STRs Are Evolving — Who's Building Short-Term Rentals From the Ground Up?

[Robert Ellis]

Everyone talks about buying a house and turning it into a short-term rental…
But here’s a different angle:

Who here is actually building STRs purposefully — from the ground up?

I'm seeing more developers (especially in the Midwest and Southeast) designing small STR communities with:

• No HOAs or restrictions

• Built-in smart tech and cleaning closets

• Furnished units from Day 1

• STR zoning baked in

• Cluster layouts with shared amenities like fire pits, outdoor kitchens, or plunge pools

It’s like “Airbnb meets horizontal multifamily.”
And the numbers make sense — especially when land is cheap, and you're designing around the STR model instead of retrofitting an old house. Is anyone doing this? What markets are you seeing this play out in?
Is this just a boutique thing, or a scalable model?

Curious to hear if anyone’s experimenting with this — or if you’d even invest in a project like that.

[Collin Hays]

Quote from @Jon Martin:

I don't really like the idea of owning in a community where all of my neighbors are encouraged to be STR owners and basically have the same property as me. Makes it that much harder to differentiate and stand out. Sounds like a recipe for a race to the bottom, unless it is somewhere with high demand that can absorb all of those additional units.

 We manage a property in this exact situation. All of the properties are basically identical, and the cheapest ones win the bookings. That has always been my beef with condos. They are just a commodity.