All Forum Posts by: Chris Watson

I researched them earlier this year and there are a lot of satisfied customers and a lot of dissatisfied customers.  To me they are asking too high of a price for what they do.

As @Michael Baum said use Costco.  The great thing is on the larger furniture items with Costco you schedule the delivery. We had the shipping company put off delivering for 3 weeks once due to the build not being completed on time. Also use Home Depot shipt to store for pickup in store.  You will find Home Depot has an great selection of furniture. TVs buy at walmart/samsclub/Costco locally.

Just purchased furniture, linens, outdoor polywood furniture and curtains this weekend for a 3/3 condo. Here is how we roll...my wife as the designer puts a spreadsheet together with links for each item with costs and quantity.  I then spend about 4 to 6 hrs reverse image searching each item to find the cheapest place to by the items.  It was great this weekend the first item I searched for was a $900 headboard she had on Wayfair that I found for $220 at Home Depot minus 10% military discount and 10% cashback through topcashback making our true cost ~$180.  Her cost prior to me working on it to furnish a 3/3 including $2,800 of polywood outdoor furniture was $28k.  I got it down to $22k and addition $750 cashback using cashback sites.  Sometimes Minoan can beat other sites, but sometimes not. It is worth getting a quote from them. Another tip is 95% of Wayfair items are sold elsewhere cheaper, but wayfair uses a different name so you have to image search the item. Appliances were another $2.6k and I prefer to use Costco because they bring all the hoses and cords for free, install for free and haul away for free. 

Thanks for letting me know as of a couple years ago they were not issuing STR policies in Sevier County. I will see if I can get quotes from them. Unfortunately after 25 yrs I moved my auto from them as State Farm and Progressive are 40% less. I am surrounded by five military bases with about 30k AD/Guard/Reserve personnel and 200k retirees/vets.

Do you know what states USAA writes STR policies for? I am only asking as I have over the years spent hours on the phone with them to get quotes till at the end of 45 mins to 1 hr of them entering the information when they say "oh sorry we don't write policies there". It frustrated me so much after trying to get a quote on my own home and it took an hour to get to where they said sorry we are not issuing policies iin your area currently that I had a conference call with the CEO's exec on the issue. This was the old CEO who dragged USAA down in customer service and shed thousands of members. I am a 27yr disappointed and frustrated USAA member.

I own beachfront west of these areas in Florida. PCB, 30A, Destin and FWB are all different markets in a way and perform differently. All the 30A price vs returns I have seen currently make no sense. PCB I do not know as much or researched so make sure you get a great STR focused agent in those areas. I do know the PCB Toyato dealership actually will negotiate and people fly in to buy from there (love my Tundra from there:)

What I do know from Perdido Key, FL to Miramar Beach, FL I would only buy beachfront.  It is more likely to pay for itself in the winter and cashflow March to October.  In Condos, don't be scared about HOAs, but do read the last 3 years of meeting notes and the structural engineering report.  It could be very beneficial.  I just read minutes on one condo O am looking at and saw a different unit had lost all amenities' access due to lewd and public adult acts.  That unit has been sitting on the market ever sense.  With that knowledge one could make a ridiculously low offer with a high chance of getting accepted.  

 Reese Witherspoon's "Love in Fairhope" used one of ours to shoot an episode and a large church denomination rented one to shoot VBS curriculum.  It helped some in marketing, and we did get bookings from it but no major long-term boost.

I hired an STR focused CPA about my 4th year of owning STRs as when I was filing I would have my first tax bill in a decade. The annual fee was 10x ROI that year alone as he found more deductions/credits that changed a $35K tax bill into a $9k refund. I rather stop paying for QBO and use a spreadsheet than not have my CPA.

 We have both electric and gas in Sevier County. I personally do not want firewood in a rental as I grew up in backwoods Mississippi and know what my crazy friends would do with fire. Men acting like boys = dumb crazy things.

As for the propane we constantly deal with guests blowing out the pilot light because they didn't know it needed to stay lit.  Also some try to roast marshmallows over them. The pro is additional heat source in the once every two year snowed in with electricity out situation.  As for electric fireplaces we really haven't had complaints, but we do have outdoor propane firepits at these locations.  

If you are already vented and can do a sealed propane fireplace (glass doesn't open) I recommend it.  If not, put in electric and have less maintenance calls and lower propane bill.

I married a Minnesotan, so I have analyzed Minnesota resorts for decades.  The price is great compared to other areas. It is crazy to see listings of 8 cabins and a lakefront marina for less than $1.5M. As others have pointed out, I always came back to you are buying a fulltime job.  This might be what you are looking for, or might not.  

Now if you are looking to buy a cheap lakefront family compound then you have found the right place, but MN is not a tax friendly state. I keep telling my in-laws how much they would save each year by moving to a tax friendly state.