Hello BP,

My wife and I are moving to Squaw Valley for work and we have been working toward buying our first property. I feel like we are ready and have good savings, no debt, strong credit. We have been researching the area as best as we can and see Reno has more affordable housing. Pretty much everything in Squaw Valley is condos. I would like to connect with investors in this area and discuss strategies. We are open to different investment strategies. We do not want to pay rent any more! Looking forward to hearing from investors in the area that can provide some insight to what is working or can work.

Daniel

@Daniel Jodrey

Hey Daniel - saw your post. How'd your plan pan out? Curious for myself. And if you learned anything interesting along the way. Best of Luck.

@Andy C.

Hey Andy, still havent pulled a trigger. We continue to save but what i have learned is it is not only expensive, but HOA's rule up here. Huge Condo market with very high HOA's. Many locals up here despise STR and are working hard to rid of them. South Tahoe has already banned. We are trying to see how the market works out with the Pandemic, but strangely everything up here is selling like hot cakes because many people from the Bay are moving after they realize they can work from home but live in a more pretty place.

What do you think? Are you invested at all in this area? Thanks for reaching out!

Hi @Daniel Jodrey , I purchased a condo in Tahoe City that closed the first week on March. I have been doing well with it as a STR over the summer (I think COVID has really increased the number of people headed to Tahoe for vacation the summer). I went with a condo because prices were way less than single families but commanded similar rents. Even accounting for the HOA fees, the numbers worked out much better for condos. I also like the HOA taking care of snow, trash, the pool etc. as I am out of town and those are things I can take off my list. One attractive thing in Placer County is that they have already put a STR ordinance in place. I agree that there are mixed feelings about STRs, especially in this very busy tourist summer. However, the county has already put their rules in place which are fair and not very restrictive to STR owners. I find Placer County is very in tune with their reliance on tourism. I have no beef passing along a 10% tax to them to keep up the free buses, the bike path from Tahoe City to Squaw, and other projects.

Prices are up now, so maybe watch for what remains on the market in the approaching shoulder season.  Also, if we don't get a ski season this year due to covid, there could be people letting go of their STRs. Or who knows, maybe people will continue to leave the Bay area in droves and prices will continue to climb.  So hard to predict, which is why no matter when you buy, you have to be sure your numbers work out to cash flow. 

Best of luck with this! - Melissa