There’s an interesting conversation happening in one of our local Facebook groups: Why are so many short-term vacation rentals for sale?
Great question. But I think there may be another question hiding underneath it: Are there actually “so many” or are we simply much more aware of them now?
Vacation rentals are nothing new in our mountain communities. The house we live in today was a vacation rental before we purchased it in the early 2000s. When we moved in full-time, our neighbors actually thanked us because they were tired of its seemingly endless use as a frat-party house. That was decades ago, long before the pandemic and before most of us had “STR” in our everyday vocabulary.
Today, short-term rentals are simply much more visible. We talk about permits, parking, occupancy, noise, code enforcement and neighborhood impacts. We see discussions about them on social media. So, when one hits the market, people notice.
But quantifying how many are actually for sale is surprisingly difficult.
I searched single-family homes currently for sale in Crestline, Lake Arrowhead and Running Springs through CRMLS. There were 722. Of those, only 12 were identified as a “Licensed Vacation Rental.”
I can tell you with confidence there are more than 12.
CRMLS has a checkbox for licensed vacation rentals, but the accuracy of that information depends on the listing agent entering it correctly. An agent might mention the vacation rental in the description but not check the box, check the box without emphasizing it or fail to disclose it altogether. San Bernardino County maintains a map showing permitted short-term rentals, but there’s no simple way to cross-reference that entire map against homes currently for sale.
Certainly, STR owners sell for the same reasons other property owners do. Some want to reinvest their equity elsewhere. Others may be tired of management fees, insurance costs, repairs, guest issues, taxes and the realities of operating a hospitality business. And sometimes the profit-and-loss statement simply doesn’t produce the return an investor hoped for.
But an STR for sale is still, first and foremost, a house for sale.
Its next owner may continue operating it as a vacation rental – or move in full-time, as we did. Conversely, someone can purchase a private residence and later pursue a permit to operate it as a vacation rental.
So before concluding that “so many STRs are for sale,” we should acknowledge something important: We don’t have reliable data proving that premise or setting a percentage to quantify and define what “so many” actually means.
Maybe there aren’t suddenly vacation rentals everywhere.
Maybe we’re just paying attention to them now.
Theresa Grant is a real estate broker and columnist covering Lake Arrowhead, Crestline, Running Springs, and the surrounding mountain communities. Reach her at (909) 442-1345 visit www.HomesInLakeArrowhead.com, and follow her on social media @TheresaGrantRealtor. Theresa is a Broker Associate with REAL Broker Technologies. DRE#01202881.
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