SALLY!!! Any Gulf Shores/Orange Beach peeps here?

Question

My wife and I jumped into the STR market this year and have been having a blast learning all about it.  Our first place was a condo in Gulf Shores we closed on about a month ago.  We are in the process of working with Avery's team (they all rock) to get a couple of cabins in the Smokies as well.  Our place in Gulf Shores started off well until we got hit head on by Sally the other day.  We still don't have word on the condition of our unit yet, but our building was hit really hard.  An entire exterior wall is gone for five stories exposing all of the interiors of those units completely.  We are shut down for the foreseeable future until cleanup and repairs can be done....both of which are extremely extensive.  It has been devastating for sure, but we are remaining positive and looking for all the good out of it.  Is anyone else on here dealing with Sally as well?  Anyone else dealt with other natural disasters?

Anne M Stenzel · Answer

Navarre Beach checking in!  Our second floor condo (top floor) did not sustain any damages other than the ice in the icemaker melting on the kitchen floor due to no power.  My cleaner checked again today as the power (and AC) is back on.  We were very lucky.  Properties located on the sound side sustained severe flooding.  Most of the gulf side properties sustained more wind damage (shingles, siding, signage blown off, etc).

Tim Grillot · Answer

@Luke Carl  Thanks!  Our place was on the national news the other night!  lol, not how we planned on kicking this deal off!  Looking forward to working with you all when we get locked in on a cabin.  We are working with Julie, and she is a badass!  We were under contract on one, but it ended up having quite a bit of structural/foundation issues, so we are back on the search.  Good luck on your unit in Mobile.  We have been doing long terms for a few years and just jumped into this market.  We like it, but stuff like this is not for the faint of heart!

Julie McCoy · Answer

@Tim Grillot What I admire about you and Patti is even with these crazy hard knocks you're encountering, you have a great attitude and you keep moving forward!  We're going to find you somewhere awesome in the Smokies, and hopefully like @Nancy Bender said the worst thing you have to deal with is bears.  You're both badass yourselves and are going to be great STR owners!

Luke Carl · Answer

@Tim Grillot I did have a duplex get hit by a tornado 3 weeks after closing on it. At this point it’s in good shape and crankin and just a good story to tell. Hoping to add to your optimism.

Nancy Bender · Answer

Oh wow! Saw that on the news. Definitely not the greatest way to start. In the smokies you will just deal with bears(hopefully!)Buying my second there with Julie very soon too. Best of luck!

Tim Grillot · Answer

@Luke Carl thanks man!!  2020 has been rough, no option other than to push forward.  We live an hour north of you guys in Bowling Green KY.  We also got nailed by the tornados this spring...we had one go right through our property the same night as the Nashville tornados.  Lost our house roof, our entire barn, 75ish trees, and my truck got crushed!!  I chainsawed for a week straight!  Just gotta keep grinding!!  Good thing is the day job has been on fire!!

@Julie McCoy you have been fantastic to work with.  We beyond appreciate you!! The right place will hit when it’s right..until then you are stuck with us..! Bring on those bears!!!  Haha!!

Dan H. · Answer

We used to have a STR duplex on the beach of gulf shores.   It got hit by 2 hurricanes around 15 years ago around a year apart.  We sold shortly after completing the repairs after the 2nd hurricane.

Our experience is that contractors made promises to do the work, but did not.  We had virtually zero progress prior to going there and taking charge of the rehabs.   Hopefully things go better for OOS investors in Gulf Shores now, but best to be warned and not need the warning than to be unaware.

We loved our units at Gulf Shores.  Sorry that it once again was damaged by another hurricane.

Good luck

Tim Grillot · Answer

No, just same building, our unit is in the center facing the gulf.  Not sure exactly how the assessment/insurance works as this is our first condo....I'm sure we will learn shortly!  I heard lighthouse was hit hard too with lots of damage so you might have dodged a bullet!  We just stayed at lighthouse a few months ago on a shopping trip!

Ross Kerne · Answer

Wow! Were one of those units yours, or just in that building? That is a massive failure of the structure, so please share some details when you have it. I hope the assessments are not too bad for you.

We have a unit at Tidewater in Orange Beach. I am still waiting to hear how our building/unit weathered the storm, but we should know this weekend since our property manager is survey all of their properties right now.

We had a 3B3B at Lighthouse in Gulf Shores that we just sold last month. We sold the week everyone went back to school, and a few weeks before Sally, which turned out to be great timing. I was not happy to sell our 3B3B, but we walked away with great equity, and I feel like we dodge a big bullet with this storm. I don't know if we'll have an assessment for Tidewater yet, but at least we don't have a second property down their to worry about being vacant right now.

If the power is not on soon, we going to bring a generator to run a AC window unit to try to keep the mold down.

SALLY!!! Any Gulf Shores/Orange Beach peeps here?

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