoming, upcoming couple of episodes, and I, I did this on social earlier this week, we got the, the, uh, the Pit Boss competition series.

Yes.

We're gonna be doing review, and we got a special guest to come and actually do some cooking.

That's gonna be fun.

On the thing. But I, uh, just, I, I cooked 4 18-pound turkeys in that thing.

Holy cow.

Yeah, it was beautiful. a beautiful thing.

Well, yeah, I mean, if you're gonna eat turkey, that's one of two ways to eat it. One— okay, the other one's fried. Beyond that, you just might as well just give me a hot dog.

Well, okay, so I, I, I have some, some things to reveal in later on episodes on the proper way I now believe to prepare a turkey.

Okay, so I'm happy.

And it's neither one of those.

Oh, okay.

Yeah. All right, so, and it's involved, but it's not either one of those.

Um, look, I— there's very few times whenever I have ever thought in my head, this Craig doesn't know how to cook. And I don't know if I've ever thought it. If I did, it was some stupid time. You should occasionally. No, I don't know.

Just to keep me in check.

Maybe. But I just— you're gonna have to screw up first.

I've made some bad sauces.

I'm sure you have, but I don't know that I've tasted them. They go in the trash before I get here, I guess.

Right, right, right. So, okay, so we One of the companies that sends us stuff from time to time is Lutron.

Oh yeah.

Caseta. And we would be remiss if we didn't mention that they have some really cool Black Friday, Cyber Monday deals going on right now. They sent us some stuff.

They did.

I don't know if you've installed it in your house yet.

Not yet. It's just because, man, I've been so busy.

But what is it that they sent?

So they actually sent one of their dimmer packs.

Dimmer packs.

Yeah.

But it's like a new dimmer pack, right?

It's a new dimmer one. I've already got a similar one in my house, and it works really, really great. You can connect a Pico to it.

Okay.

Um, if you want to, which is great if you've got something on the other side of the room.

Oh, the one that they sent you is like just the up-down though, isn't it?

It is.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But it's got the little— it's got the little like the, the slider bar on the side, and it, it'll, it'll go back to the, to the setting that you had it every time if you want. So there's— it's, it's got some really, really cool features, but More than that, I can be sitting on my couch and if I'm like, all right, it's time to turn the lights down, just sit there and do it, man.

And the one I'm excited about this time of year is always the outdoor plug.

Yeah, we have one of those as well. Man, they're waterproof and like they've, again, you can set them on a timer and all that kind of stuff easily.

That's the thing that's so cool about them is like if you don't want to mess with like a goofy radio, like buy 10 radial timers for like all your Christmas lights, this actually has like multiple plugs in it. And so you can set up all your Christmas lights, you know, off of this one plug. Right. And, and then you just have full digital automation for your Christmas lights.

Yeah.

Super, super cool. Yep.

But anyway, they, they have some really cool deals going on Amazon right now. If you haven't had the chance, I think it's like $20 off, like, a starter kit.

Which is pretty good because, I mean, those, those starter kits are what, like, $80 to $100, something like that?

I think they're like $120.

Okay. Even better.

Yeah.

So, like, the $20 off is gonna give you you know, good, close to 15 to 20%. Absolutely.

Which is good. Yeah. So like Kevin and I both have them installed in our homes.

Oh yeah.

We love them. Um, if you haven't—

Honestly, here's the deal. If I'm gonna buy a dimmer at this point, I would not buy anything else. I wouldn't either. I mean, they're so good.

Yeah. Um, and there, I mean, like there's honestly, there's some cool looking ones out there. I don't know that they all have the functionality that Lutron has. And the Lutron ones aren't bad looking.

No. And they've even got like so many colors now. You can get like—

Oh, that's right.

They have the brown and blue, I think. Like, there's some weird colors because for the longest time it was just white.

Yeah, now they've got—

yeah, they've got the white, the tan, the, the brown, the gray, that they've even got black, I think. So like, there's just a ton of, ton of colors.

Yeah, so, and we're super appreciative for their support. We love it when they send us stuff to play with and install and, and check out, you know, kind of before it kind of hits the, the masses.

That's it.

So we can tell you guys about them. So, but anyway, if you haven't yet and you're looking for, you know, like maybe just I tell you, one of the cool features I like about it is I can set the lights to come on in my house, like, just randomly while I'm out of town.

Yes.

It's, it's a security feature that they have built in, and then you just set them to come on for, like, 5 minutes and then turn them back off. And so it just looks like somebody's home.

Exactly.

Um, so it's— they're, they're cool, man. Check them out. Check them out. You can just search them on Amazon. They're for sale there. You can also buy them at Home Depot. I don't know about Lowe's. Do they have them at Lowe's? Yeah, I think so. Do they? Okay. So I think they're pretty much in every, like, home improvement store around the country. If you haven't heard about them, you just haven't been looking for smart lights.

Right.

Um, they kind of got a blue package.

Yes.

So yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So anyway, uh, we got kind of a fun episode tonight. I, uh, several weeks ago we talked about squatters in rental properties.

