Do You Rent Out Your Home in Crow Wing County?

Brainerd Lakes Real Estate Podcast with Chad Schwendeman

If you rent your home out through Airbnb or VRBO, you need to know
what is being proposed in Crow Wing County.

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Do you or someone you know currently rent your home out as an Airbnb or VRBO in Crow Wing County? If your answer is yes, you want to pay particular attention to this topic.

What is being proposed is going to double and in some cases triple people's real estate taxes in Crow Wing County. The county commissioners are proposing that if you currently use your home or cabin as a VRBO or Airbnb, you’ll have to file a permit with the county. This permit will cost anywhere between $400 and $600. They’ll call it a licensing fee.

Once you pay that licensing fee, your taxes are going from residential or seasonal to commercial taxes. In some cases, this means taxes will triple. I think this is going to have an appalling impact on real estate in the Brainerd Lakes area. Our largest cash commodity here is tourism; we don’t have manufacturing or a lot of commercial companies. They estimate between 600 and 2,000 properties are currently using VRBO in Crow Wing County. What happens to those that are no longer allowed to rent out their property? They might leave the area.

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In some cases, this means
taxes will triple.

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During our busy summer months, those potential tourists coming in will not stay in the Brainerd Lakes area. This will not only impact real estate, but grocery stores, restaurants, movie theaters, and so on. This could take 4,000 people per week out of our economy, and it will impact many businesses. I encourage you to reach out to your Crow Wing County commissioners. Whether you’re in favor of this or not, please let them know.

If this proposal passes, it’s going to have some long-lasting impacts on our marketplace. Businesses may close due to this. All these additional people coming in will have no place to stay in July and August, our busiest tourism time. This is something to take seriously.

Voice your opinion, and please call me with any questions. I look forward to hearing from you.