All Forum Posts by: Kyle H.

@Leland S. What is your ceiling height on the ground floor?  I have an up/down duplex where I had the same issue.  We had built the unit ourselves and had done some sound mitigation as well during construction but it ultimately was not sufficient.  We had a 10' ceiling height on the ground floor and ended up dropping a ceiling below the existing floor to decouple the new ceiling from the floor joists.  We ended up just doing a shiplap ceiling to eliminate having to drywall and filled the cavity between the two ceiling with rockwool and it has made a pretty substantial difference that wasn't crazy expensive and was a two day project due to eliminating the need to finish drywall.  

@Cory Churchill I'm still bullish on the Bryson City market (I live, work, and invest here) but you definitely need to make sure you get your numbers right and make sure you are getting a good property.  Lower quality products have seen super low occupancy numbers as of late.  

@Arpit Guglani

I'm assuming you are referencing the four plex on Bryson Ave. There are not a lot of folks here in town in expansion mode due to our oversaturation and downward pressure on ADRs. If you can make the four plex pencil as long term I would say that you might have some legs on transitioning that building to an STR down the road. That street is definitely in a transition phase and given the current market conditions in my opinion you would have to discount units in that building to a point where it wouldn't make sense as a STR. I have a couple friends who have made way under listing offers and nothing has stuck to this point. That being said we have such a shortage of LTR that I see value in that building and maybe you can do a mix of LTR/MTR/STR and make the numbers work.

@Erica Calella My market is specifically Bryson City and I would say the general sentiment here is that we are seeing a high level of last minute bookings across smaller properties with larger properties seeing more booked occupancy ahead of time.  This has been the trend recently and can definitely cause some booking anxiety for owners.  In my area the amount of inventory has had a high impact on off season bookings, with a tremendous amount of price pressure chasing bookings. Anecdotally I can see 8 vacation rentals from my personal residence and across the eight they have been booked less than 20 days since 1/1.   My personal opinion is that the demand is there for the high season and we will have normal occupancy for the summer/fall.  Just for reference I have 10 properties and all are 2BR and 1BR.

@Erik H. There are quite a few variables built in to your questions. There a very few pad ready lots here in the area, and even fewer pad ready with utilities.  We try to break down things for people building here into the physical home cost and getting the site/utilities ready.  The site prep can vary wildly using your terms depending on what is needed.  Low end contractors here are quoting $200/sq/ft plus for the build alone and not including site prep or land.  I would say for a 1200 sq/ft home to expect 8 months but be happy if its done in 6.  While I am not a fan of log homes or all wood interiors, that style still plays well here in the rental market.  We have built quite a few modern style homes for ourselves and clients that have done really well.  From a rental perspective things have gotten a little tough here with the oversaturation and I would be very conservative from an underwriting perspective if this is a straight investment.  I feel that the 2BR/2BA covers the most bases from a booking perspective and I would echo @Mitch Davidson with making sure you are standing out from the crowd with your location, view, design, furnishing and amenities.  In the Bryson area I would suggest not being any further from town than 15 minutes.@

@Alan Santini

Ridenour & Goss PLLC out of Sylva

@Carmen Veurink

If you want a local contact. Jason Boston at the Bryson City Farm Bureau office has handled our portfolio of STR/LTR and some of our commercial insurance in Bryson for years and is very responsive and knowledgeable.

@Arpit Guglani 

Lots of good advice in the thread, I've been building in the area since 2004 and investing here since 2013, I'm still bullish on Bryson City but we have pulled back from building any more STRs for our portfolio currently.  I also have quite a few of sub 500 sq ft builds and a container home that do extremely well on price to rent ratio, but were all built prior to 2021.  Bryson can be extremely frustrating to build and manage properties and I live here, have a construction company and a large sub network (my rentals in Canton and Hendersonville are way easier to manage due to the locations actually having reliable subs).  I think this is a great place for an investment property but you will need to temper expectations for a ground up build and property management and I would not expect strong cash flow out of the gate.  I would highly recommend finding property within 10-15 minutes of downtown. On the plus side, Swain County is one of the easiest places to build from a permit/building inspections perspective in western NC.    

@Kyle Wise Good summary of Bryson and some of the problems and highlights.  From a residents perspective the town has transformed incredibly since I moved here in 2002.  From an investor standpoint our amenities are still lacking big time from the surrounding areas and I see no quick solution.  I for one am enjoying town not being the zoo it was the last couple of years but also lamenting the $ that was rolling in.  I think there are some good things on the horizon but we are always going to be the slower side of the Smokies and I do think that the next 12-24 months are going to be rough.  There are still a large number of STRs in the construction phase right now so more supply is on it's way.   

@Kelly Olson

I would definitely get their current calendar to verify some numbers.  As @Mitch Davidson alluded to, it's crazy slow here right now.  We have had a boom of listings over the last couple weeks of people trying to sell on a trailing 12 month or 2022 numbers that based on my opinion weren't up to handling the current occupancy trend.  I'm assuming your referencing the house on Breedlove, which is a good location and a nice home, I believe it will probably sell at close to list if I were to offer an opinion.