My advice is to look at secondary markets and find a unique property that can become the destination rather than buying in a hot destination and hoping to get a slice of the pie that everyone else is competing for with higher budgets.

In demographic terms,  Uhaul data showed DFW as #1 destination, job growth, right after NV.. 

Nice STR properties in the radius with a pool rent for around $20-25K per month, which would make this a nice cash flowing asset.My thoughts on how I would do this would be:- Scrape existing property and build a large 3,000 square foot property with a pool and make it a highly desirable Airbnb destination property- New build properties in the area with these specs sell for around $2 million, so I would use financing for the build and cash out to take on a larger loan using a DSCR product.- I owe around $380K on the property currently and it is valued around $600K with most of the value in the land. - I'm estimating that a new build would cost around $600K to build and I would use a hard money loan to finance the construction of the property and do a cash-out refi with a new loan balance of around $1.5 million and a DSCR of around 2.1 on a roughly $1.75-$2 million property.- This would allow me to have a great cash flowing asset in a good neighborhood that I can hold onto for the long-term.What am I missing?

With its proximity to popular tourist destinations and attractions, I believe my property could be an excellent candidate for vacation rentals.

Data has so far been steady in the corner of New England I'm in but then again this area was a popular vacation destination before STRs even existed so maybe flawed.

However, it's a totally different story if you look at an investment there.Costa Rica is a beautiful country and well-known tourist destination.

I explored the area a bit and decided to not invest since it is a day trip destination from DFW and not really an overnight stay and all data pointed to a high vacancy ratio.

Much more going on in Cleveland than Dayton, so it's typically a more popular destination for people in your situation.

Date, destination, purpose, miles driven. 

In general though, Joshua Tree has very few motels/hotels so aside from the camping sites, JT needs STRs to survive the festival seasons, the 3M+ visitors the park sees every year, and the LA hipsters who like JT as a staycation destination.