Yes.

Which has been a massive problem, uh, because there was actually some laws in place preventing landlords from evicting people.

Craziness.

So, and a lot of that had to do with COVID stuff and just COVID stuff that had rolled over into the now normal times of whatever it is that we're living in now, which is not normal, but just not COVID.

Right.

So you had these weird eviction laws, and this also was bundled up with the student loan payment stuff, which actually just rolled over, which I, I don't think we're gonna see the effects of that for, like, another 2 or 3 months. But I, I imagine that's gonna be brutal.

Yeah.

Here coming up. I, I actually think if— okay. Because, like, at the time of recording right now, it is Cyber Monday.

Correct.

Right?

So Black Friday has passed.

Yes.

I am predicting that this is gonna be the one of the worst Black Friday, Cyber Mondays in the last— I'm gonna go 10 years.

Because of how people did it so early and, like, for so much amount of time or because—

I think, I think so many people are not confident in the economy right now.

Yeah.

That and, and, and with student loans coming back on board.

Yeah.

And with interest rates being as high as they are, And, and housing looking like housing market, like, just affects everybody's outlook on the economy in general.

Yeah.

Which is one of the reasons I love that we do this show because, like, this is the, this is, like, the, the pivot point for the economy that we're talking about. And I, I just think people's confidence in the housing market is just so low right now. It's gonna affect people's confidence in spending on, you know, like, where they have in the past just like, oh, well, little Johnny wants that. Well, let's get him 3 of them.

Sure.

It's like Johnny want, wants that, can I make that for him?

Right.

You know, out of wood?

Yeah.

Yeah. So, or does he need it? Like, does he need it at all? But maybe this can be a character building year for Johnny.

Did you see, I saw a video on Facebook yesterday of someone going around Target and like, you know how they got like the little signs you slip their, the price, uh, like display into?

I think I know what you're talking about. It's been a long time since I've been in, like, one.

Sure.

Like, we, we wrote off Target, uh, about 4 or 5 months ago.

Yeah, I understand.

So we— But anyway, I think I know what you're talking about.

I just saw this on a video, but like, so it's like the little display signs, they put a little piece of paper in that shows, oh, this is $249 TV, Cyber Monday, Black Friday sale, whatever. This person was going around all over Target pulling that piece of paper out, and right behind it Sale price, $249. Put it back. Black Friday price, $249. It was like, it's the same price. Like, there's no—

this is not a deal. There's no difference.

Yeah.

This is not a deal.

Yeah.

So, like, and now here's what I think was happening. Legitimately speaking, I think what was happening is people were putting out Black Friday sales, like, beginning of November.

Oh, yeah.

No. And so— and so, like, these— but maybe they were cowshitting.

Early access to Black Friday sale. Yeah.

Exactly. Yeah. So—

That's always been a marketing thing.

Yeah.

So it's, it's like no longer do you have to get up at 3 o'clock in the morning on the Friday after Thanksgiving to go stand in line at Target or Academy or wherever you're standing in line to get this deal. Right. Right. Anyway.

So anyway, um, so anyway, I, I think, I think it's gonna be one of the lowest in years, not because people aren't doing well. I think the perception is, is that everyone's not doing well.

It doesn't feel right.

And it doesn't feel right. And so there's gonna be less confidence in spending.

Sure.

I get that.

And I— and in general, like, I don't know about you, man, but, like, I get the sense— and our family is this way right now. We're looking at ways to have less stuff.

Oh, yeah.

Like, we just want— like, stuff is, for us, almost, like, anxiety-producing. Like, as more stuff gets in the house, it's like, oh, we gotta get rid of some stuff because this is getting too crowded. I can't see the walls. Like, And my wife and I will go on and we've become rather proud of it, of our ability to throw things away.

Sure.

That if it's not sentimental and it's not connected to a person, it is on the chopping block for sure.

Yeah.

Especially if it hasn't been touched in 2 or 3 months and it has no utility. We're done and we just want it out of our lives because it doesn't bring us any joy. It's not providing anything for us. It's just a knickknack paddywhack that's sitting around the house, and I can't stand it. Neither can she. And so, like, we're on— we're of the same mind on this.

That's good.

We love— like, 55-gallon trash bags are our favorite toy. I love it. So anyway, like, and I get the sense that there's a lot of people that feel that way.

Yeah.

They want less stuff in their lives. They want more experiences.

Yeah.

With either with each other or just going and doing stuff, whether that means trips or just things that you can do together as a family.

Sure.

Um, and that means less things get purchased.

And what has to— well, not only that, like, because of the way the economy has gone, like, even, even though price of gas has come down recently, we're still suffering the effects of that.

Right.

With our groceries are still ridiculously expensive.

Yeah.

So by the time you, by the time you pay for the things that you have to have, I mean, this is not the little thing, oh, I'm just on Amazon, I'm gonna buy this, that, or the other. These are the essentials that you have to have. Well, they're squeezing people's budget all over the place. So we literally have to be more careful about what we buy.

