STR Cabin House Hack / TN Smokey Mountains

[Matthew Dunn]

Dear BP Community, I've been doing buy and hold multifamily for the last few years and also just closed on a 59 unit apartment building last month. However over the last 6 months or so I've been studying the STR strategy with the intent on buying in the Pigeon Forge area of TN. Predominant reason being we love the Smokey Mountains ourselves, we enjoy going there and specifically picked the TN side for the shear amount of vacationers that pass through and it's mostly consistent rental volume throughout the year.

We're currently under contract on a cabin in Wears Valley on 2 acres which has a 3/2 cabin, but also a 1000+ soft loft apartment above the garage. Our plan would be to rent the house, and the loft separately as two separate rentals. However I'm nearing wanting to quit my W2 so we are thinking we could house hack the loft while still maintaining the main house as a STR.

We in due diligence currently but set to close first week of October. The kicker is this residence is not currently a rental so we'll need to kit it out in the week we'll have when we visit post close. Since this will be our first STR and we plan to self manage initially out of state it would be great to connect with some other local TN Smokey Mountains investors!

I see there are a few cabin investors in the forums and I’d like to give a shout out to Avery and Lucas Carl for getting us to this point, we wouldn’t of got this far without you! 

My biggest obstacle has been the analysis part of this business, give me a regular multifamily property and I’m good to go, but this is such a different concept and it has me a little outside of my comfort not having that 12 mo lease and a sizable debt service and utilities to pay! 

Look forward to connecting..

Matt