1st of the Month Bonus Episode: Making Advocacy FUN Again! With Tiffany Edwards

Alex Husner  00:39
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Annie Holcombe  00:48
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Alex Husner  01:07
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Alex Husner  01:39
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Annie Holcombe  02:07
visit casago.com forward slash franchise guestranger.com and GoodNeighbortech.com for more information.

Alex Husner  02:16
Welcome to Alex and Annie, the real women of vacation rentals. I'm Alex. 

Annie Holcombe  02:20
And I'm Annie. 

Alex Husner  02:22
And we are joined today with a very special guest for our first of the month a bonus episode that we have been wanting to have on the show for a very, very long time. We've had some in person interviews, but this is a special one. Welcome Tiffany Edwards.

Tiffany Edwards  02:34
Thank you guys. I'm excited

Annie Holcombe  02:36
long time coming.

Alex Husner  02:39
Tiffany is the president of colletta consulting and is also the director of donor services for vrma, the vacation rental Managers Association. And you've been in the industry for a very long time and so has has your family too. But beyond those kind of basic things. Can you give our audience that might not know you just a little bit more of your background?

Tiffany Edwards  02:58
Sure. Yeah. So my mother started a vacation rental company back in the mid 80s in the panhandle area. So in Destin, Florida. So I grew up in the operation side with her business and decided after several years of physically checking people into the front desk that I didn't want to be a part of the operation side, also on turns on Saturdays and making all those beds. So always loved politics shortly then after on or went into college with a political science focus, and then started working for different legislators in Florida, and then also working as a lobbyist in Georgia. But then met my husband and got right back into vacation rentals. So that's kind of you know, full circle. But I you know, I guess it's one of those things you just never really get out of.

Annie Holcombe  03:54
Yeah, it's I think when we talk to people, or it's like you I know, personally, I've tried to leave vacation rentals twice. And every time I come back, it's just like, it's something. Yeah, I don't want to go back to making beds or checking guests that are dealing with the little eight hour, you know, on duty calls. But it's an industry that's full of very passionate people.

Alex Husner  04:11
We all trip in, but then we can't get out of it. It's like you can check in but you can't check out exactly. Tell California we're in it for life.

Tiffany Edwards  04:20
Yeah. And then you end up I mean, again, for me, I mean, a married someone. So then it's we talk about it all the time, right? It's, yeah, it's an I guess it becomes an obsession. But yeah, you get around passionate people, and it becomes a major focus and you just can't get out. So yeah.

Annie Holcombe  04:39
So speaking of passion, one of the things that I think that everybody is very passionate about these days is advocacy. And we've found ourselves in a really great position coming out of COVID with a lot of spotlight on us and a lot of attention and the recognition that we needed a collective voice to define who the industry is because of what has happened, we find areas of the country where regulations are just out of control. And they're not happening in a fair process. And so you are really in the middle, I guess at the forefront, or the fighting the front lines of advocacy for vrma. Wanted to get your take on where things are right now. And kind of what you feel like the general sense of advocacy is at the moment.

Tiffany Edwards  05:24
Yeah. So you know, one thing I think that's positive is I think there are going to be some slowdowns, or we've seen some slowdowns with some of that regulation, there's been a little bit more balance in terms of occupancy, and people being fearful that, you know, vacation rentals are taking over the entire world or their communities. I do want to say, first and foremost that, you know, we are a fragmented industry, and we probably will always be somewhat that way, just because of the way that the laws written. So state statutes are very different. And in terms of local communities, what and how you can regulate are going to be very different. However, one thing that we have done in the last couple of years since COVID, has had a unified voice of how we identify who we are. And I think that's first and foremost in politics becomes a lot more of a marketing campaign, an education campaign. And so I think in the last couple of years, we've done a better job to explain that we are professional that we do take steps that are, you know, trying to be helpful within the community or be great members within our community that we're constantly searching for different education and high standards with our you know, with our services. And so being able to communicate what that is, instead of being this get rich, quick, absentee listing model, where we don't care about the community has really helped I think we've had a lot of members also step up, where they didn't realize that maybe that they were active, so called lobbyists in their area, just because they knew different elected officials or knew a lot of business representatives. But they've got a lot of managers kind of step up to the plate and really advocate locally, but utilizing this this unified voice to help explain exactly who we are to a lot of legislators or elected officials who didn't know what it is that we do.