Yeah. So I can— I, I have a fun hack for everyone out there with a 4th grader.

Oh, okay.

Are you aware of this?

I don't know.

So this— we actually used this last year when our son was in 4th grade.

Oh, yes. I do know this.

So, um, if you have a 4th grader, there's a program that you can sign up for where the 4th grader can get a pass to all of the national parks in the United States for free.

Free.

And not only does it like a pass for them, but it's a pass for them and their entire family.

Yeah.

And so like we— there was, I think it was back in October. Do you remember like when the government shutdown thing was like imminent?

Yes.

So it didn't end up happening.

Right.

But we were in Florida, and I'm not gonna say which one because I don't want to get anybody in trouble. But we were heading to a national park.

Okay.

And it's one we've been to many times and we're happy to pay to get in. And we pulled up to the gate and the park ranger was telling us how much it costs to get in. And he goes, unless you have a pass. And I said, funny you mention it, the one that we had just expired from our 4th grader. And he goes, do you have the card? And I said, yeah, we still have the card. And I showed it to him and he goes, Government's probably shutting down tomorrow. Just go ahead.

That's fantastic.

I was like, sweet, got us one more.

That's awesome.

So, uh, so anyway, it was, it was really, really cool of him to let— I mean, like, it was, I think it was like $20 to get in or something like that. But it was— and we, like, what was cool about it is we were really only planning on being there for like an hour.

Sure.

Because we'd been there many, many times. We knew exactly what we wanted to see, and we were just there. But anyway, it was just funny because he was like, I'm probably not going to be here tomorrow. Just go. And I hadn't even thought about that being like that. That's one of the things that gets shut down is national parks, access to those.

I hadn't thought about that either.

But he was like, yeah, we're the first thing. That's the first thing to go is parks.

Wow.

Which I think is how they squeeze politicians Because, yeah. Because all of a sudden families have— don't put— people who don't have any yards don't have places to go.

To go. Yeah, no, that makes sense. You, you wouldn't know if the postal service shut down or not.

Right. Yeah, because Amazon's still going.

Well, yeah, but the postal service doesn't work well anyway. So literally my daughter—

Aw shucks, my bills ain't coming.

So my, my daughter's aunt sent her a birthday card for her birthday, and it showed up 23 days after she sent it. And it was going all of about 500 miles. 23 days.

She could have sent it by pigeon.

You could have walked.

It's like, literally faster.

You could have walked.

Kidnap her dog and made it back by then.

Exactly.

So stupid.

Anyway.

Alright. So we got some fun stuff. We've, we've done a squatter episode before, but this one's kinda unique.

It is.

Um, and it's a thing now. I don't know if you know that.

It's too much of a thing.

It is too much of a thing. Uh, so it's Airbnb squatting.

Yes.

So I'm gonna let you— I'm gonna let you read it because we're talking about a very particular person.

Yes.

In this instance. Yeah.

So, well, you want me to read this?

Well, just her name.

Okay.

Well— I mean, I can if you want me to.

Well, it's Elizabeth And how do you say it? I say Hirschhorn. Hirschhorn. Yeah, I think it's H-I-R, so Hirschhorn.

Yeah, Hirschhorn.

Yeah, it's, it's the title of this on YouTube and on Facebook right now. So if you're watching that way, you can actually— it's the title of the episode.

So she is the Airbnb squatter from hell.

Yeah, and we're gonna hear about her, um, because what we've done is we've gone out And found a video clip. Yeah. If you're watching—

Which is the first time we've ever been able to— we're gonna try and play a video clip.

Yeah, I think it's gonna work. But we— if you're, if you're just listening to this, you'll still be able to hear it. But if you have a chance, go to, go to Facebook or YouTube and, uh, you'll see the actual clip if you want to find that. We'll also link it up in the show notes so you can—

Yeah, yeah, we'll put a link to it.

But, uh, you want to just roll it?

Yeah, let's, let's, let's listen to the clip. Well, this is, um, this is, uh, Jovanovic, which is— he's the guy that actually owns the property, and I think it's his attorney.

Yeah, I think so.

On the video. And what's, what's the news outlet that's running this?

It's News Nation.

News Nation. Okay, let's—

all right, here we go. All right, here we go.

Okay, Doc, what happened on Friday night? How did that happen that she's out and so is her stuff? Well, it was quite a crazy moment because we were in the house filming with like a news channel our story and sharing it. And then at once these 3 men started walking on the property and I had no idea who was basically walking into it. And I approached them. They didn't want to speak to me. They said, okay, something with the guest house. I walked over to the guest house, knocked on the door. Nobody answered. So then I called the police as a home invasion, 3 men entering our property. Whoa. And so the police came. Whoa. And were they able to sort out what was going on? Like, did the officers ever say to you, that lady in your

guest house says she's moving out? We asked them, like, mainly, like, I wanted to know, hey, is this pretty much a home invasion? Are they stealing something? Or are they even possibly going to stay with this woman? And I don't know what her plans were because she's been very mysterious all this time in the last 4 weeks. So mainly we want to—

Hang on. Pause it right there.

