Investor · San Diego, CA · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 975 votes
Hi Everyone! I'm currently renting out my home in Pensacola on Airbnb, and its going very well so far. I'm moving to San Diego this Fall and I plan on purchasing a home there to list on Airbnb.
I'll be traveling for work (Navy) very often - 1-2 weeks per month plus a 6 month deployment at some point - and I'm looking for some insight from people that are successfully doing Airbnb in San Diego. I know I want to be in a neighborhood close to Balboa park, like North/South Park, Univ Heights, Hillcrest, etc, and from the research I've done so far I think a 2br/2ba home would be a good configuration for Airbnb. I plan on hiring a company to manage the rental while I'm traveling.
I still have my VA loan since I did a conventional loan for my Pensacola house, so I'm planning to use that since the home will likely be in the 400k-600k range.
Are there any SD airbnb-ers out there with some advice? I'm also happy to share info about my current listing in Pensacola, and I'm open to any feedback on my listing as well
I heard a radio commercial driving into work this AM.
The message was from a mother who lives near 3 different AirBnB's. She was distraught about the "parties, the noise, the strangers and the safety of her children..." She was urging the city council to crack down on AirBnB.
There is an ongoing campaign to restrict short term rentals. So far the city has demanded owners pay a hotel tax if they rent their house or even rent a room.
So as of now, you can AirBnb in SD, but to remain in compliance with the city, a hotel tax needs to be collected.
Thanks for the info. I decided to rent while I live in San Diego. The financing was never the problem - the problem was finding a property that will cash-flow once I move! Renting in SD was a fantastic decision for me. I've been using the money saved from not paying a crazy mortgage to buy cash-flowing properties outside of California.
@Douglas Spence Hi Douglas, I'm in San Diego also, even being a Realtor and having access to the MLS I can't find anything that makes sense for buy and hold investments. May I ask where do you invest in now and they manage the property for you? Thank you for any advice.
Bump. I stumbled upon what looks to be a great AirBnb opportunity right now if anyone's interested. I'm a local full time realtor living in Bankers Hill and specializing in the downtown & metro area. Toured a multi family property this weekend that just hit the market (broker open house). Current owner has been AirBnB'ing both units and I have the data if any investors are looking for someone to represent them on the buy side. Thanks
My husband & I bought a house in the Golden Hill neighborhood of San Diego last August. Prior to making the offer I checked with Avalara to see if it was "legal" to rent the property in the city as a STR. They responded that yes, currently it IS possible to get a STR license for the City of San Diego, but there are no guarantees that will remain the case in the future, given the fact that the city is looking into implementing restrictions,.
So funny that I've run across this post I created 6 months ago....it looks like most of my post has disappeared or was cut off.
Anyway, an update on our San Diego STR....
We bought a 2 BR/2 BA/2 Kitchen house in the Golden Hill neighborhood of San Diego last August. It can be rented as the entire house or as two separate 1 BR/1 BA apartments. .
It wasn't until Oct 1 that we were able to get it on the STR market.
We were able to secure a STR license with the city without a problem and STRs are still legal in San Diego, so no worries there.
Occupancy: We rented the house to our son & daughter-in law for several months while their house was being renovated, so we didn't really have much of an opportunity to rent it for short term bookings. The several that we had were great. Then before we knew it COVID hit and all of our bookings canceled (not just in San Diego but in all four of our properties' locations). We were able to put a traveling nurse in the San Diego property for 3 months so that helped with some income while STRs were shut down.
Since COVID hit we have begun to think about selling one or more of our properties in order to simplify our lives and to lesson our liability as we get closer to retirement. (We currently have 6 mortgages including our primary residence.)
So...we are thinking about selling the San Diego property less than a year after purchasing it.
While we love the house and the close proximity to downtown and to our son & daughter-in-law & kids in North Park we feel this property is our largest liability and that is why we are thinking about selling it.
There's really no "point" to this post other than answering the question posted by @Warren Wong about the license process and occupancy and providing an update.