The ban in Asheville proper started in 2016 though, and we don't seem to have more affordable housing as a result.

I recently looked at an existing STR, but either the seller did not track the expenses or they did not want to provide them. 

They get a higher return since they are covering housing cost, have the $250k per spouse primary residence deduction in gains, is a savings account, higher leverage position, lower interest rate possible, will pay more premium for location, etc.House might be overpriced for REITs but not for home owners.  

@Luke Spencer I am not on the management side but I can tell you it took 2+ years to fill 300 units at one of our facilities and the other just hit 300 units in 12/13 months so it really depends on the demographics, and local housing market trend, the more people moving in and out the higher the demand for storage.I think if you're looking at a saturated market then the upfront cash to turn the warehouse into self storage is not a good idea but then again, maybe those operators are on back roads ( low visibility ) and don't push google ads well.

Need to clean the junk out of house .. hoarder .

I think if you can nail that down you will be able to find a market easier.As a buy and hold investor some of the things that were important to me when deciding on a market were landlord tenant laws, price to rent ratio, housing demand, ability to build a team, large population 500K plus, multi-family availability and some other factors.take the process step by step and you will be fine. 

I live in Lawrenceville, GA and am beginning my first house hack, working to purchase another property by the end of the year. 

I suspect there's lots of inventory, particularly for new folks coming into the area that find the real estate prices are much better than where they came from.Do you have a type of house you like to target?

You can look on websites like https://www.corporatehousingbyowner.com/search/United-States... and https://www.furnishedfinder.com to see what similar houses are rented for.

I've also seen a lot of BRRRR opportunities and house hacking opportunities in the Shoals area.