All Forum Posts by: Luke Carl

All of the above. Pool table is par for the course around here. If you have room get a giant tv a couch and re cover that pool table.

In my market (Gatlinburg pigeon forge) I’ve bought two cabins that were managed by evolved because they were sinking ships costing the owners big money. I turned a 200k property from negative numbers to 40k gross over night. Not everyone is crazy enough to self manage like me lol Just last light I had an instant book. 10 minutes later they’re giving me this long speech about how amazing their dog is and can they bring him with. I said no we are dog free as the listing states. There are 10,000 cabins if you want to bring your dog please cancel and find one this is dog friendly. This went back and forth for an hour before I finally convinced them to cancel. Which is what you have to do. It was an AirBnB. If I cancel them myself they ding me big time and take away my Superhost. So I have to convince them cancel and NOT stay at my property. It wasn’t about the dog. It was the fact that they instant booked and THEN asked me about the dog. Huge red flag and guaranteed trouble. At the very least they would just lie and bring the dog anyway and I don’t want to do business with people like that. Why don’t I turn off instant book? Because AirBnB dings you for that too. Watch Black Mirror Nosedive on Netflix if you want to get an idea what it’s like in the self management business. The good news is I did all of this from the beach in the Cayman Islands with a beer in my hand. It interrupted my book reading for a while, poor me. 10% with evolve is really 50% because you’ll be 40% less booked. Happy renting!

Love to hear what your numbers look like after a full year. I’m in the Pigeon Forge Gatlinburg market and we’re never empty. January and February can be a bit slow if it snows but that’s not common. Very proud of our 12 million visitor never slow season market!

We found it almost impossible to make money in Destin unless you’re talking about paying cash for a million dollar home with water access. Let us know your plan! As far as taxes just let Avalara do it and save yourself the time.

Nancy Bachety Avery Carl let us know when you’re ready for east TN!

This will happen in every metropolitan area eventually. If you’re short term renting in an inner city make sure it’ll cash flow when you have to put long term tenants in it and then you can stop working so hard :)

I only have 5 VR units (cabins in pigeon forge) but I thought I’d share. I use my iPhone, the AirBnB app, and the VRBO app and I do all my work from the can. Not exactly passive. It takes about 5 minutes a day but I can do it from anywhere. Like right now I’m in the Cayman Islands. Retired at 37. Doesn’t suck!

I didn’t read all of the replies so I’m sure someone had a similar reply but that’s a terrible idea. My Vacation Rentals are booked. They’re always booked. That’s why I’m retired at 37 and on the beach in the Cayman Islands as I’m typing this. If I owned one of these condos on the beach that I’m staying in down here there’s no way I’d have any money lol. Don’t mix business and pleasure. If you’re staying in your own property you’re losing money. They only time I personally stay in mine is when I’m doing work on one like swapping out appliances and I need a day or two and I’m too cheap to pay the maintenance man for a job I can easily do because I’m retired. I’ll also stay in them if friends want to come party with us but I’m a jerk about it and make sure they realize it’s not free just because I own it. Cheers from the islands. And thanks to my homes and my guests and tenants for the early retirement. And thanks to BP for the amazing podcast.

@Matt Hoiles @Scott Davis you guys want @Avery Carl. She’ll close 16 million in cabins this year and has all the systems you need. I’m sure  @Chuck Kramer  people are great but my first question to them would be; How many cabins do they own and self manage..... and I’ll bet you eight bucks the answer is zero. Avery owns and self manages 5 and she’s got an MBA and she’s currently on the beach in the Cayman Islands because she’s retired at 30. Which is why we’re all on this website after all. 

I hate to be the guy that gets off topic but why no VRBO? Booking.com is laughable in my market