All Forum Posts by: Avery Carl

A lot of local insurance companies will require that your primary be in the same state as the vacation rental you want to get a policy on, so watch for that. Farm Bureau is a great example. I referred a few out of state clients to the local Farm Bureau here and they couldn’t insure them because their primaries were in other states (they also don't cover theft).

I would go with one of the major STR-specific companies. They have a lot of really well though out elements that are specific to vacation and short term rentals that smaller companies can't compete with, such as loss of income due to bedbugs (Airbnb can require you to shut down for a few weeks if a guest reports bedbugs, happened in one of our vacation rentals).

But of course, you just have to choose the company that works best for you. The majority of my clients use Proper and CBiz and have been happy with them.  I'll definitely be following this thread for some other suggestions though!

Hi Ben! Welcome to the Gatlinburg - Pigeon Forge area! I would do cable boxes in both living areas and the master bedroom at the least. Older guests prefer cable and often can’t figure out the streaming apps, but streaming should be fine for the other bedrooms to save on costs!

Evolve or Turnkey gets my vote. As easy as it is to manage your own VR's remotely for 100%, I can't justify giving up 35% for a company to do the same thing. On the flip side, your time is valuable so if you really don't have the time to run the property yourself, 10-18% is a lot more justifiable.

CHECK THE REGULATIONS.  From what I understand it is getting more and more difficult to obtain permits there.  @John D. is the guy to talk to in regards to that market!

@Mel Hignell Hahahaha

Sounds to me like your nightly rate just went up.

"I'm allergic to the water."

A lot of the STR management tools have different specialties. My advice is to manage manually for a little while (if you haven't been already) and see which management tasks you LEAST prefer to do, and then choose the tool that does those tasks the best.

@David Lowe @Chuck Kramer hit them all! I am friends with the VP at TN State Bank, I can connect you guys directly if you'd like! In-house just means that the bank keeps the loan "in-house" after closing rather than sell it to a third party such as Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac. Hope that helps!

@David Lowe Gatlinburg gets 12 million visitors a year to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. The vast majority of that traffic stays in short term rental cabins. We have very little hotel presence, and have some of the highest occupancy rates in the country. I own 5 here. It’s definitely in the top 5 best markets to invest in short terms/vacation rentals. It would have to be an in-house loan, but I have several lender contacts who can use projected rent income for this situation. You just have to find a lender who is local to the market you’re looking to invest in who sees this kind of thing often, not a big national bank or online lender.