Good markets besides Gatlinburg

[Matthew Stallings]

Any good markets? Would really love to find a market where one can expect gross income of $80-100k plus in the house price range of $400-650k. I am trying to look at places besides the Smoky mtns. I already have an STR there that does great but market is super inflated now Similar cabins to the one I bought a year ago are going for almost $150-200k more. Any other markets where you can still see good returns and aren't as inflated? I've been googling and found the usual suspects of Destin, PCB, Orlando, Hilton head, outer banks, big bear, coachella/Palm Springs, Scottsdale, and Hawaii. Any success stories in some of these other markets with numbers I posted at the top of this message?

[Avery Carl]

I can understand wanting to branch out from you current market, but you just listed 9 proven markets that you aren't interested in, why aren't you interested in them? Because other investors are aware of them? The usual suspects keep coming up because those markets provide, and have provided, enough investors with consistent cash flow over the years to be written about in multiple articles. (Although I'd knock about 3 off that list due to recent regulation changes etc).

My places in Destin and the Smokies purchased as recently as this year are absolutely crushing it. (There are others on here in some of the other markets you mentioned that will chime in on what they are seeing in their markets as well). Especially post-Covid. The fact that many people are now working remotely and their kids are doing e-learning has extended the beach season-- our bookings well into fall and winter have exceeded expectations, and our mountain places are getting higher prices per night than we have seen even on holidays in the past. My advice would be don't try and reinvent the wheel unless you're VERY familiar with this new market that no one knows about. In vacation markets with no industry besides tourism, the "inflation," or appreciation, is driven almost 100% by investor buyers. It's great that you got in at a great price, but if the appreciation in a vacation market continues to rise, it's generally because the numbers are still working for the investors buying at that price point. At the point that the income numbers stop working, the values will plateau or take a dip.