Where to get info on building code

[gnpenning]

Short term rentals are a big deal in my area. We are a summer time destination, basically around memorial weekend thru labor day. Some extension on both ends. My county is pretty easy with codes. The problem came when "guests" started trespassing to the lake on the wrong neighbors yards. The vocal minority bent the commissioners ears and now we have regulations for short term rentals. Stricter than the building codes?? I just sold my house setup for a basement rental. Since the new owners what to use it for short term rental they had to go through a application process that includes notification of all neighbors with in a 150 feet. Plus approval from the environmental health department, onsite inspection, etc. Basically you need to know what if any hoops you need to jump through as previously acknowledged. Don't be surprised if it is stricter than long term rentals.

Having spent time checking with owners of the rentals it became clear that if I was to do it I needed to make sure it's outfitted and decorated properly to keep it rented. Most have 3 night minimum stays with a cleaning fee. Most never meet the guests. You may have already checked with some local owners already to find out what is working? Have you gone online to see what amenities and pricing your competition has?? Who's going to be doing the cleaning and will it be a professional level? I'm not positive which service will have cleaners come in for an additional fee above what they all ready change.

Good luck and keep us informed on what you find.

 

[redman333]

"There’s a few people that I’ve talked to that have done something similar and have told me what they paid overall and it’s around the $12k-$18k range for mostly DIY. Pretty much double that if I hire everything out. "

redman - So, you are starting w a basic interior unfinished existing garage.. making a small but legal living unit w basic cooking and bath facilitys...

Approx total square footage you plan to finish ?

You mention "break even point"

My concern is your out $ vs your in $ is realistic.

No, I do not think you are stupid.

At least not more than me.. having made a major mistake in past w unrealistic estimate.

Been there done that bigtime.

Marc

Yeah its justa . basic exterior shell now. Wanting a simple but nice interior once finished. Im going for the expensive look on a budget sort of thing. You know like using the stick on "tile" back spashes type setup. They look nice but once you get to looking closely you can tell it is cheap.

The sq ft is 600. 20x30 shell. By break even I mean after 30 years max, preferably 15 years though I have gotten back everything I put into it. So if it costs me $20,000 I'd have to make $111 a month average in rent to get that back in 15 years. Since I live at the beach I have a feeling I can do this. I'm not financing this it will all be cash so I dont have to worry about the mortgage payment on it. Its just putting the money back in my bank account.

 

[redman333]

Short term rentals are a big deal in my area. We are a summer time destination, basically around memorial weekend thru labor day. Some extension on both ends. My county is pretty easy with codes. The problem came when "guests" started trespassing to the lake on the wrong neighbors yards. The vocal minority bent the commissioners ears and now we have regulations for short term rentals. Stricter than the building codes?? I just sold my house setup for a basement rental. Since the new owners what to use it for short term rental they had to go through a application process that includes notification of all neighbors with in a 150 feet. Plus approval from the environmental health department, onsite inspection, etc. Basically you need to know what if any hoops you need to jump through as previously acknowledged. Don't be surprised if it is stricter than long term rentals.

Having spent time checking with owners of the rentals it became clear that if I was to do it I needed to make sure it's outfitted and decorated properly to keep it rented. Most have 3 night minimum stays with a cleaning fee. Most never meet the guests. You may have already checked with some local owners already to find out what is working? Have you gone online to see what amenities and pricing your competition has?? Who's going to be doing the cleaning and will it be a professional level? I'm not positive which service will have cleaners come in for an additional fee above what they all ready change.

Good luck and keep us informed on what you find.

Yeah Ive done a good amount of research on it. Thats also why I plan on building in the provisions to set it up as a long term rental also. The counter top I mentioned earlier will have the plumbing installed to convert it to a full kitchen and the electrical as well. I just wont make it a full kitchen as long as its a short term rental.

I have talked to the local air bnb rentals and asked who they use for cleaning services. The average for the cleaning service is $50 each cleaning. I do plan on making it a very professional setup. As far as meeting the renters, I imagine since its in my back yard I will meet some of the renters occasionally. Though I plan to automate as much as I can. Theres servies that will txt the FAQs that most people ask as well as give the info on the place. Also plan on have panflets for the quests for any questions that may come up also. The garage below will house all the linen and cleaning supplies needed as well as the directions on whats expected from the cleaning crew. I dont plan on having a minimum since I feel like it will keep some from staying however there will be a cleaning fee attached to each stay so the longer the stay the cheaper it will get.

As far as the neaighbors I'm not too worried about that most of my neighbors are renters anyway, if anything I'm more worried about them effecting my guests stay. Say a neighbor moves in and starts having loud parties that would keep my guests awake at night, this wil effect me. The way the garage is sitting on my property the garage will have its own back yard that has a full privacy fence around it so hopefully the neighbors wont be an issue. They are good now but since both sides are rentals i have no way of telling what the future will bring.

The average price for the area for year round is $150 a night. The summer months rent rates are almost always above $200 a night since we are a vacation destination. I'm estimating a 50% vacancy averaged over the year to start. So on a 30 day month thats $1875 per month at $125 average rate. I lowered mine to start to start getting reviews and ratings so that the services algorithm will start recommending my place first. Once I start booking up at the lower rate I'll start raising the rate to match the area. This will only happe after I manage to get to at least 80% full. I figure a 1/4 of the income will go to me as actual income. This means $468.75 will be mine per month on average for the year. If this ends up being the case then I'll be able to recover $20k in expenses building the garage in 42 months or 3.5 years. Afterwards this will just be profit. This also assumes no rate increases.

