Interested in purchasing a house in Big Bear or Lake Tahoe

[Jordan Cooper]

Hello everyone, 

This is my first post. I have yet to purchase my first property but have spent the year analyzing and learning as much as I can about real estate. I currently work/live in California but am originally from Ohio.  I am interested in purchasing a primary residence in California that I can house hack. I love snowboarding and the outdoors so naturally I looked at Lake Tahoe first as this would be the ideal location I would want to live and rent out. The problem I am running into is houses that I can afford do not allow short-term rental. There has been a lot of news about Airbnb inflating the price of homes in the area and pricing out locals. There are a few areas (Truckee) that have recently opened a waiting list for short-term rentals but until you are able to register you are most likely limited to 30-day or maybe 3-month rentals. I have a price range of 300-800k and about 150k in cash and I make roughly 150-210k a year. I want to jump into real estate so I can start my journey toward financial freedom which will allow me more time to pursue my hobbies!

I have also looked into Big Bear Lake. The properties located here are cheaper than in Tahoe and I was wondering if anyone knew if there were any rental restrictions in the area?

Has anyone recently invested in Big Bear Lake or Lake Tahoe in the last year? How is your rental doing? Given the prices on the market, which area would I have the most success if I were to invest in now? 

How difficult would it be to create positive cash flow in the Lake Tahoe area if I wasn't doing short-term rentals? 

Have I missed the boat on investing in these areas? Should I wait for the market to cool off more? This process has been pretty intimidating so far so any insight would really help. If I do make a purchase it would be within the next 3 months, I think the off-season months for either location are Sept - Nov. I would use this time to renovate and furnish the property without dealing with snow.

Thank you everyone and I wish you all GREAT SUCCESS 

Jordan