All Forum Posts by: Allan Smith

I have had multiple STRs in the nashville area. In davidson county most people book an STR to be close to downtown or at least close to somewhere cool as a secondary priority (like 5 points or 12 south for example).

If you have an STR in white house it's going to need to make up for location. If it is a woodsy getaway that's great, like a cabin. Or maybe it's on a ridge with a view. Or maybe it has a theatre and sauna or something. But anyone who books that is either going to pay next to nothing to be 25 minutes from all the stuff to do, OR, they will book it for the amenities and probably plan to stay in.

Probably 90% of my guests in nashville have booked for location. They wanted to be close to stuff to do/eat, or be close to work.

New Western or Canvas alert.

I don't have a solution but I think a real estate attorney or a title attorney would be a good person to talk to. Especially if they are an investor as well. I've used Magnolia title a lot, Josh Hunter is the owner and has bought properties.

The weird thing about the tax professional is that they are saying the value has to be 400k but i don't see why. It's your books to report how you want, and to me it's not not illegal at all to do what you are doing.

I have some thoughts on this. I got my GC license a couple years ago so I could build houses myself as I was sick of dealing with contractors.

I've hired plenty of contractors that were not licensed/insured and it went fine. I think there is a common misunderstanding that licensed contractors cost more. Not exactly. Licensed contractors have more of their "shtuff" together and thus are better at their job and naturally will cost more. The license doesn't cost more, the service and quality does.

And a note on that cost, in my experience hiring contractors, only a small percentage of the cost savings was due to finding the right guy who is willing to work for less. Every time, most of the cost difference was quality. I had an electrician run wires in an attic, telling me up front that the house won't be up to codes, he's only doing the one or two things I asked. Little did I know even on the brand new wires he was running, he was twisting them together with no junction box! This guy wasn't any cheaper. He was more expensive because now I gotta pay someone else to fix it.

But here's the other side of the license issue. It's very cheap and not difficult to maintain bond/license/insurance. So if this guy doesn't have them, it's a bit surprising. If he's only doing bathroom remodels, that would make sense to not bother. But anyone who considers themselves a GC for hire, it's a bit odd they wouldn't first get their ducks in a row, it's quite easy.

If it was me, I wouldn't worry about him not being licensed/insured, I would just make sure to vet him. Talk to other clients, go look at his current job site and see how clean it is, the quality of work, if the order of operations is making sense so far, etc.

PS I'm a GC in the Nashville area and can take on a handful of clients in 2025 if you need me.

 Darnell, did you get your questions answered? I develop land in Nashville from finding the deals, getting all the entitlement and permits, financing it, to building it in house with my GC license. Give me a shout if you have questions, but here's the short of it.

Best financing is going to be from a bank or a conventional construction loan. I get commercial loans from banks.  They will look at the ENTIRE cost of the project and calculate what they can offer you in loan amount. Some don't like to loan on the land at the beginning, but can later on. You will need probably 20% of total cost (Not including financing costs. 80% LTC) as the down payment. I've done a few so I'm typically offered 90% LTC.

If anyone needs a GC once the designs are done I can build/renovate the project. I focus mostly on being a builder these days.

I have been flipping and building houses mostly for myself in the Nashville and Davidson County area. As I have expanded my team, we have margin to take on a handful of clients in 2025, and can start our next project as early as Feb 1st.

We have a streamlined process to keep costs down, making it more affordable for you. Details are everything and you can trust it will be a quality product with reliable communication throughout the process so you can focus on the big picture. All work is warrantied. 

I've gone through all the zoning/permitting processes multiple times so I can assist with that as well.

I'm renewing my LOC on one of my rentals with a local community bank through their commercial banking dept. They want 1% origination points plus a bunch of other usual fees like title work. They already did the title work when i got it originally, I'm not asking for an increase or anything. Real estate here has exploded in the 3 years since I got the LOC.

paying 5 - 7% in fees for a $95k or so LOC seems ridiculous to me??

Does it allow NOO STR permit?

Why is no one talking about how a smoke detector doesn't stop the fire? Insurance can't deny a claim because something didn't beep. House burns down either way, smoke detector just makes sure no one is in it.

I would be getting a lawyer if it was me and making sure that insurance money comes through. It's not like smoke detectors can call the fire dept or something.