All Forum Posts by: Collin Hays

Luckily, the intelligence you are seeking is quite easy to find! The quickest, most accurate answer to your question is a 1 hour review of similar properties around you on VRBO.  Look at the rates and the calendars, and you will get a good sense of what properties are doing.  Opinions on here aren't worth $.02, because each market is so unique.

I know a lady who divorced her husband and she kept getting remarried, but her new husbands would catch some dread disease and die.  ALS, heart attack, cancer.  I think she went through three.  She had a hard time remarrying after that!  God rest her soul.

Funny story (although a bit off topic) I found my very first STR in the Smokies in mid 2005 on VRBO. I emailed them and asked if they wanted to sell. Timing is everything. We own and manage a number of rentals, but VRBO has always been a "must have" for listings. Never ventured into Airbnb, but I understand they bring a lot of value, too.

We never intended to be one of those dastardly management companies that you mentioned; it just morphed into that.  I had a neighbor out there who was tired of self managing and asked me to manage his, and we did.  Next thing you know we had 10 properties pretty much unsolicited, then 20, then 30.  We've kind of capped things at 30.  This is a family business operated by real families out there and isn't my primary source of income.  I just write the checks and my folks do an incredible job!  Our goal is just to do a good job for people that don't want to screw with self management and charge them a fair price.

I think the COVID excuse has run its course.  It's been a known risk for quite a while now.  Anyone cancelling now due to COVID is busting your chops.

If you look at real estate closings in the Gatlinburg, TN area over the last 30 days, there are more than a few getting good answers from their magic 8-ball. However, I don't think Orlando or Cancun are good STR plays right now.

 Michael you are correct.  Whether it can "live" on a surface for a certain period of time is quite another animal than whether you can reasonably contract it from the surface.  I remember the old debate of whether or not you could technically contracted HIV from a nefariously-contaminated pizza.  The answer is technically yes, practically no.

Both.  There's no science behind that whatsoever. 

Interesting.  I own a group of franchise hair salons and we are moving through hundreds of customers per day.  I don't mean to insult you and respect your decision, but you do know that that CDC has yet to trace a single transmission of COVID-19 to touching a contaminated surface, I assume?  While it is technically possible for transmission this way - maybe if you are licking saliva off of a kitchen counter top, but that's really about it.  It's transmitted through inhalation of saliva droplets.   

I am just curious, what science are you using to have two days between guests?   Is that something your state is ordering?  I don't think Walmart or restaurants are allowing more than two seconds between customers.

I love this! STR with a little epidemiology sprinkled in. But how are you defining a hot spot?

“Oh crap you live in Detroit?  Sorry, you can’t come right now.“