Branny - But you still need $1m to buy condos in some of those locations (Specifically NYC and LA), then you have to deal with the fact that a government entity could very possibly decide one day not to allow airbnb rentals due to the severe amount of competition.
We've talked a great deal about AirBnB rentals and other daily/weekly rentals in various hotspots in the area (Columbus, the great lakes for instance), it's something I'd really like to do, but we have to get to the point that we can get loans at our leisure. Because of our strategy of buying low end properties, banks are very cautious to lend to us. It's my hope that after we file our taxes this year, we can take all our documents to more banks and have a better chance. Last year I shopped about 4 different local lenders that deal with rentals, since we had a decent 2015 I'm planning on shopping 10-20 banks and seeing how much funding I can secure. I also have a few private lenders willing to lend but the rates are a bit high.
A few people i know are making a killing with AirBnB and its not true about the price, some condos in the NYC area (outside of Manhattan) are going for $300,000-$570,000 and co-ops are $120,000-$230,000.
The rentals in Brooklyn looks similar to this.
$1,200-$1,400 - 1 Bedroom
$1,600-$1,800 - 2 Bedroom
$1,900-$2,200 - 3 Bedrooms
If you're having trouble finding a traditional mortgage than another option would be to get a secured personal loan with one of the assets that you own. It's a major risk to shareholders in two ways. The first is if you stop paying they can potentially take the property for failure to pay and the second.. any bank loan would mean little to no profits for shareholders until its paid off. That can take months or even years.
This whole plan could have worked a lot better in a major metropolitan area.