Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: Welcome to Short Term Shopping, where we explore homes for sale in the best vacation markets in America.
Some homes we do like, some homes we don't like.
Brought to you by the Short Term Shop.
It's Short Term Shopping people already. Okay? So in an effort to get this damn Facebook group, and when I say this damn Facebook group, I mean the one with the one called Smarter Short Term Rentals, we are currently at 75.8 thousand members.
We have set a goal. We want that thing to 100,000 post haste. And in order to do that, we have to provide you more value. So here we are, providing value.
And right now we're going to do live Short Term Shopping, which also has become its own podcast. We are now doing Short Term Shopping wherever podcasts are, listen to, or watch every Thursday.
And this will be on our YouTube channel as well. Not what we're doing right now, but the podcast, Which. Speaking of YouTube chat channels, did I mention my YouTube award? Look at that.
Not being shy, guys.
So we appreciate you, we love you, and let's get this Smarter Short Term rentals group to 100,000 strong.
And today we're gonna do some Short Term Shopping. So basically what we're gonna do is look at some houses on the Internet and say if we like them or don't like them and what we do like about them and what we don't like about them. So we got Matt here, he's in the Smokies. We will go ahead and start there. Why not? And then we've got Mike in the Disney market, as you can tell. So I'm actually going to pull up realtor.com because we're going to shop for some houses and I'm going to put in Sevierville. Actually, I'm going to put in Pigeon Forge. And Matt is a large agent in the area. Matt, go ahead and say hello.
[00:02:02] Speaker B: Hey, guys, Matt Castle here, Smoky Mountains. I am not worthy of the intro, but thank you.
[00:02:07] Speaker A: Yes, you are. That's okay. All right, thank you. And Mike, feel free to chime in here and we'll do some Disney stuff in a little bit, but we'll start here in the Smokies.
[00:02:16] Speaker C: And be sure to wish Matt a happy birthday today.
[00:02:19] Speaker A: You're kidding me. Nah.
How did I not know that?
[00:02:24] Speaker B: The big five zero.
[00:02:25] Speaker A: You're kidding me.
[00:02:26] Speaker B: I am. Big five zero. Yeah.
[00:02:29] Speaker A: Oh, my goodness. And you're spending it here? All right, well, we won't keep you too long. I'm gonna pull up realtor.com and we're gonna see what we can see and we're just gonna have some fun. Let me see what I got here. There we go. Realtor.com, this is Pigeon forge search.
Nothing special. All I did was type in pigeon forge here, and we pulled it up and this is what we got. Now I will. The first thing I'm going to do here is clear the boundary. I don't like limiting myself there.
I personally like realtor, but whatever search page you like is totally fine. So we've got all these red dots, and if we're brand new to this, it's very intimidating. Like, how do I even know you know, how to narrow it down? And there's really no right or wrong answer.
I guess my best advice there is 23 people, by the way, Guys, my best advice there is don't narrow it down. If you're new and you're shopping for the first time and you've decided you want a cabin in the smokies for your kids or whatever, I would not narrow it down. I would literally just kind of poke around at all these.
The hard part is where I think location is the first way you want to narrow it down. And those of us that are familiar with this area are familiar with the triangle, which kind of goes from Severeville ish down here to Townsend ish and then follows along this dark green line here, which is the smokies national park. There are no properties for sale in the national park. And then the triangle can come out, you know, somewhere in this neighborhood. Again, the triangle is open to interpretation. Do we go up to the lake? I don't.
Do we go up in this area sometimes?
That's my opinion. A lot of opinions here. Matt's opinions are going to be different on some of this stuff. Do I come up to this area here above 441 sometimes? Probably not.
But anything in this area here for me is go. Is go land go zone. I personally like to be over here on the wares valley side. And I know that because of obviously, years of experience. And I just like to be over here physically myself. When I come to town, this is where I prefer to be. Although the next time I'm coming to town, I'm actually staying over here off the spur.
Why?
Because that was the only property I had that was not rented for the period of time that I'm coming.
But it's also my best view, so the kids will love it. My kids have actually never been to that house. I don't think. I don't know. Maybe they have the years run together. Anyway.
Anything up in here is, nah, we don't want to stay away from that for this general rental area here. So at that point we can do any number of things. I would likely switch it to list and start kind of going through. The problem there is that you lose the map, so you don't really know where they are until you click on it. These are obviously advertisements here.
So doing it this way you do quickly start to lose perspective of where things are and that can get difficult. So the map is better. However, if you're brand new and shopping for the first time, at least from, from the way I do things, I like to see the list view and then kind of narrow it down from there.
