Investing in Joshua tree

[Fabian Martinez]

Love love tiny home movement Quick inquiries do you need to purchase a lot/land to place a tiny home or camper in Joshua tree purpose utilizing as a short rental? Do you need a permit for such minimal square footage, solar panels, water barrel, septic tanks? What is pros and cons and restrictions in San Bernardino county?

[Kristi Kautz]

Hi @Fabian Martinez! To answer your questions...

Q: Do you need to purchase a lot/land to place a tiny home or camper in Joshua tree purpose utilizing as a short rental?

A: Yes, but SB county just started requiring vacation rental owners to get STR permits, and I don't believe they're granting permits to campers/trailers. You might be able to get away with it for a while, as they don't really have enough resources to enforce the permits yet, but I wouldn't count on this as a long-term strategy. Too risky, IMO.

Q: Do you need a permit for such minimal square footage, solar panels, water barrel, septic tanks?

A: Yes, you need a permit for everything now. If you want to get a STR permit, you will need to get permits through SB county for everything you build, to prove that your structure is livable and up to code. Otherwise, you will not be granted a STR permit.

Q: What is pros and cons and restrictions in San Bernardino county?

A: In terms of STRs, things used to be a lot more relaxed here and you could get away with more - yurts, campers/trailers, tents, weddings and events, etc. but now they are enforcing everything a lot more than they used to, and that will only continue to happen more in the future. The SB county permitting process is also very difficult and very slow, in my experience, both for STRs and for building permits. If you want to build a house from scratch here, you can expect the permitting process to take 7-9 months, from what I'm told...unless you're in the limits of the Town of Yucca Valley, which I hear is quicker. 

The only pro to launching a STR in SB county that comes to mind is that currently, I think we're reasonably safe from STRs being banned completely here, due to the fact that there aren't really enough hotels here to accommodate the 3 million annual visitors that come to the JT National Park. But since covid, EVERYONE is trying to launch an Airbnb in the JT area, so I expect to have A LOT more STR competition pop up over the next couple of years. So plan for that. And we're not totally safe from restrictions, so it's still a risk, IMO.

Hope that helps!