Hello everybody. My husband and I are in the process of buying a rental property cabin in Morganton, GA. It is located near the Blue Ridge and is really close to all the fun in the area. We kind of had a rapid emotional decision while being on vacation there and immediately put an offer without really analyzing the market first. The cabin is really nice inside and completely turn key and we are planning to use it for ourselves for 3-4 times a year. What really bothers me now, is that there is neither  mountain nor lake view, just woods view. Also it is near the quite a busy road and you can hear (moderate noise) cars passing by. My question is, do you think it would rent out anyways as there are also folks who don't mind the view and the "stillness" of the surroundings or do you think our vacancy rate will be really high? We at least aim at paying off our mortgage and other expenditures connected with the cabin. We got a really good mortgage rate due to the fact that it qualifies as a vacation home, as we are from Florida. Also, we are going to self-manage remotely. Thank you for any feedback.

Hey @Elena Coney welcome to the BP community!

Sounds to me like there are some pretty glaring reasons you should not buy this property. 

1. It was an emotional buy, which is never a good thing if your plan is to invest.

2. You will be self-managing remotely. Unless you use an app like airbnb and have a great maid service, this won't work.

3. This is probably the worse time in history to purchase a vacation rental. Have you looked at airbnbs in that area to see what their availability is? Yes, people are still doing mini vacations to get out of their houses but now that many are returning to work this will decrease. I think even if it was on a lake with a pool and a boat, it would probably still have high vacancy right now and who knows when things will return to "normal."

That being said, I am not a STR guy so hopefully someone who is experiencing this right now can jump in and give their advice.

Hope this helps a bit and please feel free to message me anytime if you have questions or just want to chat! 

Thank you for your opinion, Brenden. Just about a month ago, Brandon Turner was telling on one of his podcasts that now is the best time to buy an Airbnb property. Surely, the prices didn't drop as desired and the demand didn't decrease, still we thought we would use the advantage of the turbulent times to buy an investment property. The vacancy right now is pretty much the same as it was befor - i looked it up at AirDNA. Yes, we do need a reliable cleaning service as well as a handyman who would handle little things. 

@Elena Coney

I absolutely second what @Brenden Mitchum said and I’m someone with experience in the short term rental industry. Here are my thoughts.

1. Vacancy is not everything. It boils down to profits. I can have units vacant for a whole week and that’s ok because my prices are optimized. Meaning when I get a booking, I get a good booking. It’s less stress, less logistics, and more profit.

2. Since you have airdna, look up revenue and vacancy around that area for similar listings (i.e 2 bed / 2 bath etc)

3. Go to Airbnb and check listings in that area with the same specifications as your house. Check the calendars to see their prices and how far they are booked for

4. Ultimately, know your numbers. Get paper and pen and figure out how much does the place need to make to cover the mortgage and bills. For instance, if you need $2K a month minimum, and you see the average price is $200 a night - do the math and see how booked does your place need to be? Go from there.

Those are better ways to determine if this is a good investment for you going forward.

Good luck!

Morganton is still near lake blue ridge, the Toccoa, and the other areas of importance up there, its in a decent location. I live in Atlanta and I can tell you that lots of folks leave the city and head to Blue Ridge for the weekend. If you are priced correctly i believe you will get occupancy. Fannin county is known as the trout capital of GA and there are a bunch of people that head there to simply fish the rivers in that area. I know i've gone up there in a cabin and we didn't have any view or on the water just about every time we went up there. My advice would be to look at other cabins like yours and see what they are doing and what they have, example is if they all have a hot tub, you probably need a hot tub. I think you will be fine in that area, but you might have to make some sacrifices on not going to the cabin at peak times, October will probably be booked solid, so if i were you I wouldn't plan a trip at that time if you want to make money.

You can try turnoverbnb.com i've heard and read really good things about them for cleaning people.

I think you should be fine. I like the mountains. Sometime people just want to get out of their house. doesn't have to be near lake or something. just change of scenery. My last company do short term rental in the city. not too good right now. But i heard so many good things about vacation rental in the mountain are doing really really well right now. Good luck! 

@Elena Coney

Both my neighbor and I have STRs in a similar mountain/rural setting. There was a small drop in demand initially due to COVID but has since soared. This increase could be short lived but travelers seem to looking for the rural setting.

Neighbor: 2/1 Cabin, 1200 per month.

Myself: RV site, 450 per month.

Hope this helps!

Originally posted by @Tom Matousek :

@Elena Coney

Both my neighbor and I have STRs in a similar mountain/rural setting. There was a small drop in demand initially due to COVID but has since soared. This increase could be short lived but travelers seem to looking for the rural setting.

Neighbor: 2/1 Cabin, 1200 per month.

Myself: RV site, 450 per month.

Hope this helps!

Would love to chat with you about WNC. Love that area and have been debating investing there. I sent you a message!

@ Sofia Sharkey

I don't know why, but only now i see all these replied to my thread. Thank you, you are right. Occupancy is not everything and you need to optimize your prices to get less wear and tear. I did not buy the paid version of AirDNA yet, but will do in the future.

Originally posted by @Mike Anderson :

Morganton is still near lake blue ridge, the Toccoa, and the other areas of importance up there, its in a decent location. I live in Atlanta and I can tell you that lots of folks leave the city and head to Blue Ridge for the weekend. If you are priced correctly i believe you will get occupancy. Fannin county is known as the trout capital of GA and there are a bunch of people that head there to simply fish the rivers in that area. I know i've gone up there in a cabin and we didn't have any view or on the water just about every time we went up there. My advice would be to look at other cabins like yours and see what they are doing and what they have, example is if they all have a hot tub, you probably need a hot tub. I think you will be fine in that area, but you might have to make some sacrifices on not going to the cabin at peak times, October will probably be booked solid, so if i were you I wouldn't plan a trip at that time if you want to make money.

You can try turnoverbnb.com i've heard and read really good things about them for cleaning people.

Yes thank you for the encouraging words! We have been booked pretty solid mid July- end August. I am very happy about that, but also due to our prices that are about 30% less than competitors. We lowered them strategically to gain some positive reviews.