Most homes are 15-20 minutes from the headquarters of the world’s largest retailer and have mountain bike trails in the common areas. 

The highest cap rate for STR in US is only at smoky mountain, it's around 12-14% cap rate gross.In other places, the average cap rate is about 4-5% ; not much different than the SF counterpart.The vacancy is about 65-70%.

If either of those two things don't pan out, the other three aren't going to move mountains in terms of your profits.

What are you thoughts on mountains vs beach STR investing?

And you are taking in +100k to 300K on mountain side lots, which have may be 30% buildable area

I live just over the mountain in Bryson City, I think a lot of people mistakenly lump us in with the Asheville market which are not a part of, and to be honest I would consider Bryson City a different market than Franklin. 

It is also easier for suburbia to grow near Charlotte (CLT) as opposed to when you move over to Western North Carolina (WNC) and the mountains actually begin.

The current battle rages in Mountain View:http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2016/04/01/mountain-view-rent-control-fight-headed-for-ballot.html

Our area has always been a high demand area as we have lakes, rivers, water falls, mountains, trails, fishing, boating, and ALL types of sports and recreation.

Most areas have already experienced nice appreciation - but there are pockets that are still struggling (yes, inside Atlanta has plenty of areas off people's radar, and suburbs such as Lithonia, Stone Mountain and south Snellville, etc- are not what you would want for long term appreciation, when you can invest in more desirable areas such as Marietta, Sandy Springs, Roswell, Alpharetta, to the north, or even south suburbs are doing well - such as parts of McDonough, & Hampton, etc - where you can get a larger house for the same capital - and will cash flow just as nicely - but not experience as much upside potential.