All Forum Posts by: Leora Merrell

Have also been very happy with Southpoint. Just had to switch several of our cabins and saved a ton of money. 

Quote from @Ken Boone:

Quote from @Matt Mertz:

Quote from @Ken Boone:

I use Stan Inman with Southpoint Risk out of Knoxville, TN

 Me too!  Good people and good company.

 Yep.  Stan knows what's going on.  

I third this. Just signed paperwork yesterday for two new policies I had up for renewal through Barnes in Pigeon Forge. Stan got me several quotes. I ended up with more coverage and saved a ton of money. He's currently putting a third quote together for me for another cabin. Will also go with him when the rest of our cabins are up for renewal. 

Quote from @Collin Hays:

Quote from @Leora Merrell:

Quote from @Chris Watson:

Quote from @Leora Merrell:

I agree with @Ken Boone. 

For the last 14 months I have watched a development, from the clearing of the the ground to being listed for sale, by one of our properties we just rehabbed. It's about a dozen, identical one bedroom "modern" cabins that sleep 6. They are all about 10 feet apart. Absolutely no view, they're right off the road. They listed them for sale 11 months ago at $699k or something like that. Absolutely insane. They advertised them as turnkey and "guaranteed $65k in income every year." Price then went to $649k. Then to $500 something. They were then delisted then relisted at $529k and now they're $499k with no guarantee but so many seller concessions. They are all still sitting there. It's been interesting.

 I get all the listings everyday and all pending/sold.  I have seen the ones you are talking about go pending and then back on market. $500k for a 1 bedroom even with a view is a stretch. I expect appraisals keep coming back too low for financing and they go back on market. If they wait too long on keeping the price high (above $459k) the appraisal for the 1 bedroom will not top $400k in a few months. 

There are a lot more listings lately in the area market but I am not sure if that will taper as summer comes. I call it the Winter Fear. Low returns like pre covid numbers coupled with low price/high headache guests have scared people to sell. They do not think the juice is worth the squeeze. Now take that and add the new inspection requirements and higher commercial property taxes. It is a perfect storm to separate the wheat from the chaff in the Smokies STR market.

 Re-listed now at $460k. Looks like they still have nearly all of them still available. They've got to be hurting.

Are they still guaranteeing $65K income? I might sign up for that.

Nope! That verbiage has been removed! Down to $449k except for one that’s down to $429k. 

Without knowing the review details, I can’t give you any specific direction. I’ve had a few myself (it happens, especially when you get a crazy). Luckily, most of the time their review says a lot more about the guest than it ever would about any of my properties. I usually say something like, “we encourage future potential guests to read all other guest reviews of our property for an honest assessment of what to expect.” Or something like that. Simple yet effective. 
If something truly was wrong that you could have prevented or handled a lot better, thank them for leaving a review, apologize, own up to the mistake you made, and explain how it’s fixed so it won’t happen to future guest. This response needs to be clear but brief. Do not write up an essay. No one will read it and you’ll come across as the crazy one and as super defensive. 
Hope that helps! Thankfully, these are few and far between if you’re a good host and take care of your property. Don’t sweat it. It’s not worth it. 

Quote from @Kyle Smith:

I stayed at one of the newer hotels in Gatlinburg last night and there were only six people there, including myself.   I also drove around chalet Village and I would say 60 to 70% of the cabins did not have cars parked in front of them.  

Seems normal for May. It’s always been our third slowest month of the year at all of our Smokies properties. I’m not surprised and don’t see a need to be concerned yet based on our June and July bookings so far  

Quote from @Raj Sat:

Quote from @V.G Jason:

Quote from @Mike Anderson:

Quote from @V.G Jason:

My agent refutes all of our fear mongering. She states there's still multiple offers and its a sellers market. That my thinking is still wrong and when I am ready to change my mind, she is here. She also believes that it still hasn't peaked. 

Even though, I know that's very well not true at all. Can you imagine the average Joe peeking into the markets and hearing this? This just creates FOMO. 

 How does she refute the factual data that we can all look at and consider? Whenever i've pressed with actual data they look at me confused then spin the conversation to "inventory is low" which is actually rising too. It's just crazy. 

 To your point and Collins point, I don't trust them they don't make my investment thesis. But to the one's that say agents are responsible, have a fiduciary responsibility to buyers I just laugh and revert back to this. They don't know what they're saying, and that includes 99% on this board too.

 Closed property in Sevierville last month, never trust anyone in this business we need to do our DD before making decisions. Agents have little or no interest  to find out things without you asking for right questions. Within 1 month in listing we already have 30k in bookings. still there are deals. searched for a year before signing to this property.

Glad to hear you didn’t rush into anything and took your time without just trusting an agent. Many listings will still work with excellent returns. We bought our 6th there in late 2022 (peak-ish time) and it’s been awesome. But we took our time and based our purchase off data only. Many realtors in that county are a disaster. So happy it’s working out for you!

May, in general, is a very slow month in the Smokies. Don't start making crazy changes when it's naturally slow. 

This is going to be a fascinating thread. I'm on the mls every day in this area just to make sure I'm in tune with what's going on (we own several in this area and I'm semi-local). Reality still has not set in for most sellers. I just keep seeing more and more pop up for sale at insane prices. 2 bedrooms for $725k that were last bought in 2022 for $695k using a HELOC on their primary to fund the down payment. All the while being coached and encouraged by realtors and even some on these forums to purchase that way. And now the same people are telling them "there's never a better time to sell."
New construction isn’t even moving. I’m still watching the 13 one bedroom cabins I’ve mentioned here before. Started at $625k nearly a year ago. Down to $459k and not a single one has sold yet. It’s too bad. 

@Chris Seveney- we have an str in the Delaplane/Marshall area. I’ve been watching that area too. Thankfully we’re more in wine country and less in Shenandoah (though only 25 mins from the park) and have been totally fine because we capture winery/brewery hopping guests and horse show people. But the Front Royal and Luray areas are going to experience the same thing as the Smokies, IMO. Hopefully not but I don’t see how it can be avoided. 

Quote from @Shawn Parsh:

Leora,

Thank you for the input. Can you elaborate what the set up expenses entail? I'm not against some expenses to get started, I could use the write offs after the last couple flips. 

Furniture, mattresses, pillows, linens, towels, bath mats, soap dispensers, hair dryers, iron, ironing board, vacuum, a FULLY stocked kitchen, TVs, cable, internet, rugs, outdoor furniture, hot tub (maybe?), grill, grill tools, throw blankets, throw pillows, board games….to name a few. 

Don't forget that the gross income shown by Airdna includes cleaning fees. So you'll need to deduct that from your estimate. That will be several thousand alone. @Ke Nan Wang gave some of the best detailed info that I've seen someone give on this forum in a long time. Read, then re-read his post a few times. Your set up expenses will be costly and may sway your decision making.

List on both Airbnb and VRBO.