There are very little disturbances from outsiders regarding the real estate industry. Most of the ideas, changes, and innovations come from within; from fellow industry professionals, with years of experience. But, because innovation is as constant as change, there are finally outsiders, with little real estate experience, knocking on real estate’s door’s with innovation bound to impact the industry.
Airbnb has begun reaching out to some of the largest U.S. apartment owners, in hopes of securing a deal in which tenants can rent out their units, while including the landlord in on the process.
Airbnb in talks with multi-family industry
Airbnb has reportedly started discussions with several San Francisco companies such as Sam Zell’s Residential, Avalon Bay Communities Inc. and Camden Property Trust, and plan to expand.
This solution comes not long after landlords began to make an uproar, for the loss in control they feel happens, with tenant-turned landlords.
According to Rick Haughey, vice president of industry technology initiatives the National Multifamily Housing Council, “Right now, they don’t have any control over this situation… They don’t have control over how often people are renting their units out, and they don’t have any control as to who’s coming in.”
How would this agreement even work?
Haughey also suggests that any agreement between landlords and the $25.5-billion-dollar company, would be one with revenue sharing, and would reassure owners that they’d have a say in what happens at their properties.
Agreements would initially be limited to markets where the legality of short-term rentals isn’t in question, and could possibly include cities that have passed home-sharing regulations.
How will the industry react?
Airbnb rep, Christopher Nulty says the company is only in the beginning stages of discussion, and that nothing has been decided yet, however “We are committed to working with everyone — hosts, policy makers, community groups, landlords and others — to ensure middle-class people can share their homes and contribute to their communities.”
So we’ll have to stay tuned to see if real estate will welcome the lucrative opportunities made possible by those outsiders, or continue to loathe the short term-rental company. One thing’s for sure, with all the money and opportunities both entities have, a partnership would be more beneficial than any small feud.
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