Finding vacation rentals for sale in St George Utah can be the start of a lucrative venture for any beginner investor, so let’s talk about it.
Table of Contents
- Is St George, Utah a Good Location for Investing in Vacation Rentals?
- How to Find Vacation Rentals for Sale in St George, Utah in 4 steps
Whether you’re a beginner investor or an experienced one, there are a few things that you need to know first if you want to invest in vacation rentals in St George, Utah.
Of course, the first question that any investor should ask themselves is whether investing in a certain market is a good idea or not. But to answer such a question, you need to learn about the characteristics of the market that are relevant to your type of investment.
In this case, since we’re talking about vacation rentals in St George, Utah, we will focus on tourism, attractions, and the city’s growth. Additionally, we will look at data from Mashvisor to see how the vacation rentals market is doing in St George and compare it with the state of Utah.
Finally, we will show you how you can easily find lucrative vacation rentals for sale in St George using Mashvisor’s tools in four simple steps that any beginner investor can follow.
Without further ado, let’s get started!
Is St George, Utah a Good Location for Investing in Vacation Rentals?
Before you start looking for rental properties for sale in St George, UT, it’s important to get a good idea about the city and what it’s known for. It’s good to keep it in mind when you buy a vacation rental. You will own a property that you can also use as a secondary home in that location.
So, suppose you live nearby or in St George. In that case, we highly recommend spending a weekend just driving around the area, visiting the local attractions, and understanding the heart of the city. They can help you better understand what to look for when searching for vacation rentals for sale.
They will enable you to understand which locations are most attractive for travelers and tourists, which will most likely make up the majority of your Airbnb guests.
If visiting St George, Utah, isn’t an option for you and you want to understand the market before searching for vacation rentals for sale, that’s fine. The internet is full of vlogs, blogs, and other sources of helpful information.
To get you started, I will mention a few of the top attractions in St George, Utah before talking about another important topic that you should consider.
What is Tourism Like in St George, Utah?
St George, Utah is a great place to buy a vacation rental. It is considered to be a jumping-off point for travelers and adventurers looking to explore the surrounding natural beauty.
As the city is located at the entrance of the Zion National Park, travelers typically stay in St George vacation rentals before going off to explore the nearby canyons and deserts of Utah.
It means visitors from around the globe come to St George, Utah. They look forward to enjoying their stays in cozy rental homes and hotel rooms and indulging in the local cuisine.
Of course, as Zion National Park is the most popular destination in travelers’ itineraries, it is generally a good idea to own a vacation rental that provides easy access to the park.
However, there are lots of other attractions in St George, Utah, including museums, parks, hiking trails, and much more.
The Historic Downtown Area
The downtown in the city of St George is an old area with a rich history, so you can expect many tourists and travelers to include it in their itinerary. In St George’s downtown, you’ll notice the traditional American and Mormon architecture and design influences travelers love to see.
You will also find plenty of parks, museums, and restaurants that can keep travelers occupied for their entire stay. And one of the best locations for owning a vacation rental in St George’s downtown area is near the farmers market, which fully displays the town’s culture.
All of the above things make the downtown area and its surroundings an excellent starting point when searching for vacation rentals for sale in St George.
Historic Pine Valley
If you’re looking to invest in a vacation rental in a less crowded area in St George, Utah, you should consider the Historic Pine Valley town area.
Owning a vacation rental in the area might not result in the highest occupancy rate. However, you will have better chances of finding cheaper rental properties for sale.
The Historic Pine Valley is a small town that tourists often visit. The area is all about the Mormon culture, and it includes many Mormon churches and hiking trails that many travelers will enjoy. Some highlights include the Pine Valley Chapel and the Pine Valley Reservoir.
So, owning a vacation rental in St George’s Historic Pine Valley close to the attractions can yield profitable results.
Red Hill Desert Garden
The Red Hill Desert is another popular attraction in St George, UT. The surprisingly small garden holds more than 5,000 different species of desert flora, which many visitors will like.
Nature lovers who like to learn about plants and grow them will surely want to visit the Red Hill Desert Garden.
What you can do with such information as an investor is to search for a vacation rental around the area. Focus on a niche type of guests specifically interested in visiting the garden. It allows you to be creative with your vacation rental’s design and supplement it with other pleasant amenities.
St George City Art Museum
Another great tourist attraction to own a vacation rental near is the St George City Art Museum. The museum is located in an area in the city that is surrounded by amazing sites, including a tranquil garden, and includes several exhibits inside.
Travelers touring the city often stop by at the St George City Art Museum to escape the heat and rest their feet while enjoying the pottery, paintings, and other representations of life in St George, Utah.