And we can also obviously filter by room types and per purchase prices. So let's say we want to buy a. Let's, let's, let's shop for a zero bedroom and see what we find. Or a one bedroom, which is really kind of a weird thing for a single family home. But in the Smokies where these people, you know, these are often used as like an overnight experience, like a hotel type of vibe, one bedrooms are not all that uncommon.
Matt, what should I be looking to pay for a one bedroom right now or a zero bedroom?
[00:06:13] Speaker B: Depends on what it is, where it is. But I mean, I've seen them in the 350s up to the 800s. Right. I mean it's, it's kind of a big range.
You're going to be looking at higher prices and say something in the city of Pigeon Forge, city of Gatlinburg, just because those are, you know, name brand kind of a thing.
Half the time. Everyone always mispronounces Sevierville to, you know, Seaverville or something like that. But just part of the territory. I mean, there's some great properties that are on the market right now in the high three hundreds that are one bedrooms.
Every now and then I can find one with a view, you know. So the market's changed quite substantially in the last couple years and there are some, some pretty good bargains. I'm out pounding the table on a big one right now. Well, I'm pounding it bigly, but it's only a small cabin, let's put it that way. So I can't recall.
It's got to be a couple years since I've seen a, a one bedroom with a nice view under the price of 400.
[00:07:14] Speaker A: Yes, one one bedrooms with views are very difficult to find in general because the builder didn't really want to use that lot for A small house.
Is that fair to say?
[00:07:27] Speaker C: That's fair.
[00:07:27] Speaker B: And it's probably part of the planned unit development or part as we call it.
[00:07:32] Speaker A: I'll be honest with you. This one that's popping up here in Brothers Cove is not something that I would hesitate to look at. It's the first one up on the list here. But anyway, let's listen, narrow down. Let's say I'm looking for a smoking deal and my budget's a little on the lower side. So let's kind of narrow it down to that. That budget that Matt was suggesting there maybe. Maybe 385 on the high end with no min. See where that puts my red dots? Right. So I'm looking to see how many red dots I'm eliminating.
It switched them all to price tags. So that didn't help us too much, but it did eliminate some.
That's a new build.
This one's a little far down there. Also looks like a trailer. I'm probably not really interested in that. This is way up in Townsend, but could have some potential for the right candidate that wants to be in that area. I think we. Let's take a look at this one here. It looks like a new build here or at least a remodel. This also might be modular. And Matt, I would imagine you're familiar, it's manufactured.
[00:08:33] Speaker D: So Monkey's listing in the chat. Luke, from someone on Facebook.
[00:08:38] Speaker A: Oh, somebody wants us to look at a listing.
[00:08:39] Speaker D: It's in the Zoom chat.
[00:08:41] Speaker A: Okay, I'll take a look. But Matt, what's your thoughts here? I mean this is very cute, but it's manufactured home. What are your thoughts on that?
[00:08:48] Speaker B: I mean a lot of people have strong opinions on manufactured versus not right. So manufacturer. You're going to run into different details regarding financing. Lenders are going to treat it differently.
Might be a better all cash purpose, that kind of thing. I know that an appraiser is going to look over a dollar per square foot on this one. So I think I saw it was around 800 a square foot. So use caution. I can't really say Y or nay to me would probably be a little bit more on the no side. However, you know, it's not my job to not sell somebody something. So somebody likes it, they're going to go ahead and get it. But it probably wouldn't be at the top of my list. Let's put it that way.
[00:09:32] Speaker A: I agree.
[00:09:33] Speaker B: Now if that's walking distance to downtown Gatlinburg and you can get to anakeesta in a 500 yard walk. Oh, game on.
Right, but different story now.
[00:09:43] Speaker A: This has got a mini split here.
It's got a date on it. Yeah, it's a newer quote unquote build, if you will.
So it's very cute and the price tag is appealing, but I'm crossing it off the list. It's going to be a financing, it's going to be difficult to finance in some, some capacity.
And keep those, keep those coming. By the way, if you, if you have houses you want us to look at and give you opinions on, we would love to do that here on short term shopping. I think I'm out on this one. Let's go back. And now we're getting some action in the chat. We might not even have time to. I was, I was literally looking forward to shopping for houses here, but now we got everybody throwing us some houses, which we're happy to do that too.
Smokey's Ridge.
All right, we're going to go and cut over here to Corney.
Oh, it's in the Smokies. All right. Matt, are you familiar with this house?
[00:10:37] Speaker B: I am.
That's listed by our own genomatics.
[00:10:41] Speaker A: Oh, that is a short term shop listing. Yes, you're right about that. Okay, so let's see.
[00:10:45] Speaker B: 20, 29 sellers.
[00:10:50] Speaker A: This is 27 build. 3, 32200 square foot, 839.
It's got the view. That's the rub, right? The view is expensive.
