Sell your Lincoln City home on the MLS

A Lincoln City short-term rental approval ends on a sale

Chapter 17.80 of the Lincoln City Municipal Code, as read on November 9, 2026, says the land use approval of a dwelling unit as a short-term rental is in the names of the property owners, and that the approval and the operating license required in Chapter 5.14 are not transferable. When any of the owners sell or transfer the property, the short-term rental land use approval ceases.

The chapter defines a sale or transfer as any change of ownership, with or without payment, during the lifetime of any owner or after a death. It lists narrow exceptions, including title held in survivorship with a spouse or domestic partner, and a transfer into an entity such as a trust or limited liability company while the transferor lives and remains its only owner. Check the chapter to see whether an exception fits your sale.

The same chapter caps short-term rentals in the R1-5 zone at 194. In the R1RE zone it says a sale or transfer ends a nonconforming unlimited short-term rental approval when the sale occurs at least seven years after November 22, 2017, which the code states is November 22, 2024.

Home Energy Score notice

The Oregon Real Estate Agency notice dated March 2026 names Bend, Hillsboro, Milwaukie, and Portland as cities that require a seller to obtain and disclose a Home Energy Score before publicly listing a qualifying home. The notice says the score runs from 1 to 10, no city on that list requires a minimum score in order to sell, and the requirement applies to detached single-family homes and to attached units that run from the foundation to the roof. It says an assessment typically costs $150 to $300, and that those four cities offer a free assessment for households at or below 80 percent of area median income. Exemptions are on each city program page. A city not named in the notice may still have its own rule.

Lincoln City is not one of the four cities named in that March 2026 notice. That does not mean Lincoln City has no Home Energy Score ordinance. Check with the city before you assume there is no local requirement.