All Forum Posts by: 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.

I have access to it right now for all my properties on VRBO. I spent some time on a Zoom call with my VRBO rep going over it. In many cases, it has my prices higher than Pricelabs. I’m testing it on one property to see how it goes. That said, it doesn’t really save me any money. On Pricelabs by VRBO listings are child listing to my Parent Airbnb listings. So they’re like, $1 a month. But we’ll see if it makes me more money with the ADRs   

I’m mostly testing it to see if it helps with algorithm. I had a property on VRBO absolutely rocking and it has *poof* disappeared on the algorithm out of the blue. So I’m seeing if this helps. 

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.

Quote from @Patricia Andriolo-Bull:

Quote from @Leora Merrell:

When I preview my properties on VRBO I see a scale of 5 but when I preview it on Expedia I see a 10 scale. But I'm pretty sure it's been like that as long as I can remember. Maybe it's in Beta? I'm wondering if they'll eventually just streamline the reviews between the two sites instead of two different ratings. 

Curious…how do you see your listing on Expedia?  I’ve been with VRBO for years and have the setting to share with Expedia but every time I click on the Expedia link my listing isn’t there.  I have checked periodically over the years and even called VRBO (they were no help).  Any suggestions?

 In the VRBO app, click on your listing as if you’re going to edit it or change the details and you will see three dots in the top right corner. Click on that and you should see the options to preview it in VRBO or Expedia. 

When I preview my properties on VRBO I see a scale of 5 but when I preview it on Expedia I see a 10 scale. But I'm pretty sure it's been like that as long as I can remember. Maybe it's in Beta? I'm wondering if they'll eventually just streamline the reviews between the two sites instead of two different ratings. 

If you don't have dressers (we do in all of our STRs but one- that one has several shelves in every closet and that saved space in the bedrooms) at the very least, make sure you have luggage racks. One per guest.

We are about the same as you all- March and April seem slim. But also like you, Hunter, we bought low. And brand new, thankfully. So we're fine but I can't even imagine if I had bought one of our cabins for the crazy prices they were going for in 2022. I'd be so stressed!

Yes, revenue has decreased. Please don't take numbers and advice from realtors in the area, I beg of you. Haha. I would suggest you head over to the short term rentals sub forum on here. It's under the Real Estate Strategies tab. The Smokies are mentioned often. I personally have 6 in the area but I bought before it got crazy. I would guess at $699k you're looking at a 2 or 3 bedroom or if it's 4, it's probably bad condition or a terrible area. DO NOT buy a 2 or 3 bedroom at $699k and think you're going to cash flow much. You can PM me any questions if you'd like.

I would say, for the Smokies, many are already trying to get out. The amount of cabins coming on the market is unreal and it's not even spring yet. I look every day on the MLS (since I am semi-local and am heavily invested in the area) and the most intriguing part of the listing to me is the price history. Most for sale now last sold in 2021 and 2022. They're priced in hopes of the investor getting some sort of equity but priced so the buyer would be consistently losing money. You simply cannot make money on a 2 bedroom cabin you paid $650k+ for (or whatever insane price you paid those years). You probably could have in 2021 and maybe very little in 2022. I know this because I have 5 two bedrooms there.

You could have possibly been lucky to break even in 2023 but now that HELOC on your primary home that you used as a down payment for your cabin is calling at an even higher interest rate than you planned on because the cash flow wasn't what you thought it'd be so it wasn't paid down as quickly as planned. I personally have two friends in this situation. Both are currently trying to get out. It's unfortunate.

Quote from @Ken Boone:

Yea my problem that happened about 18 months ago worked out, but it irks me to think VRBO throws up stuff that is ranked so poorly ahead of properties where the hosts do a knock out job and have tons of 5 star reviews.  That should never happen as far as I am concerned.

Yes, this drives me crazy. I’ll do incognito searches on both Airbnb and VRBO and I’m always surprised how low some front page listings are rated. I’m currently stuck in an algorithm issue on VRBO for one of my Smokies cabins. It was amazing and came to a screeching halt about two months ago. I’ve been working on it and hoping it gets back to normal.