[00:11:05] Speaker B: You pay for it. But here's the thing. I am of use snob. I am a hillbilly from southwest Virginia, so can impress me with a view. You got something.
Views are probably one of those things that maybe 5% or less of properties have here. So that's why it's expensive. But you've got something that not a lot of people have. Right. So you can always fall back onto things like, okay, my decor isn't the great. Maybe I got a couch that looks like it's from duck dynasty from 20 years ago. But awesome view.
[00:11:38] Speaker A: Yeah, this is a hell of a house. This is to me, I hate. Sorry, Gina. I don't know that this is a deal because it is already maximized with, you know, all the stuff. It's got a really cool bathtub and all that. It's got a great view. This is turnkey ready to go.
But if that's what you're looking for, then I'd say this is definitely worth a look.
It's. It's got all. It's got. It's got it all. Really? I mean, where Is it Sky Harbor? Oh, it's in Sky Harbor. Interesting.
There's the. This.
The parkway over here, guys. And
[00:12:21] Speaker B: shout out to my favorite road in the smokies of Boogertown Road.
[00:12:24] Speaker A: Boogertown?
Yeah. My house that we're staying at next time we come to town is right there, right in this area. It's.
[00:12:34] Speaker B: It's a good spot. It's centrally located, so if you zoom out just a little bit, you can kind of see your.
You're basically halfway between City of Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. Another nice spot about sky harbor is that there's basically two entrances, maybe even three depending on who you talk to, but you got two entrances. So if the parkway is jammed up on rod run, you can always come through the back door side over where it says Zion Cove.
A lot of times that saves some people just because, you know the parkway on July 4, Christmas Day parades, what have you.
It's backed up and you can just come in through Birds Creek.
[00:13:13] Speaker A: Yeah, I've got no problem with the location. I think it's great. You're at the back end of Sky Harbor. You can come around probably through.
You have to really get into these roads back here. These are. Oh, Powder Mill. Yeah, you go down Powder Mill and get into some of the.
The kind of off the grid, you know, like the, the local style stuff. Like what's the name of that bar back there? Three Jimmies. It's really cool. And.
And then, yeah, you can take. You could take Powder Mill to get back down here to the East Parkway and go to Ace Hardware because you're probably going to be doing that a lot.
So. Yeah, I like the location. You have to run your numbers on it. It is probably, you know, pretty. Pretty maximized. Well, I wonder what they paid.
[00:14:03] Speaker B: Oh, that's a different one.
[00:14:04] Speaker C: That's the.
[00:14:05] Speaker A: Oh, that's the first one. That's that little. Yeah, you're right. Sorry. That would have been a huge difference.
I'll say. They've already come down.
There's not a lot of history here on realtor.com, so that usually means they've owned it for a long time, but not all the time. Your agent could look that up if you were really interested. But they've already come down what, 140,000?
So decent. And they just came down 10,000 recently. Decent chance that they don't have a ton of wiggle room here. But it's a very nice house, you know, great view. So. All right, let's take a look here what we have.
Eric, Erica, Erica's sending us a house to see if this is an area we're familiar with. And yes, it is. Front Beach Road here. Condo building in Panama City Beach. I live just down the road from this. I'm not the most well versed with this. You want to contact whoever your agent is at the short term shop, we'll be very well versed at Brooklyn. Look this person up. Erica Johnson. Is she working with one of our agents?
And if not, we can definitely make that happen.
Okay, fresh, fresh remodel here on the floors, in the kitchen.
Fresh paint. This turnkey.
I don't see one thing that I would change here. Even the ceiling fan is rocking, if that's what you're looking for.
You got the French door fridge, which is very hard to do in a condo farm. Farmhouse sink, solid surface countertops, Got a fresh tile shower.
New. New vanities, it appears. Or at least fresh paint on them.
Yeah, no problem here. I mean, this thing will rent for sure.
Oh, it said splash. Okay.
I mean, I've been in the building, but I'm not. I'm no expert.
All right, what are we doing here? For price history, this is very important here. They. They bought it in 23 for 500, so they are already less than what they paid, which is, you know, you kind of got to expect that if you bought a house and a unit and you're trying to sell it within less than two years, you're probably going to lose a couple of bucks. And that's what's going on here. Especially since in 23, it was, you know, it was a crazy time.
Let's see where.
Where it was before that. Okay, so yeah, sold in 22 and 23. That's weird.
So this will be the third sale in three years.
Not a lot of wiggle room here, I don't think. But it's a turnkey unit ready to go, if that's what you're looking for.
Erica, did we find her agent? I mean, I'm sorry.
Her name is Erica Brooklyn.
[00:17:13] Speaker D: Yes. She has an agent she's assigned to January.
[00:17:16] Speaker A: Oh, January. January will. Erica. January will know everything there is to know about this unit. I will say, and you probably have already done this, but if it was me, I would be looking up other units in the building to see what a dumpy unit is going for.
