All Forum Posts by: Jordan Holmes

@Yair Zarmon if you are still looking for an STR investment for 2025, consider Red River Gorge, KY. It has done REALLY well for us so far - might have some options to even build a unique STR property. That is where we are seeing a good amount of profits in today's STR industry. Would love to connect and talk more on this! Either way - I hope you find a place to put that capital and make the best decision for you and your situation.

Happy Sunday everyone!

My name is Jordan Holmes and I'm a short-term rental investor from the great state of Iowa.

My business partner and I primarily focus on unique, experiential properties in Kentucky.

What we have learned is the traditional model of short-term rentals can work to bring in average cash flow numbers, but that is about it. 

This is because more and more hosts are dipping their toes into the giant pool of STRs all the while guest expectations are continuing to rise.

Our solution to combat those problems has been to create unique properties that stand out amongst the crowd and become the destination itself.

What is crazy to us is how many hosts don't realize that this opportunity exists.

So to give back to such an amazing community of STR investors, we decide to form a community and host twice a week calls on Monday and Friday - 100% FREE.

Our goal with this group is to connect with other driven and determined STR investors who are maybe stuck in a rut and don't know how to take their portfolio to the next level.

If you would like to join our weekly calls, we would LOVE to have you. Here is the link to join - it will send you over the call URL and also send you reminders each week for when the calls begin.

- https://buildyourhideaway.com/weeklycalls

Looking forward to seeing you all on the call and helping build an amazing community of investors wanting to raise the bar even higher!

 I'll shoot you a message. Overall, been very impressed with RRG and the revenue it is producing with our strategy.

 @Benjamin Stacey I think the decision to use your money vs OPM comes down to whether using your money for the renovation is the best spot for you to put it to earn a return on your money. If you can use OPM on the renovation at say 7% with plan to pay the principal down in less than a year, then I would invest your personal funds elsewhere into another deal or do something with your current STR to help it stand out.

From my experience, HELOCs scare me but I do know if done the right way they can be very effective.

I'd be happy to chat more on your Smokies STR on how to help make it stand out. My business partner and I focus solely on making properties unique. We actually just added a cool hot tub on top of a boulder at our property out in Kentucky. We have seen a huge bump in reservations since the amenity upgrade.

https://airbnb.com/h/stoic

@Josef Bryan Gerster I think some adjustments in your Revenue Management model could be made to increase desire for mid-week bookings. Offer some discounts during the week and stack discounts if people book more nights.

Also, photography could do wonders for this place. It has all the elements to be great, but it needs photos to do that. Pro tip: don't use just a basic real estate photographer. Use someone who is well-versed in STRs.

We had an STR specific photographer do our properties and it doubled our revenue in one month. Here are a couple of our properties that I'm talking about:

https://www.airbnb.com/h/cooper-pines

https://airbnb.com/h/stoic

I can connect you with the photographer who shot these for us. Just understand the investment will be more than a basic photographer.

Also happy to chat more too if you have questions.

@Aaron Laprade we have had great success in the Red River Gorge in Kentucky. We focus on unique, experiential properties in that market to stand out. Returns have been fantastic and I do believe it is a strong, up-and-coming market not many are talking about.

One thing not many investors talk about with STRS is going the experiential route and leveraging social media to drive tons of bookings. I've actually talked with multiple STR owners in Hocking Hills, OH (very similar market to Red River Gorge) and they are able to get 90% occupancy on some of their properties with the majority funneling in through their Instagram profile.

Another place to look for STRs could be Dahlonega, GA. You would probably need a unique property for that market, but I've seen some 1/1 in that market that are doing $135K to $180K revenue.

Happy to chat more on this if you have questions. Best of luck! Oh and listen to @Dave Foster, he knows a lot and was my go-to guy for the 1031 exchange we did! Except we do need to try and convert Dave from a Kansas State fan to an Iowa State fan, but we will try that another time. :)

@Benjamin Stacey so we utilized a HELOC to get into our first STR deal (different than your situation, but I can relate). My advise would be if you do get a HELOC, have a rock-solid plan to pay it back in full ASAP. We thought our plan was great and we could utilize cash-flow from our first STR to pay it back, but the cash-flow just never came. Resulting in us paying this HELOC back slowly for time being. Long-term plan is to use gains from LP investment we made here in a few months. Also, if you can do a renovation and pull money out to pay it off, I think that would be ideal.

Another idea would be to utilize other people's money for the renovation and then pay them back whatever rate they desire through a simply interest note.

How is the STR doing in the Smokies? When you do renovate, what are the long-term plans with it to have it stand out in such a popular market?

@Ashley Campbell we have seen some tremendous success with STRs, specifically in the unique destination type of properties. We have various properties projected to bring in at least $100K revenue. Most will tell you STRs are a lot of work and I won't disagree with that if you don't know what you are doing.

I will say though, we have been able to put together some rock-solid systems and processes to streamline that to minimize the work and maximize the returns.

My business partner and I are actually writing a chapter in a new book that is coming out this year about unique stays. Happy to chat more if you are interested.

Either way - best of luck with whichever direction you decide to go.