If you've been watching Pullman Halls listings and you saw the news that the city eased its short-term rental rules in June, you may be doing quick math on turning a duplex into an Airbnb. Before you run those numbers, check the bedroom count on the property you're actually considering. The exemption the council approved was built for a narrower case than most Pullman Halls houses represent, and understanding why matters more for your offer than the headline does.
What the Council Actually Voted On
The Pullman City Council voted unanimously in favor of the short-term rental exemption at its meeting on Tuesday, June 16, and the exemption allows owner-occupied short-term rentals with two or fewer bedrooms to be exempt from the city's STR regulations, aligning Pullman's rules with the exemption already permitted under Washington state law. That single sentence covers a fight that took over a year to resolve.
Short-term rentals are explicitly allowed in Pullman under Chapter 17.109 of the Pullman City Code, and the City Council approved updated regulations in May 2025 that took effect June 1, 2025, covering licensing, safety standards, occupancy limits, inspections, and enforcement. That package passed on a split vote, and Pullman City Council approved the code update and STR rules with a split vote, then councilmembers learned that two planning commissioners felt pressured into recommending approval and heard concerns from many STR operators that the new regulations were too onerous. The change followed months of work by the Planning Commission after the council sent the issue back for reconsideration last fall in response to concerns from STR operators that the original regulations were too restrictive. Community Development Director RJ Lott had opposed the exemption, arguing it could make small owner-occupied rentals unsafe and harder to enforce.
That's the context worth knowing if you're negotiating around rental income: this rule was contested, debated in public, and narrowed on purpose. It wasn't written to open the door for investors.
The Two-Bedroom Ceiling
Here's the part that changes your math. The exemption only covers a rental that is owner-occupied and caps out at two bedrooms. Everything above that, including the standard investment property that defines Pullman Halls, still falls under the full STR code: an application with required safety documentation, a $200 application fee, coordination of inspection scheduling, and city approval before launch.
Pullman Halls inventory rarely fits inside two bedrooms. Public tax records show properties in this neighborhood platted under the Pullman Halls subdivision running well past that threshold, including a five-plus-unit building on NW Hall Dr with 12 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms across 5,040 square feet, built in 1965. Active listings in the neighborhood have ranged from four-bedroom single-family homes to properties with seven, twelve, and twenty-four bedrooms. That's the housing stock the exemption was never designed to touch.
| Path | Bedrooms | Owner-occupied required | Fee | Inspection required |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New exemption | 2 or fewer | Yes | None | No |
| Standard STR license (PCC 17.109) | 3 or more, up to duplex scale | No | $200 | Yes |
If your Pullman Halls purchase looks anything like the neighborhood's typical inventory, the exemption is a footnote, not a strategy.
Where Most Pullman Halls Rentals Actually Live
The STR code was never the operative rulebook for the majority of Pullman Halls transactions in the first place. Most of what moves in this neighborhood is long-term student housing, and that falls under ordinary Washington landlord-tenant law rather than anything related to Airbnb or Vrbo.
One protection worth knowing before you write a purchase offer: a code city may not regulate or limit the number of unrelated persons that may occupy a household or dwelling unit, with limited exceptions for short-term rentals and building-code occupant loads. That state law is why a Pullman Halls house with five bedrooms can legally house five unrelated tenants under a standard lease, and it's part of what keeps this neighborhood's rental economics workable for both buyers who want steady student tenants and buyers who plan to occupy the home themselves.
The STR exemption and the standard STR license both live in a separate lane from that long-term rental model. If your plan for a Pullman Halls property is a nine-month lease to WSU students rather than nightly bookings, the June ordinance change has effectively no bearing on your purchase.
The Gap Nobody's Advertising
Here's the fact that should shape your due diligence more than the STR headline does. Pullman does not run a proactive rental registration or inspection program. If you believe there is an unsafe condition in a house or apartment, you contact the building owner, their agent, the city building inspector, or the city fire inspector, and code compliance questions go to 509-338-3220 while fire code questions go to 509-338-3270. That's a complaint-driven system, not a scheduled one.
Compare that to cities like Seattle, where every rental property gets registered and cycled through inspection on a set schedule. Pullman has no equivalent. That means if you're buying an existing rental in Pullman Halls, there is no city inspection history to pull, no certificate of compliance sitting in a file, and no guarantee that anyone has looked at the wiring, the furnace venting, or the egress windows since the last time a tenant filed a complaint, if ever.
For a buyer, that shifts the entire pre-purchase inspection conversation. You aren't confirming a city inspection was passed. You're the first line of defense, which means your own inspector needs to check exactly the items the city would flag if it ever showed up: outlet covers, furnace clearance, egress window compliance on any bedroom created after 1969, and separate exits for each unit if you're buying a duplex or triplex.
What the STR Numbers Actually Tell You
If you're an owner-occupant buyer weighing whether a small STR makes sense once you're inside the two-bedroom exemption, industry tracking suggests Pullman hosts earn a median of roughly $25,611 per year with a $203 average daily rate and 48 percent occupancy, with top performers clearing $35,635 or more. That's a real number, but it applies to the narrow case the exemption covers: a homeowner living on site and renting a room or two, not an investor running a whole multi-bedroom house as a booking calendar.
If your Pullman Halls purchase is the typical multi-bed investment property, that income model isn't available to you without applying for the full STR license, paying the fee, and passing inspection, the same requirements that existed before June.
Before You Write the Offer
A few questions worth asking before you're under contract on a Pullman Halls property:
- Does the seller have any inspection or maintenance records, since the city likely hasn't inspected the property proactively.
- Is the current use long-term student rental, short-term rental, or owner-occupied, and does that match what you're planning.
- If short-term rental income is part of the numbers you're underwriting, confirm whether the property currently holds a business license under PCC 17.109 or is relying on the new owner-occupied exemption, since those are not interchangeable.
- If you're buying a multi-bedroom house to rent long-term to students, confirm the lease structure matches state protections around unrelated occupants rather than a local cap that doesn't legally exist.
None of this is a reason to avoid Pullman Halls. It's a neighborhood built around exactly the kind of multi-bedroom rental stock that keeps demand steady near campus. But the paperwork trail looks different here than in cities with a formal rental inspection program, and the June ordinance change, useful as it is for a narrow group of owner-occupants, doesn't rewrite that trail for most buyers.
FAQ
Does the new exemption apply to duplexes in Pullman Halls? Only if the owner lives on site and the rental portion is two bedrooms or fewer. A duplex where the owner occupies one unit and short-term rents a room within their own unit could potentially qualify. A duplex where both units are rented out, occupied or not, does not.
I want to buy a Pullman Halls house and Airbnb the whole thing. Does this help me? No. That scenario requires the standard STR license under PCC 17.109, including the application fee, safety documentation, and city inspection, regardless of the June exemption.
Can I request a city inspection before I buy? Pullman's code enforcement is complaint-based rather than scheduled, so there isn't a standing inspection history to request the way there might be in a city with a formal rental registration program. An independent inspection during your due diligence period is the more reliable path.
Is short-term rental income even common in Pullman Halls? Less common than long-term student leasing, given the neighborhood's multi-bedroom inventory and the STR code's limits on unit size and zoning. Long-term leasing under standard Washington landlord-tenant law remains the more typical model here.
If you're evaluating a specific Pullman Halls property and want to talk through which regulatory path it actually falls under before you write an offer, Pullman Properties can walk you through it. Let's Connect.
