Short term rental in new market

[Brendan Moehn]

I am wondering what people's experiences are on starting a STR in a somewhat new market.

Specifically, I am looking at a house in Montgomery, IL. It is a beautiful house with walkout basement into a gorgeous backyard and <1 block walk to get to the river. Plenty of room for hosting in the backyard/patio as well. The unit would be the walkout basement and my family would live in the rest of the house. 

There are plenty of rentals in Aurora, Naperville, and a couple in Oswego but none specifically in Montgomery that I can find.

There are a couple of hotels in the area, which shows there is at least some demand for stay in the area.

What are people's thoughts/experiences on this? Thanks in advance for any input.

[Travis Rasmussen]

@Brendan Moehn

Hmm, I'm use to anaylizing new areas, but that would be a new one.

Ok, after the last sentence I went to Airbnb just to do a quick recon. How far is Auora, Naperville and Oswego from your house?

Also, what are their draw to out-of-towners? Venues? Weddings? What are those places known for?

[Brendan Moehn]

The house we are looking at is on the east side of Montgomery, so 1-2 miles from aurora and oswego. Naperville is on other side of aurora.

As far as what draws people in, not a whole lot directly in Montgomery, but close enough to surrounding areas to draw off of them a bit. Biggest attraction for the house itself would be a more family atmosphere, big yard, and close to river access. 

[Paul Sandhu]

@Brendan Moehn  Wood River Illinois. Big refinery there.

[Nancy Bachety]

@Brendan Moehn If you're looking to move there with your family anyway, you have nothing to lose. 

If you're buying it because you want to host and the income is necessary to make the purchase, be prepared. 

It sounds like it would appeal based on location and that there are hotels nearby as well as other towns. People travel everywhere and always need a place to stay, especially in areas where hotels and airbnb's are scarce.   

[Brendan Moehn]

Originally posted by @Nancy Bachety:

@Brendan Moehn If you're looking to move there with your family anyway, you have nothing to lose. 

If you're buying it because you want to host and the income is necessary to make the purchase, be prepared. 

It sounds like it would appeal based on location and that there are hotels nearby as well as other towns. People travel everywhere and always need a place to stay, especially in areas where hotels and airbnb's are scarce.   

 Thanks for the response.  We are looking in about an 8-10 mile area including the other surrounding areas mentioned above, so it doesn't necessarily have to specifically be this town. However, we love the house, location, schools, etc however it's a lot more than we could comfortably pay unless we were able to air bnb about 10+ nights per month. 

As a side note we've looked into multifamily houses, but with a family of 5 it's hard to find one with the 3-4 bedrooms and enough square footage to be comfortable.