New investors needs help

[Delbert Standifer]

I'm new from California and have 30k I would like to invest in out of state.

[Christina Hall]

@Todd Rasmussen thanks for the cc!  
@Delbert Standifer we've completely abandoned the idea of a mountain cabin, at least for now. Todd is absolutely right, we've done a ton of research in BB and Arrowhead. Had a few offers on cabins, even the last one was a Foreclosure in lower Moonridge. The bank had 6 offers they chose ours and our agent didn't respond in time, so we lost it. In retrospect I think for the better. We were just in Arrowhead a few weeks ago staying at the Resort, huge snow storm, power was out to that part of the mountain ... snow plowing is at least $300 per job. And if you have an STR you have to make sure that the cabin is accessible to guests. Between that, bona fide STR insurance, costs of maintenance/deferred cost of maintenance, utilities, etc. It's true most people don't make a profit. The 2-3 beds we were looking at in Moonridge would max at 35k a year. You can prob get close to break even if you self manage it on AirBnB and run it like a business. The appreciation factor would be the only kicker for us. However, I don't think that market or any market for that matter will be appreciating tremendously in the next 5 years. We may look at it again in the next recession. Vacation homes in a recession have huge dips and you can almost always guarantee finding a bargain. That is the only way I think it would make sense - assuming you want to be profitable on it of course. We live in Temecula so our next purchase is actually going to be another Single Family here as a primary, and turn our primary into an Investment. All the best!