St George Temple
Lastly, another very popular attraction in the city is St George Temple, which is known as the first of its kind in the state of Utah. Built in 1877, the temple’s awe-inspiring architecture attracts many tourists and visitors to the site.
If you’re looking for vacation rentals for sale and you want to target guests who are interested in architecture, history, or religion, it is a great location to search for properties around.
Of course, they are but a few of the tens of amazing tourist attractions that exist in St George, Utah. If you’re looking for more places to search for vacation rentals for sale, you can find plenty of tourist guides and lists online to help you out.
Vacation Rentals Laws & Regulations in St George, Utah
One of the most important things to consider before you start searching for vacation rentals for sale in St George Utah is the existing laws in the area.
When buying and operating a real estate property as a short-term vacation rental, you should remember that not all places allow this type of rental. The state of Utah is one such place where there are many laws and restrictions that can prevent property owners from renting out their properties to short-term guests or tenants.
In St George, Utah, operating a short-term or vacation rental is only allowed in designated neighborhoods and communities. It is done to protect the local community from issues that may arise from vacation rentals, such as guests being noisy, throwing trash, or other harmful activities.
Although the regulations will limit your options when searching for a vacation rental for sale in St George, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t some good options to choose from.
Communities That Allow Vacation Rentals
In accordance with the St George regulations, below are some of the approved communities for short-term vacation rentals:
- Amira at Green Valley
- Desert Color Resort
- Estancia
- Escapes at The Ledges
- Las Palmas
- Lofts at Green Valley
- Sports Village
- Ledges at Sand Cove
Of course, it doesn’t mean that the above are the only locations where you can own a vacation rental in St George, but it does make it more challenging.
If you possess good networking skills, you can often find hidden gems in places where most other investors aren’t looking.
Some lucrative locations for investing in Utah vacation rentals for sale might be on the city’s fringes or in communities where regulations might differ.
So, don’t be too hesitant to look outside the said communities for any great opportunities. You can also ask local investors and real estate agents for advice about the St George vacation rental market.
St George Real Estate Market Stats
Now that we’ve discussed the St George market in terms of tourism and attractions, let’s talk about the local real estate market.
The best way to assess the real estate market in St George is to compare it with the larger market of the state of Utah. It will give us an idea of how the St George real estate market is performing compared to other markets.
The data we’re using here is from Mashvisor’s market report as of August 2022, and it includes all the relevant data and metrics we need to assess a rental market.
| St George (City-level stats) | Utah (State-level stats) | |
| Median Property Price | $647,694 | $883,040 |
| Average Price per Square Foot | $312 | $453 |
| Days on Market | 40 | 60 |
| Number of Airbnb Listings | 500 | 10,223 |
| Monthly Airbnb Rental Income | $2,307 | $2,898 |
| Airbnb Cash on Cash Return | 1.49% | 1.58% |
| Airbnb Cap Rate | 1.51% | 1.61% |
| Airbnb Daily Rate | $161 | $223 |
| Airbnb Occupancy Rate | 51% | 48% |
| Monthly Traditional Rental Income | $1,449 | $1,813 |
| Traditional Cash on Cash Return | 0.84% | 0.83% |
| Traditional Cap Rate | 0.86% | 0.85% |
| Walk Score | 64 | 42 |
Properties Are Cheap
The first thing you’ll notice when looking at the St George real estate market stats is that properties are very affordable.
Considering the significant increase in real estate prices in the last two years, a median property price of $650,000 is considered cheap. On the other hand, the median property price in the state of Utah is in line with the national median, which sits at over $800,000.
Related: The US Real Estate Housing Market in 2022
Properties Are Selling Fast
Another thing you might notice is that the average property only stays on the market for around 40 days in St George, compared to 60 days in the state of Utah. It means that there are many people who are looking for properties for sale in St George, and you will face some competition in the market.
It’s important to keep it in mind when you’re trying to find a vacation rental for sale. It means that the seller will enjoy more negotiating power.
The Inventory Is Relatively Healthy
Although an average of 500 Airbnb properties listed for sale might not sound too good, it is relatively healthy, considering the state of the market in the last couple of years.
While most of the US is still struggling with inventory shortages, there are plenty of vacation rentals for sale in St George, Utah that you can still buy. However, considering the increasing demand for properties in the market, the situation might change as the supply might not be able to keep up.
For this reason, you will need to move quickly if you want to buy a vacation rental in St George.
Profitable With Potential for Growth
Lastly, when looking at the overall stats for the St George real estate market, you’ll see that in terms of profitability, it doesn’t stand out.
