Areas near the Smoky mountains for STR

[David Rutledge]

Hi everyone,

I wanted to get some insight about some areas around the Smoky mountains specifically for STRs.My wife and I have 3 cabins in the Sevierville/PF/GAT area and they do extremely well. We love the area and want to buy 3 more in the next year or so. The issue we are finding at the moment is the prices and availability of the cabins we are looking for are very hard to come by(smaller one bedrooms or studios in the sub 350K range).

As much as we love the area we have been considering widening our net a little to other nearby areas that are perhaps at a biut of a lower price point. I have looked into Maggie Valley in NC but know very little about it. I would be interested to hear other investors experience in the area or any insight about the potential return we could be looking at.

The appeal of the TN side for us has been the fact that there seems to be demand year round, we literally have over 95% occupancy for all our cabins and are doing better than we ever imagined when we first purchased (hence the reason we want to build our portfolio in the area) It is these reasons that we are very reluctant to even think about moving to another area but I just wanted to do a little background digging to see if it may be worth further investigation. The current price point is tough to swallow right now.

Any insight for/against or other areas around the Smokys would be very much appreciated.

Thanks everyone.

David

[Nancy Bender]

Following. Maggie Valley sounds interesting to me too, but it doesn’t have near the amount of visitors as the Pigeon Forge area, and the taxes are higher 

[David Rutledge]

Yeah it is so hard to beat the PF area. It has spoilt us....

[Michael C.]

@David Rutledge

Inventory is extremely tight in the Smokies. We are running into the same issues and have to be creative trying to expand our portfolio through direct mailers and social media. Good investment properties on MLS go under contract in less than 24 hours with multiple offers.

It’s an extremely bullish sign to be at all time highs and tight inventory.

[David Rutledge]

Yes it does worry me a bit with how high the prices are getting but the numbers still work.