What are they doing here?

So I want to point out, he's, he's saying, I'm wondering if these guys are going to be moving in because she's been very mysterious over the last 4 weeks.

Right.

This is after her having squatted in his guest house for over 500 days.

Oh my goodness.

So he doesn't know what's going on. It's been mysterious. Yeah. And so the backstory that's going on is this guy actually owns the house. So he lives in the main house. There's a guest house attached. And this woman has been living in there for over a year, and they've been going through the legal process of evicting her even though she agreed to stay there. And I think it was, like, for 6 months via Airbnb.

Oh my goodness.

And, and so now he's seeing guys move stuff out. And so I don't know if you guys realize, but, like, if it's an Airbnb, like, most of the time, you don't own the stuff in the house.

Right.

No. And so to watch somebody move stuff out, you're like, what's going on?

Right.

And I read an article about this guy in another place, and he apparently moved his children and family out of the main house because he was so concerned about this woman's activity in the guest house.

Oh my goodness!

So sorry. Go ahead.

All right. Here we go.

Okay. So Sebastian, as his attorney, help me understand this whole piece.

I mean, help us all understand.

Taking her things. Isn't it fair that, that, you know, obviously Sasha could change the locks? It's, it's his house. He wouldn't want her to come back, understandably. But she's saying she wasn't leaving. What is— how does that work legally? Like, what's the story if she leaves? Isn't it over and it— this house reverts back to Sasha and whatever locks he wants to put on the door? Yeah, that's, that's our position. Our position is that if she abandons it— I mean, remember, She was told by the city she can't be there. She, she was given a 3-day notice to leave. We're in the middle of litigation on this. And so my view was that she left. And so Sasha asked me, I happened to be there at the

time. We knocked. She wasn't there. He said everything is gone. And so my position was she was abandoned until the next day when I wrote her attorney, said, hey, I don't know why you're filing stuff because your client left. And then I get an email back said, well, you jumped the gun. And I'm thinking like, no. So I responded back and said, no, it's on you. If you want to get back, you go to court. So, Sacha, when you got to go inside finally, what condition did she leave your beautiful guesthouse in?

Objection, leading.

I mean, the condition was like— it was really, really— if you remember, there was like a repair which had to happen like more than a year and a half ago, or like, let's say, a year plus. That got really worse. There was a lot of flies in the guest house. I had to open up the sliding doors right away. There was smell. It was dirty. And, yeah, it was kind of something that my first reaction was everything has to go or be given to charity. So I imagine it's going to be a bit of a renovation.

It either needs to go in the trash Or go to charity. That's not charity, my friend.

No.

So I feel for you, but like, that is not— no, it just needs to go in the trash.

Right.

No charity wants that stuff. Right? It's like, hey, look at this crap that I don't want. Don't give it to charity.

Yeah. And I was— okay, so real quick, and not to be on the side of the person squatting in the guest house, but there are innkeeper laws in place that actually prevent people who own the property, people who are renting the property from doing certain things to tenants in order to get them to leave.

Sure.

So you, like, for instance, you can't shut off utilities.

Right.

You can't change the locks.

Right.

You can't put their stuff on the street.

Okay.

And it's, it's like, it's, and it's not even lawful to, like, intimidate them, to threaten them, detain them, all this kinda stuff. You can't do any of that kinda stuff.

Right. Which makes sense. I mean, I, I do understand that because, like, anybody at that point can go in and be like, oh, I found someone who'll pay more. And so, you know, not— that's not okay.

Right.

And, and, and so, like, there's— there are things in place to keep them from doing those kinds of things.

Sure.

But if you— if you heard him, he said there was a repair that needed to happen about a year ago.

Yeah.

Clearly, he didn't do that. No.

And which was— It got worse.

Which was probably how the other attorney was able to keep his tenant in the guest house. Because if you don't provide— I've, I've actually come across this in our business where we have landlords that come to us and say, like, listen, I need you to come in and do this so I can evict this person.

Ah.

Because I need to be able to show that I did my due diligence to provide them all of the things that's required of me in order for them to have a proper living space.

So then if, if he didn't go in and do the repair, they can be like, look, he's not actually keeping this place up.

Exactly.

So I can stay here because Which seems counterintuitive, but it works.

I understand it, but like, there's clearly people who are willing to take advantage of the situation.

Sure.

Which is this person.

Absolutely.

Sorry, go ahead.

All right.

So I imagine it's gonna be a bit of a renovation, some costs there, and I don't suppose there's really a damage deposit, you know, issue here. Real quickly, Sasha, she found apparently a fully Furnished apartment, according to the Daily Mail. It's at an extended stay hotel, $3,600.

Who took her in?

Any advice for that hotel?

$3,600.

First of all, I cannot believe that a person like this can actually rent something. So she might— maybe she co-signed with somebody. But how do you even rent something like in a story that's been so covered so big? And then— but it happened. And Yeah, I just have to tell them, like, honestly, do your background check. This lady is up for no good. She will do this again because she's done it for 21 years. And, you know, she needs to be stopped.

