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Chiwawa River Pines – Vacation Rental Ban Update
The Chiwawa River Pines neighborhood has recently voted to enforce a covenant that bans vacation rentals in their neighborhood.
According to Al Lorenz of the NCW Real Estate Blog (who is also a board member at Chiwawa River Pines), the neighborhood recently voted to allow “Long Term, low impact, service oriented businesses” and “long-term, residential rentals for a period of more than six (6) consecutive months”.
They are no longer allowing “short-term residential rentals for a period of less than six (6) consecutive months”
As I have mentioned before in earlier posts about the vacation rental issue I think this will have a negative effect on sales and property values in the neighborhood.
For those who live in the neighborhood, this may increase their quality of life. I certainly can understand the problems that can come from bad neighbors or bad renters next door.
According to my research of the market on the North Central Washington MLS:
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8 homes sold in the neighborhood in 2007.
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In 2008 only 1 home has sold so far.
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Currently 1 home is under contract or “pending”.
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9 homes are currently listed for sale.
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3 homes have sold in the past 12 months giving us a 3 Years supply of homes
Chiwawa River Pines used to be a desirable neighborhood. How many current vacation rentals are in the neighborhood? How many of these owners will now put their homes on the market?
I count 6 rentals in Chiwawa River Pines on the ComfyCabins website and I know there are plenty more at VRBO.com
Here’s what one owner had to say on my previous post:
I am a new member to the Chiwawa River Pines community and i was not aware of this issue. Should I have reviewed the bylaws, sure, but I also was aware that there were nightly rentals in the area. In general, I understand your points. However, may of us that did not purchase a home 5 or more years ago are paying a pretty penny to find a vacation home in Leavenworth. While we would all likely to be independently wealthy, many of us look to supplement the cost of a mortgage with nightly rental proceeds.
I also believe that the values will decline since you are removing a subset of the buyers from this community. I understand the risks associated with renters, but I have yet to see a detailed list of violations that have caused such a concern. Do you have one? If so, please share.
Why can’t a 2-3 strikes your out policy be implemented. If a home owner’s renters violate the community rules then the owner will be written up and notified. After 2 or 3 issues, their ability to rent will be removed.
What’s next for Chiwawa River Pines?
I expect the next shoe to drop will be litigation. There are rarely big winners when things like this go to court, but I expect it will. Will the CRP association sue to enforce their rules? Will they get sued by owners of current vacation rentals?
Did you buy a vacation home in Chiwawa River Pines hoping to use it as a rental to defer costs? Are you considering buying real estate or holding off on your purchase because of this debate?
Mark wrote me an email “That stinks!!!!!!!”
Allyson and I ran into a home owner in Chiwawa River Pines this afternoon that was trying to sell a number of homes in the neighborhood that he could no longer rent. He was pretty upset too.
I own and operate a rental cabin and the only trouble I have ever had was when I rented full time to a gentleman who disrupted the entire neighborhood and caused many nuisance issues as well as argued with and upset every person he lived near in the area. He threatend myself and my property and was difficult to remove once he was in the house. His activities included simple noise nuisance, to complete and utter disregard for those living near by having hybred wolves thast were not allowed on my property in the first place and would bot get rid of them. I could go on and on. I did finally get him out,but how intersting that NONE of my short term rentals have been a trouble but the community has voted to allow long term and abolish short term. How many of those folks ever thought about how a long term troublesome renter can affect their life, and a nightlyrenter, should they disregard the contract they have signed that penallizes them financially for bothersome behavior, will be gone immediately by making a phone call. That money taken from guests who cause a disturbance, was offered to the community. Of course they didn’t jump on this b/c they know that the fact is, the incidences are so low, that account would yield very little. This was a very short sighted decision that was looked at by one sde only, as our board, very deliberately, did not seek to educate the members about all sides, as our offers to manage the situation on a trial basis, with strict guidelines and consequences, to find out if rental and non- rentals could coexist peacefully if managed properly, was not put out to the community for review prior to the vote,. The board did tell me they would send this if it were presented to them, as they would thier side, and they would pay for it. They did neither and squashed our proposal not allowing the membership to see this option.
WE WILL ALL PAY THE PRICE FOR THEIR ACTIONS. But we will do as was voted on and will turn to full time rentals. Time will tell.
[...] so the real juicy stuff is likely to show up someplace else. But when a policy issue like Chiwawa River Pines discussion of banning vacation rentals comes up, I’m happy to throw in my two cents. Every once and awhile I even get in on on [...]