All Forum Posts by: Collin Hays

 POST OF THE YEAR!  ;)

I would check with the local credit unions there.  You can get a pretty good feel as to what's available in about 15 minutes.

 It's becoming more and more common.

Do it the old fashioned way: Go online at the local tax authority website, copy down names and addresses of homes you are interested in, and snail mail a personal letter stating your interest. I bought my first STR this way. I wanted a creek/river front cabin and all the realtors basically laughed and said "you and everyone else" and blew me off.

No one is as concerned about your investment as you.  Take control and get what you want.  You don’t need anyone’s help.  Good luck.

Your merchant account provider should issue you a checklist of things you need to provide.  All of the information you listed may in fact be requested.  Check, re-check, and re-check one more time that you have submitted everything they asked for to the letter, or you will lose the dispute.  These things usually take months to resolve.  Good luck.

hot tubs. What a pain, but you've got to have them in the STR game. At least in the Smokies. 7 person? Add a diving board and you can advertise that you have a small pool!

agree with Luke.  4-5 person is fine.  We use Tennessee Hot Tubs.  Huge hot tubs also take longer to drain, longer to clean, longer to refill, and longer to reheat.  

I think you either self manage or hire a PM.  Evolve is kind of a "tweener".  If their main value is good photos and copy, find the best local indoor photographer you can in the area, ask your English major friend to help you with copy, and you are set.  

Chuck the rent shifting is a huge problem and I wish I could get homeowners to understand it better.  I produced a video and my wife watched it and she said "I'm still not sure I understand it".  :)

The best management companies are the ones that will try to talk you out of using them.  That sounds counter-intuitive, but we've found that full disclosure makes for the best relationships.  We have walked away from many clients because we found they were going to be so micromanaging that they really needed to be self-managing, and we would drive each other crazy.  

I used to trade a lot in the stock market and had an account at Merrill Lynch.  We both decided we didn't need each other and were both happier after the divorce.  ;)

A nice 8 bedroom cabin in the Smokies will do well.  It is obviously going to be appealing to family reunions, wedding parties, and two/three families meeting up for vacation.  As Luke said, it won't stay as booked - this will typically be a long weekends and holidays cabin - but your nightly rent will be substantial, simply because there is a limited supply of these cabins.

One word of caution on large cabins:  We have managed these types of properties in the past, and they are repair/maintenance intensive.  Large groups of people together for several days can be quite hard on a house.  We were constantly repairing furniture, broken chairs, touching up walls, unplugging potties, etc.  What we found is that folks at these types of cabins often spend quite a lot of time actually at the cabin.  So the math works against you in terms of repairs/maintenance.  Contrast this with a smaller cabin, where the guests quite literally are often just sleeping there, and rarely even cook.

On a large cabin such as the one you are looking at, I am going to budget $10,000-12,000 a year for repairs and maintenance to be safe.  Some years you might get by with $5,000; others it might be $25K because you are having to replace a bunch of furniture, etc.  

As a side note, we have had a much better ROI on furniture getting the good stuff. Ashley-grade furniture needs replacing often. As an experiment, we went with high end leather in our newest cabin - several Ralph Lauren pieces and a couple of Drexel, and they are extremely durable. Twice the price, but I think it pays off. My $.02.