All Forum Posts by: Chuck Kramer

@Daniel Bradley possibly but, amongst other things, I believe parents want to banish the kids to elsewhere in the house.

I am shocked, but homes in the Smokies with media rooms seem to do so much better than those without, and other than questions about a view it is the #1 item people ask about. It surprises me, but guests want what they want. Kids use them to connect their game consoles, family movie time, sports events, etc. 

Meanwhile my pool tables don't seem to get a lot of use at all, nor the air hockey tables. 

Many appraisals come in below, especially if a Knoxville-based appraiser is used. This has been an issue for years and I have run into it on every cabin we have bought.

To make the best returns in the Smokies, you likely need to self-manage. And it is not difficult. We eased into it by starting with EVOLVE to handle listings and reservations while we handled the rest, then took over the listing/reservations ourselves. Hundreds of owners self-manage from afar. Like any RE project, you just need to assemble the right team. Many of us can help you with that.

I use 2% for expenses, 2% for revenue, and 0% for property value. I want to be sure the analysis is disconnected from appreciation. Appreciation is not guaranteed (as 2008-2012 taught us. 

However, appreciation in the Sevier County market has been 10%+ the last 2 years for vacation rental properties.

Myrtle Beach and Florida panhandle are also good area to look at.

@Matthew Sloan We used to use EVOLVE when we started. They suited our needs at the time. Recently we took over all of our own properties 100% and I just *had* to find a good management platform. After testing a dozen or more exhaustively, it came down to 2 that my OUR needs (your needs may be different). In the end, I chose OwnerRez over iGMS for just a few small reasons that were more "my style". Both were pretty close to one another and equally priced. The minor differences for us were:

OwnerRez will host a website for direct bookings and that website is built dynamically from your property info. It was up and running in 2 days. Right now, already 10% of our bookings are direct and it is pretty painless and automated. I find I don't do any more with direct bookings than I do for AirBNB/Vrbo bookings, except pocket more $$.

OwnerRez also let us connect with Vrbo over their API since we have 5 properties. That means WE process the payments instead of Vrbo and we get our money faster. Much faster.

OwnerRez has an automated way of upselling guests to book the open night before or after a stay for a discount. For the first few months, there was ZERO interest and I was beginning to think it wasn't worth it. But this weekend, I booked 3 more nights across the properties from it; nights that would most likely would have remained empty. You can do this with IGMS, and even directly on the platforms, but is is a more manual process.

Everything else important, both packages did about the same. I don't think you can go wrong with either of them.

Welcome @Kelsey Ferguson! Congrats on taking the first step and outlining your goals. Lots of good resourceful people here to help you on your journey. For the Smoky Mountain area, @Avery Carl and her husband @Luke Carl are wonderful buckets of knowledge. There are others of us that own multiple properties there and can chime in as well. 

Many of us also have LTRs in other markets so we understand your goals.

Ask away!

Some local banks will look more at income potential and know the market reasonably well. You could also look at hard money for a bridge to GET the property, then refinance after 8-12 months.

@Avery Carl has a great finance contact that knows some of these folks. Being semi-local, they will like that. There are some banks that will make those loans to locals but not out-of-towners.

Got to be careful of tiny homes and modular homes in this area. Every jurisdiction (Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, Sevierville, and Sevier County) are not fond of ANY of those options. Blount County (next one over) prohibits all of those as rentals, and tiny home altogether. Cocke County doesn't have such restrictions...yet...but is considering it. They consider modular/mfg to be different that "mobile homes".

How do I know? Well, been looking at that idea myself. Severe shortage of decent long-term rental properties in the area and it seemed like a good idea. Only way to make that work was to head out 321 to Cocke County and put them up there. 

Bottom line - possible in a way, but not without fighting and sacrifice.