You may have been considering buying rental properties and then started seeing the comparison of long-term vs. short-term rentals.
When thinking about short-term rentals and Airbnb, people usually jump to thinking about great vacation destinations. While this is true, there is a huge demand for vacation destinations and excellent properties in those locations.
From a purely financial perspective, you will want to choose a market with strong rental demand, low demand for property, and good prospects for property price and rental demand growth. Unfortunately, these factors are usually at odds with each other, so it will be a balancing act to figure out which factors have the most weight for you personally.
It is crucial to accurately estimate what your expenses will be to make a sound investment decision. However, what expenses and what proportion they will take on can vary wildly from market to market and by property style. For instance, the cost structure of a 600sqft condo will be different than that of a 4,000 sqft house.
Unlike expenses, it will be harder to project the revenue for a short-term rental. While you can get insurance quotes or calculate the property taxes after they reflect the new purchase price, you will not see a published number on what the revenue will be.