You know, like, can I get a dumpy unit for, like, significantly less money and then fix it up and make. Make it worth somewhere around where this one's listed for, but not have that much money into it? If that's where you're at in life, you know, that's kind of probably where I would be, give or take. Although the last two beach houses I bought were pretty much ready to go. I put floors in one of them and the other one I painted. That was it, you know. All right, Dean has got one for us here and Myrtle at Ocean Park. Okay. This is pretty low dollar ocean front lockout unit.
I'm going straight to the price history boys, see what's doing here. Dana, can you. Or Brooklyn, can you make sure Dina is with one of our agents, which by the way, you can. We don't have to talk about just short term shop stuff here today. We're. But so far so good.
[00:18:24] Speaker D: I'll check on Dana. She also asked in the chat, struggling to figure out how to estimate revenue on three bedroom listings as a two bedroom, as a one bedroom or a studio building because it is dog friendly. Chose the building because it is dog friendly.
[00:18:39] Speaker A: Well, that's a whole nother conversation, Dina. Estimating revenue. I'm going to write that down. We're going to shop your unit first because that's what we're doing today. We're doing a little short term shopping and then we can talk about revenue just a little bit.
Was under contract in June, but Matt, again, this is just Zillow here. But does this mean it didn't close?
[00:19:01] Speaker B: Most likely. I mean contingent just means that it's, it's not necessarily pending, but there's different ways to do it. So it's like contingent but continue to show.
[00:19:11] Speaker A: And then they relisted it just three weeks later. So I would guess this didn't sell for whatever reason. Correct.
They came down, they're down about 10 grand since then. And it's been this seller is done. They want, they want to be done with this thing.
What'd they pay for it?
2018. They paid 123. So they got a little wiggle room.
I mean, percentage wise, they got a lot of wiggle room.
This, this is. Honestly, Dina, this is kind of what I'm looking for here. For a price history.
It's, it's actually not super common.
And guys, correct me if I'm wrong, but to see this type of a price history where they bought it pre Covid, they got a little equity. They've had it for sale for a long time and they're probably really sick of it. That's what I'm looking for right now.
With lots of exceptions.
It's, it's not very common. You'll See that? And you'll also see a unit that is.
Has been already turned. Like this. This unit. Or. Whoa, whoa. This is a different unit. Sorry, I was thinking about the guy before.
This unit does need work. All right.
I was right. It's not common that you would see that price history with a unit that's ready to go, and this one is not ready to.
Now, I will say this, and I know that you guys will agree with this one. These pictures are not doing this unit. Any help here.
[00:20:45] Speaker B: I'm fairly certain I've stayed in this resort in the past, so my family vacations in Myrtle beach for years. We've been going there since the 80s.
I would almost say we've been here. And the views got to be better than that. And what the pictures are showing.
Ask your agent to go do a walkthrough video for you, and then just take their phone, hold it up, and they'll do a.
A video for you. Maybe put it up on a YouTube link or something and show you how good that view is. But if. If it's the same one that I'm thinking about the view, and that's pretty good.
[00:21:17] Speaker C: This is a great example of what Avery talks about when she says, don't use your cell phone pictures. This is awesome for that.
[00:21:26] Speaker A: Yeah, these. These are horrible cell phone pictures.
They. The. The. The person taking this photo was standing on a stool and pointing down and. Same thing here.
Just absolutely doing a disservice for the listing here with how bad these photos are, which is what you're looking for. I think this is.
[00:21:48] Speaker B: Or they're taller than you are, and that's pretty tall.
[00:21:51] Speaker A: That's possible. Dina, I think this is Dina. Yeah, Dina, I like that the pictures are shitty. And I'm sorry, the pictures are not good. And the price history is where it is. I think you got a deal here. You know, you could probably turn this into a deal. The flooring is fine for now.
The furniture is going to need some, you know, a little bit of help maybe, but, you know, it needs some. Some things, but nothing crazy. You got a Murphy bed in the living room.
Not good or bad. I'm just pointing that out. We're back to the amenities here.
Murphy bed. The appliances would likely need to be updated sooner than later, but, I mean, you could pretty quickly turn this into a functional unit with some paint and a little bit of furniture. So I kind of like this. Again, who was it? Dina? You need to be laser focused on the building and see whatever. You know, I would be. I would Be absolutely obsessed with whatever. If this is where you want to think you want to go. What's for sale in here?
And which one of them gives am I going to get the best deal on? You know, that's what I would be looking at. And. And which one has the best view? This is on the ninth floor. It looks like 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
About 11 floor building. So you're second from the top. You're gonna have great views. Looks like they combine two units, which is pretty common.