Since I plan on keeping the place very simple I'm hoping to keep expenses down from damages also but this will be built into the business plan as well.

 

[redman333]

"There’s a few people that I’ve talked to that have done something similar and have told me what they paid overall and it’s around the $12k-$18k range for mostly DIY. Pretty much double that if I hire everything out. "

redman - So, you are starting w a basic interior unfinished existing garage.. making a small but legal living unit w basic cooking and bath facilitys...

Approx total square footage you plan to finish ?

You mention "break even point"

My concern is your out $ vs your in $ is realistic.

No, I do not think you are stupid.

At least not more than me.. having made a major mistake in past w unrealistic estimate.

Been there done that bigtime.

Marc

Check out my last post to gnpenning, it breaks down my numbers a bit. feel free to critique them any if you want. I'm always up for advise but this is what ive come up with so far. As far as the estimation ive used several sources. Just looking at prices in my area, airbnb's own estimation calulator, rentometer website, and talking to current owners to see what they have seen. I did individual averages and then averaged them together to get my numbers. As far as the expense side, I've basically calulated my expenses individually per rental and figured an average of 3 night rental and subtracted my expenses taht way. This gave me a percentage of 33% so I went on the safe side and plan for 25%.

 

[James-W]

I have not tried to do anything like this, but I do know we are zoned for residential housing and not business. I have a really nice garage that I use as my workshop. I do a few jobs (mostly repairs of furniture) for people and the city doesn't have a problem with that. But if I put up a sign and start a business doing it, I would be shut down in a heartbeat. Zoning is a big deal around here and it is not easy to get an exception to policy.

Anyway, the point is, zoning and building code are not the same all over the country so If I were you I wouldn't do anything until you physically talk with the AHJ and find out exactly what you can do, and what you can't do.

Also, I am not sure how it would work for property taxes, insurance or utilities. I am assuming you would be charged at the commercial rate for everything since it would be a business, but that is only a guess on my part.

Since other people have done it and are making money at it, it would seem to be a viable business assuming you are allowed to do it. But whether it will prove to a worthwhile venture is yet to be seen. It will depend on what it costs to make the transformation, what the operating costs are, and how many customers you get. It could turn out to be a real good investment, or it could turn into a huge money pit with little or no payback in sight.

 

[Tinkerman66]

BS. Codes and zoning keep the property values up, by preventing the lunatic neighbors from building a hotel where there’s no infrastructure to support it, and where the neighbors don’t want it.



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Nobody here is running around building hotels so your BS post is just that, BS.

 

[cderalow]

This is what I’m needing the building codes for but really have no idea where to start to look for them. I posted the book I found but someone stated my local codes may go above and beyond those. I don’t mind doing whatever is needed for my own safety and for anyone staying there. I just need to know what’s needed.


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your local zoning board/jurisdiction will have some sort of permitting office (assuming they require permits).

from there, they should be able to to tell you which building codes they require adherence t0.

most states will have a modification to a typical standardized building code.

some reference the IRC (international residential code) and make modifications from there relevant to the locale. Others use the IBC (International Building Code) and make local specific adjustments.

It can vary widely. Some areas don't have any sort of code requirements, but using the IRC/IBC is a good start.

all will turn back to the NFPA 70/NEC (national electrical code) and probably NFPA 101 (national fire/life safety code).

 

[gnpenning]

Good to see you have already done some home work and math for your ROI.

Good luck with your project! Looking forward to hearing how it's working.

 

[blkhonda1991]

This appears to be the building code your state has adopted https://codes.iccsafe.org/content/IRC2015/toc 2015 IRC, the document you linked to is their specific amendments to this code.

 

[PassnThru]

The original question was where to get info on local building codes.
I don't actually have a problem with building codes - I've seen too many people that would use 1 by 4s for rafters on 32 inch centers. Electrical and plumbing can result in some very interesting situations.
Having said that - the age of the internet is upon us. If you require that people follow a certain set of rules, you should then make those rules available freely to people. I have looked on the web for the codes governing my county but they are not available. I guess I could assume that they started with the national code - but I have to buy a book to figure out what that is. As far as amendments to that code by my local authority, how do I figure that out? Go to the code office and say I'm building a garage? Ask them to explain all relevant codes? Or buy their code version if it's even available? Do I call them every five minutes and ask questions? I'm sure that would go over well.
When the inspector fails a part of my work - how do I know that it is actually against code? Guess I just have to take his word for it because I really don't have the access to the current rules unless I drag it out of them one piece at at time.
I understand that the county requires contractors to be licensed. I also understand that due to this and the increased work load on them by homeowners doing their own work that they would prefer that I did not do my own work.
But there are really no valid excuses. As I said before, this is the internet age. A few decades worth actually. You have rules? Make them freely available. You owe it to me if you are going to hold me responsible for not following them.
It's a bit like setting people up for double secret probation

 

[jetnow1]

The codes are available, your library might have a copy, or you can google any specific questions. You do need to know which code your city uses, and which version. Most building inspectors are willing to sit with you and go over your plans, and even show you what the specific code requirements are. If you are in a beach area be aware that often there are specific codes due to the massive hurricane damages we have seen. I am building an addition near the shore here in CT, had to put in foundation bolts every 32 inches rather than every 4 foot, much more steel strapping, much more expensive windows and doors to meet higher wind speed requirements etc.

 

[James-W]

Around here all you need do is go to the building department at city hall and ask for a copy of the building codes. They will print off what you need and give it to you. If you have any questions, you can ask and they will tell whatever you need to know.