Alex Husner  07:18
I think coming out of COVID, the state of Florida did an incredible job going to Governor DeSantis. And I know you were very involved in that effort. Can you tell our audience a little bit about what happened then?

Tiffany Edwards  07:29
Yeah, so, you know, I think I can echo for everyone how scary that timeframe was for us. You know, we were with several of the businesses that we have Uber in Florida, just terrifying knowing you know, you have all these employees that depend on you and guests calling constantly and every week we were having to cancel certain things out. And so we were really lucky at that time. We didn't have a lobbyist in Florida, but I had worked for the former majority leader there and and actually knew someone in and Governor DeSantis his office. And so every day we were sending over different data. But most importantly, we had a group task force of probably about, I want to say about eight or nine of us that met every morning to say, okay, what are our skill sets? What can we do? Where's our reach? And so a big part of that we had, you know, Expedia group on there on we had breezeway, we had key data, and we had rent responsibly, obviously vrma is huge group. And so we were looking at what all we can do. And we constantly pulling data to say where our feeder markets are where people were coming, because the the concept was or and I want to say concept because it wasn't true. Is that Governor DeSantis is was told that COVID came in from a vacation rental to the state of yeah, oh, wow. The fact that we were shut down but vacation rentals were still operating illegally. He was under the impression and they said I think it was based on a first case scenario was a visitor coming from New York that was staying in a vacation rental somewhere in South Florida. That's where the COVID were COVID had started so there was this understanding that we were all still operating but we weren't and so we were just constantly pulling in you know, different information based on their requests every day and having those conversations and and also we created this kind of pledge online and and having people you know, write up stories and send some send different things over and then we really use the vrma Housekeeping you know, the safety guidelines to help reopening county by county so was twofold getting to Santos up, but then also understanding that he was going to have probably county by county open up and then working with our members in different counties to get the different requirements needed so that they could get their counties up and 24 hours or whatever that may be.

Annie Holcombe  10:18
Yeah, that was your I mean, scary does is like I, you know, we had the oil spill here a few years back. And I thought that was like the worst thing that the we had ever been through the I mean, hurricanes in the Panhandle all the time, but it was still it was the worst. And then this just surpassed it on so many different levels. Yeah, I think that it goes back to like, what, what is the perception of what our industry does. And so being able to, it was great that you had that connection, because I remember talking to Jason from PII data, and him talking about like, going to the governor and him being like, why would I open you up like you guys are the problem, not that, you know, not a solution to it. And I think that it just speaks to as an industry, how we've not we've not reined in the people that are joining the industry, but people that as they come up through the industry, to educate in their community to be good stewards, we have Alex and I talk about the good apples versus the bad apples all the time. And so you know that that was a very scary time. And I don't see that we'll ever go to anything like that, again, because we now have sort of a playbook to go back on. Do you think that we are in a better position in terms of just not just with Governor DeSantis, but governors around the country in a better position to be able to talk about what we do and what it is that we represent within a market?

Tiffany Edwards  11:35
I do, I think that we are becoming better educated as managers or as hosts, I think we also are so educated more so in what we can convey as what it is we do. And I think that goes into the suppliers, right? This, you know, a lot of times when I meet with any elected official, I like to mention even how we utilize our technology or our supplier base to aid us efficiencies, and professionalism. That's something they don't even think they think that we just put our house up on listing, like to collect the check. And they don't understand that there. There are different technologies we use to make us more efficient. And so I think that we're also getting stronger and more emboldened to speak about what it is that we do. And so I think that that, number one, that message is being conveyed, I think that we're out there publicly a lot more, you know, in terms of especially some of the studies and that that vrma is providing, I think the most important thing vrma is doing and can do is provide information at the top, and then provide talking points of how you can trickle that down within your community, because every community, like I said, is fragmented. So you have to be able to understand how to digest that information, and convey it to your local representative, for example, our economic impact studies, if you just put out those numbers, you know, it may be seen as a tax revenue source, you gotta be able to use that information to say, Whoa, hold on, we're really important. Look at what we do for your community not look at how rich you know, we all are. And we're right. Yeah, yeah, I think that, you know, we're, our members are becoming more educated, I think the information especially because they're now seeing the tax rolls of what have come in, and the the states that have stayed open or have been able to provide, you know, this side of tourism or open up to this tourism, I think there's just a better understanding. So we're at a really good place. I think we're, you know, we're not in the absolute best place. It's an ongoing process. But I think we're in a really good place. And what we were saying prior to COVID.

