Branson Short Term Rental Investing: Is This the Next Smoky Mountains?

Avery :

Everybody, welcome to the Short Term show special episode series on Branson, Missouri where we are doing a 10 episode deep dive on how to buy a short term rental in Branson. So we’ve got a few supplemental materials for y’ all in addition to the content on this podcast over on our website. So any questions you have about purchase prices and searching properties, you can do that on our website. We also have the Air DNA data thanks to our friends over at Air DNA income data on properties in Branson. So you can find these things at the short term shop.com so www.the shorttermshop.com Purchase prices and income data. If you want to buy a short term rental property with a short term shop agent in Branson, you can email us at agents the ShortTermshop.com or if you just like us, you just want to hang out with us more, there’s a few ways you can do that can join our Facebook group. It’s the same title as my book. It’s called Short Term Rental Long Term.

Avery :
We, we are over there talking about short term rental investing all day, every day. Or if you prefer to talk to us in person or virtual person, you can join our Zoom call that we have every Thursday. You can sign up for that@strquestions.com we’ll catch you guys over there. Hey guys, welcome back to another Short Term Shop special episode series. It is episode one of Branson of the Branson Market. So I’ve got some really cool people to help me go go through the first module here on on episode one about why the hell would you invest in Branson? Why would you want to invest here? And we’re going to go over all of those things, all the reasons why. So first person that I have here who is new to this podcast is Bill Beck. Bill, you want to introduce yourself?

Bill Beck :
My name is Bill. I actually moved to Branson back in end of 2020 during the pandemic. I used to work for Evolve Vacation Rental, big property management company as a home buyer consultant. So I invested here in Branson as I knew all the internal information regarding where good places to invest were. And this is one of those top markets that you know before knowing about Branson as a good investor market, I just thought it was a place that old people went. And then yeah, it was like no, this is where people are making some serious money. So got my investment, moved out here and then started working primarily with short term rental investors. Great time to hit it.

Bill Beck :
And it was, I mean basically every single transaction I’ve Done has been working with vacation rental buyers, sellers, and. Yeah, so that’s. That’s why I decided to join the short term shop. I’ve known Avery since 2018. She’s obviously one of the, you know, biggest influencer, influential people in this space. And I knew I wanted to align with someone like that who’s on the same wavelength as myself.

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
Oh, thank you.

Avery :
And next we have another heavy hitter, Tyenne Marcink Hammond with touchstave. She’s been on the OG podcast. And Tyenne, do you want to introduce yourself for people who might not have listened to that episode?

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
Hey, everybody. I’m Tyan Marcin Cammond, and with Touch Day, I’m the queen of guest experience. But I’ve also been in the market since 2007. So when I started, I was one of 12 properties that slept 14 or more. So if you were bringing a big group to town, that means you stayed with me or one of my family members, most likely, because my entire family is my competition too. So it’s lots of fun at our holiday family dinners. Right. Swap guest stories, swap information, things like that.

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
So I’ve been around quite a bit and grown with the Branson market as well, so I was hoping we would keep it a secret a little bit longer, but you guys keep on coming in and bringing my values up. Okay.

Avery :
Awesome. So we’ll just start at the beginning. So Branson, who goes there? Why is it a good place to buy a vacation rental? Why is there a need for vacation rentals in Branson, Missouri?

Bill Beck :
How far back do you want to go, Tyenne, do you want to do. Because, like, I don’t know, like, way back into the, you know, mid-1900s with the what, Bald knobbers and Silver Dollar City.

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
Is that how far back we want to go? Go.

Bill Beck :
Go ahead.

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
Yeah. Okay. Okay. So it actually started. Yeah, way back when. And there’s this. I have to. I can’t remember the author’s name, but shepherd of the Hills is actually a book.

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
And it was written because the gentleman came to the Ozark area and just saw Incredible. And that’s why there’s shepherd of the Hills Tower of inspiration. So he had gone to the high point by the area. There’s a play written about it as well, so you can come to town and see the play. And then Silver Dollar City was also built. In 1960, it opened. And have you guys heard of this one show called, like, Beverly Hillbillies, something like that? You know, the very first episodes were actually filmed in Silver Dollar City. And the creators of Beverly Hillbillies, they actually fell in love with the area.

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
And there is a preserve of several hundred acres right there off to take care of, you know, to keep that land. And you can hike on it. The Ruth and Paul Henning Conservation Area. So we go way back, like you said, to the mid-1900s. The dam itself is actually. The lake is fan made because they built the dam. It’s the White River. And the Corps of Engineers came in and built a series of dams and created these areas.

