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Elvartus VanLienben and his son, Nathan McDonald, are offering their home in Spotsylvania County for rent. BEN FREDMAN/THE FREE LANCE-STAR Visit the Photo Place

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Will inaugural bring bucks to locals? PLAYING LANDLORD?

Locals look to cash in on inauguration crowds

BY EMILY BATTLE

Date published: 11/22/2008

BY EMILY BATTLE

From grad students looking to make an extra buck to rental-property managers trying to drum up business in a slow month, plenty of folks in the Fredericksburg area are testing the waters in the market for inauguration visitors who can't find hotel rooms.

With two months to go before Barack Obama's Jan. 20 inauguration as president, hotels as far outside Washington as Williamsburg and even West Virginia are reporting no vacancies.

Campgrounds, recreational vehicles and charter buses also are getting booked up.

In Washington, a huge number of people are listing their spare rooms, fold-out couches and futons for rent on Internet classified-ad sites--some for $1,500 a night or more.

That kind of grass-roots capitalism doesn't stop at the beltway, though.

Ads can be found for spare bedrooms, apartments and empty homes that have been on the market as far south as Lake Caroline.

The listers include both experienced Realtors, developers and property managers and novices who just want to see what kind of response they can get.

Nobody contacted for this article had reported much of a response to ads offering bedrooms around Fredericksburg.

Elvartus VanLienben of Spotsylvania County casually listed his home on Craigslist a couple of weeks after the election.

His asking price: $1,200 for three nights in his three-bedroom, two-bath home. Bring your dog if you like.

When contacted this week about it, VanLienben said he'd forgotten about the ad. He hadn't had any offers.

He said he was a big supporter of Obama and volunteered in his campaign. His house is for sale, and he has somewhere else he can stay if he can rent it.

He said he'd read that hotels were filling up and that folks were offering to rent their homes.

"I absolutely love Barack Obama, and I figure if someone wants to see him bad enough, I guess I would do it, too," he said.

VanLienben isn't planning to make the trip to Washington on Jan. 20, though.

"I'm not going to go stand in the cold," he said. "I can watch it just as good on TV."

At the Manor at England Run off U.S. 17 in Stafford County, managers decided to put an ad for one-bedroom apartments online "just to test the waters," said Community Director Rob Zernick.

In Fredericksburg, at least, zoning is not a problem. All of the city's residential zones allow families to take in up to two boarders. City Commissioner of the Revenue Lois Jacob said a business license is not required for this kind of rental, because it's a one-time occurrence and "They're not running a business."

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Date published: 11/22/2008