Yeah, two separate units.
I would dig deeper on this, and I would want, like Matt said, some videos from my agent.
Thanks for sending it, Dina. All right, Corinne, Karine, back to the Smokies. Matt, do you know this one
[00:23:45] Speaker B: listing on listing agent on that one's absolutely awful. You should never buy anything from him. AKA that's just me.
[00:23:51] Speaker A: Oh, this is Matt's listing. Corinne.
[00:23:53] Speaker B: This is me. Yeah, I'm horrible, But. So I say that in jest, but I know that listing very well. It's one of my personal listings that I have with a client seller on that one's a builder himself.
Done a bunch of stuff.
[00:24:10] Speaker A: So it's.
[00:24:11] Speaker B: It's pretty solid. It's in a nice area just outside of Pigeon Forge.
No scary roads. So if you zoom out just a little bit, you'll see that you can come in through the parkway and come into Veterans Boulevard. You come down through Birds Creek.
It's arguably one of the best areas. And as a buyer's agent, I target this area just because I can be in Pigeon forge, Dollywood in 10, 15 minutes. I can be in Gatlinburg in 15, 20 minutes. I got two different ways to get there. I can be up to soaky mountain in 20 minutes.
There's a zillion restaurants, so tough to beat it on location. The cabin's in good shape, and it's got proven rental income. It's probably one of the 10% or less of the cabins where the owners have done a really good job.
I'm kind of talking my own book at this point, but if you read the description, you'll see why that one's a little bit different than everything else.
[00:25:09] Speaker A: Covid buyer.
I'm going to point some stuff out here, Matt. It's Covid buyer, so that's something to consider. They probably don't have a ton of wiggle room. Is that the case if I do?
[00:25:21] Speaker B: Sherry duty loop.
[00:25:22] Speaker A: I got you. Yeah, yeah.
He's come down a few times.
Probably ready to. Ready to be done with it.
Locations. Dynamite Looks like the exterior needs nothing at all.
Solid surface, countertops, carpet.
[00:25:41] Speaker C: I love seeing all the walls that are indestructible from people dragging luggage.
[00:25:46] Speaker A: Yeah, you're Florida guy, so yeah, this stuff is a luxury. It really is.
Could use some updates with the carpet in the, in the tile in the bathroom here. But the. It's got the super high dollar polywood. It looks like a.
What's up with that hot tub? They painted it looks like a. Maybe a wood surround.
We'd love to sell this one, Corinne.
You should. Yeah. If you like it, call Matt.
Tiffany said how confident should we be in data from air DNA, et cetera on potential rental? Tiffany, that's the call for another day.
That's a long conversation for another day. I'm not even ready to have that conversation today. I'm not a huge fan of air DNA, but I've also been doing this long enough where I can basically look at a house and say, I think I can make this much money with it. I realize that is not helpful for somebody who's brand new, but we do have a special right now on coaching on short term shop/stsplus.com $39. We'd be happy to walk you through your thought process on any given home. But the shop in general, I will say disclaimer time. We don't talk numbers. We are never going to say, hey, this house will make this much money because a lot of that has to do. Most of that has to do with who's operating the home. Obviously location and the condition of the home are a big factor as well. But a lot goes into that. A lot goes into that. Be honest with you. There was a house or two when we first showed that that little brother's cove house was very interesting.
That's it.
[00:27:12] Speaker C: That's it.
[00:27:13] Speaker A: Well, that was easy.
Just listed 9 days ago, not Matt's listing.
Appliance needs updated for sure. You can't be running with these old white appliances like this. But it's just some random house I pulled up.
Oh, look at that. It's got a little peekaboo.
[00:27:37] Speaker B: Do you prefer stainless or black?
[00:27:40] Speaker A: I'll go stainless. Usually you just. There's more options than stainless.
Easier availability, that kind of thing. I like this little house. If I could work a deal on it. It's the problem here, Matt, is it's not been listed long enough for this seller to be ready to, you know, deal.
[00:28:00] Speaker B: Well, there's a little bit of agent tricks to that. And so most of the agents, if not every single Short term shop agent will talk to you about, let's just throw something out there and see what sticks.
[00:28:14] Speaker A: Right.
[00:28:14] Speaker B: So you don't necessarily have to say, all right, well it's 395.
There's no shame in calling a listing agent, say, hey, I got somebody who's approved for 350.
Is that something that's going to get a gigantic voodoo doll of me in your office and you're going to put a stick pin in my eye if I send you a 350 offer?
You know, I do that all the time.
There's certain people, I mean there's, I, I work with a lot of sellers and there's a lot of sellers out there who are like, okay, let's list it at 400, but I'll take 350. Just don't tell anybody that yet. Right. Could be a scenario like that.
