All Forum Posts by: Paul Cox

Hi @Amy Canfield

When we closed on our STR back in November in the Smokys, We didn't know anybody but the team here on the Forums. As we were working the closing dates, I asked my lender for recommendations, my realtor, my insurance agent, and even my Hot Tub dealer. Each of them gave me a recommendation for somebody to call. We held 3 interviews during the week we were there getting the cabin set up and eventually went with the one our realtor/lender recommended. They have become a Godsend for us and have helped us get to where we are in reviews thus far. I like @Luke Carl's recommendations as well.  Also look at the Next Door app for your area and ask for recommendations there as well. Good Luck

Paul

Hey @Leora Merrell...as you know through our conversations, we started in the November time frame just before Thanksgiving and are still pretty booked up all the way to the middle of April. I'm not sure if we're underpriced or not, I know that we took @Luke Carl recommendation of looking at our competition around us to include his cabin :) and used that as our guide for our pricing to stay competitive, though a number of the cabins within a mile of us (not including Lucas's) are considerably higher than ours, but they fall on the ridge with wide ranging views compared to ours, hence the higher prices they are charging. I'm super excited to see what the summer / busy season is going to bring. Congratulations again on a beautiful cabin!

Not sure what the definition of "affordable" is...I checked USAA out first and they have an offsite company that they work with for rental insurance that gave me the following quote: ...By the way the cost of my cabin was just under 334K.

1. American Modern Property (off of USAA) 
1. 334K Rebuild value
2. 500K Liability
3. 1000 deductible
4. Annual Premium=$962/year or $81/month

I didn't get into all the specifics about what it does and doesn't cover, so more investigation would need to be done.

I then contacted Proper Insurance 

1. Proper Insurance  
1. 335K rebuild value
2. 25K personal property
3. 50K loss of rental income
4. 1 million liability
5. 1000 deductible
6. Annual Premium=3239/year or $270/month

I then spoke with a Brightway/Foremost Insurance, which had been referred to me and who is local there in the Area. This is who we ended up going with.

1. Brightway Insurance  
1. 1 million Liability
2. 25K personal property
3. 1000 deductible
4. Annual Premium=1398/year or 116.50/month

Your cabin's insurance is going to be dependent upon where the closest fire station and hydrants are as well. I believe the closer you are to one the less your premium might be.

So, not sure if those are considered affordable or not, but there you go

Happy hunting

Paul

@Tom Donnelly...Luc recommended Mary Dodge photography to us. We're getting her hopefully to photograph our cabin next week while we're down there. You can google her at Mary Dodge Photography to get a quick look at her gallery and references.  With that being said, @Luke Carl and @Avery Carl, will you be in the area next week?  Would love the opportunity to meet you y'all in person. I'm buying lunch or dinner if your are.

@Tom Donnelly, I just purchased my 2/2 cabin in Pigeon Forge back in November with the help of @Avery Carl (great podcast Avery) and @Luke Carl who helped me push through the nervousness of buying our first STR. We used @Parker Borofsky for our lender who helped a great deal in steering us through the process of a "2nd Home/Vacation House" loan for our property. Parker steered me to a local STR insurer that we were very happy with. His name is Eric Serio with Brightway Insurance and he was extremely helpful. I can send you his info off the forums if you're interested. I think my premium for our Cabin was under $1500/yr.  Avery's podcast talks about buying a place with no internet as their first property and I believe she said it's their best performing property. People just need to know upfront...Good Luck

Paul

Just finished reading the episode and will listen to it next time I'm in the car.  So thankful I came across the both of you on this forum. Cabin is up and running great thanks to your help my friend. Still have a lot to learn, but grateful that I have a team of people I trust for honest advice.

@Troy Ritter, You have a beautiful home and the pics look great. I'm a newbie with a new cabin in Pigeon Forge TN, using both VRBO and AirBnB. @Lucas Carl along with his Wife @Avery Carl were my online mentors and continue to be so I listen to pretty much everything they pass along to me. I've only been hosting since Thanksgiving and hands down 95% of my bookings have come from AirBnB. We are in a very competitive market with over 12 million people visiting throughout the year and so cabins are always in demand. I'm still working on finding the sweet spot on pricing, but I'm pretty much booked up all the way through April, and this is supposed to be the slow season. Anyway, the only thing I don't see at your property is a Hot Tub. It's one of the necessities in our market to have a rentable cabin. Good Luck  and again, you have a beautiful home!

Paul

So I travel a lot for my job and have stayed in very nice 4 and 5 star hotels with spring / coil mattresses that were incredibly comfortable, so don't rule them out. I don't know that I would start at the top end of the spectrum. There are very comfortable mattresses out there that are what I would consider "medium of the road" on price. Ask yourself the question "What do I sleep on, and is it comfortable" Then I would let the reviews guide your decision to stay the course or upgrade. When we purchased our cabin, we went with medium of the road on price for King mattresses and I believe they ran about $700 each from a local furniture store that we had a credit with, but I know others out here in the STR world that spend less than that from Amazon I believe. We slept on them and I loved them. No negative reviews either. We'll see how they hold up under the STR regime, but for now, we're very happy with our decision...Good Luck

PODs for both