Sedona Vacation Rentals

This has been one of the hottest topics in the world of Sedona real estate for the last 6 months.  As you may or may not know, people in town have been renting their fully furnished homes out to visitors for years.  It’s been illegal in name only for a long time - and the city recently has decided to crack down on homeowners violating the law.  It’s a city statute that residential properties must be rented out for at least one month…. and there have been lots of people breaking the law for years with little to no negative impact upon the neighbors.  In fact, the one upside is that these people are coming for a longer time, they appreciate the city and learn more about it, and spend more money in our local restaurants, grocery stores, shops, art galleries, etc.  Well, as with other things - good times have come to an end.  Some people have taken advantage of the situation by renting luxury homes and hosting parties, weddings, filming erotic movies (i’ve heard…), etc.  Neighbors in one particular neighborhood are up in arms and have pushed the city to enforce the long standing law against this behavior.  I agree that behavior like what I mentioned earlier is intolerable and unsavory… so shouldn’t people call the police??? 

 Regardless, the city has now decided that it’s best to enforce the law by whatever means possible - including having a city employee browse sites like craigslist.com and vacation rental website for Sedona area properties advertising rents for less than one month.  They’re also putting bamboo under the fingernails of the property management companies that encourage this behavior… (figuratively - not actual bamboo shoots)

The result is that many people who have purchased Sedona property (to use as a vacation rental) will now need to change tactics and rent for longer periods (more difficult) or put the property on the market for sale - further increasing the total number of available properties in town. 

This is certainly a sticky issue and I’m looking forward to reading your replies and ideas from other parts of the country…

January 25th, 2008