All Forum Posts by: Kyle H.

@Kyle Wahl

I just finished 3 modular builds. 2 capes (two box) with us finishing the upper floor and a two story (four box).  Vertical costs came in at $137/ft for capes and $153 for the two story, with fairly high end finishes.  There have been resulting price increases to the box costs and construction costs since we ordered and finished these units and would estimate at least 15-20% increase if we were to start over today.

@Aris Alexiou

Just for context everyone is making sense, however I have been on the builder side of a 51/49 split of a similar situation. However the investor deploying the capital got 5% on all $ loaned to the project. In a real world example for me with a 67k net after financing my % ended up around 33% if you add the financing proceeds back to the investors total (the investors return was 18% COC and basically all they did was write checks). You need to decide if you want to do the project yourself which would obviously be cheaper, or bring someone to the table to earn their portion of the deal, and determine if you could have a more passive investment with less return or more active with higher return. I would absolutely not do the deal this way unless you were getting 5-6% on any money loaned to deal, have at least 51% ownership and a high level of confidence with the person you are doing business with. As an aside this structure was pitched by the investor to my partner and I as we had an existing relationship with him, he wanted to be completely hands off and we had a return that we estimated for the project that fit his comfort level for the amount of capital deployed in the way we set up the deal.

@Cale Jacobsen  

There are plenty of us making $ on this side of the mountain. My entire portfolio is based in Bryson City and the market has been very good to us, and there are still a "few" cash flowing properties to be had direct off the MLS. I would consider Bryson to be on a 10 month cycle for rental occupancy. January and February are basically weekend only bookings, however the remainder of the year runs at high occupancy. Like anywhere else seeing investors pouring in, location, amenities and standing out from the crowd are paramount to making $.

@Shayne Meeker 

Most are charging around 25% +/-.  Feel free to PM if you have any questions.

@Scott Pavich  like @Jordan Lockaby says its a small town, the two companies she mentioned plus Watershed Cabins are ok but charge very high rates.  There are a few cleaning services popping up, but have heard very few glowing reviews, and the same goes for handyman service companies.  I live/work/invest here and we still struggle with finding enough help on the cleaning side, and luckily we have a construction company and handle all our own maintenance and have a network of specialty subs we can call on.  I have been recommending people who wish to invest here, either spend some time here interviewing/bringing cleaners on site to their property while they are here or sunk cost the first year with a management company to give them some time to set a team up.  There is a lot of room for cleaning/handyman businesses here, but no one has really filled the void yet, leaving most folks tied to local management.  

@Marina Feldberg get the largest Speed Queen top loader you can find, they are really good machines.

@NaTarrio Jones I have an up/down duplex that I rent LT upstairs and STR down. Noise transfer is a big issue and we actually built the unit and spent quite a bit of money on soundproofing, I haven't pulled the trigger yet but we are going to drop an additional ceiling in the bedrooms (downstairs unit has 9'6" ceilings) to try to mitigate more of the noise. As others have said being extremely open and upfront in the STR listing about the unit will be helpful. The STR is our least profitable STR due to being a shared wall situation, but it still does much better than LT. We also use extended stays to fill in vacancy gaps during our slow season. I will never build another up/down duplex, I just don't think it's possible to isolate the noise like you can with a side by side.

@Hunter Melton great advice from everyone already. I personally don't own a property with that kind of driveway but there are tons of them in my county/local area and I have a handful of friends who own STR's with this kind of scenario. Biggest takeaway from their experiences are being upfront about the driveway and having contingency plans for snow/ice/power outages. One of my best friends has a lodge on a north facing slope with a super steep driveway and has had people stranded for multiple days due to the road situation in addition to losing power at the same time. Needless to say he now has a whole house generator, multiple sources of back up heat and a tractor with chains to deal with any issues.

I have six STR's all under 800sq/ft and the smallest is 160 sq/ft. They all do well and it's all about the numbers.

It would not be required, however you have the chance at this point to do some soundproofing, if it is not already in your plans.  Noise transfer floor to floor with trusses can be quite loud especially with hardwood floors.