Land and building a cottage in Bryson city

[Arpit Guglani]

Hey folks,

i am considering buying some land in or close to Bryson city NC and building the most low maintenance, durable dwelling on it. Something not too big (a prefab cabin/ maybe a steel cabin - enough room for me and the wife to comfortably stay for a month or so while we go kayaking every day.

i will be putting it up for STR for the rest of the time to recoup some of the cost.

I have bought SFH in a city before but never land, and never had anything built from scratch. Would love advice on whether this is a good plan, what structure to get built, what to expect in terms of cost, what to look out for while buying land etc.

[Kyle H.]

@Arpit Guglani 

Lots of good advice in the thread, I've been building in the area since 2004 and investing here since 2013, I'm still bullish on Bryson City but we have pulled back from building any more STRs for our portfolio currently.  I also have quite a few of sub 500 sq ft builds and a container home that do extremely well on price to rent ratio, but were all built prior to 2021.  Bryson can be extremely frustrating to build and manage properties and I live here, have a construction company and a large sub network (my rentals in Canton and Hendersonville are way easier to manage due to the locations actually having reliable subs).  I think this is a great place for an investment property but you will need to temper expectations for a ground up build and property management and I would not expect strong cash flow out of the gate.  I would highly recommend finding property within 10-15 minutes of downtown. On the plus side, Swain County is one of the easiest places to build from a permit/building inspections perspective in western NC.