Selecting Market for First Airbnb

[Colin Hassell]

How did you go about selecting a market for your first airbnb?  Given that this is my first property, I wanted to dip my toes in by looking at properties in the 200-250k range.  That being said, I'm having a hard time narrowing down where I should look for areas with good occupancy and average daily rates.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[Michael Baum]

Hey @Colin Hassell, well 250k is pretty low right now for a lot of areas. Do you want to be able to use the property sometimes? Is it a pure profit hog? Do you want it to be close to you? All that will help drive the decision.

The hottest vacation markets will be out of your range. North Idaho (Coeur d'Alene) is on fire. The fasted appreciating real estate in the US in 2021. You couldn't touch a decent lake house here for under 1m and there is very little inventory. Homes in town are still in the 700-800k range for a 2/2 1200sqft cottage close to downtown.

Another forum post talked about Eillijay Georgia near Blue Ridge. Looks like a nice place and the prices for cabins are in your price range. There was a very nice cabin for 380k, 4/3 3100 sqft with a unfinished basement. Right in the woods in the hills and it looked great.

Frankly there are just so many areas that people vacation that you will have to figure out what you want! :)