21 years.

That's ridiculous.

Sasha and Sebastian, you know, watch your 6 and call us and let us know. I get all wigged out by the whole notion that she's saying, I'll be back. But let us know what happens next. It's like a soap opera. But I sure appreciate you giving us the info. Thanks, guys.

Oh, man.

So, I mean, here's, here's the thing is, like, clearly, there's, there's a lot of people who are in the Airbnb space who are in the short-term rental space who are just looking for people to fill the next slot.

Yeah. I mean, it's, it's just a— it's day to day, maybe week to week. Right. Right.

And I, I say that because I'm, I'm on this site, which I, I think it's shorter A shorter message, but it's not spelled right. Anyway, we can link it up. It's a 10 Ways to Prevent Airbnb Squatters. It's an article. So like, clearly this has like become a thing where people are getting into these Airbnbs and not leaving. So, but like their list is so dumb except for one.

Okay.

So I'm just gonna go through the top 10. I wanna hear your feedback.

Okay.

Uh, and number 1, just right off the bat, screen your guests carefully.

Well, I mean, there's really kind of only so much you can do with that because on these Airbnb sites, I mean, you get their name, phone number.

How do you screen them?

No, I mean, unless you're— well, I mean—

What are you gonna do, like, you're gonna Facebook stalk them?

No, the only way— yeah, right. The only way you can really do that is if you get like a driver's license number from them, and I don't think you're providing that.

No, you're not.

In your Airbnb stuff. So I mean, you can do like a spot check.

Well, most of the information goes to Airbnb. I, I don't know what the, what the landlord receives.

Yeah. But even then, you're not— Or the host.

The host is what they call it.

Well, you're gonna only get the information that's provided. I mean, and, and now I guess you could go through and do, like, a name search.

Well, I mean, what, what it, what it does say in the article is, like, look for the ones with good reviews.

Okay. I mean, yeah. I mean, I guess you can because the seller or the—

Both people, both parties get reviews on Airbnb.

Right.

And, and VRBO. And, like, what— is there any other one that's, like, a really big one? Airbnb, VRBO.

Not really in the—

I'm sure there are other ones, but I don't know what they're called.

Not, not in the, like, physical hotel.

Yeah. If you're out there, maybe reach out to us. We can help you become more popular. So number 2, limit stays to short-term, so less than 30 days.

Okay. Well, I mean, I, I can see that being a thing, but listen, if someone wants to rent my place for 60 days, like, I'm kind of okay with that.

Yeah.

That, I mean, that's a lot of money.

That is a lot of money. I mean, a lot of, a lot of, uh, it's assured money. Sure money. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Um, charge extra for late checkouts.

Well, I, I think that everybody should probably do that.

So yeah, and, and there's been situations where I've been staying one, I wouldn't mind paying a little bit extra for a late checkout.

Absolutely.

Don't mind it.

Yep.

So, but like, still, I don't think it's going to prevent squatters.

No.

Like, if I charge you extra for leaving late and you're not going to leave anyway, I'm not going to pay it anyway. So why?

Yeah, it doesn't matter.

Doesn't matter. Remind guests of the checkout date. Well, who cares? You know what? I just forgot for 6 months.

Yeah.

Sorry. Totally blew my mind.

Whoops.

Oopsie. Yeah.

Was that, was that Friday?

And I guess, I guess the point of that is, like, make sure that you have, like, a paper trail of, like, yes, I told them they needed to get out.

Okay.

I, I get that. But, like, I mean, like, if they're—

What is—

what law is gonna be able to take it away? And even still, like, Yeah.

Right?

Okay.

I mean, you just might get a sympathetic judge.

Maybe.

Okay, here's the one that I actually think makes sense for like this whole situation. Use smart locks.

Oh yeah, that— I will tell you that whenever you use smart locks, you can change the code without changing the locks.

Yep.

And they can't do anything about it at that point.

At some point, they got to go to the grocery store.

That's right.

You know, and so like when they do, be vigilant and change the code.

Yep.

That's easy.

What are they gonna do?

The—

well, break a window?

Yeah. They're gonna break a window at that point.

At that point, then you call the police.

That's— yes.

Yeah.

Yep.

So property damage.

Yeah. So anyway, so here's the one that I'm like, okay, you guys. Alright. Clearly, somebody's paying your bills, which is stay on Airbnb, meaning accept bookings only on Airbnb.

See, I don't like that at all. That's— yeah. And, and honestly, like, I, I, I think that people that are really smart should be on Airbnb just long enough. Mhmm.

To get their property known.

Yep. Get their property known and then go get their own website and do everything on their own website because at that point, you—

That's where the money's at.

That's— I mean, you're, you're losing— I think it's like—

Sorry, Airbnb.

Every time. No.

I—

they're freaking terrible. Like, you have a great, you have a great platform.

Yeah.

You help people get their properties known.

Sure.

But like, I'm sorry, if you have a really great property, you don't need them.