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
And it’s for water management and to create power. But then the tourist area grew off of that. Um, so the cool thing about Table Rock Lake is you can go diving and guess what’s under there. There’s an old town. You can go dive down there, and there’s a ghost town down there. So there’s lots of little things that it started in the area, and then it’s really progressed over the last decade. When I started back in 2007, they were just starting to put in the infrastructure, and I think that’s one of the main things that puts Branson ahead of the game for a lot of places is the infrastructure, because they started putting in those bigger roads, the bigger high, way back when, in preparation for what is happening right now.

Bill Beck :
Yeah, I also understand fast forward, like the early 90s, I guess. There was a 60 Minutes episode on Branson that caused a massive real estate wave of development. So that’s why all of our. A lot of our condo complexes are built in, like, 1993, 1994. So there’s a huge influx of people coming in here. And it kind of just kind of was a flywheel effect of more and more people coming for various tourism reasons. And. And, yeah, it just.

Bill Beck :
It just. It’s one of those places that people don’t really know about if you’re from other parts of the country. But having worked again all over and seeing, like, the similarities that Branson has to the Smoky Mountains, it’s uncanny. It’s like we’ve got all these similar family friendly, drivable tourism attractions, like go karts and mini golf and retail and even, like, Dolly Parton, Stampede, Dollywood, Ripley’s Believe it or not, the Wax Museum. It’s like, wait, this is like the same Titanic Museum. It’s like all this stuff’s like, the same place. And obviously, as every knows, the Smokies is, like, one of the best places. I mean, it’s.

Bill Beck :
It was the top place to go invest. So that’s why it’s really interesting that it’s Like Dolly Parton is the golden goose that lays the vacation golden eggs. Right?

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yep. But the thing that the Gatlinburg area, Smoky Mountains area is missing is Table Rock, la. So you can do all the different lake and water activities. The jet skiing, the boat, the fishing. We’ve got world class golf, PGA Tours comes here. And there’s two more things. We have more theater seats than Broadway in New York.

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
We have the largest theatrical stage in the entire country, maybe the world. I’m not for sure. And then we also are the live music show capital of the world. So those are some big things that draw even more people in and that a lot of people don’t even realize.

Avery :
Yeah, I did not.

Bill Beck :
Yeah, I mean, this is what, this is what makes this place, you know, 10 plus months of the year, place that people will come visit. So if you compare this, like, easy juxtaposition is Lake of the Ozarks. People know about it from, you know, the show Ozark. You go there from May through September, you know, Memorial Day, Labor Day. No one goes there the rest of the year. It’s dead there. I went there for a buddy’s like, wedding in September and it was like, we’re the only people here. This is crazy.

Bill Beck :
So Branson definitely has that lengthened season where really it’s, it’s, it’s not as up and down as some other markets. So.

Avery :
Okay, so are most of those tourists that are coming in, are they flying, Are they driving? Are they coming in from areas, you know, five to eight hours away? Or is this somewhere where people are flying from, like, California to come visit?

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
We get folks flying in. Not as many, though. Branson did open up its own airport, which is really cool. But the Southwest contract, and it lasts very long. So right now you just have to fly in through Frontier. And I think there’s a second small one that they’ve just opened up. Another airline’s coming in. So next closest is Springfield Airport.

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
But if you’re going to fly, most people fly into like, Oklahoma City, Kansas City or Little Rock and then drive in. So the majority of folks are driving in. We get folks as far north as Minnesota, Wisconsin, we get a lot of folks from there. And then Texas is huge for us. So, you know that top north and south, Louisiana and then all the border states around. So going past Tennessee towards the east coast or past Colorado towards the west coast, definitely not as much there, but, you know, just right here within the Midwest. But the great thing is we’re within a day’s drive of half the population of the country. So it makes it really easy for families to say, hey, where are we going to go? Let’s all drive.

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
Drive. Maybe we got budget constrictions or time constrictions because when you have little kids, you don’t want to drive very far and you want to see everybody, as you know, Avery. And so then everybody looks at where can we go? And they end up in the middle of the United States, which happens to be Branson.

Bill Beck :
Yeah. If you’re, you know, living in a rural town in Oklahoma and you’ve got family in a rural town in Missouri, it’s like, well, why would we go to see each other when we can go meet at this middle ground place with all these things to do and really amazing places to stay at all these vacation rentals.

