STR in North Georgia because I listened to Robuilt

[Ernes Sahic]

I watched the 3:28:27 YouTube video "How to start an AirBnB business the ultimate free course" Rob posted on his channel Robuit and now feel equipped with everything I need to start my 1st STR. If I fail its Robs fault. Lol. JK. 

SO... I recently relocated to Buford GA for a job. The plan is to use a 5% conventional loan to purchase a Primary residence. My intention is to house hack and eventually STR the property. I want to purchase a property in North Georgia. Budget around $300k.

Are there any members here who currently have Short-term rentals in North GA?

Are you having success? Share your listings I'd love to stay in a couple. 

What towns are popular and attract guests? 

Any Agent or lender recommendations? 

Goal is to purchase a Cabin with some acreage, with the possibility of building additional units. 

Another option is purchasing land to add a type of tiny home, trailer, RV, Etc. 

What should I be looking for when searching for an area to purchase in?

Are there any tools I can use to determine estimated profit? I have played with AirDNA and heard of Pricelabs, but how accurate are these sites with their estimates? Some of the numbers are hard to believe. 

[Mike Anderson]

I live about 90 min north of you in Buford on the NC line. I live in the markets you are talking about a good friend lives full time just north of Blue ridge i'm over there all the time. You can go out in town on any night and listen to realtor, or mortgage person talk about how slow it is and how they have no transactions for a few months. I'm seeing houses sit for 4 or 5 months now with 100k in price drop and still sitting. The local markets depending on where are talking about or have put in restrictions on STR's. My county passed a new list of regulations last year. The markets are all saturated with STRs at this point and there are more STR's than demand so the ADR is going down. Your price point doesn't help either, 300k is not a lot in these markets and at that price point you will be fighting with other locals buying full time houses. Then you are in the same neighborhood as locals who want nothing to do with STR's and will actively work together to run you out. I've seen it multiple times in the last few years. You don't get that same problem in the 500-800k+ areas that are more second homes or STR's for the Atlanta crowd locals aren't living in those homes for the most part. As far as the tiny home and rv comment a lot of the county's here have or are discussing banning of tiny homes I know my county has a restriction in place for tiny homes and rv's on a piece of land.

I'm not sure you are asking the right questions. For exampled "Are you having success" you will get a lot of "yes" on that but the people that could very well have bought in 2019 and 2020 with a interest rate at 3% at a home value 75% lower than you could buy it for today. Those deals are gone now. Blue ridge is a mess, people are desperately trying to get rid of the STR's I know 2 or 3 people that bought in the last 2 years and ended up loosing 100k or so in a year. Does that mean that people are having success in Blue Ridge? No. However those people bought at a better time. Housing is at a historically bad time to buy right now because the combo of rates and high home values one of the two needs to correct and i'd recommend waiting that out.

I think with your criteria, your price point, and your timing its going to be a low probability of success at this current time. It's not going to hurt you to read, save more, and wait it out a little to see how things shake out.