No.

I agree.

Yeah. So, um, number 7, make a distinction between guest and tenant.

Oh, which— Okay.

I think that is important.

Yeah, probably.

But like, why wouldn't you make that distinction on Airbnb anyway?

That should be easy.

That should already be in place.

Agreed.

I don't know, like, is Airbnb allowing you to make a difference between the two?

I don't know.

I've never tried.

Yeah.

And really all it says, it says, don't allow guests. Here's what it says, which, I mean, if you're doing this, I'm sorry, you've dug your own grave. Because when it says, make a distinction between guests and tenants, Don't allow guests to receive mail and packages at your property with their name. They can use that to claim they're a tenant.

Oh, see, now I, I really think that that's huge because here's the thing, because there's a lot of ways to, like, get groceries delivered, to get lots of stuff delivered, but, like, just tell them, like, like, maybe in the, the packet that you give them whenever they come, the nearest Amazon Locker is—

Sure.

here. Right? Like—

They have, they have zero control over that.

No. They don't. Yeah.

I guarantee you. Like, if, if I put it— I've done this many times where, like, I just put the address into my Amazon account and say, deliver it here.

Right.

Like, I don't have to ask permission for that. Amazon just does it.

Sure.

So if, if that is how this is working, you know, Amazon ought to gird its loins.

Oh, shoot.

Because I can guarantee you there is going to be a host or a landlord that is going to sue them—

Oh, sure.

For allowing somebody to, without permission, have a package delivered there that was then used to justify their position as a tenant.

I bet. I bet you Amazon is smart enough to have already got some sort of clause in somewhere, something that whenever you order—

If it hasn't come up, I don't know because, like, this hasn't really come up until recently. Like, well, clearly, this woman's been doing it for, like, the last 20 years. But, like, she's been doing it as, like, a renter, as an apartment renter, as a home renter.

Sure.

And now she's just kinda figured out, oh, there's loopholes in Airbnb that are beneficial to me. I'm gonna take advantage of it.

Sure.

So I don't know that it's actually come up with Amazon. But, I mean, I— Maybe, maybe we're just the geniuses.

Yeah.

That's what it is. That are, are allowing them to, like, get this in the forefront and say, like, hey, maybe you guys ought to take a peek at this and stop letting people put in unverified addresses.

Yeah. It's gonna be tough. I mean, because right now, I mean, you can have stuff delivered to hotels.

Anywhere.

Anywhere. You know? It's like, and, and And what hotel is going to be like, you can't deliver here? Because you have to deliver here.

But like, why wouldn't Amazon do that? I mean, like, like, yeah, you want to buy it, we'll deliver it wherever you want it.

Yeah, of course.

But they— the process of getting a verified address, that's, that's almost impossible, right? Ridiculous. Yeah.

All right, number 8, don't offer dirt cheap rates. Well, I'm—

okay, okay, yeah, that's your fault. Don't do— I agree.

Also, it's like your property, do what you want.

Yeah.

Um, But, like, I don't know. I don't know why, like, dirt cheap— like, if I'm gonna— if I'm someone who's audacious enough to squat in an Airbnb property, I'm gonna pick the most expensive one I can.

Yeah. Exactly.

And then say, make me.

The 12-room. Yeah.

Because, like, she's not going to jail.

No.

I mean, what— like, the worst that can happen is the Daily Mail picks you up and runs your name as a headline.

Who cares?

And then, like, what the guy just said, like, she just moved into another place just fine.

Easily.

So, like, what's the downside for her?

There's nothing.

Pick the most expensive one.

Yep.

Um, if I'm a criminal— I'm not a criminal. Uh, number 9, check your insurance. So let's see what it says here. It says, see if your insurer covers legal fees in case you get a squatter problem and you need to take legal action. Oh, proper insurance will not only cover legal fees but also loss of business income, eviction expenses including court costs and sheriff fees, and property damages in the event of a squatter issue.

Okay, well, first of all, I would say that is the number one best.

Uh, yeah.

Because at that point, if you're, if you're losing fees, that's every single day it would have been worth this, right? For 575 days. Um, that's probably what I would go do. And then the second one, smart locks.

Yeah, both. I'd say those 2. You need like a 2 list. Yeah, uh, exactly. And just be done.

Yeah, you don't need those others.

Well, number 10 is hire a property management company.

What are they gonna do?

Yeah.

I mean, do you get certain protections by going through another entity like that?

Well, I mean, they're gonna feel a certain amount of responsibility because they're not making money if you're not making money.

Sure.

So, yes. And also, like, if you don't live near that property, it's better to have somebody that's gonna be looking in on it when you can't.

And, and especially, here's the deal. Like, if you wind up running into that problem, you have a property management company. You know what they could do?

Hmm.

If there was ever a problem, you could— they could just hire Lone Star Appliance Repair.

That's true.

Yes. Because if they hired Lone Star Appliance Repair, uh, here in Conroe, Texas, locally, their number is 936-647-2364. Then listen, all you gotta do, you don't have to buy a new appliance. Just go get that thing repaired.

