One number is the most dangerous thing in short-term rental investing. Most calculators hand you a single "estimated annual revenue" figure, and you build an entire deal around it.
The problem: that one number is an average, and averages hide the real story.
The same 4-bedroom can do $116,000 a year like an average operator and $214,000 run like a top one.
If you underwrite to the wrong end of that range, you either overpay or walk away from a great deal.
One number hides the real story
StrIQ shows three tiers on every property: Conservative (50th percentile), Realistic (75th, the strIQ target), and Top Performer (90th). You see the whole range, not a guess in the middle of it, so you know exactly what you are underwriting to.
That full picture also changes how you evaluate markets. Before you fall in love with a property, you should understand how its market performs across all price points and bedroom counts — something we break down in How Successful STR Investors Find Profitable Markets Fast.
Built from real comps, not market averages
Our revenue range is built from real operating short-term rentals near the address, not a regional average from an economist's model. On a recent Austin example, the estimate was built from 18 real comps and carried a strIQ Score of 92 out of 100.
This matters because two properties a mile apart can have wildly different comp pools — different amenities, different access to attractions, different guest profiles. Our blog, Airbnb amenities that actually increase revenue, walks through exactly which features move the needle and which ones don't, based on real data from the comp layer we use in every analysis.
Why the range matters before you make an offer
Top operators do not win on location, they win on pricing strategy, the right amenities, and underwriting to the 75th percentile instead of the 50th. Knowing the spread before you offer is the difference between a deal that cash flows from day one and one that looks fine on paper and bleeds.
This is why the best investors in the space underwrite conservatively by default. If you want to understand the mindset behind it, Why Smart STR Investors Underwrite Conservatively And Still Leave Room For Upside is worth a read before you make your next offer.
What to do once you know the range
Knowing the revenue range is step one. Step two is deciding whether the deal fits your criteria — your market, your price point, your target cash-on-cash return. Experienced investors call this their "buy box," and having one defined before you analyze properties makes every decision faster and cleaner. Why Defining Your Buy Box Helps You Scale STR Investing Faster walks through how to build one.
And if you're newer to the numbers side — what you actually need to put into a deal, what reserves to plan for, what a realistic first-year looks like — The Real Cost of STR Investing: How Much You Need to Get Started covers all of it.
Run any address through the free STR Deal Analyzer and see your full revenue range in under a minute. Get free access to our Deal Analyzer
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