Keystone Stays AcademyAsheville, North Carolina Hosted by Jordan and Priya Hale

Free live training on Zoom, 75 minutes

Find a first short‑term rental that pays its own bills.

Jordan and Priya Hale run 11 rentals in the Blue Ridge. On this call they show how they choose, fund and furnish a property, with the real numbers from their first cabin.

What you'll leave with

  • Market pick. The three filters we run before we open a single listing.
  • The numbers. Our first cabin's real costs, down to $110 a month for coffee and soap.
  • Funding and furnishing. Where our $74,200 came from, and the list we still furnish from.

Our first deal, from search to first booking

The same five steps we teach on the call, as they happened on Laurel Fork in 2019.

  1. Find the market

    Burnsville passed our three filters: under 3 hours from Charlotte and Knoxville, whole-home rentals allowed, and a full year of comps at our price.

  2. Run the numbers

    Before we made an offer, the sheet had to cover $1,995 a month in costs at 50% occupancy and a conservative $150 a night. It did.

  3. Furnish

    We closed in June 2019. Three weeks and $19,400 later it had beds, linens, a fire pit and a kitchen you could cook a real dinner in.

  4. List

    Photos, a listing and a first month priced under the comps, because a listing with no reviews books late.

  5. First booking

    A family of four from Charlotte, three nights in August. September was the first month that covered its costs.

Laurel Fork, first 12 months after closing

Gross per monthMonthly costs, $1,995

$0$1k$2k$3k$4k 123456789101112 Closed First booking Leaf season Closures
Year one came in under costs in 7 of 12 months, including March and April 2020, when closures emptied the calendar. The reserve covered it.

Here's our first cabin, with every number left in.

Most rental trainings show you a good month. We show you the whole year, because a Blue Ridge cabin that books 88% in October can sit at 38% in January.

This is Laurel Fork, the one we bought in 2019. We'll go line by line through it on the call, then show you how to run the same sheet on a property you're looking at.

It covers its own costs. It did not make us rich, and it was never supposed to.

Laurel Fork cabin

Burnsville, NC. Bought June 2019 for $214,000. 2 bed, 1 bath, sleeps 5.

Trailing 12 months
Avg nightly rate
$168
Occupancy
64%
Gross per month
$3,226
Mortgage, principal and interest$1,005
Property tax and insurance$285
Power, propane, internet, trash$265
Maintenance reserve$200
Platform fees and software$130
Supplies and restocking$110
Management$0
Left each month, before income tax$1,231

Occupancy by month, 2025Average 64%

January and February run short of costs by about $400 a month. October leaf season makes up for it. Plan your reserve around the slow months, not the average.

Meet your hosts

Jordan and Priya Hale, Asheville

Jordan was a civil engineer for the state DOT. Priya was a finance analyst at a hospital system in Charlotte. In 2019 they bought one two-bedroom cabin in Burnsville with savings and a conventional second-home loan, and Priya ran its spreadsheet every Sunday night.

Six years later they own 11 properties. They still clean one of them themselves on turnover days in October, and Priya still runs the Sunday spreadsheet. Since 2022 they have taught 640 students, most of whom own one or two rentals, and some of whom decided not to buy at all.

Not every property works. The lake house we bought in 2022 has never covered its costs from November to March. We'll show you its numbers too, and what we'd do differently.

11 properties, added one or two at a time

  • Laurel Fork cabin, Burnsville2019
  • Seven more cabins, Yancey and Madison counties2020 to 2025
  • Lake house, Lake Lure (the hard one)2022
  • Duplex, Weaverville (one side mid-term)2023
  • A-frame, Spruce Pine2025

What this training is not

  • Not a get-rich pitch

    Laurel Fork leaves about $1,231 a month before income tax in a good year. That is the size of number we'll be talking about.

  • Not passive income

    In year one, Priya spent about 8 hours a week on one cabin: messages, cleaners, restocking, a broken hot water heater on Christmas Eve.

  • Not a pitch dressed up as a class

    We make one offer, for our 8-week program, in the last 13 minutes. The first 62 minutes stand on their own, and you're welcome to leave before the offer.

Questions people ask before signing up

Something else? Reply to the confirmation email. Priya reads those.

Is the training really free?

Yes. No card, no trial. You give us a first name and an email so we can send the Zoom link and reminders.

Will there be a replay?

Yes. Everyone who registers gets the replay link after the Saturday session. It stays up until Sunday night at 11:59 pm ET. Live Q&A only happens on the live calls.

How much money do I need to buy a first rental?

For Laurel Fork in 2019 we put in $74,200 of cash: $42,800 down, $19,400 in furnishing and a $12,000 reserve. With today's prices and rates, most of our students plan for $60,000 to $110,000. We'll show how to size this for your market.

Do I have to buy in the Blue Ridge?

No. Our examples come from here because that's where our properties are. The filters and the deal sheet work in any US market with steady visitor demand.

I live outside the US. Is this useful?

The market and furnishing parts are. The funding section assumes US lending, US taxes and a US bank account, so plan to adapt that part.

Will you sell something at the end?

Yes. In the last 13 minutes we explain our 8-week Keystone Launch Program and its price. There's no pressure to join, and the training is complete without it.

Thursday at 7:00 pm ET or Saturday at 11:00 am ET.