A 1.5% cash on cash return for a vacation rental isn’t the highest you can achieve, but it is still a healthy and profitable number. It’s also important to keep in mind that you can achieve very similar cash on cash return if you rent out the property traditionally, which can be a great backup plan.
More importantly, however, is to notice that the market shows multiple growth indicators. The city’s very high walk score and occupancy rates are very healthy for Airbnb rentals, which shows that it attracts many tourists and travelers.
Such things bring growth and prosperity to the community and allow it to grow. They, in turn, can significantly increase the value of real estate properties there.
So, if you buy a vacation rental in St George Utah now, you might end up making a much larger profit from real estate appreciation in the future.
How to Find Vacation Rentals for Sale in St George, Utah in 4 Steps
We’ve shown you what to expect in terms of the stats and metrics related to the St George real estate market. Now, we’ll show you how to find vacation rentals for sale in four simple steps.
Typically, the process of finding real estate properties for sale in a certain market and analyzing the properties to find a suitable one for investing is a long and daunting process. Thankfully, however, you won’t need to do everything on your own because you can use Mashvisor.
When it comes to the process of finding vacation rental for sale in St George or any other market, there are multiple analytical steps that are required, including:
- Analyzing the larger market
- Finding suitable neighborhoods for investing
- Comparing similar properties in each neighborhood
- Analyzing each property for its projected returns
- Finalizing the calculations and closing the deal
As you can see, the above steps don’t sound very simple.
In fact, this process will typically take months to complete before an investor can find the right rental property to buy. In many cases, they end up making wrong decisions and losing money.
So, to avoid making such mistakes and to help you make the process much easier and incredibly faster, we’ll show you how you can use Mashvisor for each step.
Since we’re focusing on finding vacation rentals for sale in St George, and we’ve already provided you with the stats and analysis of the larger market, we will skip the first step.
1. Finding a Suitable Neighborhood
Typically when you want to find a suitable neighborhood for buying a vacation rental, you would need to analyze each neighborhood and compare it to the larger market of St George, Utah.
Just like in the earlier section, you need to gather real estate data about each neighborhood to compare the median property prices, rental rates, and other key metrics. While gathering that data and analyzing it can be a significant challenge for a beginner investor, Mashvisor allows you to do it quickly and easily.
By using the map search tool that Mashvisor provides, you can enter St George in the search bar to view the entire market or enter the name of a specific neighborhood or address to view them.
How to Use Mashvisor’s Map Tool to Find a Suitable Neighborhood
When you’re viewing a market on the map, you can zoom in or out to specify the area that you want to look at. Since you’re trying to find vacation rentals for sale in St George, you want to choose Airbnb properties as your preference, as it is the type of properties that you want to analyze.
When you look at the map, you will see circles with numbers in them. The numbers reflect how many Airbnb properties exist in that area.
By hovering over the icon, you will see how many different neighborhoods are included and the median price of properties in that area. If you zoom in on any circle, it will break into multiple circles lighter in color, each representing a neighborhood and the number of properties in that neighborhood.
It lets you quickly get an idea about your options in terms of neighborhoods, the number of properties in them, and their median property prices.
Keep in mind that what you’re looking at aren’t properties for sale but Airbnb rentals that are already owned, and it is a good indicator that the area allows short-term rentals.
More importantly, by using Mashvisor, you can achieve your goal in this step, which is to compare neighborhoods based on their affordability and competitiveness.
If you want to use more data for comparison, you can still do so by looking at investment properties and their analytics in each neighborhood, which we will talk about next.
Related: Real Estate Heat Map: A Revolutionary Tool for Neighborhood Analysis
You can use Mashvisor’s map tool to find a suitable neighborhood to buy vacation rentals for sale in St George, Utah.
2. Running Rental Comps
As a platform that was designed to help investors find profitable rental properties, one of the most impressive features of Mashvisor is that it provides you with rental comps.
Rental comps refer to the method of comparing rental properties to draw conclusions about the optimal performance that a rental property can achieve in that neighborhood. By comparing properties that are very similar to one another, you can know what to expect from investing in that neighborhood in the short and long terms.
To do so, you will need to gather enough data about several properties in each neighborhood before you can compare them.
How to Find Mashvisor’s Rental Comps
Luckily, if you’re using Mashvisor’s search tool, you can switch to investment properties to view rental properties that are for sale on the map.
