Sagareus Property Management Blog

Renting Out a Condo in Redmond: Start With the HOA

Written by Brittany French | Aug 28, 2026, 8:11:00 PM

Renting out a condo in Redmond starts with your condo association, not your listing. Before you market the unit, read the declaration and rules for rental caps, waiting lists, minimum lease terms, and approval steps, and get the association's current rental policy in writing. Then layer in the rules that apply to every Redmond rental: the city's tenant protections chapter, RMC 9.54, and Washington State's landlord-tenant law, RCW 59.18.

Renting out a condo in Redmond, Washington means satisfying three rulebooks at once: the association's governing documents, Redmond's RMC 9.54, and Washington State law under RCW 59.18. Collect the association's rental policy, current assessment statement, and master insurance policy details before you list, because each one can change your timeline, your lease, and your numbers.

Redmond's condo stock is real rental inventory, from mid-rise buildings near the Downtown Redmond and Marymoor Village light rail stations to garden-style communities in Overlake and established complexes around Education Hill. A condo can be an excellent rental. It is also a rental with an extra decision-maker attached, and that layer is where unprepared owners get stuck.

Can Your Association Limit Renting Out a Condo in Redmond?

Possibly, and you need the answer in writing before you spend a dollar on the unit. A house rental involves two parties. A condo rental involves three: you, your tenant, and the association, and the association's governing documents bind you whether or not you have read them.

Pull the current declaration (the CC&Rs), bylaws, and rules and regulations, including any recorded amendments, and check for:

  • A rental cap. Some declarations limit how many units may be rented at one time. If the building is at its cap, there is often a waiting list, and your timeline is now the list's timeline.
  • Minimum lease terms. Many declarations set a floor, and a term that rules out short stays also shapes which leases you can offer.
  • Approval or notification steps. Some associations require you to register the tenancy, submit the lease, or use a required addendum.
  • Move-in logistics. Elevator reservations, move-in windows, and association move-in charges all affect your tenant's first day, so ask how they work and who is billed.

Which state statute sits behind those documents depends on the building's age. Condominiums created on or after July 1, 2018 are governed by the Washington Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, RCW 64.90; most condos created between 1990 and mid-2018 remain under the older Washington Condominium Act, RCW 64.34. The practical takeaway is the same either way: the recorded documents control, so verify what yours actually say instead of relying on what a neighbor remembers.

What Should You Collect From the Association Before Listing?

Three documents, all before the listing goes live:

  • The current rental policy. The cap status, any waiting list position, required addenda, and the approval process, confirmed in writing by the association or its manager.
  • A current assessment statement. Your regular dues, any special assessments already levied, and any large repair the board is discussing. Dues continue whether the unit is rented or vacant, and a special assessment can rewrite your budget mid-lease.
  • The master insurance policy details. What the association's policy covers, where its responsibility ends, and the deductible, because that deductible can be allocated to an owner after a loss and your own policy needs to pick up where the master policy stops.

If this list looks familiar, it should. Washington State requires much of the same information in the resale certificate a buyer receives, under RCW 64.90.640 for newer communities and RCW 64.34.425 for older ones: assessments due, other fees, anticipated major repairs, reserve study status, financials, and the association's insurance. Associations already compile this information for sales. Ask for the same picture before you rent.

Which Redmond City Rules Apply to a Condo Rental?

All of them. Redmond's tenant protections chapter, RMC 9.54, in effect since July 2022, applies to a rented condo the same way it applies to a rented house:

  • Rent increases over 3 percent require 120 days' written notice under RMC 9.54.030, a full month more than the 90-day statewide minimum in RCW 59.18.140.
  • Your move-in fees plus the security deposit cannot exceed one month's rent, combined, under RMC 9.54.040, and tenants have the right to pay in installments. Note this cap governs what you charge your tenant; it is separate from anything the association bills you as the owner.
  • Late fees are capped at 1.5 percent of one month's rent under RMC 9.54.050, which is lower than the figures in many older lease templates.

The state layer sits underneath. RCW 59.18.700 caps rent increases for covered tenancies, and the Washington State Department of Commerce publishes the figure each year: 9.683 percent for 2026 and 10 percent for 2027. So plan any meaningful increase around both the state ceiling and Redmond's 120-day clock. RCW 59.18.650, the statewide just cause law, governs how and when a tenancy can end.

One piece of good news for condo owners: Redmond requires no rental registration, and under RMC 5.04.130 a long-term rental of four or fewer units at one location is exempt from the city business license, so a single condo rented long term does not need one. Separately, if you ever consider selling the building's units rather than renting, Redmond regulates condominium conversions under RMC 16.04, including tenant notice protections during the conversion period.

How Do Association Rules Interact With Your Lease?

Your tenant never signs the CC&Rs, yet they must live by them, and the association will enforce them against you, not your tenant. Fines for a parking violation or a balcony grill land on the owner's account.

