A Startup Is Turning Houses Into Corporations, And The Neighbors Are Fighting Back

Catering to the wealthy for second and third homes is NOT solving the housing crisis……….

NPR: A Startup Is Turning Houses Into Corporations, And The Neighbors Are Fighting Back

 

FULL STORY HERE

August 24, 20216:30 AM ET
GREG ROSALSKY

Brad Day and his neighbors in California’s Sonoma Valley have noticed a real estate startup is turning houses in their community into limited liability corporations. A group has formed to oppose the company’s moves. Day’s favorite sign reads, “The Pacaso house is the big one on the right with no soul.”

excerpt: 

The county, Day says, had designated their neighborhood an “exclusion zone,” which bans Airbnb-style, short-term rentals to preserve the “residential character” of communities. But Pacaso argues that its clients are not short-term renters. They are co-owners of an LLC. This also means they don’t have to pay the typical taxes on short-term rentals. Likewise, in the nearby town of St. Helena, Pacaso was trying to circumnavigate a city ban against timeshares with the same argument. Day says he and his neighbors saw Pacaso’s newfangled business model as nothing more than a “glorified timeshare” with a legal strategy aimed at “skirting regulations that are designed to keep communities intact.”