Best Places to Buy Land for a Short-Term Rental

The regulation is the product, not an afterthought

A short-term-rental (STR) property is really two assets stacked together: the underlying real estate and a permit or registration that allows it to be rented nightly. The second asset can be worth as much as the first, and it is the part that varies enormously by jurisdiction — from a straightforward annual county registration to a politically contested local ordinance battle to a state law that overrides local bans outright. The four markets below were picked because each shows a genuinely different regulatory structure behind a strong visitor-traffic driver, not because each simply "does well on Airbnb."

Sevier County, Tennessee (Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, Sevierville)

Sevier County is anchored by three of the busiest tourism draws in the Southeast layered on top of each other: the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (the most-visited national park in the country), Dollywood, and Pigeon Forge’s entertainment corridor — a combination that has made cabin rentals a mainstream, mature local industry rather than a marginal side business. Regulation is genuinely permissive but not absent: short-term rentals are allowed throughout the county, with the specific permit and fee depending on which jurisdiction the property sits in. In unincorporated Sevier County, an annual county Short-Term Rental Unit permit runs about $250 for units sleeping 12 or fewer, plus a required annual life-safety inspection; inside Gatlinburg city limits the base fee is $200 for two bedrooms or fewer plus $75 per additional bedroom; Pigeon Forge requires a Transient Rental Registration (roughly $125 initial, $75 annual renewal) plus a separate STRU permit around $300; and Sevierville’s initial application fee runs about $150 with a $50 annual renewal.

The practical distinction for a buyer is that the permitting regime is consistent and well-documented across the county rather than a patchwork of unpredictable local bans — but it is jurisdiction-specific down to the fee schedule, and every jurisdiction requires a recurring life-safety inspection, which is a real annual cost and compliance obligation, not a one-time formality. Before buying, confirm which specific jurisdiction (unincorporated county, Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, Sevierville, or Pittman Center) the parcel sits in, since the fee and inspection schedule differ, and check whether the property is in a subdivision or POA with its own separate rental restrictions layered on top of the county or city permit.

North Carolina — a state where the preemption fight itself is the story

North Carolina is a genuinely different case from the other three markets here because it is not one destination but a statewide regulatory environment currently in flux. North Carolina has no single statewide STR permitting requirement outside of standard tax registration, and existing law already limits how far local governments can go in banning STRs that were legally operating before a new local ordinance took effect — but the legislature has repeatedly considered going further. Senate Bill 291 ("Regulation of Short-Term Rentals," 2025-26 session) would impose statewide limits on local STR regulation, and a related bill, Senate Bill 667, would further constrain local authority; as of this research neither had advanced to passage, leaving the core rules to continue being set by local zoning and code enforcement rather than a uniform state framework.

What that means for a buyer is that North Carolina STR land is a bet on regulatory direction as much as a specific property: coastal and mountain tourism towns (the Outer Banks and the western mountains around Asheville and Boone are the state’s strongest STR markets) each set their own registration, zoning-district, and occupancy rules today, but a future statewide preemption law could either lock in or override those local rules depending on which version eventually passes. Before buying, get the specific municipality or county’s current STR ordinance in writing — not a statewide summary — and track the status of the pending state legislation, since a change here could either loosen a restrictive local ban or, if local governments win the argument on limiting the changes, tighten what buyers currently assume is settled.

Broken Bow, Oklahoma

Broken Bow, anchored by Beavers Bend State Park and Broken Bow Lake in McCurtain County, has become one of the fastest-growing vacation-rental markets in the country over the past several years, built on year-round outdoor recreation (hiking, lake access, and a heavily marketed "luxury cabin" niche) rather than a single anchor attraction like a national park or theme park. The market is young enough that it is still expanding through purpose-built STR subdivisions rather than converted older housing stock — communities like Eagle Town near Hochatown and Mountain Fork Resort, a 140-acre riverfront community in McCurtain County offering premium one-acre subdivided lots specifically marketed for STR construction, put buyers directly inside the area’s established rental corridor rather than requiring them to build access to it from scratch.

That purpose-built-subdivision model is the real distinguishing feature: a buyer isn’t just purchasing raw land near a lake, but often a platted lot inside a development specifically structured around STR use, frequently with its own POA rules governing rental operation, architectural standards, and shared amenities. That cuts both ways — it can mean smoother permitting and built-in rental demand from the development’s own marketing, but it also means the POA’s rules (not just county ordinance) govern what you can actually do with the property, and those rules can be more restrictive than county law allows. Before buying in a Broken Bow-area STR subdivision, get the POA’s current rental rules and any rental-frequency caps in writing, separately confirm McCurtain County’s STR permitting requirements, and check the development’s covenant enforcement history rather than assuming a marketed "STR community" guarantees unrestricted rental rights.

Blue Ridge, Georgia

Blue Ridge and surrounding Fannin County, in the north Georgia mountains, is a mature cabin-rental economy whose regulatory structure illustrates a case genuinely different from North Carolina’s pending-preemption uncertainty: Georgia has no statewide STR preemption law at all, leaving each county and city to set its own rules, and Blue Ridge/Fannin County has settled into a generally STR-friendly posture because the local economy depends heavily on cabin tourism. The city of Blue Ridge itself, however, restricts STRs to property zoned Central Business District — most of the inventory actually marketed as "Blue Ridge" sits in unincorporated Fannin County rather than inside city limits, where STR operators instead need an accommodation excise-tax certificate rather than a CBD zoning designation.

The tax layer is also worth knowing specifically: total lodging tax in Blue Ridge runs about 13% (8% city, 5% state) plus a $5-per-night state fee, and Georgia’s HB 317 requires sales-tax collection on short-term rentals generally, with Fannin County’s total sales tax rate around 7%. The genuine distinction for a buyer here is the city-versus-unincorporated-county split: a parcel that looks like it’s "in Blue Ridge" by address or marketing may actually be governed by very different rules depending on whether it sits inside the small Central Business District or in the much larger unincorporated county around it, and many mountain-cabin communities layer their own HOA or POA restrictions on top — some banning STRs entirely or capping rental frequency. Confirm the exact jurisdiction (city of Blue Ridge versus unincorporated Fannin County) and any HOA rental restrictions before buying, and separately confirm current lodging and sales-tax registration requirements with the county tax commissioner.

How to evaluate short-term-rental land before buying

Treat the permit as a separate asset from the land and price it that way: get the specific jurisdiction’s current ordinance, fee schedule, and any required inspection in writing from the county or city (not a secondhand summary), since — as Sevier County shows — fees and inspection requirements can differ block by block within the same tourism region. Check whether the parcel sits inside an HOA, POA, or platted STR-specific subdivision, since private covenant restrictions are often more limiting than local government rules and are just as binding. Where state law is actively in flux, as in North Carolina, treat the current local ordinance as provisional and track pending legislation rather than assuming today’s rules are permanent. And distinguish between a mature, well-documented STR market with a long permitting track record (Sevier County, Blue Ridge) and a fast-growing one still building its regulatory and subdivision infrastructure (Broken Bow), since the newer markets carry more uncertainty about how rules and rental demand will look in five years even as they may offer more attractive entry prices today.