Each property will appear as a small icon, and by hovering over it, you will see important information, such as:
- Property price
- Address
- Number of bedrooms and bathrooms
- Size in square feet
- Airbnb and traditional cash on cash return
- Airbnb and traditional cap rate
- Airbnb and traditional monthly rental income
As you can see, the above information is more than any beginner investor can hope for.
The provided data allow you to compare rental properties for sale based on metrics that are specific to your type of investment. You don’t even need to gather the information or do the analysis yourself.
More importantly, and to hasten the process further, when you click on any property on the map, you will be taken to that property’s analysis page. At the bottom of the analysis page, you will find a readily available rental comps section for both traditional and Airbnb strategies.
The table will include similar properties to the one you’re looking at and compare all of their relevant stats to one another. Also, the page includes other very important tools that you will also need in the next step.
3. Analyzing Properties for Projected Returns
As investors, when we’re looking for vacation rentals for sale, our main concern is typically the return on investment we can achieve.
By gathering data about the property’s monthly rental income, its price, running costs, and other financial details, every investor’s goal is to analyze the investment opportunity of that property.
This process usually involves essential metrics such as the cash on cash (CoC) return and capitalization rate. Both metrics can be used in your analysis as they will give you an idea about a rental property’s long-term profitability.
The main difference between the two is that the cash on cash return calculates the return on investment based on the amount of cash you’ve invested, while the cap rate uses the property’s market value instead.
It means that the results will often be similar unless you’re using a mortgage to finance your purchase, and you only want to calculate the return on investment on the cash down payment that you made.
You can learn more about the above metrics and how to use them in our guide.
Back to Mashvisor’s rental property analysis page, if you look at the middle of the page, you will notice that each property’s cash on cash return and cap rate are calculated and included.
The tools available on the page help you analyze each property based on the above metrics. Also, they allow you to modify values and see how the results change in real-time.
So, while all the information provided here can help you in your rental comps to find a suitable vacation rental for sale, they are most valuable when you finally find out, as you will see next.
Related: Back to Real Estate Basics: Cash on Cash Return vs Cap Rate
4. Finalizing the Calculations & Closing the Deal
So, you’ve analyzed the neighborhoods and found a great location with good stats and a lot of tourist traffic, and you’ve compared properties for sale in that market and found a couple you really like.
The next step is to finalize your calculations and make offers on the few properties that you’re willing to invest your money in. At this point, you have a solid idea about the fair price in that market and the amount of rental income that you can potentially generate there.
So, to finalize your calculations, you just need to use a rental property calculator and include as many details as you can to get the most accurate results.
What we mean is that in previous steps, you were comparing properties and neighborhoods based on medians, averages, and projections. But when it comes to making your final decision and investing your money, you need to rely on up-to-date, accurate, and specific information.
So, when calculating metrics such as the cash on cash return or cap rate, you now want to include all the different costs and expenses as accurately as possible instead of relying on the market’s averages.
The same thing applies to the annual income the property generates, especially if you have a solid plan to take advantage of seasonality to maximize the profit from your vacation rental.
Customizable Rental Property Calculator
By using Mashvisor’s rental property calculator, it is easy to do. You can simply modify the values by default, and you can remove or add new recurring expenses or one-time costs to be included in the calculations.
Most importantly, the tool includes a mortgage calculator connected to the rental property calculator.
If you’re using the mortgage calculator, you’ll notice that all changes take place immediately in the rental property calculator, as it will include the mortgage in its calculations.
It is a very important feature when you’re trying to finalize the calculations. A mortgage can drastically change the outcome of an investment in the long term due to the current interest rate.
Finally, once you’re ready to make an offer based on the calculations and analytics, you can simply look at the property’s information section to find the owner’s contact info and initiate the process.
Start looking for profitable vacation rentals for sale in St. George, Utah by clicking here.
Bottom Line
As long as you do your due diligence, investing in vacation rentals for sale in St George, Utah is a good idea. It includes understanding the market in terms of tourism and attractions, as you will be counting on tourists and visitors as your potential Airbnb guests.
Luckily, St George is a beautiful city with a lot of history, active tourism, and a thriving society. Compared to the state of Utah, we saw that St George is more affordable to buy a vacation rental in, and its stats indicate that it will grow in the future.
So, owning a vacation rental in St George, Utah is a good idea that can result in substantial profits if the market continues to grow there.
Finally, we looked at how Mashvisor can help you find vacation rentals for sale in St George, Utah in four easy and simple steps.
Make sure to start using Mashvisor to increase your efficiency and speed and improve your chances of making good investment decisions and reaping their rewards.
To get access to our real estate investment tools, click here to sign up for a 7-day free trial of Mashvisor today, followed by 15% off for life.