75 minutes on Zoom. Bring your savings number and a notepad. We'll bring the spreadsheets.

Free. Replay included for registrants.

Keystone Stays AcademyAsheville, North Carolina

Seat saved

You're registered, friend.

Your Zoom link is on its way to your inbox from priya@keystonestays.co. It usually arrives within a couple of minutes. If it doesn't, check Promotions.

The First Rental Blueprint

Thursday, next week

7:00 pm ET

Where
Zoom, link by email
Length
75 minutes
Seat for
One registrant

Starts in

00days
00hours
00min
00sec

Put it on your calendar

Google Calendar Outlook

Three things to do before Thursday

  1. 1
    Fill in your cash line on the workbook

    Ten minutes. It's the first thing we ask on the call, and it decides which markets are even on the table.

  2. 2
    Write down two markets under 3 hours from home

    Places you already visit are fine. We'll run one of them live through the three filters.

  3. 3
    Block 75 minutes and bring your co-buyer

    If you'd buy with a partner or a sibling, have them on the call. The funding section is where most couples disagree.

Quick win tonight: work out your break-even nightly rate with the formula at the bottom of the page. For Laurel Fork it's $104. Anything a market pays above that is margin.

The First Rental BlueprintWorkbook, page 1 of 1

Prepared for you

1. My cash to work with

Down payment (10 to 25%)
Furnishing and setup
Six-month reserve
Total cash in

2. Two markets under 3 hours away

Market A
Market B

3. My break-even nightly rate

monthly costs ÷ 30 ÷ occupancy =

Laurel Fork: $1,995 ÷ 30 ÷ 0.64 = $104 a night

Want a text an hour before?

What lands in your inbox

  1. NowYour seat for Thursday, plus the Zoom link and workbook
  2. 24 hours beforeTomorrow: bring your cash number
  3. 1 hour beforeOne hour. Here's the link again
  4. At start timeWe're live, come on in

From Priya Hale. Add priya@keystonestays.co to your contacts so the reminders don't get filtered.

Keystone Stays AcademyReplay room

The First Rental Blueprint, full replay

Recorded live with Jordan and Priya Hale. 75 minutes, split into six chapters so you can go straight to the part you need.

Replay and fast-action bonus close Sunday 11:59 pm ET. That's this coming Sunday night.

Chapter 1, Market pick

Three filters before we open any listing

  1. Under 3 hours from two metro areas
  2. Local rules allow whole-home rentals
  3. 12 months of comps at your price

Recorded live

The First Rental Blueprint

Jordan and Priya Hale, 75 minutes

0:00 / 75:00

Playback is simulated and runs faster than real time.

Deal check: run a listing through the same math

This is the back-of-napkin version of chapter 2. Use it to throw out bad listings fast, not to decide on a good one.

$168

Use the 12-month average from comparable listings, not the asking rate on a Saturday in October.

64%

Share of nights booked across a full year. Blue Ridge cabins usually land between 50% and 70%.

$1,995

Mortgage, tax, insurance, utilities, supplies, software and a maintenance reserve.

Gross per month
$3,226
Costs
$1,995
Left over
$1,231

Covers its costs with $1,231 to spare in an average month.

In a slow month at 38% occupancy, the same place would be $80 short.

Break-even nightly rate at this occupancy: $104.

  • 30 nights is a simplification. Real months run 28 to 31 nights, and you'll block some for cleaning, repairs and your own stays.
  • It leaves out income tax, the cash you spend on furnishing, and the one to three months before your first booking.
  • Occupancy is the number people guess most wrong. A new listing with no reviews often runs 15 to 20 points below the comps for its first season.
  • Check local rules first. A listing that passes this math is still a bad buy if the town restricts whole-home rentals.

The program details open at 61:45

That's where Jordan explains the Keystone Launch Program on the recording. If you'd rather read it than watch it, open it now.

Before you enroll

Questions from the live Q&A, answered in writing.

What if I don't buy a property during the 8 weeks?

Most students don't. The program ends with an underwritten deal and a pre-approval. You keep the recordings, and the six months of office hours cover the search after week 8.

How much time does it take each week?

About 4 to 5 hours: the 90-minute Tuesday call plus homework, like running listings through the deal sheet.

Is the payment plan more expensive?

Yes, by $150. Three payments of $549 comes to $1,647, against $1,497 paid in full.

Do you earn money from lenders or agents you recommend?

No. We introduce two lenders our students have used. We take no referral fees from lenders, agents or vendors.

What happens after Sunday?

The replay comes down and the fast-action bonus ends. You can still join at the same price until the cohort starts, but without the third deal review.

Earnings disclaimer

The figures on this page, in the training and in the program are the Hales' own results and those of individual students. They are not typical and they are not a promise. Most people earn nothing from the program in its first 8 weeks, and some never buy a property. Rental income depends on your market, purchase price, interest rate, how well you manage the property, and luck.

Real risks include local rules that restrict or ban short-term rentals and can change after you buy (Asheville limits whole-home rentals in most residential zones); seasonality (our cabins fall to 38% occupancy in January); rising insurance premiums and interest rates; major repairs; storms (Hurricane Helene closed roads to several of our properties for weeks in 2024); platform policy changes; and a property that won't sell for what you paid. Nothing here is financial, legal or tax advice. Talk to a lender, a local real estate attorney and a CPA before you buy.