Get it repaired.

I mean, look, there is no way that there's any value in just throwing that thing away.

Yeah.

I mean, there's, there's way cheaper options, and your insurance will be proud of you for finding, finding the good deal.

Case in point, we had a Friendsgiving at our house last night.

Oh.

And we realized that the oven, the heater element in the oven in our guest house was out.

Oh.

And so, like, it was a less warm Friendsgiving. than it could have been. And yeah, and so immediately what I said, I, I've got to reach out to Lone Star Appliance Repair and see if they can get the heater element for this, for the stove, because it's a little bit older. And I know that Sarah has like a warehouse of parts that she has squirreled away. Yeah, for just such an occasion. Of course, in case my oven goes out of whack. And, and so they're gonna, they're gonna get on it pretty quick and get this thing fixed.

So I mean, I look, I, I know that kind of joking there at the beginning, but, but in all honesty, most of the time you can repair an appliance.

Yep.

Most of the time it's easy to do. It's a lot cheaper. And here's the deal. Here's what they do. Whenever you, whenever you have them out, they're gonna charge you a service fee. But as long as they do the repair, and there's very few reasons why you wouldn't do the repair.

Right.

They're gonna add that service fee. You've already paid that. So like, they're not gonna it, you know, put on top of that service fee. The repair, they're just gonna roll that service fee into what you've already paid. And so it's, it's really kind of a no-risk situation at that point, in my opinion. Right.

What's the number again?

The number is 936-647-2364. Yeah.

Super thankful for this sponsor. Alright, Kev. So, like, this, this is obviously from a, a website that's trying to attract investors.

Of course. Right?

And trying to educate them and inform. And, like, if there's some good information in here.

Yeah.

No, like, if you haven't thought about those things, you haven't really been taking it seriously about getting into Airbnbs.

Right.

But I, I do think people need to be aware, like, if you are going to have A rental property that you're not going to have eyeballs on on a regular basis. And and like if if we take what was that guy's name? Lars?

Yeah, Sasha.

Sasha?

Sasha, I think.

Da da. I think Sasha. Yeah, Sasha Yovanovic. And I feel for the dude.

Well, yeah. And not only that, like he it's in his backyard.

It's his back. Yeah, it's his guest house, man.

Yeah, it's his guest.

I mean, it's like right there on his property. Right.

So.

Like, this could happen at your house, man. This could happen at my house.

Well, except we don't Airbnb our places.

But if you— no, I'm just saying. But if you decided to, son.

Right. Right.

Like, it could happen right here. And literally, I, I understand why. Like, would you be willing to bring your kids home to, like, some crazy wacko that wouldn't leave your kids alone?

No.

Which is why we don't Airbnb this place in the first place.

Well, of course not. I understand that. But—

I mean, that— honestly, that's the whole decision.

Yeah.

Like, I— like, would it be nice to have the extra income?

Sure.

But, like, I just— I'm not interested in having that Like, even as an option on the property. So, however, there are many, many people who could use a couple extra bucks, like we were talking about at the beginning of the show.

Right.

And so the temptation runs really, really high, especially if you have, like, an AUD that you're like, hey, maybe at some point, mom or dad might need to move in. We need to have this, you know, additional dwelling unit to allow them to come stay with us if they need to. You know, or maybe, you know, we just have guests coming to town. They want their own space. We have that ADU so where they can have that. I mean, you kinda have that at your place.

We do. You know?

And so, like, like, the, the, the— I, I get the, the impulse.

Yep.

To go, okay. Like, you know what? We could turn this into a little bit of a cash cow.

Sure.

Supplement our, our mortgage.

Right.

You know?

Well, you know, this guy just ended up with a 577-day, like, mole on his back.

Yeah. Exactly.

And— oh, sorry. 575.

Yeah.

575 days, man.

That's crazy. That, that's a lot of days. That's a lot, a lot of days of not knowing, like, what, what it— what is she gonna do?

Yeah, who knows?

She could blow the place up. She could die in there.

Yeah.

Like, I mean, there's so many things, like, and like, if you, if you, if you search for this person, you can actually find— she was like taking selfies inside the house. Like, like, there's no shame. Like, it was just, just the weirdest, weirdest thing, man. And, and so, like, once you start searching this kinda stuff, this is the same thing when we started searching for, like, squatters in, like, rental properties where people were, like, moving into properties that they'd never rented or they had fake rental agreements.

Yep.

That, you know, like, they maybe had not even generated. Like, they've been scammed.

Yeah.

And, you know, and, like, that's the thing is, like, you have to, like, sort of suss it all out and figure out what's going on, which is why some of these laws are in place, is to keep people from getting taken advantage of on both sides.

Sure.

But it does really feel like many of these laws are skewed towards the tenant.

Yeah.

Or the guest.

Yeah. Which, you know, and again, I'm, I'm not trying to, to say that it should be completely different, but I do, if I were a renter, I would want a little bit of protection knowing that, look, I'm a good person. Right. And, and some sleazebag who is renting me this place can't come in and just kick me out of the place that I've chosen to live because, oh, by the way, I don't know if you've looked at places to rent recently. They're crazy expensive.

