First STR in Smokies. Financials posted. Tips, Tricks, Advice?

[Zachary Harr]

Greetings,

My name is Zach and I'm a 35yo Physician Assistant in Ohio. Married with 2 kids. I work at a 501c3 currently in my 8th year of practice. We are looking to use our savings to grow our wealth by investing in more real estate. Have previously owned a Live In Flip that we made 30k on. 

Income: Me- Current annual income of just over 300k for the past 2 years, before that it was in the low 200s. 

                 Wife- Occupational Therapy Assistant income of 50k a year.

Debt:  -160k in student loans. 2 years remaining until this is completely forgiven through Public Service Loan Forgiveness. Wife's student loans are paid off.

            - 15k remaining on my truck at 5%. Wife's vehicle paid off. 

             - 320k remaining on home mortgage at 2.7%. Original home price was 385k.  Plan to live in this home another 20 years until my boys graduate. 

              - No Credit card debt.

Credit Score- mine is 785 average, Wife is 765 average. 

Assets: -200k in 403b account current. Max out 20k per year into this account.    

               - 55k in 3.5 acres around our home that we could sell later, but no plans at the current moment as we like not having neighbors. Our total lot including this acreage is 6 acres. 

               - 50k in VTSAX 

                  - 350k in our checking/savings account. 

I have a friend that has 5 STRs in Smoky Mountains/PCB. My wife and I have been researching by listening to BP, Robuilt channel, reading Short term rental Long term wealth and other books. Did order the new RE By the Numbers book that was on the podcast last week. We are looking at getting in the Smoky Mountains market for a STR. We have already been talking to an agent with Short Term Shop.

I think we are in a good place to get into the market for a 2 bedroom 2 bath STR. Looking to spend around 550k, unless we find a 1B1B that we like that the numbers make more sense. Plan to get this as a second home/vacation home loan, but use as a STR. We would be running the STR ourselves, but will obviously need to assemble our super team.

Am I missing anything? Tips, tricks, or any other advice at beginning this journey? Having just a little trouble pulling the trigger due to current state of the economy, but we have plenty in savings to help with a couple of bad years.

Thanks,

Zach