The Situation
Greg B and Amy M were partners that split time between California and Sydney, Australia. Greg earned an engineering degree from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, while Amy was a tech executive at a major tech firm that specialized in engineering software. Greg eventually sold his engineering company in Australia, as he and Amy were keen to expand their real estate investments. In the years following, they built and sold 50 single-family residential properties in their native Australia.
As time passed, they decided to shift their investment strategy and focus on building new properties for short-term rentals, which could be marketed on Airbnb and other booking websites in the exploding short-term rental market. They soon realized that the United States held great potential for generating a healthy ROI from nightly or short-term rentals.
“Many of the markets we considered—including Australia—viewed Airbnb as a source of budget accommodations,” says Greg. “But we found that consumers in America would pay well for desirable properties.”
Having little experience in the United States, Greg and Amy did a deep dive into some data acquired from AirDNA. They looked for trends and patterns in the data, and eventually spotted what appeared to be a very attractive anomaly: Private lots inside Yosemite National Park that were available for new construction.
The Opportunity
“Yosemite was getting more than four million visitors a year,” says Greg. “But, other than campsites, there were only 380 residences that were available for short-term vacation rentals inside the park. There was undeniable potential.”
In 2019, Amy used her funds to buy five lots. However, their broker soon found the approvals and hurdles of building within the US National Park system to be something that most lenders did not welcome — with one exception. Patch Lending was intrigued by the team’s vision. The goal of building upscale single-family properties that would rent for $1,000+ a night seemed very attractive.
A deal was struck to fund 70% of the estimated value of the first two properties, and Greg and Amy soon began building their dream projects.
That’s when things changed. COVID hit during the early stages of the build, and the project was dealt a series of setbacks that no one could have predicted.
The contractor could not find enough workers to put together a construction crew. Greg was unable to travel from Australia to the United States. Tourism in the US came to a standstill, throwing their potential short-term ROI into question. To top it off, the US National Parks Services shut down many locations — including Yosemite.
The Challenge
That’s when things changed. COVID hit during the early stages of the build, and the project was dealt a series of setbacks that no one could have predicted.
The contractor could not find enough workers to put together a construction crew. Greg was unable to travel from Australia to the United States. Tourism in the US came to a standstill, throwing their potential short-term ROI into question. To top it off, the US National Parks Services shut down many locations — including Yosemite.
