Still profitable to become a live-in landlord in Las Vegas?

[Mandeep S.]

Hi all,

I’m new to the biggerpockets community.

I am a 28 year old licensed pharmacist in California (becoming licensed in another state is a non-issue, and I work 100% remotely) and have been saving up cash for a property. If I moved to Las Vegas, I would be getting paid approximately $800 more because I would be paying no state tax (California is expensive), so I could essentially live rent-free relatively speaking (I see a ton of rentals for around this price online – sharing with a roommate). I was thinking of, instead, maybe purchasing a property and living in one room or unit and renting out the other rooms/units. I figured paying $1,000 in rent in California would be similar to paying $1,800 in Las Vegas for a property (not including down payment, maintenance, potential HOA fees, property tax, etc. for simplicity's sake). We could adjust this down to say, that I could afford $1,400-1,500 ($600/$700 per month due to tax advantages of living in Las Vegas) in Las Vegas if you find that comparison offensive. I'm relatively new to the world of real estate – please correct me if you think that figure is outlandish. My objective would be to rent out my residence in Las Vegas short (via AirBNB) or long-term to help pay for the mortgage, so that I could live here paying little to nothing relative to California, and have some extra cash that I could use to retire early.

However, I understand there are many issues with rentals due to regulations in the city of Las Vegas (including most of the housing market for SFH being tied to HOAs which explicitly do not allow for short term rentals (those less than 30 days). Additionally, I hear there are additional licensing fees and that they are outright prohibited in Clark County. I hear North Las Vegas has fewer regulation, but the area has higher crime and is overall not conducive to this type of strategy.

After reading a lot of the doom and gloom, I was wondering if there are any investors or agents that think there are certain parts of Las Vegas, where an in-house landlord could still profit from renting out other rooms long-term (perhaps renting out a room or two to another working professional also in Las Vegas on a 1 year lease) or short term via AirBNB? I figure the worst-case scenario is I could become a homeowner in 30 years in Las Vegas vs renting in California and losing out on $800 per month.

If you are experienced with this type of arrangement, I’d love to connect with you.

My apologies in advance if my thought process/opinions are uninformed, as I am here to learn about an industry I currently know very little about 😊