The lease is how you close that gap:

  • Attach the current rules as a lease addendum and make compliance with the governing documents a lease obligation, so a rule violation is also a lease violation you can act on.
  • Pass through what you can lawfully pass through, clearly. Spell out how association fines caused by the tenant are handled, within what Washington State law allows for fees and charges.
  • Keep the legal floor in view. An association rule never overrides tenant protections in RCW 59.18 or RMC 9.54. Where the rulebooks differ, the tenant keeps the stronger legal protection, and your lease has to respect that.

The takeaway: the lease has to serve two masters, the law and the association, and it is your job as the owner to make sure it does both.

Who Rents Condos in Redmond?

Demand for Redmond condos is anchored by two things: the Microsoft campus at Overlake and the light rail that now connects the city across the lake. The 2 Line's Downtown Redmond extension opened in May 2025, adding the Downtown Redmond and Marymoor Village stations, and since the cross-lake connection opened in March 2026 the line runs from Downtown Redmond through Seattle and north to Lynnwood.

That changes how a condo listing should be written:

  • Lead with walk-to-station distance if the unit is near the Downtown Redmond, Marymoor Village, Redmond Technology, or Overlake Village stations. A car-optional commute is now a headline amenity in Redmond, Washington.
  • Sell the building, not just the unit. Secured entry, parking, gym, and package rooms are amenities a house cannot match, so list them completely.
  • Name the neighborhood. Overlake, Downtown Redmond, Marymoor Village, and Education Hill each carry their own draw, from campus proximity to the trail and park access around Marymoor.

Keep the marketing about the property, the amenities, and the location. That is both good practice and what fair housing law expects: describe the home, never the people you imagine in it.

What Insurance Does a Redmond Condo Rental Need?

A standard owner-occupant condo policy, the HO-6, is written for someone living in the unit, and renting the unit out changes the risk. Talk to your insurance professional about converting to the landlord version of a walls-in policy, and ask about:

  • Walls-in property coverage for the interior finishes and fixtures the master policy does not cover, matched to where the master policy actually stops.
  • Landlord liability and loss-of-rents coverage, the two pieces an owner-occupant policy typically lacks.
  • Loss assessment coverage, which responds when the association allocates part of a large loss or its deductible to unit owners.

Then require renter's insurance in the lease, so your tenant's belongings and liability carry their own policy. Three policies, one building: the master policy, your landlord condo policy, and the tenant's renter's policy, each covering the layer the others do not.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can My Association Stop Me From Renting Out My Redmond Condo?

It depends entirely on your governing documents. Some declarations cap the number of rentals, impose waiting lists, set minimum lease terms, or require approval steps, and recorded amendments can change the answer over time. Get the current declaration, bylaws, rules, and the association's written confirmation of its rental policy before you list, and remember that condos created on or after July 1, 2018 are governed by RCW 64.90 while most older condos fall under RCW 64.34.

Do I Need a Business License to Rent Out a Condo in Redmond?

Not for a single condo rented long term. Under RMC 5.04.130, long-term rental housing of four or fewer units at one location is exempt from Redmond's business license requirement. A license is required at five or more units at one property and for any short-term rental. Redmond also has no rental registration or inspection program.

How Much Notice Do I Need to Raise Rent on a Redmond Condo?

Under RMC 9.54.030, a rent increase over 3 percent requires 120 days' written notice, more than the 90-day statewide minimum in RCW 59.18.140. Separately, RCW 59.18.700 caps increases for covered tenancies at the figure the Washington State Department of Commerce publishes each year: 9.683 percent for 2026 and 10 percent for 2027. The condo association has no role in rent notices; those rules come from the city and the state.

How Sagareus Handles Leasing and Marketing

A vacant home is won or lost on speed and presentation, so we treat both as disciplines, not hopes. Every day a unit sits empty is income the owner never gets back, and the listing that responds first and looks best is the one that fills. Here is how we run it:

  • Respond to every lead fast, within minutes. The first responder usually wins the showing, so inquiries get a real answer right away, not whenever someone gets to them. Every showing is scheduled and accompanied by our team.
  • Professional photos and a standards-based listing, no exceptions. Real photography, an accurate description, and complete amenities. We do not cut this corner, because a weak listing quietly costs weeks of vacancy.
  • Price to the market, then adjust on activity, not ego. We set the opening rent from current comparable rentals and your priorities, then watch inquiries and showings against pre-planned checkpoints and move when the data says to.

You set the goal, whether that leans toward top rent or fastest occupancy. We bring the market read, run the system, and report the numbers every week until the lease is signed.

Speed and presentation are not luck. They are how we shorten your vacancy.

Sagareus Property Management manages condos across the Eastside, association layer included, as part of full Redmond property management. If you own on the other side of the lake line, our guide to renting out a condo in Kirkland covers that city's rules, and renting out your home in Redmond walks the full setup process for any property type. Curious what management would cost for your condo? Our instant calculator gives you a real range in under a minute, no email required. Request your instant estimate.

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