Lake House Vacation Rental Market Analysis (NW Wisconsin)

[Daniel LaSota]

Hello BP Community!

I have recently stumbled upon the opportunity to purchase my grandparents lake house in Wisconsin. Given the financial situation, this isn’t necessarily a going to be a good deal on paper given some my grandparents financial needs. I know going into the deal that I will likely be at a ‘financial loss’ the first year of so. I have vacationed at this cabin every year of my life (25 years) and it comes with a plethora of memories that I would like to continue passing down to my family. So I am willing to absorb a little bit of a loss.

That being said, the property is 2 hours from Minneapolis and 1.5 hours from Eau Claire Wisconsin. It pretty secluded so I am curious what the best way is to evaluate the market for AirBnBs and VRBOs? There are not as many comps available as a traditional AirBnB. However, I know from experience that folks from Minneapolis will make the commute to this beautiful glacier-made lake that the lake house is on.

Does anyone have experience in renting out vacation rentals in more secluded markets? How have you evaluated your market? My father has a cabin an hour from Madison, WI and has been profitable, but I am not sure how profitable this will be given the location.

I will be looking to reach out other AirBnB’ers in the market as well as realtors, but I always love to hear the insight and wisdom from this community!!!

Thank you!