Does anyone own a cabin in Northern Arizona?

[Jessica Gilman]

Hello! My husband and I own a few long term rental properties in the Phoenix area, so we’re familiar with that. But we’ve been looking at a cabin for ourselves (and to rent out) in the Pinetop area and we’re a little nervous about venturing into vacation rentals. Does anyone own a cabin in Arizona? Is it profitable or break even at the very least? Also, regarding vacation rentals in general, do you keep expensive things in it for guests? Like a video game system and a bunch of games? Or nice kids toys like Legos or magnatiles? (We have a preschooler, so we’d like to keep entertainment there for him.) I would market the cabin as a cabin for families since we are gearing it towards entertaining our 4 year old with a swing set, toys, video games, etc. We also want to get a hot tub and a pool table. Any advice for us?

[Luke Carl]

I own 5 cabins in the Pigeon Forge Gatlinburg market. They make big money but local PMs charge 40% so if you’re not willing self manage (which takes a couple minutes per day) the returns aren’t as big. We get 13 million tourists per year in the number one visited national park in America so we’re always booked. As a matter of fact I just looked at our calendars and laughed. Totally jammed until November.
Also very easy to manage from a distance.

I have no clue what goes on in Arizona.