Purchasing property to short term rent

Depends on the budget.

Theres a lake house on lake Tuscaloosa for sale, but that’s 700k

You can buy smaller houses for 250-300 that STR pretty well there (I have clients who have some)

Condos tend to be better for long term in that market. Beaches do better IMO for condo

Own something close to you. Its just a pain to have a vacation home far away, and expensive. My father in law used to have a place in Jackson hole which has no direct flights from the south. So a long day flying and expensive to fly, it was usually $500+ a ticket so anything I wanted to take our family of 4-5 depending on the time plus the cleaning fee it was still a $3000 trip at least with a rental car, airline tickets, and cleaning fee.

You'll use a place a lot more you can just pop into. No one there for the weekend at the lake 2 hours away? Lets go.

No one there in your cabin 9 hours away in Gatlinburg? Man I don't want to make the drive for 1.5 days.

The one market I think is undeveloped is just a small weekend getaway place with some acreage and a small pond. Not a lake house, obviously plenty of those. Just something that's reasonably priced a lot of people can do a 3 day or 4 day weekend. Its close by you can get some space from the city life, some fresh air, and just do a lot of nothing really. But has a water feature like a river to float, pond, etc. to offer a little extra but also maybe cool off during certain times of the year.

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Any advice on what to do, not to do?

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Think long and hard about it. There's a massive amount of STR owners sick of having them.

It's 100 times more work than a regular rental.

You’re late to the party bud. STR isn’t the play anymore. Big cities are kicking Airbnb down a notch and current interest rates eat your profit

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Big cities are kicking Airbnb down a notch

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Yeah make sure you take a look at local politics when it comes to STR’s. For example, I think NOLA requires a license to operate a STR and you have to claim a homestead exemption on the property as your primary residence.

We have an STR in a resort area (Rockies). Lots of good advice here…be mindful of local restrictions and politics. Know your tax and license fee exposure. Management costs aren’t cheap.

I wouldn’t buy at these interest rates unless I was dropping a substantial down payment and planning to be in the property a very long time.

We benefited from the post-pandemic equity boom…don’t count on that. You’re likely buying into it. We got lucky on timing…not sure a buyer now is. Good luck.


And don’t forget the guiding rule of real estate investing….location, location, location.

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We don’t have to use it ourselves and would like close.

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With this criteria unless you are paying cash and can find a fantastic deal then now is not the time for most STR's. Chances are you DON'T know the local market well if you are asking these questions.

Rental properties drastically vary by location, just like any real estate. One block over or one street over or facing the wrong direction can change things drastically. One building may be much better than the next. Rents are all about ROI though and the ROI for one building could be much better even though the demand for a purchase is better next door. Just jumping in without knowing all this and also not planning to use it, would not be recommended if you expect a decent to good ROI.