The Airbnb Income In That Leelanau County Listing Doesn't Come With the House

A buyer looking at a cottage on Suttons Bay this summer did the math the way most second-home shoppers do. The listing showed strong occupancy. The seller mentioned a full summer of bookings. The buyer ran the numbers, assumed the rental history would carry forward, and wrote an offer that leaned on that income to make the mortgage work.

Then someone checked the Village of Suttons Bay's short-term rental page. The village caps permits at 45. It currently has 53 issued. No new permits are being written until attrition brings that number back down, and the page states plainly that if the home is sold, the permit is no longer valid. The seller's rental history was real. It just wasn't a property right. It was a permission that belonged to the seller, not the address, and it expired at closing.

That single fact changes how a rental-income buyer should read every listing in Leelanau County, because the county has no single rulebook. It has roughly a dozen townships and villages, each writing its own answer to what a short-term rental is, how many are allowed, and whether the right to run one survives a sale.

Michigan Left This to the Townships

Short-term rental regulation in Michigan happens entirely at the local level. A 2021 bill, House Bill 4722, would have stopped townships from banning short-term rentals outright through zoning, and it passed the House 55-48 before dying without a Senate vote. A follow-up package built around House Bill 5438 tried again in 2024 with a more detailed licensing and enforcement framework. As of early 2026, that package is still sitting in committee. No statewide law has taken its place, so the patchwork that exists today in Leelanau County is not a temporary gap waiting to be closed. It is the operating environment, and it has been for years.

That matters because it means the township or village a parcel sits in isn't a footnote on the listing sheet. It's the entire regulatory answer.

Different Answers Across Leelanau County

Here's what that patchwork actually looks like across a sample of Leelanau County jurisdictions:

The caps aren't uniform, and the available permit details vary by jurisdiction.

Definitions Vary Across Leelanau County

Short-term rental definitions vary across Leelanau County, so buyers should confirm the definition that applies to a specific parcel.

Elmwood Township's cap illustrates how these numbers get set in the first place. Elmwood's township supervisor, Jeff Shaw, put the tension plainly when he said the board had worked hard to reach a workable compromise and would find it disappointing to see that effort undone by outside preemption. That's the pattern across the county: each cap is the product of a specific local fight, not a formula that transfers cleanly to the next township over.

Then there are places where parcel-specific zoning review matters.

What This Means If You're Underwriting Rental Income

The mistake isn't buying in a regulated township. It's underwriting a purchase price based on rental history that may rely on a permit that does not transfer with the sale. Suttons Bay Village and Leelanau Township state that their permits do not transfer to a new owner.

There's a second layer buyers often miss, which is the tax side. According to BNB Calc's Michigan guide, Michigan applies a 6 percent state use tax to any stay under 30 days, statewide, regardless of township rules. Airbnb collects and remits that automatically. VRBO does not. It's a detail that has nothing to do with zoning and everything to do with whether the income projection in a spreadsheet holds up against an actual tax bill.

None of this means rental income is off the table in Leelanau County. It means the income has to be evaluated at the parcel level, not the county level, before it goes into an offer. The questions worth asking before you write are straightforward: which specific township or village governs this parcel, is that jurisdiction's cap currently full or open, does the permit transfer or does it require a new application, and what does that jurisdiction count as short-term in the first place. A Northport mailing address, for instance, can fall under either Village of Northport rules or Leelanau Township rules depending on the exact parcel, so buyers should confirm which jurisdiction applies.

A Few Questions We Hear Often

Does a short-term rental permit ever transfer when a home sells? The rule depends on the jurisdiction, so confirm whether a permit transfers before relying on rental income.

What happens if I buy in a township where the cap is already full? It depends on the jurisdiction. Confirm current permit availability and application rules with the local office before relying on rental income.

How do I confirm which township or village actually governs a parcel? Mailing addresses can be misleading, since a Northport address may fall under either the Village of Northport or the surrounding Leelanau Township depending on the parcel. Confirming the governing jurisdiction and its current zoning district is a step worth taking before assuming any rental plan is workable.

Does Michigan's rental tax work the same everywhere in the county? The state use tax applies statewide; collection practices vary by platform.

If you're weighing a Leelanau County property with rental income in the plan, the house is only half the underwriting. The other half is a phone call to the township or village office to confirm what's actually allowed on that specific parcel, today, not what the seller happened to be doing with it. Molly Buttleman works these parcel-level questions with clients across Leelanau County before an offer goes in, not after. Inquire now to talk through a specific property before you build a plan around numbers that might not survive closing.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.