One on One with Danielle Purcell
By Gina Dostler
Danielle Purcell roots in Laguna Beach run deep. Her father served as the chief of police. By the time she was 18, she had worked or help open nearly every restaurant in town. Today, as real estate broker and owner of Team Laguna, she specializes in selling coastal real estate. She got her start as Laguna’s “rental queen,” finding a niche with vacationers, and supports the city’s ban on short-term rentals as a better policy all-around for Laguna.
Q: What are your thoughts about the ban on weekly rentals through AirBnb?
A: I never really liked short-term rentals and we stopped years ago. Laguna is a little more compact than other cities and many homes sit right on top of each other where noise travels easily and a high-turnover of renters can disturb the peace and cause quality of life complaints. If we do get a request for a short term, we pass it on to someone who has legal weekly rentals. Weekly rentals without a permit are illegal, but it still happens. The biggest problem right now is the tenants renting out the place without the owner’s knowledge. It is a total violation of the lease and makes the owners liable for anything that happens.
Q: Has the ban affected availability for rentals?
A: Actually the rental business picked up for us because the people who couldn’t do short term anymore came to us to find long-term renters. There are still plenty of tourists around and the ban won’t affect the market. The guy at the motel down the road needs to fill-up his rooms and so it is better for business to ban the short term rentals. Laguna Beach, besides San Francisco, is the only town I can successfully do year-round rentals because the town is a vacation destination. This is the city that does business year-round.
Q: How many rentals come on the market specifically?
A: Right now there are 142 furnished rentals (+30 days), which will double in June. The calls are coming in right now to rent. As to how they split, I’d say 50% of our rentals are for summer and 50% year-round. Compare that to 36 permitted short-term rentals we have right now. Our total last year was 500 rental transactions and 50 sales transactions. When we were doing rentals full time, we had 1,000 rental transactions.
Q: With the crackdown on short-term rentals, has it affected pricing?
A: I don’t think it has affected it a whole lot. I’ve always felt you get the same price for four weeks as you can a month, $4,000 a week, $16,000 a month for luxury listings. Where people have gotten hurt is when agents have sold property to buyers who think they can rent short-term and find out otherwise. They are not being told of the property restrictions against it. Besides permits, if there is a homeowners association, there is usually a one year minimum for rentals and that can come as a surprise to some buyers who might want to rent it out monthly.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Danielle Purcell
Team Laguna
1190 Glenneyre Street
Laguna Beach CA 92651
949-464-1063 office
949-874-1187 cell
http://www.teamlaguna.com/
dani@teamlaguna.com
