All Forum Posts by: Jen Carlile

@Mike Grudzien me too! 🤩 I thought no harm in at least asking

Hi Bigger Pockets community,

This might seem like a strange post, but bear with me. I live just outside of Incline Village in south Reno, and would potentially like to be a hands off investor in a property in Incline Village as they have a residents / property owners only organization that grants access to a rec center and a handful of private beaches on Lake Tahoe (all called lVGID) that I’d love to gain access to for me & my family since we live so close.

I’ve considered buying an investment property myself and renting it out either long term or short term, but a) I don’t have any experience doing so, and b) between my current work & family responsibilities I’m not quite ready to add more on my plate. So, I thought I’d put it out to the Bigger Pockets universe if there might be a creative deal to be had where someone might want a hands off investor for an Incline Village property in exchange for assigning me one of the IVGID passes? The forum is called “Creative Financing” is it not? 🤩

Hi Jeff, nice to meet another Truckee local! I just sent you a connection request (I’m new to bigger pockets so am not exactly sure how it works) but you can also find me on LinkedIn if you want

Oh interesting, I hadn’t thought of selling the units to interested folks; I had thought of it as rentals only.  I love the aesthetic of these tiny homes from Escape Traveler https://www.escapetraveler.net. I envision it as a minimal, modern, outdoor-focused community that is affordable for people like ski instructors, waitstaff, ski bums etc. that are currently being priced out of Truckee and vicinity

I live in Truckee, CA (~10 mi from Lake Tahoe), and we have a severe housing shortage here. Lots of long time locals (service industry folks, ski instructors, teachers, outdoor enthusiasts, etc) are being pushed out because long-time rentals are being sold & many people are moving up from wealthier areas like San Francisco and buying up properties that seem like a “deal” when compared to the Bay Area — deal in quotes because the median house price has increased by ~70% over the past year here.

I have started thinking about the idea of building a tiny home village where the homes are tiny houses on wheels / chassis, and providing them at a reasonable rent.  It looks like the best paths for this are to establish an RV park or campground, or a mobile home park where some of the units would be on permanent foundations and others could remain on wheels.

I was wondering if anyone has gone through this process and has any tips / pointers.  On one hand, if the goal is eventually creating passive income it seems like I could do something much simpler like buy a multi family rental property in nearby Reno (much more affordable), but I do like the idea of doing something personally to alleviate the housing crunch here.

By far the most complex part to start seems like understanding zoning code & finding property.  There are a couple routes one could go here — 1) find a Highway Commercial zoned property, which definitely allows for the development of RV parks, or 2) find something like a rural, recreation, or forest zoned property which allows for the development of campgrounds or potentially mobile home parks. The few HC zones around here are (obviously) convenient to the highway, but perhaps lack the charm and outdoor access of a more rural property; there are more rural zones (that are less $$/acre by far), but are often along dirt roads that are perhaps more dicey in winter (we get a good amount of snow here).

Anyhow, this is very early in the idea stage for me and I realize this would be a long, long road ahead.  I have a successful software consulting business that I also run (related to commercial building design) that generates my primary income, so this would be more of a passion project that would both do something positive for the community but also hopefully eventually create passive income.  

Feedback, advice, anecdotes, etc. are all appreciated!