Seattle Floating Homes Airbnb Resource
Looking For A Seattle Floating Home For Rent On Airbnb?
Or, Are you thinking about renting your Seattle floating home on Airbnb or some other short terms rental platform? It isn’t legal.
We get a lot of calls asking if Seattle floating homes are for rent by the night and the short answer is no. The majority of the docks have rules against this activity anyway, but the lure of Airbnb income can cause some owners to go ahead and offer their homes up for rent anyway. The Seattle floating homes you find online for short term rental rates and periods are likely operating outside of the law. It is currently illegal to offer your Seattle floating home up for short term rent and beginning in January 2019 ALL types of Seattle houseboats for rent on Airbnb will be operating outside of the law.
The Law against renting your Seattle floating home on Airbnb:
This commercial use is prohibited in the Urban Residential shoreline environment by SMC 23.60A.540. Short-term residential rentals and meeting hall and office uses are defined as commercial under our land use code. See SMC 23.84A.024 (lodging), 23.84A.010 (entertainment uses) and 23.844.028 (office).
The Consequences of Your Seattle floating home for rent on Airbnb or other short term rental:
When a violation is recorded, reported, etc., the city will first send out a warning letter to explain the violation and to allow time for the home owner to comply. Compliance is usually achieved by removing any ads from AirBnB.com, VRBO.com, etc., and discontinuing any short-term rental activity immediately. If corrective action is not taken within a fairly generous time period, then the city will issue a Notice of Violation with fines accruing at $150.00 per day for the first 10 days and $500.00 per day thereafter until the violation is corrected.
My two cents:
Whether you agree with this or not, there are a lot of reasons why a Seattle floating home for rent on Airbnb should not be allowed. Privacy, safety, and liability come to mind immediately, but also respect your neighbors by not inviting in a parade of strangers to add wear and tear on our community owned dock and systems. We are stewards of a fragile ecosystem and are extremely fortunate to have the privilege to be caretakers of this natural beauty and community. To operate a short term rental violates trust – both with your neighbors most of the time and also with the city which is clear: They are illegal.
PLEASE HELP
See an ad or short term rental activity? Please protect our floating neighborhood and report it:
If your neighbor is renting their Seattle floating home on Airbnb or other type of short term rental, then you will want to know how to stop this illegal behavior: You can call The City Of Seattle’s Code Compliance complaint line at 206-615-0808 or use the Seattle Services Portal online. Complaints can be anonymous but keep in mind that you’ll want to be very accurate with locations and information when doing so as it leaves the city with no way to follow up and gather missing facts. Some people include slip numbers/marina names in the body of the complaint when it’s difficult to input them in the online tool.
Please feel free to email me if you have questions. I am trying to get the word out to protect my beloved community. – Courtney [email protected]
Seattle Houseboats: Catching Up With The Seattle Floating Homes Market Sept 2014
Summary: Great Choices Available unless you want The Sleepless In Seattle Houseboat.
All year long, the story has been low inventory, low inventory, low inventory. Now we have inventory. Typically August is pretty quiet for Seattle houseboats sales, so it was no surprise to see that August was slow again. The real surprise, though, was the whole new crop of Seattle floating homes listings that have come on the market. We have some really cool choices right now which span into every price range.
The 2014 Seattle floating home tour was a success this year and definitely increased interest in this great community. Add to the the Boats Afloat show this weekend and I would say life on Lake Union is about as exciting as it can be aside from The Fourth Of July! If you are entering the Seattle houseboats world or already a houseboat buyer candidate, then this is truly your time to buy. Seattle houseboats sellers are motivated because the inventory increase has added competition for the sale of their home. Buyers are able to pick up some great floating homes right now.
So here are the Seattle houseboats that have sold in the floating home world (both on market and off market that I know about):
1. Sleepless in Seattle: All the buzz is about Sleepless. The house where Tom Hanks resided in while Meg Ryan chased after him in the original stalker movie – before stalking was actually even a thing besides in National Geographic and horror flicks… The Sleepless in Seattle houseboat has an amazing main level and a very dated upper level which I am sure the new owner will remedy. It has one of the largest floats on the lake and also one of the largest moorage spaces on Lake Union if you have a boat you want to tie up to your house. It is definitely worth the over two million paid for it. We almost sold it a couple times in the last year or so for over two million so we weren’t surprised. I knew it had been sold a couple months ago and put it here in my blog, but was politely asked to not report it yet. The secret is out. It is sold. Over two million dollars and a great deal in my opinion for one of the Duck Tour’s favorite shout outs on Lake Union.
2. Two floating homes on the 2025 Fairview Ave E Log Foundation dock also closed in the last 30 days. Slip M was a 625 square foot 1 bedroom and 1 bath houseboat built in 1930. It was listed for $495,000 and after 428 days on market sold for 93.54% of its list price at $420,000. Also on that dock was slip H – South facing 900 square foot floating home built in 1917, but updated. We listed this one for $725,000 and it sold for full price 34 days later.
Seattle Houseboats Pending in Escrow – The Big news on the Lake and I mean big as in expensive and beautiful and amazing is that the Fairview Landing (2369 Fairview Ave E) Seattle luxury floating home listed for $2,950,000 is pending in escrow. This is a lovely modern concrete dock with beautiful Seattle luxury floating homes and although this particular floating home is on the North side, the neighbors are amazing and so is the house. It’s a big sale on the lake and happy for the new buyers to have gotten on to this phenomenal gated dock.
What’s for sale now in the Seattle floating home world?
Seattle houseboats for sale are in all price ranges right now – ranging from an unheard of low in Eastlake houseboats for $365,000 (1 bedroom on Tenas Chuck dock) to Roanoke Reef at $1,890,000. We love the Tenas Chuck floating home for someone wanting to get on to the lake.
We also love 2017 Fairview Ave , Slip O – 2 bedroom home on a great dock for $617,000! This one is so cute and appeals to many. Good choice on one of the most well run coops on the lake. As far as the nicer homes go, we really love the house in Westlake listed for $1,299,000 at 2466 Westlake Ave N, Slip 7. You can have a FORTY FOOT BOAT tied up to your house there and it has been absolutely loved by its current owners.
Summary Of Seattle Houseboats
Seattle Houseboats Market Update Details
Please call or email me if you want to see anything listed on the lake – or unlisted 🙂 We can show you any home listed by any broker and look forward to showing you some of our favorite spots on the lake. Courtney Cooper 206.850.8841