Short Term Rental Cabin Investments
If you are reading this you have likely been doing some research on some of the top destinations in the country to invest in short term rentals and/or vacation rentals. Our area of the Smoky Mountains, particularly Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, and Sevierville have been ranked in the top 5 destinations in the country to invest in by several different publications and lodging experts.
Ellen Paris stated in her article on Forbes.com that according to Rented.com, Gatlinburg & Pigeon Forge are in the top 5 out of 150 destinations to own vacation rental property. Evolve, one of the major players in vacation rental management, has the Gatlinburg area ranked #3 in the country on where to invest in short term vacation rentals. From the Evolve article;
"While the median for rental revenue is around $42,751, we do see six-figure revenue potential for larger properties in the area. If your rental is in good shape, with a desirable location and popular amenities, you stand a high chance of earning even more." Read More...
Kenneth Kiesnoski published an article on CNBC.com on the 10 best places to invest. The obvious contenders like California, Florida, South Carolina are on the list but Sevierville, TN was ranked #1! Article after article and publication after publication, our area of The Smokies continues to receive more and more exposure. After all, we do have the longest rental season in the country for the short term rental market.
Buying Vacation Rentals in Gatlinburg
**Edit March 28th, 2021: While the market was very aggressive at the time of writing this article, it is much more aggressive now more than ever. From May 2020 until now, what was considered to be aggressive in 2019 is now the norm. We still have very low inventory levels but the demand and exposure has gone through the roof. Especially after the initial outbreak of Covid. The new "norm" is multiple offers, asking price is a starting point, contract prices that are 15k - 100k over the asking price, appraisal waivers or gap coverage, escalation clauses, "as-is" terms, etc. This has made is very difficult for Buyers to get something, anything, under contract. The reality is that it may take 2-10 offers to get something under contract and you are almost guaranteed to may over the asking price.
Due to the amount of exposure that our area has received over the last few years, our real estate market for the short term rental cabins is extremely aggressive. Inventory levels have been at all time lows since 2016 and with the high demand for these types of investments they almost always sell sight unseen and with 24-72 hours after hitting the market. For instance, we listed a 5 bedroom, 4 bath log cabin in the Hidden Springs Resort for $512,000 in November 2019. In less than 24 hours we received 5 offers. Ultimately that property sold and closed 27 days later for $516,000.
I'm not saying that every property will end up in a multiple offer scenario and has to be purchased sight unseen but it does happen frequently. Some people are just not able to purchase property under those conditions and we acknowledge and support people in those feelings. For those that are, our business model is tailored in such a way that it is designed to offer you as much information and visual aid as possible so that sound, educated decisions can be made in a matter of just a few hours.
We would be happy to discuss the market and what to expect when jumping into it. We take a full disclosure and full transparency approach to assisting our clients and spend a great deal of time educating them. This has led us to be the #1 selling husband and wife team in the area with over $36,000,0000 in sales in 2019. 2020 was a record breaking year, even with Covid and 11 weeks of zero sales or activity. Once the area started to slowly open back up in May 2020, things got crazy. This resulted in over $47,000,000 in cabin sales for us. We are honored and blessed to be able to help that many people find their investment in The Smokies. If you are in the considering investing in short term rental cabins in The Smokies, give us a call.
