What $525K Gets You in North Carolina, Indiana vs. Massachusetts
October 28, 2026 · Landian Weekly Deals
This week's budget is $525,000, and the four answers span a national park gateway, the Midwest's cabin country, a Berkshires lake community and a Rocky Mountain ski town. In North Carolina it buys the postcard: a 2018 log cabin with long-range Smoky Mountain views, wraparound porches and a hot tub, in a community where the neighbors already operate as vacation rentals. In Indiana it buys sheer space — 2,756 square feet on five wooded acres, fifteen minutes from the state's busiest tourist town. In Massachusetts it buys a turnkey Berkshires contemporary with a private lake, beach, pool and tennis courts in the deal. And the fourth state — the week's biggest modeled number — is a furnished ski-country cabin we'll let you scroll to.
Each listing was verified active as of this issue, each is on Landian so you can tour or offer for a flat fee based on the home’s price instead of a commission, and every number below is an estimate — the disclaimer at the bottom applies to all of it.
Deal 1 · Bryson City, North Carolina
A log cabin pointed at the Smokies, with the comp set next door
Price
$538,000
Home
2 bd · 2 ba · 1,276 sqft
Est. revenue*
$41,975/yr ($230/night · 50% occ.)
Gross yield*
7.8%
North Carolina's answer is the postcard. This 2018 log cabin sits in the Alarka Highlands community outside Bryson City with long-range Smoky Mountain views, soaring vaulted ceilings, a stone fireplace, wraparound porches and a private hot tub pointed at the ridgelines. The listing's own words: an 'unparalleled retreat or high-performing vacation rental' — and the neighboring Alarka Highlands cabins already run as established short-term rentals, so the comp set is next door. Bryson City is the quiet-side gateway to the country's most-visited national park: the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad leaves from its downtown depot, Deep Creek's swimming holes are ten minutes away, and the Nantahala Gorge's rafting put-ins are just down the road. AirDNA tracks Bryson City around a $242 average nightly rate and 50% occupancy across 1,300+ active listings; we've modeled this two-bedroom at $230 a night and 50% occupancy — about $42K a year.
Buying it through Landian costs a $4,999 flat fee instead of a ~2.5% commission, about $8,451 back on this one.
See the full listing & tour it →Deal 2 · Brown County, Indiana
2,756 square feet on five wooded acres in the Midwest's cabin country
Price
$565,000
Home
3 bd · 3 ba · 2,756 sqft
Est. revenue*
$45,169/yr ($275/night · 45% occ.)
Gross yield*
8.0%
Indiana is this week's square-footage play — and its quietest flex. Brown County is the Midwest's cabin country: wooded hill towns, Indiana's largest state park, and the artists' colony of Nashville, a town of about 800 that hosts well over a million visitors a year. Fifteen minutes out of town, this 2020-built home puts 2,756 square feet on five wooded acres with no HOA. The main level lives like a ranch — primary suite, laundry, open kitchen — while the finished walkout basement adds a third bedroom, a kitchenette, a full bath and its own exterior entrance, a layout that hosts two parties at once or sleeps a reunion under one roof. Brown County permits short-term rentals with county approval, and its spacing rules reward exactly this kind of five-acre buffer. AirDNA puts the Nashville, Indiana market around a $294 nightly rate at 47% occupancy; we've modeled this one at $275 a night and 45% — about $45K a year.
Buying it through Landian costs a $4,999 flat fee instead of a ~2.5% commission, about $9,126 back on this one.
See the full listing & tour it →Deal 3 · Sandisfield, Massachusetts
A turnkey Berkshires contemporary with a private lake in the deal
Price
$525,000
Home
3 bd · 2 ba · 1,320 sqft
Est. revenue*
$45,990/yr ($300/night · 42% occ.)
Gross yield*
8.8%
Massachusetts buys you the Berkshires — at exactly this week's anchor, after two price cuts. This 1,320-square-foot contemporary sits in the private Otis Wood Lands community in Sandisfield, bordering protected state forest, and comes refreshed and move-in ready: vaulted ceilings and skylights, a brand-new pellet stove, high-efficiency mini-splits in every room, a three-year-old septic, and a screened porch with a projector screen for movie nights. Residents get the community's private lake, beach, pool, clubhouse and tennis courts. The Berkshires calendar barely takes a month off — Tanglewood and summer theater, leaf season, then three ski hills within about half an hour. Town-level data is thin out here; Rabbu tracks nearby Great Barrington around a $399 nightly rate at 30% occupancy, and we've modeled this one at $300 a night and 42% — about $46K a year.
Buying it through Landian costs a $4,999 flat fee instead of a ~2.5% commission, about $8,126 back on this one.
See the full listing & tour it →Deal 4 · Angel Fire, New Mexico
The surprise: a furnished ski-country cabin with the biggest number of the week
Price
$550,000
Home
3 bd · 2 ba · 1,230 sqft
Est. revenue*
$49,640/yr ($340/night · 40% occ.)
Gross yield*
9.0%
And the fourth state — the week's biggest modeled number — is New Mexico. Behind the country club in Angel Fire, this 2013-built, single-level cabin comes fully furnished down to the gas range: vaulted tongue-and-groove ceilings, exposed beams, a floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace, granite kitchen and fiber internet, on a forested half-acre lot. Angel Fire is a four-season resort on the Enchanted Circle scenic byway — a ski mountain in winter, an 18-hole high-altitude golf course and a lift-served bike park in summer — with well over a thousand active short-term rentals and the highest nightly rates of this week's four markets. Market trackers put Angel Fire between a $317 and $399 average rate at 32–45% occupancy (RedAwning, Rabbu, AirDNA); we've modeled this one at $340 a night and 40% occupancy — about $50K a year, turnkey at 8,400 feet.
Buying it through Landian costs a $4,999 flat fee instead of a ~2.5% commission, about $8,751 back on this one.
See the full listing & tour it →Four answers to the same $525,000: the Bryson City cabin is the view — log construction, ridgelines and a comp set of working rentals next door; the Brown County house is the capacity play, five acres and a walkout level that hosts like a duplex; the Sandisfield contemporary is the turnkey, with a community lake and beach doing the marketing for you; and the Angel Fire cabin is the operator, furnished, fibered and sitting on the week's biggest modeled revenue. Whichever answer fits, buying it through Landian costs a flat fee based on the home’s price instead of a ~2.5% commission; that's the difference you see in each card above.
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Get the Weekly Deals email*Every revenue, occupancy, and yield figure on this page is an estimate based on market-level short-term-rental data and our own assumptions — not a promise of performance. Listings verified active as of publication and can go under contract at any time. Landian is a licensed real-estate brokerage; this is not investment advice.