Ramsey County Listings Hit 1,229 While Saint Paul's 3% Rent Cap Stands

Saint Paul's 3% Rent Cap: Find Out if Your Building Is Covered

Saint Paul limits rent increases on residential rental property to 3% in any 12-month period, unless its ordinance allows more. One exemption covers newly built rental properties whose first building certificate of occupancy was issued after December 31, 2004.

If the cap covers your building, raising rent past 3% runs through the city: self-certification for increases between 3% and 8%, evaluated annually, or a staff determination with justification above 8%. After a just cause vacancy you show the department, the ordinance allows up to 8% plus the Consumer Price Index.

You can't look up your building's certificate of occupancy date yourself. The city's Department of Safety and Inspections keeps those records, so if you think the new-construction exemption fits your building, ask the department for the record, and you can get back a letter with the date of occupancy.

On August 5, 2026, the Saint Paul City Council asked for proposals, due September 9, 2026, for a study of how its rent stabilization ordinance is carried out and enforced, including the recent changes that established an exemption. A study isn't an amendment. The rule in force today is the one the council last amended on May 7, 2025.

First decision: hold or sell. The question is whether the rent the rules allow still covers what the building costs you to keep.

582 Ramsey County Listings Cut Their Price in September. Price Before You List

Ramsey County had 1,229 active home listings in September 2026, up from 938 in September 2025, and that's the most for any month since October 2016 in Realtor.com figures published by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Only August through October 2016, the series' first year, ran higher.

Price cuts rose too. 582 listings had their price reduced during September 2026, against 424 a year earlier, though the Septembers of 2016 through 2018 each had more. Pending listings fell to 402 from 552 a year earlier. That's the lowest September count in a series that starts in 2016.

These are county-wide counts, and the active one covers single-family and condo or townhome listings, so they don't say who's selling or whether a home like yours is among them.

Our view: a price cut is the market answering an asking price buyers passed over, and a listing that draws no interest is priced high next to the homes buyers chose instead. We also think buyers walk when the price doesn't match the condition they see in person, so price a rental for the shape it's in today. And the best value among comparable homes, in our view, draws buyers first.

Second decision: your list price. Set it against the Ramsey County homes buyers are choosing now, before your first showing.

Selling With a Tenant in the Unit: Listing, Fast Cash Offer or Premium Cash Offer

Minnesota law sets the terms. To enter a tenant's unit so a prospective buyer can see it, a landlord, or someone acting on the landlord's behalf, has to make a good-faith effort to give the tenant at least 24 hours' notice, naming a time or a window. Entry is allowed only between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. unless you and the tenant agree to another time.

A tenant can allow shorter notice. You can't make giving up notice a condition of the lease. Break the rule and the tenant can claim up to a $500 civil penalty for each violation, plus reasonable attorney fees. The rule doesn't cover manufactured home parks.

Third decision: the route. Cash Flow Deals gives you two offers together: the Fast Cash Offer, where we buy your house as-is and close, and the Premium Cash Offer, where a pre-approved FHA or conventional buyer we already have, ready to go, pays more and buys directly from you. You choose. With a tenant in the unit, a closing date you help pick lets you plan your notices around the agreed calendar.

With the Fast Cash Offer, our team makes one walk-through, then puts our as-is number in writing. You have no repairs to make. If a tenant lives there, give the tenant the same 24-hour notice for our visit as a prospective buyer.

With the Premium Cash Offer, you sign with us at an agreed number and give us permission to bring in a buyer in our place. Visits are scheduled with you ahead of time and take 10 to 15 minutes, each with Minnesota's 24-hour notice if a tenant lives there. The pre-approved buyer signs a new contract directly with you. Title moves once, from you to the buyer, and the buyer's lender funds the purchase. Our pay appears as a separate line item on the closing statement.

We cover repair costs, and we figure out a way, so nothing comes out of your pocket. On the Premium Cash Offer, only what the buyer's lender requires gets fixed; we arrange for those repair costs to be covered and settled from the sale proceeds, from our share rather than your agreed number. With the Fast Cash Offer, we buy as-is.

For both offers, the number is agreed before any work starts, and it changes only if you agree. The one exception: if something structural surfaces that was not visible or disclosed before we signed — foundation issues, hidden moisture, old wiring, cast-iron drain failure — we re-cost it and bring the number back to you. You decide. You can walk away. We disclose what we know at offer time so this almost never happens. That can include foundation issues, hidden moisture, old wiring or cast-iron drain failure. We disclose what we know at offer time.

If the Premium buyer's loan falls through, that is our problem, not yours, and you can still take the Fast Cash Offer at its own number. You choose between the Fast Cash Offer and the Premium Cash Offer again; the same structural exception applies to either agreed number.

The Fast Cash Offer has an inspection period of 15 business days. The existing closing term is 45 days or less, and you help pick the date. You get the amount you agree to, and we'll handle any costs on top of that, subject to the structural exception described above. No commission is paid to Cash Flow Deals on either offer; our Premium compensation is the separate closing-statement line item described above.

Nothing is binding until both sides sign a written contract, and you can take it to an attorney first.

Compare what you would receive and when under each route. Get the Fast Cash Offer and the Premium Cash Offer in writing, then compare both with any other offer before you decide.