Pursuing VR in Asheville/Brevard, North Carolina...any advice?

[Christian Cascone]

We are actively looking for a vacation rental cabin in the Asheville/Brevard, NC area...although we're scouting as far west as Highlands and as far east as Little Switzerland.  Would prefer to be in Brevard area, but sometimes you have to expand your geographic parameters to find the best opportunities...good thing is that unlike most urban areas...just about anywhere from Highlands to Mt. Mitchell is simply stunning and a vacation haven for rentals.

An unrenovated cabin anywhere in this area with a great mountain or water views can easily command $250-$300/night and up. We're mostly interested in a SFH mountain cabin, rather than a condo (although always open to a multi!).

But have a few questions for the locals, folks that know the area or have invested in VR thereabouts...

--First and most importantly...generally speaking, when are peak rental seasons and how many weeks per year can a good mountain cabin be expected to rent in the area? I understand that the rental seasons may be longer around Asheville/Brevard, than in Highlands/Cashiers given the more mild climate? This is obviously location and property specific, but we're working with partial numbers so far...let's assume you'd want to stay in the cabin on vacation:) If we find a place for $300k with 25% down at 5% interest, conduct $50k of value-add rehab...renting it 12 weeks/year breaks the project even on a cash-flow basis incorporating all costs. We'd need 20 rented weeks/year or ~$3400/month to see double-digit COC...is this realistic?

--What specifically do vacationers look for in the Blue Ridge?  Smaller traditional wood cabins lost in the forests or larger more renovated "HGTV" cottages on paved roads, views, hot tubs, proximity to town/amenities (and micro-brews!), close access to National Parks, golf, fishing, rivers/lakes, bicycles, canoes, boats...et al?  Again, obviously depends on the renters, but what are some trends and most popular requests owners/investors are seeing more recently?

--Noticed that many communities have HOA restrictions, mostly for road maintenance...but several restrict weekly rentals as well. Which towns or areas between Highlands and Mt Mitchell in particular, are especially cabin rental friendly, with great views and property? The hills east of Brevard looking back at the Blue Ridge for example are awesome (we drove and rode the entire area...did an 80-mile bike ride one day!), but many neighborhoods like Sylvan, The Reserve and Straus Park in town restrict rentals via HOA. Same goes for much of Highlands.

--We'd prefer the property be passive and property managed...while this certainly eats into profit (I've already budgeted this into the calcs outlined above), this has worked quite well at our other VR, but we have a great PM.  Any recommendations for great Property Management outfits in the area that we should consider?   Same goes for GC's while we're at it...if anyone has any great recommendations...always like to give the business to the right folks.

Welcome any and all advice...thanks much in advance! Christian 

[Kyle H.]

@Amy Osterberg

Thanks for the links, some great information there.

@Christian Cascone

I live in Bryson City which is a little farther west than your target area but still shares a lot of similarities with your target areas.  My partner and I currently self manage two airbnb rentals in downtown Bryson City and are building a spec home/turnkey rental property in an equestrian development outside of town, and are closing on a property at the end of the month where we will be building 4 vacation rentals on the river here in town.  When we initially stepped out from our custom home building business into the investing space we focused on long term rentals.  On our first property we also built our first vaction rental and we have now shifted our focus due to the higher margins we were finding on our vacation rental.  Our area and the areas you are targeting are highly sought after rental locations.  We are seeing strong demand in our area about 9 months of the year.  March is usually one of our strongest months and the remainder of the year until September is booked consistently.  We have a small lull in September which gives way to our leaf season traffic, which is very busy and we are able to command higher prices through the end of October.  Here in Bryson City we have the Great Smoky Mtn. RailRoad which runs the childrens train the "Polar Express" through the end of the year and keeps town very busy with some 70k plus visitors.

I would echo most of what Amy had to say about the biggest factors to consider for a mountain rental would be  accesability, view, hot tub, fire pits and lastly we have seen a shift from people wanting to be remote to being closer to town.  I would also say that finding a good property manager is worth some extra effort, it can literally make or break your investment.

Here are some pics from our new build, we did a joint venture with our friend who is a property manager here in town.  We will list property for sale/turnkey rental but will also hold as a rental if it doesn't sell.  We are running our numbers off a 50k gross rent, however similar cabins are doing in the neighborhood of 60-65k gross.