All Forum Posts by: Joshua Strickland

I pay my handyman team to go by once per month. $75 trip charge and give them a NTE of $200. If it’s less than 200 go ahead and fix it, over 200 give me a call. Is it expensive, yes. Do I sleep better at night, also yes.

Certain lenders are doing these based off STR income now too. Host, Visio, The Lender, plenty others.

And yes they are a tick higher, but if .25 - .75% makes the loan not a good deal then the property was probably not going to work either way.

Buy in the place that you'd rather personally vacation. Either way it will be very deal dependent. I personally don't like HELOCs. It's financing your down payment which can cause a cycle of debt that is hard to get out of. All of your profit will be going back to paying off your HELOC which is sort of a bummer. If you do a HELOC I'd shoot for a fixed rate and not variable, though most I've seen are variable.

What if there is not a “correction”? 

I use pricelabs. It will change your life. Best $20/month I spend.

I used Airbnb SEO which is sort of like Rankbreeze. Definitely got me some bookings.

I'll preface this with I've been "strategically lucky" in riding the appreciation wave over the past 2 years, but there is opportunity in any market, you just have to know how and where to look, and be patient. 

4/2 cabin in Pigeon Forge purchased in May 2020 with 10% down - $38k. Made $100k revenue in 14 months and sold last year for $265k profit not including what I made from renting. 1031 into a PCB condo and buildable land in PF. 

(that was my 2nd best deal over the past 2 years)

Purchased land in PF in Oct. 2020. Built 4/3 cabin for just under $550k (cash plus private loan). Waiting on final cash out appraisal next week. Should be somewhere between $900 - $1.1. Could potentially cash out a couple hundo at 75% LTV, but I'll probably leave most of the equity in it and just take my cash invested out. I eventually want to own all my properties out right. Call me crazy, but I am a big Dave Ramsey financial peace fan.

Potential for my newest build, 6/6 pool cabin in PF, to surpass both of those in total equity created unless the market tanks in the next 12-18 months. Build for $300-350/ sf and new construction currently can go for over $450+/ sf.

I had analysis paralysis for about a year before starting. Could have bought into the marketing tanking fear during Covid, but the I thought the data said otherwise so I took my shot. Getting started and not overleveraging was the best thing I could have done. It gets a lot easier after your first deal.

The Smokies are not for the faint of heart. The ROI is definitely there. There are as many sources/reasons that this area is still a good buy as there are reasons this area is at its peak. I'm still investing here though. Just have to get creative with how to maximize your cash flow.

Stay out of Sevierville. We are full and no money to be made anymore! Just kidding. In all seriousness I like Sevierville. A lot of money is being poured into it right now for development. Like new attractions development that will bring more tourist to the area in addition to cabin building. Just don’t let FOMO allow you to make a bad decision. 

I would have liked to see what the messaging was like pre booking if there was any. If instant book then oh well, but I could see someone that was doing these types of things asking some interesting questions pre booking. Have to screen your guests when you can.