Avery :
So yeah, yeah. I do have to say that every year when we do our month long motorhome trip, we stop in Omaha, Nebraska to see Luke’s parents. And we always like Branson is a nice halfway stopping point to get back home. And it gives the kids something to do because we always go to Silver Dollar City with them and eat like absolute garbage while we’re there. And it’s really fun. Okay, so let’s talk about, we talked about the tourism, who’s coming in, what there is to do. Let’s talk about the short term rental regulations. So what are the regulations? I know there are some in the city limits, but maybe different outside the city limits.

Avery :
What does that look like?

Bill Beck :
Yeah, this is a great question. I mean, Tyne, do you want to go into like the history? Because I know it’s. This is one of the, one of the markets where I guess performance zoning was very like, was put out there pretty early relative, relatively speaking for a vacation rental market. But I don’t know the full exact history about how it all went down, but maybe tie in.

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
When I started back in 2007, you did have to have zones perm already. You already had to have zoning and it’s very much cracked down even more so. So if you’re in the city limits of Branson and you’re zoned R1, you’re not. You can’t do it. From what I understand then the city limits though is not very big. So when you say Branson, that is a pretty large area. It also covers two different counties when you’re talking Branson area. So you have Taney county and you have Stone county.

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
And both of those counties have different rules and they have different rules for inspections and permits and Then you have to look at the business license for the county and then you have to have the business license if there’s a village. So if you’re in Indian Point, down past Silver Dollar City, that’s yet another government entity that you need to take care of with health inspections and safety inspections, the fire inspection and all of that. So wherever you’re looking, you need to delve into is there a registration? Definitely there’s going to be a license. Definitely there’s going to be inspections. And what additional taxes might there be? Because if you’re in city limits, there’s an additional 4% tourism tax that you have to pay. And the listing sites don’t cover this. They don’t include that. There’s no agreement with the.

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
So you’re going to have to manually send that in every single month. And then you also have to look like Taney county is where most of our houses are. And I like tiny county and the fact that it is limited to where you can have a vacation rental. So they became very strict just a few years ago. They put a moratorium any more permits to kind of figure it out. Once they started again, they said, okay, no more R1. And if you don’t have a permit in place already, it’s not going to happen. So this does drive folks, folks to stay within vacation rental approved communities and neighborhoods.

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
Now for my, my personal thing is, is I love this because it does help the residents keep their areas without having to live next to tourists and then it helps the neighborhoods to be able to put in those extra amenities that tourists want. So it’s, it’s a really great thing in my mind. And there are developers out there, they’re going and getting an entire community vacation rental approved before you even build. So that, that is in place already and you don’t have to worry about those extra when you come in because it’s already set in place for you.

Bill Beck :
That’s a great point because the zoning creates the funnels and then people ask and are concerned about well, is this going to change? Is there any regulatory. It’s like, well, it’s not going to happen because all of your neighbors are doing the exact same thing. So for them to do something to change and revert from giving permissions for a purpose built community and then to take that back like ultra low likelihood. So if you get something that’s zoned from the beginning, very low risk of anything taking that ability to do what you want to do away. So.

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
Right. And it’s one of these issues where when someone says, oh man, I don’t want to be in an hoa, it’s like, no, no, no, here it is good. Here you’re in a neighborhood, it has the hoa, the COA in place and everybody is doing vacation rentals. And then you’re going able to help each other and make sure that your community is one of the best vacation rental communities and bring those tourists into you.

Bill Beck :
Yeah, I think people have concerns about saturation worries and it’s like, well, if they keep building thousands and thousands to compete with each other, that is a saturation concern. But if they put a, essentially an artificial supply cap by creating this zoning restriction which is kind of going to enforce that cap, so to speak, that creates this, hey, if you’ve got something, you’re in a good position, it’s going to help your value for it. And it’s not like something you need to worry about eventually tomorrow that, you know, Branson goes from 5,000 vacation rentals to 10,000 or 20,000. Because that would be awful because that’d be the race, you know, race to the bottom for, for rates. You’d have all sorts of bad fallout from that.

Avery :
So, yeah, so this is a good example of the, of a lot of people get really scared of regulations altogether. Just like Tyenne said, people get scared of hoas at a high level. This is a good example of regulations are not a bad thing. They keep markets from getting saturated and HOAs are not a bad thing if they are purpose built for short term rentals. That that’s where you want to be. So awesome information so far, guys. So what we’ve talked about permitting, so is there a process for getting the permits? How, like, how difficult is that or is it pretty easy?

