‘I Bought a 9,000-Square-Foot Barn in the Middle of Nowhere That Makes Me $320,000 a Year’

Kyle Miklasz had one main goal for his Airbnb property: It had to go viral. Although, following close behind that objective was his desire to have a home his family could use as a vacation spot to create memories—and his most vivid memories were of summers at his grandparents’ barn in Wisconsin. Miklasz, 34, loved that barn so much that he knew that’s what he wanted. He spent early 2023 working on plans to build one when he realized it might be easier to simply renovate an existing barn.That led him down the research rabbit hole, hunting the keywords “renovated barn” and “Midwest barn.”That’s how he found the backlog of popular listings on Realtor.com®, including a link to a page from May 2022. The No. 1 property for that week? It was a 9,000-square-foot, eight-bedroom, six-bathroom barn in Arena, WI. It had been listed for $945,000.So then the question became—is it still available?Loading...The barn from the outsideCourtesy @bigskybarnhouseLoading...Complete with pool an many more amenities insideCourtesy @bigskybarnhouseTaking a riskWhen he saw that this barn was only 45 minutes from his grandparents’ barn, he became “fixated.”But the listing for the house was no longer active. M...