STR Build - Joshua Tree / Yucca Valley

[Sean Supple]

Sup yall. New to BP and real estate investing in general. I've been reading some personal finance and real estate books the last couple months and generally just thinking about how I want to enter into the game. Currently have no investment properties but bought my home about 6mo ago.

Thinking about my long term goals, I think it would be awesome to be able to bounce back and forth between different houses throughout the year. Get to pick where I want to live and when. Which is why STR properties are drawing my interest.

I'll jump straight to my idea I've had brewing for a few weeks. I want to buy a ~1acre parcel in Yucca Valley or Joshua Tree for about $35-50k, build a modern style 3br 2ba 1100-1300sf house that's a bit isolated (roughly $200K), permit it for STR, and AirBnb it out. All in around $200-250k.

It seems like there's a lot of demand for STR properties in the Yucca Valley Joshua Tree from people visiting JTNP. Park visitors have been steadily rising from over the last decade and was around 3m people in 2019. I've checked out the free AirDNA metrics they have available but haven't bought the more in depth analysis.

I like this idea for several reasons. Housing market is pretty inflated here right now, so I could get exactly the property I want building it ground up for cheaper. It seems traditional rental inventory is low right now so I'm fairly certain this would cash flow as a traditional property (I've done some initial analysis but need to get more detailed). It's a multiple out situation so if the STR doesn't rent well, I could sell it as a nice new house - I believe a comparable home would sell for around $400-450k conservatively.

Wanted to get some feedback on a couple things. I've asked a couple friends/family about this idea and they seem to think it's a solid game plan. What are your initial thoughts?

How difficult would it be to do a new build out of state in California while living in Oregon? Permitting, working with engineers, coordinating with general contractor, draftsman, city, etc... I've got a good idea of the general process of how to get this done but don't know if I'm getting in over my head for a first time home builder, also out of state, also CA.

How well have other STR owners done in YV/JTree area lately? I imagine a lot of people are coming from LA/SD.

I've got a lot more questions and have done a lot more research than this but I'll leave it here for now. Thanks!