Wanting to Buy a Palm Springs Area Vacation Rental

[David G.]

Hi There

I'm from Los Angeles, CA and have 7 years of experience operating vacation rentals across the country via master leasing them. I have never operated one in the Palm Springs area but Im interested in buying a non HOA vacation rental in the Palm Springs/Desert area. If you had to buy a non HOA, non condo, vacation rental with the highest ROI, Cap Rate, & COC return in the area, where and what would you buy? I have up to 250K of my own money as a down payment. My company will be the property manager of the home.

Thank you to all of the Palm Spring area experts in advance!

Dave  

[Tim Spry]

After owning rentals in both Palm Springs and Palm Desert, I'd argue that Palm Springs draws a more affluent crowd. Especially those looking for a more design-forward cultural experience. Palm Springs really has all the buzz these days. This might be a sweeping generalization, but I'd say PS tends to draw more city dwellers, PD more suburbanites. El Paseo tends to only be an attraction for significantly OLDER guests (not that there's anything wrong with that). Also, take it from me, that 29-day minimum will kill your business. I believe there's an exemption for rentals in the R3 zone, so it might be worth exploring those properties (generally located within a couple of blocks of El Paseo). You might also explore La Quinta. Others can give you a better perspective on that market. Finally, I agree with what you say about buying a 3/2 in Palm Springs--since that's the bulk of the market. I know that some residents avoid buying in the northern part of Palm Springs because of the wind, but I'm not sure how much difference it makes in the short-term rental market. I know that Racquet Club, for example, is attractive to renters because of its wealth of stylish, mid century properties. At any rate, just my opinion.