All Forum Posts by: Abe DeHart

Hello! My wife and I own 20 LTR units in OK, WY. Following Avery's excellent STR episode, we decided to try something new and venture into an STR in the smokies. We decided to use our VA loan to purchase initially and plan to occupy a cabin there as our primary residence for a year. I'm a consultant and am on the road (in the air) every week, so we are not locationally tied. My wife is getting out of the army this year, and it will be a great spot to recharge prior to renting it as an STR in late 2021.

We currently have an 8 bed/7bath 4,500 sqft cabin under contract with beautiful views in Wears Valley.  As I’ve read through the forums, it seems like most self-managers here have 2-3 bedroom cabins in the smokies. As I look on AirBnB, there are not a lot of properties with 8 bedrooms listed. Do any of you have larger cabins like this? How do they rent? Any concern that we are pricing ourself out of the market with a colossal cabin that only a small portion of renters would look at? Thanks for any insight!

- Abe

@Gerald Turner - I’ve had units rent the next day and units take 6 weeks. Depends on factors like these:

- Current Demand (mostly tied to the US Army)

- Location (very important)

- Condition of property

- Desirability of floorplan

- Rent rate asked

In general, Lawton takes longer to rent than the other market I’m in. However, many renters will stay for multiple years, and expenses are fairly low. 

I use Rent Lawton on Cache Road. They’ve done a great job for me and found good tenants. I haven’t cracked the code on a great contractor yet. @Tommy Ray May be able to help on that. 

 Lawton is fairly segmented in terms of crime. You’ll see spots that have high crime and go over two blocks and find spots that have very low crime. There are plenty of crime mapping websites to check out. There have been less listings in the last month (due to COVID I think), but there definitely are still a few acceptable deals out there. 

@Tommy Ray I’ve been lurking here for years, but that was my first post. Learned a ton from everyone here at BP.

I'm using “Rent Lawton”. They manage 17 units for me in the Lawton market and do a great job. They have an ability to find great tenants, which is unusual in this market.