There are people who like to go high and drop the price. There are people who list it high and will not move from it. So you never know until you try
[00:29:03] Speaker A: this house that, this random brothers cove house that we pulled up here.
They're taking a big bath. According to realtor.com, which may not be true, this price history, if this is correct, they paid 515 at the mega, mega peak of late 2022, which I don't know about that because there was price drops. Why would they do price drops and then all of a sudden sell for $65,000 over asking after several months of being, being for sale?
This is where you need to defer to a qualified real estate agent because this, I, I feel like there's something funky going on here.
It's probably not correct.
[00:29:48] Speaker B: I'm looking on Zillow and I see listing removed January 1st of 395. So I don't, I don't necessarily think there's anything too funky that I'm seeing at least over here on Zillow.
[00:30:02] Speaker C: See, maybe they did some rehabs or something to it.
[00:30:06] Speaker B: I see. Sold 515 in 2022 and then they listed it for sale a year and a half later in March 2024 at 5:30. So they increased the price 15,000 in an 18 month time span.
And this thing has been listed on and off to the best I can tell since March of 2024. So this is, this is one of those properties I would probably go after pretty hard if you really liked it because again I'm seeing, let's see, yeah, October 2022, sold 515 and now 395 so they're significantly underpriced. Now maybe they're selling it just above what their mortgage amount is.
So maybe they don't want to bring cash to the table. Maybe they put 20% down. So 515 to 395. I'm not a math major, but that sounds about like 20%.
[00:31:10] Speaker A: And this one goes all the way back. And again, who knows if this is real, but a 2001 purchase and then put for sale in 2008, like everybody, like, if you go back this far on any property, you're gonna see a lot of similar stuff to this. In 08, they put it for sale because everybody was putting their house for sale in 08 and they couldn't sell it. And then they had it for sale on and off. And eventually in 2012, they finally got it sold, which is extremely common because it took. It took that four years for those. For the market to kind of smooth out and get buyers back in the market at that point. Post 08, what we're seeing right now is really not a whole lot different than that. It just didn't last as long. It was about two years where nobody was buying anything. And now it's kind of smoothed out a little bit.
But this is very important stuff if you're a numbers junkie and, and, and really trying to find a deal. You know, I love looking at the price history that you can study. This is rental history or this purchase price history all day long and sit it and put it on a spreadsheet. But at the end of the day, until you make an offer, you have no idea what the seller's going to do.
[00:32:20] Speaker B: I mean, to me, I've been doing this a while, so it's almost like when somebody says, you know, why is the seller selling? Well, it's because the price of rice in China is too high of a ratio with the price of bitcoin and the price of aluminum for space shuttles doesn't mean much, right? I mean, there's an entire constellation of ideas why people will do the stuff that they do.
What I would try to analyze, the kind of. The big one that I would analyze is what price did they buy it at, what price are they selling it at? And what are the odds that they did a 20% down payment? And so if they're pricing at this low, there's a reasonably good chance that their mortgage might be just slightly under this amount and they don't want to bring cash to the table.
[00:33:07] Speaker A: I do like this Gina house. It's very nice you got to, you know, obviously make sure your numbers work on it. But I keep, keep, I keep going back to that one. All right, let's look. We're going to poke around a little bit more. See on these little baby cabins here and the smokey. See what we see.
525, new construction.
409. Can I get it a little lower maybe?
Okay, let's look at this.395. See what's up here. This is 185, 2019. That's ideal. I like seeing that. That's pretty ideal.
Lower. Pre Covid purchase history.
[00:33:52] Speaker C: Kind of off topic here. A thousand square feet, one bedroom. Is there any possibility in your market of making that a two bedroom or is that not good?
[00:34:02] Speaker A: It probably is a two bedroom. Go ahead, Matt.
[00:34:05] Speaker B: It could be a two bedroom already. It's only got a one bedroom septic. If it's that isolated. Tennessee state law says that you cannot list anything larger than what the septic permit says. So you could have a 10 bedroom built on a two bedroom septic. And I've seen those. You know, my, my general take on this is I kind of like how well. Well, that picture right there just changed my opinion.
Thank you for putting that one.
I mean the best pictures on picture number 30.
What do you call those is the boom booms or the text, but then the gotcha pictures or whatever you call it.
[00:34:44] Speaker A: Hero pick.
[00:34:45] Speaker B: Hero pick. All right, that should be picture number two. MLS rules here is the first picture has to be of the front of the property and they're loosening that rule. But there's no order or no rule says what picture number two would be. That would be my picture number two.
[00:34:59] Speaker A: This house is a little funky. It smells to me a little bit like a primary home.