Alex Husner  13:50
We had Adam Stoker on our show yesterday, and he was talking about a conversation that he had with Stuart Butler, who's the CMO of Visit Myrtle Beach. And he had a really great line that when you from on a DMO perspective, from a vrma perspective or any kind of association are really just business when you share with people these statistics and what you're doing. And if you just share it, it's that's when you get a lot of questions of like, well, why is that? Are they they're making too much money, or they're doing this or whatever. But when you actually engage with the people that you're trying to present this to, and get their feedback, then then you feel more of a coalition that they're on board to try and help with this too. And I think that's that's definitely what we've seen in our area and just in other areas of the country to that it's like, you know, we're all trying to we all have at the end of the day, similar goals. I mean, they might be a little bit different, but we're trying to get to the same outcomes. And you know, as tourism professionals, we know keeping the quality of life for locals is super important that we it goes both ways, but we won't have tourism if the locals get elected to City Council and they try and shut it down. So we've got to be able to make sure that they are taking care of that. It is a community that is working together. And I think VMA plays a big role and all of us as professionals and markets play a big role in being able to, you know, feed into that mindset to make sure we're being good stewards of these properties, the homeowners and the guests. And just delivering that professional experience, I think, you know, talking about the technology, like you said, that probably was very surprising for some of them, because they did not, they just saw this as this like cottage industry of, you know, old school times that that's, we actually have some of the best technology in any kind of accommodations. We've far surpassed hotels, in a lot of ways. So I imagine that was shocking to hear some of those things. 

Tiffany Edwards  15:35
Yeah,very, very much, though. I mean, even when we have met with some very high up, you know, even Governor DeSantis didn't realize kind of the intricacies the other part, too, that I think is really interesting is that we haven't even used this, we've used this study, not just with elected officials. But I mean, we've used our Florida economic impact study and brought it over to our Department of Business and Professional regulations, which is the department that oversees the licensing for vacation rentals, because it's not just elected officials, you have to really touch on the point of, you know, to, to your point earlier, Alex, is that you the other entities that kind of help or support our system, you have to be able to talk to that so that you can bring them into the fold as well. Yeah. 

Annie Holcombe  16:21
So I am very fortunate to be part of the Advocacy Fund committee that you've worked with at vrma. Know, what it's what's interesting to me is now I'm going to talk about this all the time, like, there's such an opportunity, because there's so few people that are actually participating in vrma. And you look at, I always referenced the pie, you know, it's like we as the professional and not to say that people who have two units aren't professional, but the larger professionalized been around for a while, represents less than 25% of this pie. So we have this 75% group out there that we need to do more outreach and more education. And I was looking at, like a list of like, you know, people that we're working with now, and I'm like, Oh, but I know so many more people, but you know, you, it's trying to rein it in and figure out how to get everybody to the, to the table to have a conversation. How do you think we as, as an industry can do a better job outreaching to those people that we differentiate it between like the STR versus the VR, like, so the people that are in, and I'm not, you know, the get rich quick side, but those are the ones that maybe aren't brought in with a with the right mindset, or tools or access to tools? Like how do we bring those people into the conversation and participate in it? So again, when there is issues of advocacy, they understand their actions have deeper ramifications for an entire community?