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
I mean, thankfully I’ve never had to do that myself. All our properties and our client properties are within purpose built communities. So permits were in place already by the developer, which is nice. So I do know they have to go through your regular special use permit, different zoning. That is pretty much a standard for cities and counties where you submit your application, you go before the commission, you’ll probably have a, you know, you’ll have a public hearing. All the neighbors within X number hundreds of feet are notified. They can come to the public hearing as well. So it’s definitely a process.

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
Sometimes it’s a couple months, sometimes it could be longer. It very much depends upon the county and what kind of questions they ask you and what they want, you know, what kind of plans you want, they want you to have in place ahead of Time. But what’s like we said in Branson, you know, the. Everything’s usually already set out for you and. Yeah. Now Stone County. Okay, so I did mention there’s different Taney and Stone. Stone County.

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
There are some folks who’ve been trying to get regular houses, you know, get the special use permit and rezoned. And there has not been a lot of luck lately. So, you know, definitely look around. You want to talk to your realtor super important. Okay. I know you guys are probably smiling like, yes, she said that. Especially in the Branson area, your realtor is really important because they’re going to know all those little tiny details and the differences between the different counties and the permits and the areas. It’s really, really good to lean on on that information with your realtor.

Bill Beck :
I mean, that’s really the. I appreciate that tie in because it’s like when I came here, I didn’t know this stuff and it was like, how do I understand how this all works? And it’s absolutely overwhelming to try and like look at plat maps and zoning maps and the tape the county and it’s like, oh my gosh. But. But once you start to realize like the actual. What the true inventory is here, that’s.

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
Where.

Bill Beck :
You don’t have to go sift through that on your own because frankly, it’s impossible. I’ve had clients that tried to come and like, what about this address? I tried pulling it up on the Taney County GIS system and overlaying the zoning map and I’m like, oh, don’t do that. Do not do that. You’re just gonna be shooting, you know, like, try to like you’re not gonna find something. It’s. It’s impossible. Needle in a haystack, even harder than that. So, yeah, definitely work with a realtor that knows what they’re talking about.

Bill Beck :
Knows all the communities that work. You know, there are one off properties that Ty mentioned with special use permits. Those ones, if you do find one of those one off ones, you know, Taney county, you do have to go ensure that makes make sure that that would. It doesn’t technically transfer from my understanding. So you’d have to get it reapplied for. But if it’s already been grandfathered in, it’s got fire suppression. Do you need to mention one of the things here is our fire suppression tie and you know, the history of how that came about. Was that something that’s always been around or did that change at some point with the sprinkler systems?

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
Yeah. So it’s, from what I understand, it is a state mandated thing. So in the state of Missouri, once you get to a certain size house or property, then you have to have the fire suppression. And what I like is that developers saw that and they just leaned into it right away. So it’s one of those things. I really think that Branson is ahead of the game compared to other places that don’t even think about the fire suppression. And the fire suppression system are really important. Even the smaller houses and the nightly rental developments, they’re putting them in.

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
So it’s really great to see from a safety standpoint.

Bill Beck :
Yeah, yeah. And then again, after everything we’ve just discussed, it kind of creates. Again, this is, there’s not a ton of, of single family home properties. So people will come to our market and be like, all right, where are the cabins or the lake cabins? And you’re like, there aren’t any here. We don’t have that. Based upon everything we just talked about, it’s extremely important that you listen to that element. Because if you didn’t hear that and you’re thinking, all right, where do we find these cabins? It’s like, well, there’s, there’s. There aren’t.

Bill Beck :
They aren’t there? There are very few of them. And they’re in what’s called a detached condo status. Right. I mean, that’s the term for it. So they’re still in these HOAs. They look like a cabin. You, I mean, your, your family owns some, right? Tyenne over in Willow Oak Lane. So it’s like, it’s, it’s, this is not a market that has, you know, the same exact dynamic as some of these other markets out there.

Bill Beck :
So that’s just something that people need to go understand from the get go. And then if you’re okay with that, like, we’ll definitely help you, guide you into what works.

Avery :
Okay, yeah, that was going to be. My next question is what type of property works the best? So typically everything’s a condo. What’s a detached condo? So some people might not know what that is. Is that where it looks like a single family house, but it’s actually a condo, so you’d have to finance it. Like a condo?

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
Pretty much, yeah. So like I say, I have houses, but the technical terms are condo or detached condo. And I own the building and I own two feet around it. So the footprint plus two feet. And then you also have to think about insurance. So someone says, hey, I got a condo. They, they’re thinking in their head well, the traditional condo is you insure everything from walls in the studs in. Well, with detached condos, no, you have to actually ensure it’s the same as a single family house.

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
So it’s when you go in and you see these different terms that you’re used to, you have to inquire a little bit more and say, okay, what does this term mean in Branson? How do I translate that to my insurance company? How do I translate that to my bank, my finance? Because the way the terms are, you can’t necessarily get the same type of financing that you thought you could. So it’s. Yeah, it’s one of those things you got to be aware of.

Bill Beck :
Yeah. As far as inventory breakdown, I mean, currently we’ve got a lot of new construction coming for some various developments, but right now, like what’s today, that’s turnkey that you can get your hands on, that’s ready to go. And the majority of it would be 1, 2, 3 bedroom condo properties in various communities. And there are a handful of ones in the, you know, seven plus bedroom range that are out there. Those price points are starting to get to the million dollar range. So just depending on what someone’s looking.

Avery :
For, do you get a seven bedroom for under a million in Branson?

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
I think there’s one for sale. But the caveat is it is one of those that was built back in 2008, 9 and so it’s ready for a big upgrade. So.

Avery :
Okay, but that’s still not bad comparatively compared to other markets. Because in some markets to get a six, seven bedroom, like if you come down here to Destin, I mean it’s going to be 2.5 at a minimum. So that’s a really good alternative. So this market is pretty affordable compared to a lot of other blue chip markets. I would consider this a blue chip market. It’s been around for a while. I wouldn’t consider it necessarily emerging, but it is much more affordable than a lot of the other blue chip markets. Is that correct?

Bill Beck :
Absolutely, yeah. Yeah. I mean my average transaction price was about 287,000 for around the 100 transactions I did the last two years. So that’s kind of the sweet spot. I mean, for someone who’s a first timer, who’s never done this before, they want to deploy 20, 30, $40,000. I mean, you can find something in Branson that’s fully set up, ready to go. And that’s what makes this place very unique. Because if you look at other markets that you can get something for 250,000.

Bill Beck :
You’re definitely looking at something that’s probably out in a fringe market, not a blue chip. So your high degree of risk when it comes to what is the year over year occupancy curve, are people going to come here every single year? What’s going to keep people drawing them here? Is it just a lake or is it just a national park? On top of that, what are the operational risks? Talk about infrastructure. I know a lot of people ask questions on, hey, you know, if we get in Branson, is there going to be handyman, are there going to be cleaning companies? It’s like absolutely. We have that fully built out. It’s extremely robust. So if you start to look at, well I can get a, I can get a house out and you know, some lake over here and it’s going to do better because I’m going to have more freedom. And it’s like, well, great. But, but what happens if your cleaning person quits? Then what are you going to do? Because you don’t know like if there’s any backup options.

Bill Beck :
So thankfully Branson, what like the surrounding 30, 45 minute bubble from Branson, the Branson strip, Silver Dollar City, you definitely have access to a number of different team contractors to assist you with actually operating and taking care of your investment.

Avery :
Awesome.

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
Yeah.

Avery :
So this is a really great option for either first time investors or people who are on a strict budget who may not be necessarily, necessarily first time, but want to stay under that 500, 000 mark. And that’s really hard to do in some of the good markets. And this one, you can absolutely do it. So really, really great info. So would you say that what’s the sweet spot in terms of size of property, number of bedrooms?

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
Hmm, I would definitely say a house. Well, a detached condo I guess would be the term. Okay, so from this here on out, Bill, let’s just say condo is your traditional condo houses detach. Deal?

Bill Beck :
Absolutely. Deal.

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
Okay, deal. All right. So definitely if you can get into a house because even if it’s a smaller one, you want to go house. Because condo is, gosh, I want to say there’s like over 2,000 rooms and you’re, you’re definitely competing with the hotels and motels at the one bedroom condo level. So your average daily rate, your nightly rate is going to be a lot lower. There’s a lot more competition. Your booking window is going to be extremely small and makes a little more nervous risks. So if the bigger you can go, the, it’s better.

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
But you also don’t want to go too big depending upon how much risk you want to take. So you have to figure out are am I a big risk taker or am I not a big risk taker? As the, the one hole that I see, and I probably should not be saying this on a public podcast, is that that three bedroom house space, there’s lots of one and two bedroom condos, there’s four or five bedroom houses. But when you want three bedro, you’re looking at a handful of condos. There’s the vineyards, you know, those are all condos. They’re building some more, that’s great. But a three bedroom standalone house is extremely difficult to find as because the thing is is by the time you build three bedrooms it doesn’t cost a lot more to do a fourth bedroom and you’re going to make more money on a four bedroom. So therefore people up to a four bedroom. So if you can find a way to get into that three bedroom range at a reasonable price, I think you’re going to do really well.

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
Well.

Bill Beck :
I’ll take an opinion, maybe a counter opinion that some of the larger developments that have been putting up recently have been, you know, seven, eight, nine, 10 bedroom houses. So they put an influx of those of what maybe 200 in the last two years and prior to that there were what 50 to 100 in the last decade. So having seen that larger size property influx, it’s kind of like what’s that going to look like? So traditionally, you know, the larger you could build the better because there wasn’t that many that were out there. And you start to hit the demographic of people that are coming here which is the multi generational families that need a big space. You know, the dance teams, the baseball teams, the all the groups that come here for the various events. It’s like that is custom built, perfect for those groups. I agree with Tyenne. We have a missing gap of properties in the like 400 to 600,000 range where if they built like these three bedroom houses here that’d be perfect.

Bill Beck :
But I don’t know any developments happening quite yet. But I still think two bedroom, yeah, one bedroom condos, you know you are competing with hotel rooms. I actually say that directly. So I do agree. Now the two bedrooms, we have a lot of them. So that’s something that they’re the low end ones like the very entry level, just about $200,000 to get one. They don’t perform well, they don’t have amenities, they’re ugly. Curb appeal.

Bill Beck :
Those don’t do great. But I’ve seen some two bedroom ones, you know, point real, you know, over in the landing, Eagle’s Nest, Lantern Bay area that people do really fantastic with them. They get them set up, they get them managed accordingly. And even though it’s just a two bedroom, it’s a high performing cream of the crop two bedroom. And I’ve seen those do pretty well. Well and then three bedrooms as well. Those are ones that everybody’s kind of on the hunt hunt for. So I think you can do really, really well with a two bedroom.

Bill Beck :
Even though there are a lot of them. It’s just that’s, that’s kind of what’s currently available too. So if you want to get something $250,000, get your hands on something, get it going, I mean it’s, as long as you pick the right one, you’re going to be in good shape.

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
Yeah. And to your point, with the larger houses, that is where a lot of the money is. But the thing is, good luck finding one unless you’re getting in on a development otherwise. You know, the thing is, is with these developers, they have their, their clients, their established clients and they open up the lots to them first and then once they’re about half gone, they start opening it up to the realtors that they have close relationships with and then they open it up to the public and sometimes they even hold back lots until they’re ready to release them as well. So it’s, you definitely want to have an in and you, it’s, it’s who you know in this area to be able to get into those. And then once folks have them set up and they’ve got them turnkey, then they’re putting them on the market. So my little tip that I believe what’s going to happen this summer, towards the end of the summer, there’s a development that’s getting finished up and I know there’s a few people that are setting them up to sell them turnkey. So there will be some coming online.

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
So just, you know, you want to keep an eye out for that. But the thing is, is once they’re online, they go fast. So if you’re going to come to the area you want to come now, take a look and scout out. Okay. This is what these properties look like. Try to walk a couple or two just so you can get used to what the floor plan is, maybe the workmanship of the developer of that neighborhood so you know where you want to be that way when a house comes up, you know. Okay, yeah, that’s where I want to be. I’m going to jump on this.

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
And then what’s really cool is are the realtors in our area. You can actually sign something saying hey, I here’s my contract and I’m going to sign that. I haven’t seen it yet, but I plan to come see it within X number of days. And then you attach that to your contract. So that does give you the opportunity to go in person or to send someone in person if you need one More than a FaceTime walkthrough with your realtor. Awesome.

Avery :
All right, so now we’ve gone through size. Let’s talk about areas. So there’s probably several areas that, that not necessarily work better than others. But what are the different areas that are good places to buy short term rentals?

Bill Beck :
Because of the zoning funnel, it’s really interesting. We don’t have as much sensitivity as some other markets. When you start to talk about a beach market, it’s like as you progressively get farther and farther away from the waterfront, like your, your profitability starts to decrease. Whereas here in Branson, because we have have downtown area, we’ve got the link, the strip, we’ve got Silver Door City, we’ve got big cedar, Johnny Morris stuff, there’s a couple of. Plus the lake. So they’ve got all these various things that maybe someone wants to be by the lake, but for every one of them, maybe there’s people that want to be closer to the strip or maybe someone wants to straddle right between that or maybe someone wants to be closer to Silveradar City. So we don’t have an exact sensitive like you need to be here, you need to be there. It’s more I almost think of it’s like a triangle where if you’re between Branson west, kind of riding along the eastern edge of Table Rock Lake all the way down to kind of the Arkansas border which you know, really close to Arkansas.

Bill Beck :
And then you kind of go up to maybe Branson City area and a little bit east of that, I mean that triangle is kind of, that’s where everything’s at. And if you’re too, too far outside of that, that’s when it starts to get a little bit riskier. There’s really nothing to the north of us. When you start head towards Springfield, it’s just kind of, it’s just, you know, gorgeous drive but there’s nothing really out there. If you start to go east, there’s even less. I mean there’s the Branson airport, but beyond that it’s like you’re starting to get into straight up wilderness. If you go west to the lake, you know, there are. There are some interesting ones that you can get out.

Bill Beck :
And actually Barry county, which is. Is the third county we didn’t really discuss. There are no regulations in Barry County. So if someone’s like, I need a lake house that I can vacation rent, you could say, okay, well, if you get something in Barry county, you can actually do that. But that starts to get outside of the Branson market, because we’re talking 50 minute, maybe an hour drive to get out to Eagle Rock to Shell Knob, and you have no cell service. You’re driving past Dollar Generals and farms, and that’s it. But that, that kind of is the triangle that I think as far as a sweet spot, you want to be, unless you’re a little bit more of a risk taker and you want to be on the west side of the lake and then obviously Arkansas border the south. So.

Avery :
All right, so talk to me about lakefront stuff, because I know that was a big thing before we started recording like that. A lot of people want to buy lakefront, and that doesn’t really exist. So can you kind of shed some light on what that means?

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
Means, yeah. So lakefront is the entire shoreline. Like we said earlier, the Corps of the Army Corps of Engineers are the ones that built the lake. That means they also own the shoreline. And I want to say it’s an average of 50ft up. And if you build anything onto their land, you can be asked to be removed it. So, you know, you don’t want to build your deck on their land. You don’t want to build your house on their land or anything.

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
Now what that also means, because they own the shoreline, that doesn’t mean the shoreline is actually able to be seen. So the Army Corps of Engineers, their purpose is the lake and conservation, the, the waterway, all of that. So that means they’re going to keep the. The trees, they want to take care of the fish. So their goal is to take care of nature, which is really awesome to come to a lake that it’s quiet, it’s very natural, it’s amazing. We call it the family lake in comparison to Lake of the Ozarks, which is very, very different. That’s the. And where you see docks and houses and decks overlooking the water and everything.

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
So this is the complete opposite of it. So if you’re lakefront, that doesn’t mean you actually even get to see the lake. You might be able to hear it. You can probably hear the boats with their music on the summer night because the, you know, the sound carries across the lake. So you would be paying extra for lakefront. But when I’m looking at a house and when a guest asked me, they say, hey, are you going to. How close can I get to the lake? Can I see the lake? It’s like, okay, you want lake view, so that means you’re going to be a little bit further back. You may be higher up.

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
You might not necessarily be able to walk easily to the lake. We try to find places that are an easy walk. So you’re talking about like a quarter mile or so. And then you also have to be aware that the shoreline isn’t always a gentle walk either. It could be a cliff that you jump off of. So it’s. Remember, way back, it was a river that went through the Ozark Mountains and they filled it up. So it’s going to be very different topography along the shoreline of the lake.

Bill Beck :
And then it even gets further convoluted with even just getting a slip. People will want to associate lake with boating, and because of our corps of engineers, they make it really challenging to get yourself a slip that you can actually use in concert with your vacation rental to then rent out as part of your experience to your guests. In fact, you have to go get it resort zone, which is. I don’t know how challenging that is, but it just, it is a big thing to be aware of that you don’t need to be looking for a lake house with a slip to be competitive because frankly, not many, not many people have that. So.

Avery :
So if you want to have lakefront and put a slip in, you can get approved to do that. But it’s kind of a gigantic panic pain is what you’re saying.

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
Not seen anyone get approved that ever.

Avery :
Okay. The lakefront doesn’t mean you’re going to be able to pull your boat right up to the house. You’re probably going to have to drive down to the marina and do it that way.

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
Right? Okay. I mean, you, you can park your jet skis and your boat in a cove. That’s, you know, that’s cool. But there’s no boat slip. So you’ll definitely want to, like, rent a slip at a marina. But any private boat slip, slip, only the registered boat is allowed in that slip unless there’s a storm coming through. Then if a storm comes through on the lake, all bets are off, all rules are off. You are required.

