Poconos - Lake Harmony STR Advice needed.

[Ajo George]

Hi everyone. I'm thinking about investing in a STR house in Lake Harmony, PA. I have already identified a property. It's a 4 bedroom 2.5 bath house with its own pool. Sleeps upto 14. I have a few questions:

1. Occupancy rate. I know that summer and winter months are most popular. However, will i be able to rent out in the spring and fall months if my prices are reasonable? Any idea of occupancy rate potential? I want atleast 50% occupancy. Is that reasonable to expect.

2. Pricing: I plan to rent out in the summer months around 700-750 a night (the house has its own private pool). The house is close to Jack Frost and big boulder so I’m assuming I can rent for atleast 500 to 600 a night during the winter months. Is that assumption reasonable? How low would I have to price it to rent in spring/fall

Looking forward to hearing from the pros.

Thanks

Ajo

[Mark Miles]

Originally posted by @Ajo George:

Hi everyone. I'm thinking about investing in a STR house in Lake Harmony, PA. I have already identified a property. It's a 4 bedroom 2.5 bath house with its own pool. Sleeps upto 14. I have a few questions:

1. Occupancy rate. I know that summer and winter months are most popular. However, will i be able to rent out in the spring and fall months if my prices are reasonable? Any idea of occupancy rate potential? I want atleast 50% occupancy. Is that reasonable to expect.

2. Pricing: I plan to rent out in the summer months around 700-750 a night (the house has its own private pool). The house is close to Jack Frost and big boulder so I’m assuming I can rent for atleast 500 to 600 a night during the winter months. Is that assumption reasonable? How low would I have to price it to rent in spring/fall

Looking forward to hearing from the pros.

Thanks

Ajo

 The Poconos are tough. You’ll do ok in the summer, you’ll maybe rent for a few nights in the winter, and you'll hardly rent at all in the spring & fall. Even if you price it at $0/night in the spring & fall, the demand simply isn't there - there's a huge over-supply of houses in the Poconos - hundreds & hundreds of rentals sit vacant every night in the spring, fall and winter.

50% occupancy in the poconos is a pipe dream! 25% is maybe achievable if you have a really nice place.

Another thing to be careful of: the Poconos have been getting much less snow in recent years which really hurts winter demand for rentals. The primary rental season in the Poconos has always been summer, with "ski season" as a smaller secondary rental season, but not really much any more.

Keep in mind the Poconos aren’t high elevation like Vermont or Colorado - they’re only like 1,000 ft above sea level so it wasn’t really great skiing to begin with. And at only 1,000 ft above sea level, they hardly get enough snow for skiing any more. Given global climate change, this trend appears to be worsening. Most of the skiers from the NY/NJ/Philly area go to the Catskills 2 hours away in NY (much higher elevation & taller mountains), or up to Vermont. Thus, the bulk of the Poconos rentals happen in summer-only now.

Here’s a helpful thread with more info:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

[Jena Richards]

I grew up in North Bergen and am currently looking in Lake Harmony as well, small world! Curious how you made out