It's not likely you'll be able to rent rooms out for 1500-2K per month unless it is an extremely nice house/area.

Thanks Zach, I totally agree.Here are some things that keep me extremely optimistic about the build, when I have moments of frustration:-My initial expectation of value was ~340k.  

Rental property is extremely tax advantaged based on the current tax code.

.: EM doesn’t seem extremely low, just kinda low.

For me it's CA since I live here but the prices are extremely high for a new investor.

On other extreme let's look at that, a "good" STR business. 

In our trade, I would not expect any owner or GC to get this correct since our industry is extremely specialized.

Or would the investors above been aware of the extremely high risk associated with these extreme high returns?    

Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge are both extremely strong right now , with most people overpaying in the years that you mentioned and simply not KNOWING OR CARING  how to properly run a top notch Air BNB. 

I just don't see you being able to do a whole lot to allow you to sell it quickly outside of lowering your price to something extremely compelling.