What $600K Gets You in Washington, Tennessee vs. California
October 7, 2026 · Landian Weekly Deals
This week's budget is $600,000, and once again all four answers come from states this newsletter has never visited. In Ocean Shores, Washington, it buys a 2020-built canal-front home with a 45-foot private dock and Mt. Rainier on the horizon — in the B-1 commercial district, one of the only places in town where nightly rentals are legal at all. In Gatlinburg, Tennessee, it buys the complete Smoky Mountain cabin package: three fireplaces, a pool table, a hot tub and two bonus sleeping rooms, fully furnished at the door of America's most-visited national park. In Joshua Tree, California, it buys a 2024 architectural pool home on 2.13 acres of open desert. And the fourth — in a state the subject line doesn't name — is not near the water. It is over it: an absolute-oceanfront condo whose lanai hangs above spinner dolphins, sea turtles and one of the island's best surf breaks, with the biggest modeled number in this issue.
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 · Ocean Shores, Washington
A canal-front home with a private dock — in one of the only zones in town where hosting is legal
Price
$645,000
Home
3 bd · 2.5 ba · 1,776 sqft
Est. revenue*
$44,712/yr ($245/night · 50% occ.)
Gross yield*
6.9%
Washington's answer is a 2020-built canal-front home with panoramic views of the ocean, the canal and — on clear days — Mt. Rainier, plus a private 45-foot dock for kayaks, paddleboards and fishing off the back yard. The trump card is the zoning: Ocean Shores permits short-term rentals ONLY in its B-1/B-2 commercial districts, and this is one of the few homes in town that sits in B-1 — nightly rentals are expressly allowed where most of Ocean Shores can't host at all. The house was built for the job: Hardi siding against the salt air, quartz counters, a hot tub, outdoor shower, RV hookups (water/power/waste), an oversized garage with a catch-cleaning station, no HOA or CCRs, and it sells fully furnished. AirDNA has Ocean Shores at a $231 average rate and 49% occupancy across ~560 listings; we've modeled this view home a touch above at $245 and 50% — about $45K a year, with scarcity of legal competition doing quiet work in the background.
Buying it through Landian costs a $5,999 flat fee instead of a ~2.5% commission — about $10,126 back on this one.
See the full listing & tour it →Deal 2 · Gatlinburg, Tennessee
Three fireplaces, a pool table and a hot tub at the door of the Smokies
Price
$599,900
Home
2 bd · 3 ba · 2,238 sqft
Est. revenue*
$48,180/yr ($240/night · 55% occ.)
Gross yield*
8.0%
Tennessee's answer is the full Smoky Mountain cabin fantasy, already dressed for guests: cathedral ceilings and exposed beams, THREE fireplaces (living room, rec room and a bedroom suite), a rec room with a pool table, a hot tub on the covered lower deck, and two bonus rooms sleeping extra guests beyond the 2 listed bedrooms — it comes fully furnished, and the seller is offering a $15,000 as-is credit at closing. It sits on 0.77 acres in a resort community ($230/month HOA) in Gatlinburg, the gateway town to America's most-visited national park, where overnight rentals are a citywide industry — the city licenses them routinely (business license + lodging tax). AirDNA has Gatlinburg at a $343 average rate and 57% occupancy across 7,300+ listings, an average carried by big new-build chalets; we've modeled this 1995 cabin conservatively at $240 and 55% — about $48K a year from a cabin that already has the hot tub, the pool table and the wooded-deck photos guests book on.
Buying it through Landian costs a $4,999 flat fee instead of a ~2.5% commission — about $9,998 back on this one.
See the full listing & tour it →Deal 3 · Joshua Tree, California
A 2024 architectural pool home on 2.13 acres of open desert
Price
$649,700
Home
3 bd · 2.5 ba · 1,747 sqft
Est. revenue*
$60,225/yr ($300/night · 55% occ.)
Gross yield*
9.3%
California's answer is a 2024-built modern pool home on 2.13 acres of open desert: bold architectural exterior, open-plan living behind expansive sliders, a statement kitchen with dramatic stone veining and a suspended range hood, a freestanding soaking tub — and your own pool and covered patio framed by desert and mountain views, minutes from the Joshua Tree National Park entrance. In this market the pool IS the business plan: Joshua Tree's 3M+ annual park visitors book pool homes first, and unincorporated San Bernardino County issues short-term-rental permits here as standard procedure (no cap; inspection + neighbor notice). AirDNA has Joshua Tree at a $301 average rate and 53% occupancy across ~1,600 listings — an average that mixes in older no-pool cabins — so we've modeled this new 3-bed pool home at $300 and 55%: about $60K a year, with all-electric systems and builder-new everything keeping the operating story simple.
Buying it through Landian costs a $5,999 flat fee instead of a ~2.5% commission — about $10,244 back on this one.
See the full listing & tour it →Deal 4 · Kailua-Kona, Hawaii
The surprise: an absolute-oceanfront lanai over the Pacific
Price
$659,000
Home
1 bd · 1 ba · 651 sqft
Est. revenue*
$62,050/yr ($250/night · 68% occ.)
Gross yield*
9.4%
The Hawaii answer is absolute oceanfront: a rarely-available 1-bedroom at Kona Bali Kai on historic Alii Drive, with a private lanai hanging over the Pacific — turtles, spinner dolphins and (in season) whales from your morning-coffee chair, and the Banyans surf break steps away. It comes turnkey-furnished, with ocean views from the living room and kitchen, in-unit washer-dryer, two parking stalls, and a complex built for hosting: saltwater pool and spa, oceanfront BBQs, an onsite poke shack, an onsite rental agency, and a trolley stop across the street into town. Crucially, the legality is baked in — the building sits in Hawaii County's V (resort-hotel) zoning district, where short-term vacation rental is a permitted use, not a grandfathered exception. AirDNA has Kailua-Kona at a $406 average rate and 64% occupancy with near-flat seasonality (96/100); oceanfront 1-beds book below the whole-home average, so we've modeled it at $250 and 68% — about $62K a year, the biggest modeled number in this issue (HOA $989/month, including water).
Buying it through Landian costs a $5,999 flat fee instead of a ~2.5% commission — about $10,476 back on this one.
See the full listing & tour it →Four answers to the same $600,000: the Kona lanai is the one you buy with your heart and justify with the strongest occupancy figures in this issue; the Joshua Tree pool home is the design-forward play in a market where the pool is the business plan; the Gatlinburg cabin is the turnkey machine — furnished, licensed-market, guest-ready on day one; and Ocean Shores is the quiet moat, a nearly-new house in one of the few pockets of town where hosting is legal at all. 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.