In Fraser, a Short-Term Rental Permit Doesn't Change Hands at Closing

A short-term rental permit in the Town of Fraser belongs to a person, not a parcel. When a licensed rental sells, the license does not go with it. The new owner starts the process from the beginning: a fresh application, a fresh fire inspection, and whatever fee schedule is current on the day they file, before that same house can legally take its next Airbnb or Vrbo booking.

Listings for income-producing cabins and condos around Fraser often lead with last year's booking numbers. A buyer sees twelve months of rental history and assumes the permit is part of the package, the same way the water heater and the deck are. It isn't. Fraser's own short-term rental page states that the permit is issued to the specific owner of the property and cannot be transferred or assigned to another individual, entity, or address.

The permit follows the owner, not the deed

This rule predates the town's most recent update. Ordinance No. 488, passed in 2022, set the framework that a Short-Term Rental Operating License is tied to a specific owner operating as a self-managed property, while a property management company holds its own separate business license covering every unit it manages. That distinction matters at closing. If a management company keeps running the property after the sale, the company's license doesn't cover the new owner's obligation. The new owner still has to register the unit under their own name before it can be advertised again.

Fraser's current framework, adopted through Ordinance No. 525 in August 2025, kept that owner-specific structure in place while updating registration, safety, parking, tax compliance, and local-contact requirements. None of the updates changed the core rule. A buyer closing on a rental with an active license is closing on a house that currently qualifies for a license, not a house that already has one in their name.

What changed on October 1, 2025

The cost of getting that new license changed last fall. Fraser's permit fee is structured per bedroom, with a studio counted as one bedroom and any additional sleeping area with a bed, aside from a pull-out or slide-out sofa, counted as an extra bedroom. As of October 1, 2025, that per-bedroom rate and the surrounding fee stack look like this:

Run the math on a three-bedroom condo and the annual licensing cost alone comes to $150 plus $1,050 in per-bedroom fees plus $40 for the license, or $1,240 before a single fire inspection fee and before a dollar of tax on actual bookings. That per-bedroom fee funds affordable housing initiatives through the Fraser Housing Authority, which is worth knowing if a client asks where the money goes. Part of that 11.2% combined rate includes the town's lodging tax, which rose to 2% effective January 1, 2025, according to Fraser's own short-term rental information page.

The inspection has teeth now

A property doesn't get to skip the fire district just because it's changed hands smoothly in every other respect. The Fraser Board of Trustees passed Ordinance No. 516 in December 2024, requiring a Certificate of Inspection from East Grand Fire Protection District #4 as part of every STR registration and renewal. After February 28, 2025, the town stopped approving applications without it. The inspection isn't a formality stapled onto the paperwork. Its stated purpose is to

"identify and remedy any fire or life safety issues posed to the guests of the property."

For a buyer, that means the seller's most recent inspection certificate doesn't transfer any more than the license does. A new owner needs their own current certificate on file before the town will approve the registration, which is one more step to build into a closing timeline rather than discover after the fact.

One roof, one license, even with an ADU

Anyone weighing whether to build or add an accessory dwelling unit on a Fraser lot for rental income should know this rule before the foundation goes in. Under the August 2025 Board of Trustees action that shaped Ordinance No. 525, Fraser allows either the principal dwelling unit or the accessory dwelling unit to be licensed as a short-term rental, but not both at the same time. A property with a main house and a separate ADU can't run two active STR licenses on the same lot. Whoever owns it has to decide which structure carries the rental income and which one doesn't, and that decision shapes the return on adding an ADU in the first place.

Same block, different rulebook next door

Confirming a property sits inside Fraser town limits, rather than unincorporated Grand County, is not a formality either. Fraser directs owners to a map to make that determination, because the rules genuinely differ once you cross the line. Grand County runs its own short-term rental permit program for properties outside town boundaries, with its own fee structure and its own occupancy limits, entirely separate from what Fraser requires inside town limits.

An HOA or covenant can add a third layer on top of both. A property can meet every Fraser town requirement and still sit inside a homeowners association whose governing documents restrict or prohibit short-term rental use altogether. Town approval and HOA approval are two different questions, and a buyer needs an answer to both before assuming a property will cash flow the way the listing sheet suggests.

Questions worth asking before you write the offer:

• Is the current STR license active, and can the listing agent confirm the renewal date and bedroom count on file with the Town?
• Is the parcel inside Fraser town limits or unincorporated Grand County?
• If there's an ADU on the lot, which unit currently holds the license, the main house or the ADU? Only one can be licensed at a time.
• Has the property passed its East Grand Fire Protection District #4 inspection within the current cycle, and is that certificate available to review?
• Do the HOA covenants, if any apply, allow short-term rental use independent of what the Town permits?
• What does the current fee total actually come to for this specific bedroom count, at $350 per bedroom plus the $150 application fee and the $40 license?

A couple of things buyers ask directly

Can I keep operating under the seller's license until mine gets approved? No. Fraser's permit is owner-specific, so running bookings under a previous owner's license after closing isn't a use the ordinance recognizes. Build a gap into your plans for however long the new registration and fire inspection take, rather than assuming next-day continuity.

Does a converted den or loft count as a bedroom for the $350 fee? Yes, per the Town's own definition. Any additional sleeping area with a bed counts as a bedroom for permit fee purposes, whether or not it was originally built and permitted as one. Pull-out and slide-out sofas are the one exception.

If you're shopping for a Fraser property with rental income in mind, the booking history on the listing sheet is the start of the conversation, not the end of it. Stacy Strayer works with buyers across Fraser and the rest of Grand County every week and can walk through what a specific address's bedroom count, zoning, and HOA documents actually mean for a license before you write an offer.