A fixer upper that just makes the "0.5% rule".

My husband and I are based in Austin TX and we are searching for a second home (preferably condo but can do house, max budget $300K) in the Northern Sates (great lakes, finger lakes and upper new york states) where we can get away from the 100+ degree summer heat and airbnb out the property during non-summer seasons in places that can generate cash flow for us.Curious if anyone has experiences owning short term rentals in these regions and which places would you recommend that fit our search criteria?

It sounds like you are young and possibly still single, so I would suggest trying to find another fixer-upper or even better, buy a MF property and house-hack it. 

Create an instruction sheet and keep it in a binder or (my favorite) tape it to the inside of the upper cabinet closest to the fridge.

And "short-term" rentals are great near a lot of bases because the bases oftentimes have contractors working on the base temporarily that need a place to stay.A retired Marine Corps Sergeant Major friend of mine has a quad near Miramar that he house hacked, rented the three other units out as short-term rentals until he retired, sold the quad to one of his former subordinates while getting 20% of the short-term rental income, paid off the balance, moved home to San Franciso, got another VA loan for their fixer-upper house, and then built an ADU that they rent out which covers nearly their entire mortgage.All in all, I think he's probably made about $600K plus he owns a home that is now worth $2M+ and costs him like $200 per month for the mortgage.Not too bad for a jarhead, right?

We'd prefer the MF to be a fixer-upper and/or one that we can increase the value by increasing rents through renovation/other value adds to start a snowball BRRRR effect (pull our initial investment out and use it for the next). 

Then you need the hard wired Smoke/CO detectors that are fun to wire in an old building.Windows: if egress is required for code compliance you'll need to address that on all the upper bedrooms.

Are these mostly fixer uppers?

The only thing that differs between the two properties is the new one has a common area stairwell that leads to the two upper units.

I’d try the magnifying glass at the upper right.