I would need. This is one. And this is an extremely good point I'd like to make here, if I do say so myself. This is what I would need to see in real life, which is extremely underrated. Guys, we can sit here and look at this crap on Zillow all day long, but you need to get out there and touch, smell, feel the product, as I like to call it. So this is one where it's got a lot of sheetrock, it's got these really ugly grandma window coverings. And the location is pretty good, but we need to see is it surrounded by primary homes or what's the deal? It's in Shagbark, so probably no primaries. But is it actually in Shagbark? Is it at the beginning of Shadbark?
[00:35:48] Speaker B: I'm checking right now.
[00:35:50] Speaker A: You know, all these things combined. This, this to me seems like if I was clicking around and like the price tag on this for the square footage, which really actually doesn't seem to be that terrible, I'd want to see it in real life. You got a foggy window here, which is very common. Or that could be a screen. Actually it's shagbar.
[00:36:10] Speaker B: The thing that I would say, at least for me, the view's great.
Shag bark is sort of a hot button topic. Depending on which agent that you talk to. If your buyer wants something that's more isolated, quiet, this is a great place. It's got some of the best HOA amenities around.
However you are, you know, 20 to 30 minutes away. And this is way up sort of at the top of like Shagbark Hickory Road. Some of those others stepping stone. So while that it does have concerns, my, my main concern is that it looks a little bit more like just an owner occupied home in the general. What I try to follow is that if people like to rent stuff that they don't live in, right? So that, that's kind of one of the big concerns about a cabin and a smokies with drywall. Now there's rustic contemporary as I call them, where the. The matches the ceiling, where they put tongue and groove wood on the ceiling and the floor kind of matches. I think it's a great look.
You know, some of these 50 year old cabins that haven't been touched since Reagan was president.
Some of those, you know, they don't necessarily do too well just because they don't have natural light and they're not too bright and it's a little bit depressing after you stay in for a couple of days.
But something like this, if you're going to buy it, get it at a good price or at least a good price to you. Put in the work and turn it into something that you want.
[00:37:33] Speaker A: See, this one's something I could be interested in. Let me. Where is this up Hatcher Mountain from? Right over there by Papaws the the which you need to go there by the way they got. It's a good catfish joint.
[00:37:46] Speaker B: Mm, good.
Good gumbo.
[00:37:49] Speaker A: Good. Good food.
[00:37:50] Speaker B: Great jambalaya.
[00:37:52] Speaker A: Great vibe. Nice country country restaurant.
All right, what's this look like? Yeah, this thing is in the middle of nowhere. It may or may not be an HOA of some sort, but I don't think so.
Anyway, let's go back here. I'm starting to dig on this thing a little bit here. Again, terrible Pictures, Terrible pictures.
[00:38:18] Speaker B: Laurel Valley.
[00:38:20] Speaker A: Yeah, it's just a nice little Smoky Mountain cabin. You can get the price right on it and that kind of thing. So, you know, you got this bridge here, basically. What's it going over? Is there water down there?
Doesn't really show us.
[00:38:41] Speaker B: Yeah, it was kind of like a little stream.
I mean, I, I, I do my best never to say anything negative about stuff, but I, I think my number one concern just based off of the stream, so you can see the stream and the proximity to the crawl space and the footer. So I think it's, it's kind of about 2/3 of the way down, or 2/3 to the pictures.
There's a stream very close to the footer on the property. So, you know, check your crawl space. Before even making an offer, I would ask if I could have permission to enter the crawl space, just to check it out.
I think it's down a couple more pictures.
[00:39:20] Speaker A: Yeah, I had it on. Let's see. What's that?
Yeah, it, I mean, it might just be like standing swamp water. Really.
[00:39:28] Speaker B: Well, this is my concern, and I don't mean to freak anybody out, but every now in the Smokies, we get a really good rainstorm, and something like that's a little close to the property. You might get more, significantly more water than that.
[00:39:43] Speaker A: Good point. Good point.
[00:39:45] Speaker B: But then that could just be my type C personality kicking in.
[00:39:52] Speaker C: Luke, there's a couple questions in the chat.
[00:39:55] Speaker A: Oh.
[00:39:55] Speaker C: One from Kerry, one from Joe.
[00:39:57] Speaker A: All right, let's see. Kerry, is there still a lot of new construction, five bedroom cabins in the Smokies currently, or has building slowed down? Yes and no. I think both. Right.
[00:40:08] Speaker B: That's a very good way of putting it. So there's still a lot of new construction going in in Smokies, and to be perfect, perfectly honest, a lot of new construction is starting to eat the lunch of some of that stuff that hasn't been updated since Reagan was president. I always come back to that analogy, but that's, that's pretty much how it goes. So I'll use my own family as a case.
We just went to a family weekend near my daughter's college, and the choices were one Property that looked 40 years old and the property that was a year old.
