50-year-old carpenter bought 5 acres of land in upstate New York for $27,000 and built 3 cabin rentals: I wanted to give my kids a 'head start'

Chris Broomfield, 50, had been a carpenter contractor for decades when he decided he wanted to focus on building a future for his family.

“I realized that carpentry is a knowledge and experience-based. I couldn’t really hand that down to my kids,” Broomfield tells CNBC Make It. “So I needed to build something that at least would give them a head start on something to borrow against or something that creates additional income.”

In 2015, Broomfield and his wife bought a five-acre property in Remsen, New York, for $27,000. It was close to where Broomfield grew up and not too far from a property his brother owns nearby.

Shortly after closing on the land, Broomfield says he started commuting from his family’s home in Connecticut every weekend to work on an A-frame cabin he was building mostly by himself.

“I always knew it was going to be an Airbnb property. I knew I was going to put multiple cabins on it,” he says. “I chose this property because it was close to the lake. It was very wooded, and it had rolling hills. I saw its potential with multiple cabins.”