Big Bear Vs Lake Arrowhead Vacation Rental

[Abraham Hodroj]

Hello

Sorry for long post i just wanted to get all the details in. 

My soccer friend mentioned that he had a property in lake arrowhead that he was selling. He is an older gentleman and has had it for 20 years as family getaway but no longer goes there. I talked to him about airbnb but he doesn't have the time and energy and offered to sell it to me. It's a 2 bedroom 2 bath sfr 1050 sqft that i think i can get around $170k. i am well aware of what it needs to run a vacation rental but that got me started in researching. I talked to an agent in the area and she mentioned that a lot of people are doing the vacation rentals and its soon going to be flooded with rentals. I will take her word into consideration but i don't usually go by just one opinion.

She also mentioned that the window where tourist come to Lake arrowhead is memorial day to labor day for the lake which is just about 3 month , so i'm thinking considering vacancies you are lucky to get 150-160 nights rented. And she mentioned not many tourists in the winter at all!? and big bear is 45 min drive on a good day and people going to resorts won't rent that far.

I read on here that some owners of VR in lake arrowhead do over 200 so i would be interested to hear their thoughts.

My main question is given my interest i started looking at big bear since there is big bear lake and there are the ski resorts. Would that area be good for tourists all year around or most of the year given the two attractions? the price difference is something i have to take into consideration as its about 100k more for similar properties around big bear. I would love to hear thoughts from people who have knowledge or experience of these two areas . Thanks a lot! 

[David Faulkner]

Big Bear will have more tourists and higher demand while Lake Arrowhead may be a bit less expensive. For the Lake Arrowhead property, is it fairly turnkey ready or in rough shape and needs a lot of work? If it is fairly turnkey ready, then one less expensive, lower risk option would be to propose your friend a master lease to you, perhaps along with a purchase option. You need to be very honest and up front on everything with your friend so she knows exactly what you plan to do. So, you agree to pay her a certain set rent, then you airbnb the property, handling all the bookings, repairs, logistics, utilities, etc. ... the airbnb income would need to be net larger than your fixed rent and you pocket the difference. If at the end of the master lease term (or before), the numbers work out as you like and you are ok with the management of it then you could exercise the purchase option. In the meantime, your friend gets rental income with no effort. Win-Win.