Texas -STR Markets

[James Breese]

My wife and I are searching the markets in Texas to purchase our first STR. As we search, the numbers Pricelabs is showing for revenue and occupancy are just not there. We have looked into Canyon Lake, Buchanan Dam, Leander, Comfort, New Braunfels, Lago Vista and we are not liking what we see. The seasonality of the areas are really killing things.

Any recommendations for areas we should really consider? We're looking for occupancy over 50% and an annual revenue of $40k+ minimum. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Ian Fortney]

@James Breese hi James! I was in the same boat as you about 4 months ago. In March we closed on a house in Fredericksburg (shout-out to @Stacey Lancaster for being an awesome realtor). I can only speak towards Fredericksburg since that’s the area we zeroed in on, but your goals are definitely possible. Heck, our place alone had a revenue of 92k the year before we purchased. That being said, I still believe they were priced inefficiently, especially during the week days.

Now onto occupancy. I really don’t think you should look at that number. We have constantly been over 50%, but like @Avery Carl mentioned, it’s an extended weekend destination. Almost all our bookings are Thurs - Sun and that’s where we make our money. Outside of holidays or eclipses (April 8-9th next year), we lower our prices quite a bit to get it booked during the week. That being said, we are on target to surpass the revenue numbers from last year.

One piece of advice with Fredericksburg is to buy a house that has a STR permit because they are getting harder to get. Ours had a permit but we still had some issues with getting past the code due to new restrictions on fire places and string lights (nothing crazy).

Side note, I stayed at an Airbnb in dripping springs this weekend. Great area and I would look into it as well. My only thing is that IMO there isn’t as much around compared to Fredericksburg where the wineries and enchanted rock are the big draws