Tiffany Edwards  17:41
That's such a good question, I think being able to reach out. So in general, you know, we've had this specific kind of membership within vrma. And I think overall education is first and foremost, I think that being able to try to touch point on all of the, you know, all of those individuals and networking, because overall, starting off a conversation with advocacy is just not exciting. Let's be honest.  I mean, right? Now, you just based on my algorithm, I'm not on a lot of social media, but I am on one on one app and my algorithm alone, it'll send me different things where it's, you know, these professional these professionals, quote, unquote, you know, get rich quick with Airbnb being a out of state model. And, you know, I can come tell you how to, you know, earn a lot of money. I think that and some of those groups, or what I've seen are younger and younger. And so I think trying out to find a way of how to network and be a resource, and then bringing in the advocacy aspect, because it's a part very much part of that education. But unfortunately, until it becomes an issue for you, it doesn't necessarily become the top priority. So I think as much as education and talking about how we present ourselves, how we, you know, how we work within the industry, I think that pre creates that avenue of getting involved if someone is a member of the RMA, and is not doing something not necessarily just for our Advocacy Fund, but at least putting in something budgetary wise for their own advocacy efforts within their local community, they should be doing that because at some point something is going to happen, or you should be, you know, investing in different elected officials or programs or that because that's just a it's a general insurance policy. And so I think the more that we can educate on some of those steps and try to make advocacy a little bit more fun to to, you know, to learn about and understand that's, I think, how we get there.

Annie Holcombe  19:52
Yeah, I think that people don't get involved in until it's a problem and sometimes when it's a problem, it's too late. Way too late. Yeah. Uh,

Tiffany Edwards  20:02
and that's the point where then you, you know, regulations in general become a complete compromise. I mean, it has to be a compromise and something that's too late you may be compromising on things that you probably wouldn't have had to compromise. Had you been more proactive? Right, right. Yeah.

Alex Husner  20:17
Right. So I mean, the last two years have been incredible for growth of the advocate Advocacy Fund, as people have realized that this is an important part, it needs to be part of their budget, where, where, where are the funds being deployed right now? Like, where are most of the issues focused around? And where are we being able to help the most?

Tiffany Edwards  20:36
Yeah, another great question. So yeah, we've grown over 400%. I think in the last two years, we're hitting over the 600,000. Which, you know, is is technically small, when you look at like the realtors, or the hotels, or some of our OTA partners and what they are, yeah, eight level. And, you know, all of that is public record in terms of what they give to elected officials. So you can look that up. But for us, we don't give anything to elected officials. So one of the things the the advocacy find all of the funds are voted on for allocation by our collaborative committee. So if you're a tier one or Premier donor, you're on the collaborative committee, and a lot of our board members are also on the collaborative committee. And so what we kind of look at is several different things. One, all of our members are able to, to put in a grant request. So they can apply for a grant, we do have a pretty significant amount of money that is allocated towards towards those grants. And so we look at several different factors. One is, you know, where's our membership base for that alliance? Does your issue is it a major, you know, concern? Is it something that's happening, you know, quickly? And is it material items that can be helpful, whether they win or lose to other members so that they can become sources and as resources come into our toolkit, and we have, also have our, you know, our vrma advocate, which is the toolkit that is a kind of one stop shop for all of our case studies and different information. It's also part of that is behind a member wall. The other part is not, we have a specific section for policymakers. So a lot of times, you guys might hear some of the listeners here might hear, Well, what's a perfect ordinance or our policymaker doesn't even know how to you know where to begin. And so we've kind of built up this system. And hopefully, this algorithm that helps with a Google search for policymakers to kind of look through and see what our policy guide is. And so to help with some potential ordinance writing, the other thing that we've committed to is two to three economic impact studies a year. That's really, really helpful. So like I said before, it helps provide statistics. And then we have regional breakdowns. So we've done Texas, Florida, we have California coming out in June. We've previously done Georgia, South Carolina and Maryland. This end of this year, we'll be doing Tennessee and Colorado. So very, very exciting there. But those studies, if you haven't seen them, they drill down to what the actual tax savings is per household, based on vacation rentals for state. And so a lot of really great information there. But one of the things I'm really excited about is our national housing affordability study. So if you were at Spring forum, our economist came and spoke about it. It's a follow up study based on what verbo did four years ago. So previous to the pandemic. And it looks at what factors actually cause housing affordability. And so it's, what it does is that even though it's a national study, you're going to be able to break down talking points as to what some of those causations are, and then you can pull out like what are specific things in your area, that would also create that increase. So that's going to be extremely helpful. And then one of the other things that we've done is we've joined some lieutenant governors associations, and also another city organization, which has gotten us in front of several lieutenant governors. And I think we have a call next week in the following week for speakers in Florida and California, to present some cases on vacation rental. So one of the best things that we can do is move away from you know, a definition where we don't know what we're called, right but to actually define what it is that we are and then call us either the short term or vacation rentals or short term vacation rentals and have an understanding of what that is. And I think that through some of those conversations with those Higher up elected officials have really helped done that. So,

Annie Holcombe  25:04
yeah. So moving forward, what do you see are the big, the big, like hot button issues that are out there for people to be concerned about?

