Property Type or Property Management: What Actually Drives Short-Term Rental Returns

Every owner we speak with before their next purchase asks a version of the same question: which type of property actually performs? Beachfront feels exciting. A mountain cabin feels cozy. A downtown condo feels easy to run. Most of those answers are instinct rather than evidence.

Garrett Brown, an STR investor and content creator at BiggerPockets with more than seven years in the space, tested that instinct against numbers. He built a comparison across five property archetypes, beachfront, lakefront, downtown urban townhouse, treehouse and unique rural stays, and the plain suburban house with a pool, then scored each one on cash flow, appreciation, bonus depreciation, and ten year market durability. The findings are compiled in a free BiggerPockets STR Investment Guide.

We read it from a different seat. Our team manages 300+ properties across 50+ cities and 7 countries, which means we see what happens to all five of these archetypes after the deal closes. Here is what stood out, and the single number in the study that matters more than the property type debate itself.

The Least Exciting Property Scored Highest

The archetype that scored best overall was not the beachfront mansion or the treehouse. It was the plain suburban house with a pool.

Entry prices for that category run $350k to $700k, well below beachfront or lakefront comparables in most markets. Gross yields land in the 8% to 14% range, and it carries the lowest regulatory exposure of the five types measured. Add a Sunbelt population tailwind and it pencils out as the most consistent performer in the guide, even though it is the least exciting property on paper.

That tracks with what we see operationally. Suburban pool homes are the easiest archetype to run well. Cleaners are easier to source and retain, contractors are close by, the guest profile is predictable, and the amenity that drives the booking is a maintenance contract rather than a logistics problem. Boring properties tend to produce boring operations, and boring operations are what protect a review score.

Lakefront Is an Appreciation Bet, Not a Cash Flow Bet

Lakefront came out as the strongest pure appreciation play in the comparison, with some markets appreciating 8% to 12% a year. That is a real number for an owner thinking in decades rather than months.

The trade off is cash flow. At today's rates, day one cash flow on lakefront is rare. Buying lakefront now is largely a bet on the appreciation curve, not on strong monthly returns out of the gate. That is not a disqualifying trait, but it should be a deliberate choice rather than an assumption.

Worth adding from the operating side: lakefront is also seasonal in most markets, which puts more weight on revenue management than the annual average suggests. A property that earns most of its year in four months has very little room for a mispriced shoulder season or a slow booking pace nobody caught in time.

Unique Stays Have the Widest Range of Outcomes

Treehouses and unique rural stays had the highest ceiling of any archetype in the guide. Some clear $200k a year at average daily rates over $1,000 a night. The median property in the category barely clears $20k.

That gap is the whole story. This is the highest variance bet of the five, and the difference between the top performers and the median is rarely the property itself. It is location, design, marketing, and whether somebody is actively running the listing rather than letting it sit.

Two things we would flag before anyone buys into this category. Underwrite at the median, not the headline. And budget honestly for operations, because remote and unusual properties are the most expensive archetype to service. A long drive for every turnover, a septic system, a well, and a cleaner who has to be trained on a property unlike anything else they touch all show up in the real numbers.

Downtown Townhouses: Strong ADRs, Lowest Overall Score

Downtown urban townhouses in markets like Nashville, Austin and Denver post some of the strongest average daily rates in the study. They also scored lowest overall.

The reason is regulatory exposure. Short term rental rules in dense urban markets have tightened considerably, and that risk weighs heavily on the ten year durability score even when near term revenue looks strong. A property can generate excellent nightly rates and still be the riskiest long term hold in a portfolio.

Our advice to owners looking at this category has not changed. Get a clear read on the permit environment before the offer, not after. And treat channel diversification as a requirement rather than a nice to have, because a regulatory change and a platform change hit a single channel business the same way. We wrote about that exposure in our piece on single platform dependency.

The Number That Beat Every Property Type

Here is the finding worth sitting with the longest. On a $550k suburban pool house generating $82k a year, the guide found an $18,208 difference in annual cash flow between two approaches on the exact same property: self managing with direct bookings, versus using a property manager and relying on Airbnb alone.

Same property. Same market. Same price point. The only variables were how it was run and where the bookings came from. That single decision moved more money than the difference between any two archetypes in the comparison.

We would push back gently on how that comparison usually gets read. It is framed as self management versus hiring a manager, and that is not really what is being measured. Two separate things are bundled into it: the cost of management, and the channel mix. A manager who lists only on Airbnb and charges a full service fee is a very different arrangement from a team that runs your operations, distributes across every channel, and builds a direct booking channel you own.

That gap is the reason Corzly exists in the shape it does. Owners get the operations handled for them, the listings stay in their name and their accounts, and direct bookings are part of the plan rather than something to get to eventually. The $18,208 is not an argument for doing everything yourself. It is an argument against a single channel and a management model that treats distribution as somebody else's problem. If you want the direct side of that, we covered what it actually takes in our piece on direct booking sites.

What We Would Tell an Owner Before the Next Purchase

Garrett's data does not say beachfront, lakefront, treehouse or downtown properties are bad investments. It says each one is a different bet, and knowing which bet you are making before you buy matters more than picking the trendiest archetype.

If cash flow with lower regulatory risk is the priority, the suburban pool house scored highest. If appreciation over a decade is the goal, lakefront is the strongest play, with the understanding that cash flow will lag. If the upside of a rare, high performing listing is worth the risk of landing near the median, unique stays carry the widest range of outcomes. And if a downtown location with strong nightly rates is the plan, the regulatory picture needs a hard look before the purchase.

Whichever way you go, underwrite the operating model at the same time as the property. Model revenue at the 50th percentile of your comp set. Price the real cost of turnovers at that specific address rather than a market average. Assume a channel mix, not one platform. And decide who is actually going to run it before you close, because that is the line item with the widest range of outcomes in the whole model. If you are working through an acquisition now, download the STR Acquisition Checklist here.

The property type sets the range of outcomes. How it is managed decides where in that range you actually land.

Want help setting up your STR for long-term performance? The team at Corzly manages properties across multiple markets and helps operators build the systems that drive results. Reach out here.