As the deadline for Stowe’s short-term rental registry approaches, some local real estate agents are advising clients to hit the gas if they’re thinking of buying a second home in Stowe.
The registry, established last year as a public safety ordinance, set as April 30 the deadline when short-term rental owners must list their property with the town. But the Stowe Select Board has been mulling draft amendments that could transform the ordinance into a governing document and enact a pause on new short-term rental licenses for non-residents after the deadline.
The draft amendments have sparked a rush of non-resident registrants hoping to secure their right to short-term rent before that date, but that right is not guaranteed as of now, according to select board discussions. Residents, timeshares and properties in the Ski and Resort zoning districts would be exempt from the restrictions.
“If you want to have maximum flexibility with the ownership of your property, it’s 100% imperative that you purchase something before April 30 and the rules potentially change,” Stowe realtor McKee Macdonald said. Macdonald also serves as chair of the Stowe Housing Task Force.
His guidance is based on select board discussions about the ordinance, which have created a whirlwind of confusion within Stowe’s real estate market, where different realtors are giving contradicting advice to clients, and some clients are hastening their transaction.
Stowe realtors Pall Spera and Alison Beckwith said some of their non-resident clients are acting on advice to purchase a home before April 30, when potential restrictions would kick in.
For existing non-resident property owners, Spera’s, Beckwith’s and Macdonald’s advice is to register that property with the town prior to the deadline.
“We’re sort of saying, ‘Hey, hit the gas now if you think you’re buying a house you might want to rent,’” Beckwith said. “That’s to protect the homeowner whose intention is to make sure they can offset their ownership costs through renting their property.”
But the ability for non-residents to rent their property on a short-term basis after April 30 is not guaranteed, leading other local real estate agents to give different advice.
Although the select board has encouraged property owners to register their short-term rentals, regardless of residency status, the board has not yet decided whether to reduce the number of short-term rentals in town through attrition after the deadline. One possibility is restricting short-term rental transfers after non-resident homes hit the market.
“That’s not advice I would give, because we just don’t know which way the select board is going to go,” realtor Steven Foster said of contrary advice from realtors to buy before April 30. “At the end of the day, I would never want to be in a situation where the client comes back to me and said, ‘Hey, you said this was going to happen, and it happened this way.’”
Realtors said they are basing their advice on select board discussions, but sometimes that thread is difficult to follow.
Explaining one example from a select board meeting last fall, Macdonald said select board member Beth Gadbois told a family that inherited a vacation home in Stowe that they must register the property before April 30 if they want to continue renting it as a short-term rental, but Gadbois has also called for an overall reduction of short-term rentals regardless of where the number lands after the deadline.
“It’s all very confusing for the market,” Macdonald said. “Anytime there's a lack of clarity about how one can utilize their property, whether it's through an ordinance or a zoning regulation that isn't clear, it can cause issues with how people perceive they're going to be able to use that property going forward.”
Recognizing the select board’s discussion as one that that could cause confusion, select board member Nick Donza asked the select board in December, “How are we as a board going to come to a decision if we’re aiming for a cap or aiming for this to be reduced? I feel like that’s fundamental.”
The select board will pick up the discussion about the ordinance amendments and potential short-term rental regulations at a regular meeting in February.
In the meantime, realtors, regardless of their advice around the registry deadline, are taking issue with the potential regulations and highlighting Stowe’s long history as a tourism town, where residents rented out their homes long before apps like Airbnb and VRBO were created.
“It feels like urban planning from the Far Side,” Spera said, recommending the town builds low-income housing on conserved land like Mayo Farm, rather than restricting short-term rentals.
Additionally, Foster said the select board has offered no evidence of how restricting short-term rentals will lead to an increase in the affordable housing stock.
Beckwith agreed.
“You’re basically creating a market that is going to only serve people who are wealthy enough to be able to afford the taxes without needing any kind of return on their investment,” she said. “They want a second home, and they don’t care if it sits empty.”
The advice from some realtors to work around the deadline runs counter to the intentions of the short-term rental pause for non-residents, according to presentations by the Stowe Planning Commission.
The commission recommended the pause in a letter to the select board, which was endorsed by the Housing Task Force. One purpose was to “stop the bleeding” by preventing more Stowe homes from entering the short-term rental stock.
"If people are still buying with the intention of short-term renting, the demand hasn’t gone away,” planning commission member Mila Lonetto said. “It’s unfortunate that’s happening, but I don’t think it would not happen without some kind of restriction.”
This is not the first time public policy has impacted the real estate market in Stowe. When Vermont increased the property transfer tax, buyers got ahead of the transition and saved tens of thousands of dollars buying houses in Stowe, according to Macdonald.
-Reprinted courtesy of the Stowe Reporter.
