Inside the ‘Stranger Things’ house that a Seattle real estate startup bought and turned into an Airbnb
Want to spend a few nights in Hawkins, Ind., circa 1983? You can get there via the Atlanta area, 2024.
The house used for exterior shots in “Stranger Things” — home to the Byers family on the popular Netflix series — is now owned by Seattle-based real estate startup Arrived Homes, which officially launched the property as an Airbnb listing on Tuesday.
Arrived has painstakingly recreated the interior sets from the show, from the Christmas lights/alphabet wall in the living room to the retro decor in Will and Jonathan’s bedrooms, to the kitchen and game room.
Fans of the show can not only stay in the house and feel immersed in the Upside Down, they can own a piece of the property for as little as $100. Arrived, which launched in 2020, uses crowdfunding to help anyone purchase shares of rental properties. The idea is to open up access to real estate investing beyond wealthy individuals and institutional investors, and use technology to help identify and manage rental properties.
Arrived bought the home, roughly 15 minutes from the Atlanta airport, almost two years ago. The startup paid $400,000 for the house and spent another $500,000 or so in renovations, calling in professional set designers who worked on the show to recreate the look.
“It’s a crazy old house,” said Arrived COO Alejandro Chouza. “I’ve always been a big ‘Stranger Things’ fan, so it’s kind of like my pet project.”
Chouza said with other rental properties, Arrived would usually run data on AirDNA to get comparable property analysis for pricing purposes.
“There’s nothing like this on the market,” he said, adding that he expects the Airbnb rental rate to be about $350/night on weekdays and $700/night on weekends. The house sleeps eight.
The ultimate goal is for fans of the show to buy into the property and share in whatever income it generates.
Chouza clearly had fun helping find 1980s-era artifacts to help decorate the house. He said he spent months putting together a VHS collection. There are TV Guides and other magazines from the era. And some items, such as a yo-yo in Jonathan’s room, are either glued or bolted down to prevent theft.
During the last couple years that Arrived has owned the home, Chouza said visitors from various parts of the world would regularly stop by to see and take pictures of the house.
Chouza, who previously spent time at Oyo and Uber, co-founded Arrived with fellow tech veterans, including CEO Ryan Frazier (Simply Measured and Sprout Social) and CTO Kenny Cason, (Simply Measured).
The startup has funded 437 properties in 65 markets so far, with more than $200 million invested by 678,000 registered backers on the platform.
With the flexibility to go into any market, Chouza said Arrived has been investing aggressively mainly in the Midwest. Even though the company is based in Seattle, Arrived owns no properties on the West Coast, because the unit economics don’t work out.
“One of the benefits of this remote investing is it allows us to really pick the markets where we are more bullish, both on the rental income side, and also on the appreciation over time,” he said.
Arrived has looked at other film-famous homes, including the “Goonies” house in Astoria, Ore., which sold in 2023 for $1.65 million, and the “Home Alone” house in Winnetka, Ill., which sold for $5.25 million this year. Those prices were too steep for the startup.
“Stranger Things” launched in 2016, and the science-fiction series follows a cast of kids and other characters in a fictional town as they battle creatures and elements from an alternate dimension. The fifth and final season will stream in 2025.
Keep scrolling for more photos from the Byers house:
