Several years ago, I sold my last Smoky Mountain vacation rental property for several reasons, not the least of which was that it was becoming apparent that our community had clearly built way too many vacation rental homes. With new developments being constructed on every hillside, even our area’s robust growth in the number of visitors vacationing here each year (it has much more than doubled during the 18 years that I have lived here) just couldn’t keep up. Add to this the nationwide real estate market bubble that was approaching its spectacular collapse in 2008 and the fact that it was way too easy to simply walk away from a Gatlinburg area vacation home which had been purchased at too high a price. It was obvious to me that we had all of the ingredients for a perfect real estate storm. And have it we did, with many Smoky Mountain vacation homes selling for half (or occasionally even less) of their pre-bubble values.
Now, I have decided to jump back in and purchase some vacation rental homes. There are again several reasons for my decision:
- New construction of vacation rental properties has been nearly non-existent for several years, which has served to tighten the supply considerably.
- Our visitor count continues to increase which has increased the demand.
- Smoky Mountain vacation home values have again begun to rise.
- Exciting new technology that makes it much easier to manage and profit from a Gatlinburg area vacation home.
Jeff I have had 6 rental properties and am building my 7th. I have high opinions of how this market works and am interested to follow your progress. As a property owner since 1998 when you helped us buy our first rental home,, the lessons learned have been many. Even through the real estate meltdown, our cabins held their own and the eventual sales have been very good.. You helped start it all. Steve Lewis
It has always been a pleasure working with you Steve! You've definitely broken the code Steve! Your wise decisions on where to build and what to build while at the same time keeping a cap on costs has paid off very handsomely for you.