Big Bear City/Lake STR Thoughts?

[Rafael Ro]

Hello all,

I am very strongly considering a buying a house in Big Bear to use as a STR for part of the year and for some personal use too.

I've been hearing that the market is getting (or already is) saturated, the prices are high, and there are even stricter rules about STRs, but I would love to get some info from people that are invested or working in the area.

I went up there last winter and had a hard time finding a place to stay, so I wonder if there may still be room. Of course I understand that winter is high season - but still, it looked like almost everything had been rented. 

As a sidenote - I live about 2.5hrs from Big Bear and seeing as this would be my first rental I would want it to be within driving distance. That's why I'm looking for something around SoCal, even though I understand that it's not a great market for several reasons.