






+29 morePriority facts
🔎 Beyond the listing: Actively for sale at $525K while renting — the owner is running two exits at once
Independent research beyond the listing, checked Jul 31. Facts below are cross-source; confirm anything lease-critical with the owner.
Sale status and ownership churn
- Live for-sale listing right now: $525,000 after a Jul 2 cut from $549,900 — exactly what the owner paid in January 2023, so they are trying to break even before selling costs. 119 days on market, 1,133 views, 91 saves.
- The rent listing appeared Jun 8, a month before that price cut — a cover-the-carrying-costs move. The sale ad pitches 'strong vacation rental potential' and floats owner financing, so a buyer may want the cabin empty or as a short-stay rental.
- Third sale attempt in five years: sold Aug 2021 for $450K, sold again Jan 2023 for $525K, then listed Jul 2025 at $599,900, cut to $579,900, pulled Jan 2026, relisted Apr 2026 at $549,900. It was even cross-listed on the desert-area MLS.
- A California fixed-term lease survives a sale, but expect showings unless the lease forbids them, and treat renewal as unlikely if a buyer appears.
Facts the rental ad never told you (from the for-sale record)
- Parking, finally documented: one-car garage, off-street spaces, RV/boat parking, and a paved driveway on a 0.33-acre lot — the Fit, the Wrangler, and a guest all fit off-street if the garage comes with the lease.
- Laundry: a washer AND dryer are in the sale record's appliance list, plus washer/dryer hookups.
- Heat is a natural-gas wall furnace plus a fireplace insert — no central heating and no cooling in a 1938 cabin; ask what January gas and electric actually ran.
- Layout truth: one main-level bedroom plus an upstairs loft-style suite. County records say 2 bd / 1,051 sqft; the sale ad says 3 bd / 1,259 sqft. The third bedroom is soft — count real doors on the tour.
- Genuine recent upgrades: tankless water heater, upgraded copper plumbing, newer siding, updated kitchen, newer concrete patio.
Trails & resort access (why the location rules)
- Towne Trail runs from the neighborhood to the Snow Summit base lifts: dirt singletrack, multi-use (bike / hike / trail-run / snowshoe), 100/100 popularity. Walk or pedal to the lifts in minutes — it's the return spine for the whole western-slope trail system.
- MTB progression right out the door: lift up, descend Going Green (all-abilities intro — berms, rollers, small jumps), Coyote, Dickey's, Powerline, or Snow Forest, and every one funnels back onto Towne Trail to the base to lap again.
- Winter: Ego Trip — Bryan and Kendall's favorite Summit run, a blue off Chair 3 with a terrain-park variant (Ego Trip Park) — rides down to the base, and it's a ~0.4 mi walk home from there. (Towne Trail is a snowshoe route in winter, not a ski run: board to the base, short walk home, then the hot tub — not literally ski-to-the-door.)
- Ride beta from the trail app: Going Green is downhill-primary and one-way 8a-5p in the bike park, and locals warn of a tire-slashing water crossing just after it.
Location and market reality
- Roughly half a mile straight-line to Snow Summit's base at ~6,920 ft valley elevation — flat plowed streets, with the lake about 4 blocks and the Village about 5 blocks off. Straight-line never proves the winter walk.
- City of Big Bear Lake jurisdiction: unattended street parking is banned Oct 15 – Apr 15, which matters to guests but not to this driveway.
- Asking $2,499 sits slightly above Zillow's $2,445 rent estimate; the sale ask ($525K) sits above its $502K Zestimate — both sides priced hopeful.
- No evidence the cabin is an operating Airbnb today — no address-linked vacation listing or guest reviews surfaced; the sale ad markets only the 'potential'.
Works for your life
- 3 bedrooms can keep frequent guests separate from your computer, sewing, and hardware work zones.
- Included washer/dryer clears your near-hard laundry requirement without another purchase.
- A garage gives bikes, snowboards, tuning gear, and tools a home outside the living room.
- The listing documents trees and unusual architecture, matching the character you keep favoriting.
Could get in your way
- Owner furniture competes with your two beds, three desks, dressers, aquariums, plants, tools, and gear.
- Still on the sale market after a July cut to exactly what the owner paid in January 2023 — third sale attempt in five years. A motivated seller means showings, mid-lease sale risk, and a possible buyer who wants the cabin empty.
- The owner floats an owner-carry (seller-financed) purchase — a real option worth understanding, but it needs a real estate attorney and the trustee before any commitment.
- Lease term conflicts across sources (one year versus six months), and the build year conflicts (feed says 1911, the MLS says 1938).
Listing description & details
A nearly century-old Big Bear cabin full of character on a large, well-treed lot about four blocks to the lake and five to the Village, with National Forest access and the Town Trail close by. Real wood flooring, vaulted ceilings, knotty-pine tongue-and-groove, and a rock fireplace; updated kitchen and bath, tankless water heater, newer concrete patio, and a spa. A Miracle on Ice USA vs USSR bubble hockey table is in the house. The rental feed lists it furnished, no pets, at $2,499. The listing adds that the owner may be open to an owner-carry arrangement for a buyer. Zillow also shows the same address listed for sale. The for-sale record fills gaps the rental ad left out: a one-car garage, off-street parking and an RV space on a paved driveway (0.33-acre lot), a washer and dryer with hookups, and natural-gas wall-furnace heat rather than central heating.
Missing facts earn no points, but they are questions—not automatic dealbreakers. Your Tour/Maybe/Pass decisions outrank this score.
































































































































































































































































































