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
I mean, every single boat rental has a sticker saying you get Yourself to the shore or an island or a boat slip. Now, because the. The winds can be crazy over that lake and cause it can wreak havoc. So storm comes through, you get off the water.

Avery :
Oh, I didn’t really. I didn’t realize that it was that big of a deal. Is that specific to that area or is it always like that on all lakes?

Bill Beck :
The duck boat thing, which kind of was not that put Branson on the national news when a bunch of people died when they drowned in a duck boat sinking incident.

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
So, yeah, it wasn’t as much of a big safety thing. It’s more. It was more like a common sense. But after the tragic accident with the duck boat, it. Now they make sure to tell everybody. And. And there’s even a Facebook group, the Table Rock Lake group, where if there’s a storm scene coming or coming up, people start posting in a group saying, if you’re on the lake, get off. Now it’s people take care of each other, and we want people to continue and enjoy the lake.

Avery :
I’m gonna have to look up the duck boat incident. So a storm came through and made it sink and people died. Is that what happened?

Bill Beck :
Basically, yeah. And there were like, probably safety violations by the company, me, But I’ll let you read the story. It’s. It’s pretty interesting how it all went down.

Avery :
Yeah, I’ll look it up. We go every now and then, we’ll take out of the Destin Harbor. There’s like a kids pirate ship cruise and a kid’s dolphin cruise. And every time, you know, we’re going way out in the ocean sometimes or the. The Gulf. Excuse me. Or the bay. And I make my kids wear life jackets on that.

Avery :
And everybody looks at me like I’m some dork mom who’s putting like pocket protectors on her kids. And I’m like, guys, if something happens, they need to have life jackets on. But maybe I’m the helicopter mom. I don’t.

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
But you’re not. You’re not. It’s actual. It’s. It’s coast guard rules up to age. I want to say 12, if you’re on the water, you have to have a life jacket on.

Avery :
Yeah, well, I like to think I’m right. But you’re right. Like, literally all the other. There were no other kids in life jackets. And I’m like, sorry, you’re dorks. Kids, like, you guys are gonna be safe.

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
Yeah.

Bill Beck :
So now we’ve talked about the lake for as long as we have. It’s just. It’s Just not a big thing in Branson to be looking for. So people shouldn’t try to be finding that because it’s, it’s, again, it’s, it’s just lost cause to try to go down that route. Just focus on what, what does work, what’s available. That is what the competition is. So that’s. You got to have your eye on.

Avery :
Okay, awesome. So is there anything else about why you would buy in Branson? Why this is a great market that we haven’t hit on, that you think we should.

Bill Beck :
I wanted to say the history of, you know, our occupancy that comes here. I mean, would we see 10 million tourists per year? Tyne.

Tyann Marcink Hammond :
Something like that. It’s crazy. And then listening to the Missouri tourism folks and the governor and how Missouri is targeting Texas and other areas and what the massive things they’re doing to bring folks to Missouri itself. And then talking to the Branson Chamber of Commerce and the Table Rock Lake Chamber of Commerce and what they’re doing to bring people to the area. I mean, as you know, I’m all in. You know, this is where my properties are. This is where I run my property management company, Branson Family Retreat streets. And this is where the money works really well for us.

Bill Beck :
Yeah. And the more development that’s coming, I mean, we didn’t even touch upon the Johnny Morris and everything he’s doing. He’s the, the founder of Bass Pro Shops. I mean, he’s got big plans for our area and I think there’s a partnership with the Walton family from Walmart. So there’s a lot of big money that’s going to be coming into our area. So as Branson has kind of stuck around since the mid-1900s, I mean, it’s evolved. So things like the hotels of that were on the strip have kind of gone by the wayside. People aren’t staying at those anymore.

Bill Beck :
Vacation rentals have been on the upswing and there’s just been a lot of development that’s coming in. So if you can, you can get in before all this, this major developments happen. It’s. It’s kind of a perfect time. So.

Avery :
Well, if nobody has any more points to make that we haven’t touched on already, then we will close this one out. Guys, if you want to buy a term rental in Branson with Bill, you can hit us up at agents at the short term shop.com and we’ll get you connected. Or if you just have further questions, you can do one of two things or both things. You can join our Facebook group. It’s called Short Term Rental, Long Term Wealth. Same name as my book. Or you can join us every Thursday for a live zoom call. Q and A.

Avery :
And you could sign up for that@strquestions.com thanks guys.

Bill Beck :
Sam.