The property that was older was a better value, much larger. But we went with the smaller one because it was nicer, newer, cuter. It was even further away.
So, you know, got to take that into consideration.
[00:40:53] Speaker A: And then what's the, what's the name of that one that they're building with the big HOAs. It almost looks like Mike's neck of the woods with the. With the Lazy river and all that.
[00:41:01] Speaker B: It's called resort. I actually stayed there. My family calls me up one day and says, hey, we're coming to Soki mountain. And there's 16 of them.
Like, can we stay at your house? I'm like, hell, no. You can't stay at my house.
So yours truly gets on Airbnb and books a place. I spent 1200 bucks for 18 hours. We checked in at 4. We left at 10am but kept them out of my house. But they loved it, so. And they go to Soaky Mountain every year. So as much as, like, I love that place. It's awesome. It's very expensive. But that HOA and the cabins are amazing because my family came here to go see Soy Mountain or go visit Smoky Mountain the very next day. The cabin was at the top of their list, and they still talk about it and they want to go stay there again this summer.
[00:41:51] Speaker A: What. What's it called, the neighborhood called again?
[00:41:53] Speaker B: I think it's called the Smithsonian or Smithson something.
[00:41:55] Speaker A: Smith. Smith something.
[00:41:57] Speaker B: Yeah, but the. The Hoa park is absolutely awesome. Huge lazy river, big pool, pickleball courts.
[00:42:05] Speaker A: Those are pushing. No, they're. They're pushing 2 million.
[00:42:07] Speaker B: I think somewhere around there. Yeah, there's. There's anywhere from one and a half to three somewhere in there. I think there's some three bedrooms, up to 12 bedrooms or something. Laura Wolfenberger has them. They're really nice.
[00:42:19] Speaker A: Joe says you're saying architecturally, you like to buy a place that doesn't look like a single family sfr. I would assume that Signal Family Rental stands out on its own from the exterior itself. Yes and no, Joe. Well, again, we're speaking specifically about the Smokies with this comment, and that one just looked kind of like a house that somebody would live in, not really like a cabin. Also, keep in mind, Joe, that a lot of the cabins are not really cabins, and that's okay. It just needs to look like a cabin. It's got wood siding. It's got, you know, tongue and groove walls on the inside. It's made out of wood. It's a pine box, whatever.
But there's many exceptions to that rule. A lot. A lot of folks that are, you know, newer to the whole, you know, quote unquote, Airbnb game, they're trying to do something cool and hip.
A lot of times they'll, you know, come up with, like, the accent walls with the wacky colors and murals. And of course, the grass wall is extremely popular right now with the, you know, with the neon sign and all that.
But that particular house that we were looking at, Joe, it just did. It screamed primary home to me. Look, look to me like a house that just maybe even a long term rental. Not necessarily something that would.
But again, I need to see it because you could take some of those Sheetrock walls and accent them and mural them and, you know, everybody's got different tastes. And I want. I will say one more thing, and I'll let you guys go.
I have houses that friends of mine would have never bought, and my friends have houses that I would have never bought. And everybody's taste is a little different. So hopefully we gave you a decent amount of perspective today with also. Also keeping that in mind that literally I have friends that I'm super close with that I talk every single. Talk to every single day. We have, like so much stuff in common. And I'm not naming any names here, but sometimes they'll send me an Airbnb listing or whatever, and I'm like, damn, I would not have bought that house. And vice versa. You know, I send him one of my. I'll send them one of mine. Like, I just bought a new. Let's say I just bought a new house and I send it to my buddies and be like, oh, check it out. My new listing. And then they don't even write back.
That's their way of saying, I wouldn't have bought that thing.
[00:44:32] Speaker B: You know, I add on one thing to that.
I am married to somebody who is the total and complete opposite of me. I just dropped 3300 bucks for a reservation in October just north of Chattanooga for my daughter's last parents weekend, only because of the interior. And it's got a really pimp couch. Their main thing was the burgundy plus couch.
They loved it. They liked how the layout was, but the couch is what sold it. So it can be something as esoteric or whatever. I didn't really like the place, but it's my baby girl's last.
Last parents weekend at college, so baby girl got it.
[00:45:16] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, she gets whatever she wants.
Maybe not a pony, but just sort of a pony.
[00:45:27] Speaker B: I'm trying to repay her for never letting her have social media until she hit 18.
[00:45:31] Speaker A: So.
[00:45:32] Speaker B: Hey, what can I say?
[00:45:33] Speaker A: There you go. All right, well, happy birthday, Matt. I had a fun, fun time with you guys. I'm glad you're here and thank you on Facebook. Please tell your friends about Short Term Smarter Short Term Rentals. We're this group to 100,000. We appreciate you. Thanks a lot. Thanks, Mike. We'll see you later.
