All Forum Posts by: Adam Payne

@Kristy Reilly our cabin is not within city limits, and the county's property taxes aren't all that bad...at least not by my standards. I have no idea what Knoxville taxes are like, so my comparison might be different. If you don't like tourists, though, don't look at Blowing Rock. We never use our cabin ourselves. September is literally 100% booked...no open nights. But we bought ours as an investment and not to use ourselves. So that is a good thing for us. Just something to think about.

Hey guys. Sorry for the late response; life has been busy lately. 

@Keith N. @Terri Sawyer 

Watauga county, where our cabin is, actually banned short term rentals for a couple of months. That makes our year look pretty bad compared to last year. However, things opened back up roughly a month ago. August is our best month on record, and September has 0 open nights. 0...that's 100% occupancy. We can't do any better than that. Keep in mind, though, that we are AirBnB superhosts, our cabin has one of the lowest nightly rentals in the area, and we allow 1 night stays. Some of those things are unpopular, but it is working for us at the moment. 

As for buying... I am a home inspector who works along the 321 corridor from Hickory to Boone (and a little beyond...). The market is really weird right now. Agents are consistently telling me that inventory is low. When things come on the market that are priced fairly, they are going withing 24 hours (for the most part). This is a seller's market right now. I'm not suggesting not to buy, just pointing that out. It seems to me that creativity in buying would be key right now. 

A guideline that I saw around the time we bought was to evaluate the property as a long term rental. If the numbers work for that, it will likely work for STR. The longer we do it, the more that makes sense.

@Ryan Warrenburg Our little cabin has done really well. Our place is quite small, only around 900 square feet (2 bed, 2 bath), so our nightly rate is under $100. That being said, we are almost 100% booked for August. Prior to the COVID shutdown, we were working on raising our rates. We decided to leave them alone for now to see what happens. Over the past year, our occupancy has stayed somewhere in the neighborhood of 80% (excluding COVID). We have had our share of headaches since our cabin was built in the 30's. But, once my business gets on its feet, we hope to look into adding more STRs in the area to our portfolio. There's something to be said for that.

Hey guys. I'm a little late to this party (busy launching a new business). I might not be able to make this Friday's meeting, but I'm interested in joining in on future meetings. My wife and I have a little STR in Blowing Rock, and the business I just launched is a home inspection business covering Catawba, Caldwell, Watauga, and some surrounding counties. Anyway, it would be cool to meet you guys...that is if all you App grads don't mind a Georgia Southern grad crashing the party.

Side bar, @Tristan S., I talked to Tyler Bryson at Blowing Rock Real Estate the other day. He mentioned that someone told him I sent them to him (I assume it was you based on what he told me). Anyway, he was grateful for the referral, so thanks for that. 

Nice! We do a little investing in that area, too. Did you have any trouble finding reliable contractors? 

Hey @Terry N. Blowing Rock is a fairly hot market, so there's a chance you are on to something there. Just look real close at comps. There is a lot of variance from one neighborhood to the next. 

As for agents, check out Tyler Bryson with Blowing Rock Real Estate. My wife and I have used him, and so have my wife's parents. He comes across as quite laid-back, but he worked hard for us. 

https://blowingrockrealestatenc.com/about-us

@Doug Garrison We manage ourselves, but use a cleaning service up there who has been absolutely amazing. If you get a STR up and running up there, I cam put you in touch with them. We live about an hour away from BR, and if it wasn't for that whole well drilling issue, I'd only need to go up there about once a month or so (probably less, but I like to keep an eye on things since this is our first one). I'd say its totally do-able for you from Greensboro.

As for your friend on the coast, I'm going to go out on a limb and say they do only week-long rentals...? We allow daily rentals, and I think that (along with our rates) is why our occupancy is so high. It is more hassle, but in Blowing Rock, people mostly want 2-3 nights at a time. We used to live on the SC coast, and we have on our radar to look into STR down there. We've seen the same thing there with people only wanting to rent homes out for a week at a time.

@Tristan S. we have been on AirBnB for almost exactly a year with our 2 bed/2 bath cottage. Our occupancy rate is fantastic (hovers around 80-90% for most of the year (going from memory; no numbers in front of me at the moment)), but our rent still reflects "get to know you" prices (i.e. we are intentionally under priced to build AirBnB ratings and develop some regular customers). We also had a horrible experience having to drill a well that meant we had to dump $10k into cap. ex. while our cottage sat empty for the first 6 months we owned it. That was a sour experience that I still taste.

There is a bit of a slow-down in winter, but not as much as we anticipated. We had a handful of tenants who came up for a long weekend in Jan/Feb just so they could see the snow. Plus, we are close to App Ski Mountain, so I think we get a few rentals for that.

In the end, we should show a net profit by the end of this year. I've mentioned this in other posts, but I will work harder to buy a better deal on the next one. 

@Tristan S. we have a STR with a Blowing Rock address that is outside of the city limits. We are not in an area with an HOA, so I have no information on that. You'll have to check with the individual HOAs where you're investing. As for the county, I echo what @Julie McCoy said. I have found nothing so far that limits us using AirBnB (which we use exclusively), but do your own research. Do not trust me or any other individual in this forum as the ultimate authority. I am not an attorney, Watauga county official, or anyone with authoritative knowledge on the subject. 

@Julie McCoy has a really good point. With the steep elevation on often rocky soil up there, septic permitting and construction can be a beast.