New investor in California/Nevada

[Gregory Kawa]

Hi,

To quickly introduced myself, I'm from Belgium where I already own a few appartment buildings.

Next month, my cousin is going to move to San Diego in order to start a new life. In order to help him, we have raised (along with some friends) between $175k and $200k to invest in real estate. The idea would be to buy a house for short rental (AirBnb or longer period). 

Our first idea was to invest in Las Vegas, NV. However, because of the current legislation and the distance from San Diego, we have second thoughts. Therefore we started to look in Palm Springs, Ca.

My first question would be: do you have any recommendation regarding those two cities? Or any other area close by?

Secondly, we will be at least seven investors bringing each $25k. Therefore we were thinking about creating a real estate company through which we would buy the property. However, I have no knowledge of the rules in America and what is recommended. Can someone help me out in this regards?

Lastly, we would like to raise additional money? I think if we bring $175k, we should be able to obtain a ~$400k loan. Is there any bank or other corporation that we need to go through to obtain a loan?

Thank you very much for all your help.