Oh, yeah.

And they're not in good parts of town a lot of times.

Well, and like, they're just as expensive as what most people are paying for their homes. Right.

No, more. They're more like, I, I know lots of people that pay more because they're— they gotta cover the, the mortgage cost. Right?

Right.

So if, if they could, if they either chose to or could afford to get a mortgage, for whatever reason, they can't get a mortgage, maybe their credit score, maybe who knows, past financial problems, who knows.

Right.

Or they just don't want the headache of owning a home, then renting a house is a great option, but you're gonna typically pay more than what the mortgage would cost.

Yeah.

And so going out and finding— and apartments aren't any better. Right? So, like, it's just one of these deals where I, I would wanna at least have some sort of protection with me and my family knowing that this renter, I mean, the person who's renting this to me cannot just come in and, like, kick me out.

Yeah.

I, I, there's gotta be some protection there. The problem becomes, and this is where I think the law probably needs to change somehow, is when it is clear and evident that this person is taking advantage of the, the person renting.

Yeah.

Then there needs to be something in place. It goes, no, no, no. You, you don't get to be, you know, freeloading off this deal.

You know, you know what I think could actually change this is when all the— all of these, people who own these properties start making claims with their insurance companies. So either one of two— one of two things is gonna happen. Either the insurance companies who are writing these policies are gonna start lobbying and saying, like, hey, we need to change the laws.

Right.

Because we're having to pay out too much for all these squatters.

And they have quite a bit of pull typically.

They—

These big ones.

Yeah.

I mean, insurance companies have a lot of money.

They do.

A lot of sway.

Yep.

So they, they could, you know, if, if, if a lot of these guys start making claims and these claims start having to get paid, so either they're going to lobby to change the laws, or they're going to drop people who have these policies.

Yeah.

And people who are— who have these, these properties that are uninsured are gonna get dropped by Airbnb and VRBO because they're uninsured.

That's right.

And so one— I, I think that's one of the two things that could actually change this. Now I think if, if the second one happens, it's gonna be a mess. Yeah.

Because I do think that Airbnb and VRBO are probably big enough to go fight some of these, some of these laws themselves.

They are.

But they're, they're not gonna have the same amount of power. No.

They need to, they need to team up with the insurance company.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

They, they need to be, they need to be having the conversations. Like, look, you're gonna be able to do more business, and I'm gonna be able to do more business if we can affect a change in these laws in order to benefit the, the property owners a little bit.

Sure.

Is that— I mean, is that gonna be the same for, for renters? You know, not the Airbnb stuff, but for renters. Is that, you know, real estate people that are— that would have to wind up having those and, and, and property management companies and insurance companies all of kind of all kind of teaming up.

Coalescing together. Yeah. And going— I, I mean, like, that would probably be the most effective way.

But the problem is, like, what, who, what person's gonna stick their neck out there like that? Like, it's just like, why is, why is that the hill that I'm gonna die on?

It depends on who's feeling it the worst.

I guess.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, because, because, like, here's the thing. It's a, it's a trickle-down effect. Right? If, if insurance companies start— stop dropping policies, which that is— they have the right to do that. They don't, they don't have to insure anyone.

No. Right?

So if they start dropping properties, all of a sudden, Airbnb is gonna feel it in the shorts too.

Yep.

Because people are gonna stop listing their properties because they're uninsured and they don't feel confident And having guests stay on their property.

Exactly.

And so, like, it's just gonna trickle down more and more and more and more. You know, and, you know, and, and what'll end up happening is short-term rentals are gonna, you know, slowly go away, and, and it's just gonna go back to the way it was where it's just long-term rentals.

Yeah.

And vacation rentals.

Right.

You know, and people having, you know, condos that are managed by property management companies that only deal with people that call that condo complex.

Right.

That's the way it used to be.

It is.

You know, and, and so, like, we're kind of seeing, you know, some of these, some of these innkeeper laws were in place long before this kinda stuff.

Right.

But they're applying innkeeper laws to short-term rentals that were never intended to be applied to this style of business. Right.

It just popped up.

Yeah. And then, and then there's just, you know, clever people who are just taking advantage of the law because they've been doing it for 20 years and like, hey, I don't have to, like, put down a bunch of money. I can put down a little bit of money.

Right.

and then just stay just as long as I wanted to, like I was doing before.

Crazy.

So crazy, crazy stuff, man. It is crazy. So get right, people.

That's right. Well, listen, thank you guys for tuning in for today's episode. We appreciate you very much. If you've not already done it, please go like and subscribe to our YouTube, our Facebook, and please, please, please go leave us a 5-star rating and review on iTunes. That would be really, really great. We would appreciate it very much. And look, if you have any ideas for episodes, we're asking for those right now. Send a message to info@homeownersshow.com. Let us know what your idea is for a show. And yeah, till next time, guys, we'll see you later.

See ya.