Coronavirus (STR - give me piece of mind please friends?)

[Alan Ford]

So, let me preface this by saying that I think this whole thing is likely a bit overblown and I am by no means a doomsayer the world is ending etc. I currently own two STRs in Pigeon Forge area and @Avery_Carl helped me with finding a lot, developer etc and contacts for a purchase and construction loan to build a new property. Big four bedroom luxury cabin with view, outdoor living area, all the bells and whistles - paying about $750k total, includes everything to be turnkey. Appraisal likely in the 800K+ range. Single close construction loan, 20% down 3.5% Interest only during build with automatic conversion to 3.5% fixed 30 year loan when construction is done.

I won't go into all the details but my family thinks I am "insane", "stupid", Short-sighted" to invest in another property with what is going on in the world with this virus.

I should also add that I do plan to use this as a vacation home for myself as well - and if my STR empire dreams pan out - my eventual personal residence. The mortgage on this place is lower than my mortgage here in CA and the property taxes...forget about it!

What do you guys think? I am kind of thinking that if this thing gets so bad that people stop vacationing in East TN - the world has bigger problems than this...

I more than likely will ignore the family, but wanted to get your guys thoughts and help me with a gut check!

[Ken Boone]

It is totally overblown.  You have foreign governments giving stats you can't trust.  

Just compare with the flu.  You can get the stats from the  CDC here:

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/...

The CDC flu estimates for the 2019-2020 flu season between October 1st 2019 through Feb 15, 2020 looks like this:

29 - 41 million flu illnesses

13 - 19 million flu medical visits

280k-500k flu hospitalizations

16k-41k flu deaths

So that is 16,000 - 41,000 flu deaths in just the USA in 4.5 months.

These stats fluctuate every year depending on how bad the flu strains are in any given year.  So the coronavirus doesn't even touch these flu numbers.  You don't hear the media freaking out about the flu and just look at those numbers.

All the main stream media seems to do these days is just report a bunch of hype over any given topic that pops up.

I am not letting it bother me at all.