In Sunriver, two rental homes priced identically at closing can carry annual guest-amenity fees that differ by more than $4,800 a year, and the reason has nothing to do with the sale price. SROA's Recreation Plus Program, the fee that lets a rental guest use SHARC's pools, courts, and boat launch, is priced entirely off the bedroom count sitting in the Deschutes County Assessor's file for that address. For 2026, that fee starts at $1,380 for a one-bedroom home and climbs to $6,210 for an eight-bedroom home. Most buyers assume a bigger price tag means bigger recurring costs. In Sunriver, the more precise driver is a number filed with the county, one you can and should check before you write an offer.
That's the piece of this market that doesn't show up in a Zillow-style price comparison, and it's the reason a straightforward second-home purchase in Sunriver can turn into a set of recurring costs nobody budgeted for. The base numbers, the county tax, the amenity fees, and a regulatory process that's been "in progress" since early 2024 all stack on top of the sale price in ways that are easy to underestimate if you're pricing a home the way you'd price a home anywhere else.
What SROA Actually Charges, and Why It's the Boring Part
Every Sunriver owner pays into the Sunriver Owners Association, the not-for-profit that runs roads, pathways, common areas, and recreation programs across the community. The board sets the monthly maintenance fee each November, and it can raise that fee up to 6% a year without a vote of the ownership. Thirty dollars of every month's payment goes straight into a reserve fund earmarked for capital repairs and replacements on assets worth more than $3,000 with a three-to-thirty-year lifespan. Pay the year in full by the November deadline and SROA knocks 3% off the total.
None of that is a surprise once you know it exists. It's disclosed, predictable, and the same for every owner regardless of how you use the property. The part that catches buyers off guard sits one level down, in a program that only applies if you plan to rent.
The Number That Sets Your Fee Isn't Yours to Pick
Owners who rent, whether self-managed or through a property manager, can opt into SROA's Recreation Plus Program, which gives paying guests access to SHARC's indoor and outdoor aquatics, disc golf, tennis and pickleball courts, and the boat launch. It does not cover the Member Pool, the Fitness Center, or the Hosmer Living Room, those stay reserved for owners who separately buy into the Member Preference Program at $90 per card.
Here's what anchors the 2026 Recreation Plus fee schedule:
| Bedrooms | 2026 Annual Fee |
|---|---|
| 1 | $1,380 |
| 8 | $6,210 |
The fee climbs steadily for every bedroom in between those two figures. The card count you're issued is based on the occupancy limit on file with the Deschutes County Assessor, following the county's standard of two people per bedroom plus two additional guests. That's the detail worth sitting with. It's not the number of bedrooms your rental listing advertises, and it's not what you and the seller agree the home "really" sleeps. It's whatever bedroom count is already logged with the county, a number set years ago, possibly by a previous owner's renovation, an assessor's visit you weren't part of, or a bonus room that got counted or didn't. Two homes that look the same on a walkthrough can sit in different fee tiers because of a filing decision neither current owner made.
If you're underwriting a Sunriver purchase around rental income, this is the first thing to pull, not the last. Ask for the assessor's bedroom count before you finalize your numbers, not after your first Recreation Plus invoice arrives.
The County's Cut, and a Carve-Out Almost No One Uses
Sunriver sits in unincorporated Deschutes County, which means short-term stays there fall under the county's 8% transient lodging tax rather than a city-level tax. Any rental of 30 consecutive days or less requires registering with the county and holding a Certificate of Authority, and the fee schedule for that certificate changed effective September 1, 2025. If a platform like Airbnb or VRBO collects and remits the tax on your behalf, you're still required to file reports showing the gross rent those platforms calculated.
There's a narrower rule buried in the county's own FAQ that most self-managed owners never use. A resort's recreation fee, the kind SHARC charges guests, is not automatically exempt from the lodging tax just because it funds an amenity assessment. It only qualifies as tax-exempt if it's billed to the guest as a separate, after-tax line item rather than folded into the nightly rate. Most owners who bundle the recreation fee into their listed rate are quietly paying county tax on a charge that didn't need to be taxed at all. It's a small percentage on paper, but across a full rental season it adds up, and it's the kind of line-item detail a property manager who works Sunriver regularly should already know to structure correctly.
The Rules Have Been "About to Change" for Two Years
Here's where the cost picture gets less settled. In January 2024, Deschutes County commissioners informally opened a process to evaluate short-term rental regulation across the unincorporated county, including resort communities. By February 2024, one commissioner was publicly questioning whether the effort would survive its own commission meeting. As of a June 2025 review, the county was still weighing whether to require a formal business license program, and staff acknowledged a real gap in the current system:
"The certificate of authority does not serve as an approval certifying that the dwelling is lawfully established."
That's a distinction worth sitting with before you close. Registering for a Certificate of Authority gets you a tax account with the county. It does not certify that your specific property is legally permitted to operate as a short-term rental. Those are two different questions, and the county's own memo says so.
Sunriver isn't a bystander in this debate. SROA's general manager, James Lewis, has estimated that 35 to 40% of Sunriver's roughly 4,200 properties already operate as short-term rentals, a pattern that stretches back decades in a community that's been around for about 55 years. If the county eventually adopts a formal licensing structure, a community running at that density is exactly where it would land hardest. The cost stack described above reflects the most recently confirmed rules on file, not necessarily what will be in place a few years from now.
Before You Write the Offer
A few questions worth asking before you're under contract, not after:
- What bedroom count does the Deschutes County Assessor have on file for this specific property, and does it match what's advertised?
- Does the current owner's rental agreement bill the SHARC recreation fee as a separate after-tax line item, or is it folded into the nightly rate?
- Does the monthly SROA invoice still carry a legacy SHARC assessment or TDS fiber charge on top of the base maintenance fee?
- Is there an active, property-specific Certificate of Authority on file, and has the county ever flagged the address for a code issue?
- If a management company already collects and remits tax through a platform like Airbnb, has that company been filing the required county reports on your behalf?
None of these show up on a standard resale disclosure form. They live in SROA's billing system, the county assessor's card, and the property manager's own paperwork, and getting answers before closing is the difference between a rental projection that holds up and one that quietly erodes over your first year of ownership.
A Few Straight Answers
Does the SROA maintenance fee cover golf or the Lodge? No. SROA manages roads, pathways, SHARC, and common recreation. The Lodge complex, Great Hall, golf courses, spa, marina, and stables are owned and operated separately by the resort.
If my property manager already collects tax through Airbnb, do I still need to register with the county? Yes. The county still requires the property owner to hold a Certificate of Authority and file reports, even when a platform is remitting the tax directly.
Will the county's short-term rental rules definitely change? Not settled. Public reporting through mid-2025 showed the county still weighing a broader licensing program, and the most recent confirmed action is the Certificate of Authority fee schedule that took effect September 1, 2025. No broader licensing requirement had been adopted through that point.
Buying in Sunriver is still a straightforward transaction. It just has more moving parts than the sale price suggests, and most of them live in paperwork a buyer never sees until the first invoice or the first tax filing. If you're weighing a Sunriver purchase against its actual carrying costs, not just its list price, the team at Bend Homes and Land can walk the assessor's records, the SROA fee schedule, and the county's current rules with you before you write an offer, not after you're wondering why your first year didn't pencil out the way you expected.