Tiffany Edwards  25:14
I love this question. And, you know, so it's a total crystal ball. But I so after the after COVID, I had said, Watch out, taxing is going to become an issue. And it has now started, we're starting to see some of that and the commercial tax aspect, taxes. And it's not just higher taxes, but it's a diversification of our tourism tax. So we saw in Florida, a bill that was put up that we shut down that would have would have expanded tourism, our tourism tax right now is specific to marketing and some local discretion, whereas this would have moved it more to this state. And it was a committee proposed bill. So something that would have been just slipped in California right now is looking at a 15% increase in tax on top of what they already have for tourism that would help with housing affordability, we've seen commercial tax, almost, you know, we had a bill come up in Colorado. So that is something that I think we're going to start to see a little bit more, especially as we see a recession. And some of our you know, general budget items law losing money at a state level. So they're going to try to look at that for what where could we pull money, I think that's going to continue to be a trend, I think the biggest trend that we're going to see in the next year or two is actually going to be on what I like to call investor spending or investor housing. So we have seen in the last year or so where this this idea of, you know, buying up investors buying a lot of homes and then using them as short term rentals. And that's been really convoluted with the idea that we're all investors. And so we've seen on a federal side, some regulation are bills that are proposed against buying up more than 100 homes, not dispersed for short term rentals. But just as an investment portfolio. We saw in Texas and Hawaii, some restrictions, buying up housing. More specifically for short term rentals or the ability to buy up if you weren't auto local, I think that's going to play an effect. And we're going to start seeing some more conversation around that. More. So as mortgage rates go, you know, kind of come up or where there's some limited housing, or the idea that were just investors. And we're, you know, leaving these houses to just be rented a couple times a year. I think that that's going to be discussed a little bit more. And I think that we need to do, we need to figure out a better way to have our talking points, because we are a lot of these homes are LLCs, our personal home is an LLC, but figuring out how we talk through that, again, of why we are an LLC and why the liability is and yes, this is an investment. But we're invested in the community because we want to have a home that we go and spend time and so if you go back to that technology, a lot of times we'll run reports were on some of our businesses or on you know, we'll run escapia We have an escapee of portfolio on most of our businesses. And, you know, how many times is an owner common state? And what's that average rate? And is it during the peak, you know, peak season? Sometimes it is sometimes it isn't, you know, are in California, we have a very high owner state just based on what our regulations there are in some of our monthly, you know, stays are a little bit different than Texas, but being able to convey and really articulate how our owners use that, and why they use that and why they chose our area helps kind of talk through that with some of our elected officials. So it is an investment, but we're not just an investor.

Alex Husner  29:05
Yeah, we're definitely seeing that in our area here that I mean, really not just affordable housing, but just housing in general general for regular people in a destination. And places like Myrtle Beach or 30. A are probably destined Panama City, same thing. The it's just it's hard to find housing and in these tourism areas that really rely on workers that they're not having to drive, you know, over an hour if not more to get in here to be able to serve as properties. It's like that's that's a problem and these investors that are buying up the properties and then turning them into short term rentals and or long term, but just when the prices are just unbelievably high. It's an issue and I think that the focus has changed over the last couple of years of like focusing more on the issues with the smaller house that now they are looking at those investors but I will say that on the other side of it is something that's still very prevalent in Now most destinations minds is how to make sure that all the all the individual hosts are paying taxes. Right. And I know there's different software that's out there. And some areas have had better luck than others and being able to, you know, really get a good eye on what's out there and not tax, not just tax has been in the business licenses. Have you seen in Florida or in any other areas? Anything that's working? Well, with that, with finding like business licenses that haven't been enacted?

