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Operator-led short-term rental investment guidance across the CA + NV Tahoe basin.
I didn't come to real estate through the typical path. I'm a builder first — someone who looks at problems, sees systems, and starts putting things together. Before I ever sold a home in Lake Tahoe, I was running businesses, building technology products, and figuring out how to make operations actually work. That mindset never left.
Today I operate across real estate, vacation rentals, and hospitality in and around North Lake Tahoe. I run MG Vacation Rentals, help buyers and sellers navigate one of the most competitive mountain markets in the country, and build the technology tools my team uses every day. I don't outsource the thinking — I'm in the numbers, the deals, and the details.
I think like an owner, not a salesperson. When a client comes to me with a property, I'm looking at revenue potential, operating costs, regulatory risk, and long-term positioning — the same things I evaluate in my own portfolio. My background in data analytics and technology gives my clients an edge: smarter pricing, sharper marketing, and faster access to opportunities that never hit the open market.
I know this market at a level most agents don't. I manage dozens of properties across the North Shore, track regulatory shifts in real time, and see transaction and rental performance data every day — not just during a listing appointment. That depth means I catch what others miss.
I'm direct, and I move fast. If something matters, I don't believe in vague advice or unnecessary delay. You'll get the useful answer, the practical move, and the next step. That intensity is why my clients close deals others don't.
I'm an entrepreneur across real estate, technology, and hospitality — and a licensed pilot. I think best when I'm building across disciplines, and that cross-pollination is what makes my approach to real estate sharper than a single-lane career would allow.
At the core, I'm building a life centered around autonomy, ownership, and making things happen. Lake Tahoe isn't just where I work — it's where that life comes together.
These two conversations with Shay Phillips are how many of our clients first find us. Jump straight to any topic — click a timestamp and the video plays from that exact moment.
There are seven STR jurisdictions around the lake, and they behave very differently: Placer County issued roughly 3,900 permits and only a few hundred remain, El Dorado County's ~600 permits carry a multi-year wait list, Douglas County and the Town of Truckee both have wait lists (Truckee also makes new owners wait a year before applying), and Washoe County is still processing new applications. And no Tahoe county transfers an STR permit at sale — the permit belongs to the owner, not the house. Watch: 25:08 →
If the average stay is seven nights or less and you materially participate at least 100 hours in the first year, you can cost-segregate the property and take 100% bonus depreciation — generally around 30% of the purchase price, so roughly a $300,000 deduction against active income on a $1M home. Confirm the specifics with your CPA. Watch: 20:40 →
A full-documentation conventional loan gets the best rate if your income covers the debt; if it doesn't, a DSCR loan qualifies you on the property's projected rental income instead of your W-2, typically with 20–25% down. Murat and Incline Village lender Shay Phillips walk through both paths in this segment. Watch: 54:20 → DSCR: 57:15 →
We bought a Kings Beach home for $1.2M for pure-investment clients because we manage a nearly identical home a few hundred feet away and knew exactly what it would earn: they bled about $10K in year one, hit break-even in year two, and go cash-flow positive in year three. Short-term rentals are a long-term game. Watch: 42:30 →
The Real Estate Tahoe app ingests TRPA parcel data and shows the tentative allowable land coverage on a listing — whether the lot is overbuilt or has room left for an ADU — before you ever call TRPA. It's an estimate you still verify with TRPA, but if a lot is a no-go, you know immediately. Watch: 20:00 →
I built the free Real Estate Tahoe app (iOS and Android) around what Tahoe buyers actually ask: each listing shows its STR jurisdiction and permit eligibility, TRPA coverage, rental revenue projections, and even tentative insurance and property-tax carrying costs — data the national portals don't have. The same platform runs our brokerage, where writing an offer takes under two minutes. Watch: 7:05 →
"Can I short-term rent this house?" is the number-one question I get, so the app answers it per listing: seven jurisdictions govern STRs around the Tahoe basin — Placer, El Dorado, Nevada, Washoe, and Douglas counties, the City of South Lake Tahoe, and the Town of Truckee — and the lines can sit 150 feet apart. Click any listing and you get a clear yes or no, not a maybe. Watch: 14:00 →
Real Estate Tahoe — the jurisdiction map gives a yes-or-no STR answer on every listing, and the TRPA layer shows allowable land coverage, together in one free app. Eligibility: 14:00 → Coverage: 20:00 →
We manage 45 Tahoe vacation rentals, so when we sell one we're reverse-engineering what guests actually book — layout, occupancy, location — instead of guessing. A listing agent who's never operated a rental and a manager who never sells work against each other, and that gap is exactly why I work with STR investors on both sides of the deal. Watch: 8:30 →
A "$110K gross revenue" line in the MLS often includes lodging taxes and cleaning fees, and scraped estimates can miss badly — in this segment Shay describes a $2M lake-view home AirDNA pegged at just $75K a year. We underwrite from actual booking history across the homes we manage instead. Watch: 4:05 → Real data: 11:00 →
A clean split with no technology, insurance, or monthly junk fees, and one platform for CRM, MLS, marketing, and writing offers — I'll put our tech up against Compass. We onboard agents who treat real estate as a lifestyle, and I train them on short-term rentals myself. Watch: 44:00 →
Whether you're buying, selling, or investing in Lake Tahoe real estate — I'm here to help.
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