Atlanta-area ‘Stranger Things’ Byers home available for rental, investment
A Fayetteville home used for external shots of the original Byers home in the popular Netflix series “Stranger Things” is now available for Airbnb rental.
Investors can also buy a share of the house for $100. The daily rate for the Airbnb is $350 a night before cleaning and service fees.
The home has been designed to create an immersive fan experience that replicates scenes from the show set. Guests can hang out in Jonathan’s bedroom, sit on the couch by the iconic interactive Christmas light wall or play Dungeons & Dragons in the upside-down inspired rooms.
The three bedroom, two bathroom home, located at 149 Coastline Drive, was the fictional home of Will, Joyce and Jonathan Byers, who lived in Hawkins, Indiana. It was featured the first three seasons of the popular drama series before the family fled to California. Resting on six acres, the home itself has about 1,800 square feet of living space.
Because “Stranger Things” fans would drive by daily, the previous owners had to build a driveway barricade and posted “Private Property” signs to prevent intruders. They put the house up for sale in September 2022 for $300,000.
Arrived, a Seattle-based company that gives people who have as little as $100 the opportunity to invest in individual properties and receive a share of the rental income and real estate appreciation, purchased the home at a premium for $400,000.
For Arrived, the “Stranger Things” home is an experiment since it’s the first property they have purchased that has any “celebrity” caché.
“I’m a huge ‘Stranger Things’ fan,” said Alejandro Chouza, cofounder and chief operating officer, in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I was part of the Reddit community. My personal love is now meshing with my day job. We want to replicate the vibe of the show.”
So far, Chouza said as of Tuesday afternoon, about 10 hours after the property was made available to investors, 2,400 people had put in $100 each to be owners. He said that he is capping it at about 15,000 investors.
Arrived hired dozens of experienced artists and professionals to replicate the Byers home and modernized the home’s plumbing, HVAC and electricity. In all, Chouza said the company spent nearly $700,000 to fix up the house and property.
“The interactive Christmas lights wall took us awhile to figure out,” he said. “There were a lot of technical issues to address there.” If you press certain buttons, the wall of lights connected with an alphabet will say words like “run” or “go.”
The home is also 1980s-era specific with a VHS player and movies referenced in “Stranger Things” such as “The Evil Dead” and “Jaws.” There are plenty of board games as well, including Dungeons & Dragons.
Chouza even stayed at the house for a weekend with his mother and three sisters. “She watched ‘Stranger Things’ with us and got hooked,” he said. “She started re-creating scenes from the show like when Joyce Byers is on the phone. We have a replica of that yellow phone.”
The renovations, he said, were completed a few weeks back but he had to await a short-term rental permit from Fayette County, which the home finally received last week.
His company is investigating possibly opening the property up for visitors to just check it out at certain times like a museum.
On the show itself, the interior of the home was shot on soundstages at EUE Screen Gems in Atlanta.
“Stranger Things,” which debuted in 2016, has nearly completed production of its fifth and final season around metro Atlanta. New episodes won’t air until 2025.
About the Author
Rodney Ho writes about entertainment for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution including TV, radio, film, comedy and all things in between. A native New Yorker, he has covered education at The Virginian-Pilot, small business for The Wall Street Journal and a host of beats at the AJC over 20-plus years. He loves tennis, pop culture & seeing live events.