Tiffany Edwards  30:28
Yeah. So there are some software's that are a little bit more friendly to our industry, there are definitely some software's that are are not. But I will say that I will give credit to some of the OTAs like Expedia group went into an agreement in Hawaii, where they agreed to do the tax ID number on all of their listings. And and then it also requires to have the business license for a manager or for a host to put it on their website, I think that you know, is really helpful, you can easily cross reference that for any kind of code compliance, that's a, that's a pretty easy thing, we actually put a bill in Florida, that didn't pass. But I think that that's something that all of us would agree to, it's very easy to put that on, you know, kind of on your listing site. And that's one of the things that I think has been the most helpful, you know, the problem is, is these, you know, cities, you know, the counties, they require a lot of staff to have to look at all of this Oh, yeah, that your fees are gonna go up pretty astronomically to not only cover this, but to also be potentially a revenue source for these cities or counties. And so but the other part too, is that the software programs, you know, I would really, if your county or city is looking at them, I would spend a great deal of time of trying to research what all it is that they're providing. And the amount because we've seen, we've seen some contracts that have just been so astronomical in pricing for the year that that you're gonna have a higher feet registration fee coming in. I mean, we're seeing double and triple and registration fees just to help cover some of that software. So if you can offer a suggestion, like you know, that you're required to list that packs, number, whatever that may be, that's, that's very helpful.

Annie Holcombe  32:22
Yeah, I always find like people that fight that simple component of it, are the ones that are like the red flag walking down the street, and you know, that they're not doing things the way they should be. But I think I think, to that point, there's a lot of people that understand that it is going to cost, there's a cost associated with it with implementing, but we need to have that, like I think we're all willing to pay, if it's going to mean that like we can stave off these in, like insane regulations. I mean, some of them are just, I think we Alex and I met somebody at the Northwest VRP they were talking about area, I think it was an Oregon, where they just passed, you know, a legislative bill that went through that, it's like, basically going to decimate one entire community, but the person that had put it up, happens to own vacation rentals, like on the opposite side of the community, and it like carved out the other side. And it's just it really, it really is. It's disheartening that people would not be want to want everybody to succeed and prosper. But it does take a balanced, balanced approach. And I think it takes people like yourself, who are educated about the topic and can go in and speak to the truth of it. And that be fact based. And again, you know, to your earlier point about providing data, it's great to provide data and data is really great. But if you don't provide the context behind that data, it can be skewed in such a bad way that it ends up shedding about light on all of us. So I want to say like, just for myself being in the industry for most of my adult life, like what you've done for like the association and how you've rally people. I mean, you're an incredible leader for all of us. And I think that just having you as the spokesperson for vrma. And for you know, for advocacy has been a great asset to all of us.

Tiffany Edwards  34:04
Oh, well. Thank you very much. I I will get back to the texting real quick, too. And I think that it's important and we've had this conversation several times with all over the country is that I want people to pay taxes because I'm having to pay it so

Alex Husner  34:21
Right exactly. Yeah, it's not fair. If you don't have it's not fair,

Tiffany Edwards  34:25
my rates completely different than if someone's not paying taxes. In fact, we had someone where you found out that they were renting some stuff out behind, you know, outside of us and we thought they weren't paying taxes and we got rid of them. You know, I mean, it's very strong line like everyone should be paying that it's a betterment for the community. But also what are we attracted you're not helping our rates in our area, right? Yeah. Right. So yeah, that's it's a very low hanging fruit that it is surprising that other people don't kind of you know, jump on that but you're right you. A lot of times when you look at these were regulations, you got to you got to dig in a little bit deeper and go. Who's behind this? And right, what

Alex Husner  35:05
are the motives? Yeah, for sure. For sure. Yeah. One thing that I think gets confused within areas is the whole concept of preemption. And obviously, Florida has that. And, you know, there's a motion or there's an initiative in South Carolina to have that that passed. And I'm not sure exactly where it stands at this point. But can you explain just basic basics on what that means? Because I definitely have heard very different accounts, depending on who I talk to, on whether it's good, whether it's bad, and what it actually means, you know, for a community when it is put in place.

Tiffany Edwards  35:38
Yeah, pull preemption is so polarizing, or cambia. Thing, and part of it is just not understanding, again, really what it means. So people really think that preemption means no bans. And that's not the case, preemption means that the licensing or the regulation is preempted to the state, meaning that local communities cannot over regulate, because the state has the ability to regulate. And so what that does is it creates a consistency and framework and guidelines. So if you have, if you have homes, units, and various counties, it creates the same type of regulation. Now, in Florida, specifically, we have, we still have allow, or the counties or cities are still allowed to register on a local level. So there may be some, you know, there's some other guidelines that they can follow noise, trash, parking, all of those nuisance. nuisances are regulated at the local level. And, you know, the registration they can have, they can keep names of, you know, owners or property managers, they were going to require sign. So there still are some ability to, you know, to somewhat regulate, but they can't exactly ban them, because that's the state's ability to do that. And in Florida, also HOAs can can ban ban HOAs Oh, you know, they supersede what the state is allowed to do, because that's in their covenants. But we've, you know, it's a constant battle with the preemption. And there are several states that have preemption. It is once you get it, it is a battle every year, just ask Arizona, they've had to deal with the last couple years. But I think overall, preemption, to me is a very good thing, it's been very helpful for us. But more importantly, because in Florida, not only is it preempted to the state where we have the local registration, so you know, there is ability for our local municipalities or local jurisdictions to collect taxes to keep in, keep hold of all of that, and, and, you know, provide some type of, you know, quote, unquote, inspection, if they needed or occupancy can still be regulated on a local level. And but the state still allows or does not allow any local jurisdiction to, to oversee or to do, what is it the I just lost my train, but duration and frequency. So they can't say that you can only stay this amount of time, they don't say that you can only stay for so many times out of the mind. If you were, if you had your your regulations in place, both are after 2011 Before 2011, a lot of areas. So like Fort Myers Beach, Key West, they already have regulations on the books. So they do have duration and frequency. But to me, duration and frequency are some of the most important because even if you're preempted to this state, but you don't have some of that language in there, you could still have some concerns and issues.

Annie Holcombe  38:59
Gosh, there's just so much to unravel with this whole whole topic. Yeah. So I think I think this, this begs, like, we need to have you back like later this year to talk about kind of where things ended up. If people are interested in finding out more about the advocacy through vrma, and maybe joining an Advocacy Fund, what's the best way for them to get that information?

Tiffany Edwards  39:22
Yeah, so they want to go to vrma advocate.org. That's our our advocate website. That's our toolkit, but you can also learn more about, you know, the advocacy find our application is also on there. But more importantly some of our state, so not are not behind the member wall, but our state pages are on there. So information about the state statutes or your tax collection are different case law that's on there. And then also our policy guide is on there as well. So that's a great place just to get started and kind of reach around what else kind of going on?

Annie Holcombe  40:02
Well, I think we'll we'll focus on trying to make advocacy fun and sexy and cool.

Alex Husner  40:07
Yeah. It should be the advocacy fun with the Fu N.

Tiffany Edwards  40:12
Right? Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, it's funny because we I've said this before, but you know, when I first went to attended my first conference for vrma that we didn't even have a governmental affairs like that. And so now we've come a really, really long way. We just, yeah, you're right. It has to be capital Fu and so

Alex Husner  40:36
yeah, yeah.

Tiffany Edwards  40:37
I would. I will suggest to that if you are planning on going to our international conference. In October, we do have an advocacy fund reception. So that is really fun.

Alex Husner  40:49
Yeah, yes. We've been to those. They're definitely awesome. Well, thank you to me so much for coming on today. If anybody wants to contact you directly. What's the best way to get in touch?

Tiffany Edwards  41:00
Yeah, it's Tiffany ti FF any at colletta C O L E TT a consulting.com.

Alex Husner  41:09
Awesome. If anybody wants to get in touch with Annie and I you can go to Alex and Annie podcast.com Be sure to subscribe. Leave us a review. If you like listening to the show. We'd love to hear from you. And in the meantime, thank you everybody for tuning in for the June 1 First of the month bonus episode. We will see you next time.