All Forum Posts by: Tim Schroeder

Here is the spreadsheet I put together last year when I was deciding whether to keep buying additional cabins. It makes a really good case for the area's resilience. The Lodging revenue is from the Pigeon Forge city website and encompasses ALL taxable lodging revenue, as such I think it's a pretty good indicator of overall rental income. A 14% drop in area income during the greatest recession this country has ever seen is getting off pretty damn lightly IMHO. Now, if your profit margin was 14% or less to begin with, then you would disagree with me, and the high number of foreclosures shows that many people were in that position. But I would argue you shouldn't be in vacation rentals with that little margin in the first place. Restaurant and National Park numbers with very modest drops shows that people still went to the Smokies, even during the recession. By comparison, a quick Google search told me that Hawaii lost 30% of visitor visits during the recession. So for me the takeaway is as long as your margin is comfortably high, the Smoky's can ride out any storm. And as a side note, if it's not higher than LTR, why are you doing it?

BP wouldn't let me post pics so here are links to the screenshots, and the underlying spreadsheet.

Link to Data      Link to Chart      Link to Spreadsheet

I had two cancellations worth over $2k each in the last two days for stays this month.

This is Real Estate community forum, not a VRBO support forum. VRBO *has* a support forum. I think it would be more appropriate to post about technical glitches there. Peace.

I read that article today too. AirBNB's are getting hit hard with cancellations (myself included) however I predict I will re-fill those dates once the hysteria dies down. But yes, vacation rentals in drive-to locations will clearly be more resilient. Nobody wants to fly to Maui on a plane with hundred's of potential infections all around but they won't mind driving 5-10 hours to the mountains.

Spectrum all day long. One system, no contract. It's not even a competition, unless you can't get Spectrum.

@Mark Miles I have been toying with this for a while. Thanks for the post! Can you recommend your favorite sites for finding assistants?

Oh OK now that seems fair, LOL. 

I see. I have been thinking about something similar with my bro-in-law and some friends of mine. The thing is, you're kind of double-dipping. You're being paid 25% of gross for managing (a fair rate), AND you're getting 50% of equity (and presumably 50% of net profit). Also a fair rate. That's a hellofa deal. Seems too good to be true. Mind you, I'm not criticizing, I'm just thinking out loud. I too was recently trying to get my head around what would be fair. The management off the top definitely is. But is it fair for you to get a huge equity stake, capital appreciation, profit (at no risk and with no skin in the game) AS WELL AS being paid a nice management fee?  I don't know the answer, but that's what you have to ask yourself.