How to Set Up a Short Term Rental in the Smoky Mountains: A Step-by-Step Guide (Episode 8 of 10)

Avery Carl [00:00:03]:
Hey all.

Avery Carl [00:00:03]:
Welcome to the short term show special episode series on the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee. We are doing a ten episode deep dive into buying short term rentals in the Smoky Mountains. So we’re going to talk about a lot of things in these episodes, and we’ll probably be doing a quarterly update from here on out after we finish these ten. So make sure you hit that subscribe button so you get those delivered straight to your phone when they come out. We do have some supplemental materials for you in addition to the content on this podcast. So any information that you need on current property pricing, you can find on our website@theshorttermshop.com and we also have, courtesy of our friends over at Air DNA, current air DNA data for this market on our website as well. So you can check that out on the shorttermshop.com. and if you guys are interested in buying a property in the Smoky mountains with a short term shop agent, you can email us at agents@theshorttermshop.com or if you just want to learn more about buying short term rentals in this market, you can join our Facebook group.

Avery Carl [00:01:07]:
We’ve created a 50,000 person community on Facebook all about investing in short term rentals. You can join that. It’s the same title as my book. It’s called short term rental, long term wealth.

Avery Carl [00:01:18]:
See you guys over there. Hey, guys. Welcome back to the short term shop investing in the Smoky Mountain series. Today we’re going to talk about decor and making your cabin ready to rent. So we’re going to cover the setup stuff from, you know, the time you close to the time you get it live, what you need to do, how to do that, and, you know, a lot of fun stuff. A lot of fun stuff. So first off, I’ll introduce my panel. First, we have Abby Goodman.

Avery Carl [00:01:50]:
She is a designer in the Smoky mountain, so she’s going to be talking mostly about the decor aspect. Abby, how’s it going?

Abby Goodman [00:01:57]:
Good. How are you? Thank you for having me.

Avery Carl [00:01:59]:
Thank you for coming. Next, we have Levi Trentham. How do you pronounce your last name? Is it Trentham or Trenum?

Levi Trentham [00:02:07]:
It’s Trenum.

Avery Carl [00:02:08]:
Trenum. Yeah. Okay.

Levi Trentham [00:02:10]:
But it’s wrong for people to say Trent ham, but yeah, it’s trenum.

Avery Carl [00:02:14]:
Trenum. Okay. I’ve been saying that wrong for like, the three plus years you’ve been on the team. All right, Levi. Levi, do you want to introduce yourself really quick?

Levi Trentham [00:02:25]:
Yes. So like Avery said, I’ve been on the team for about three years and also own three short term rentals in the smokey. So we’ve done several new construction, we’ve done some existing, some mild rehabs, so we’ve done a little bit of everything. So hopefully we can add some value to this.

Avery Carl [00:02:43]:
Thanks, Levi. And next, we have a very familiar face, Tim Grillio. Tim, you want to introduce yourself, even though you’ve introduced yourself on several episodes so far?

Tim Grillot [00:02:54]:
Yeah. Like Avery said, my name’s Tim Griglio. I’m excited to be here today. Have, I’m an agent in the Smokies as well, and also have four cabins up here. We have some other properties, some other markets as well, but today’s focus is on the smokey. So we’re going to talk mostly about that. So, yeah. Hello.

Avery Carl [00:03:15]:
Okay, so there’s a lot to talk about when it comes to this subject, and I will start with the fact that most properties in the smokies are not going to be something you’re having to start from scratch with. Most properties are going to come fully furnished. I hate to use the word turn. Turnkey. I don’t like that word at all because it’s so subjective, because some people think like, oh, I don’t have to buy any furniture. I just have to, like, do a couple things and get it going. And it’s turnkey. And then I’ve had some people be like, the light switch is crooked.

Avery Carl [00:03:49]:
This is not turnkey. So I don’t like that word. But, um, I will preface with most things in the smokies come fully furnished, so you’re probably not going to have to completely start from scratch and have to deal with ordering and being there for deliveries and just putting the whole thing together. It’ll probably be in most cases, you know, maybe you’re buying a new couch or a new bed that needs to be replaced, but you, in most cases, won’t be starting from scratch. So, guys, what have you been seeing in terms of when you’re closing on properties? Like, what updates need to be made? Are things coming? Are things hitting the market now that are, like, already pretty updated, or are we still seeing a lot of, like, grandma grandma cabins?

Tim Grillot [00:04:38]:
I’d say it’s a pretty good mix. Um, I mean, I’ve seen both, quite frankly, and honestly, uh, I’m just gonna talk a little more personal, but we’ve bought several that were very on the grandma end of things. And, uh, my wife and I, before we lived here and stuff, we used to always have a setup party. You know, that was kind of the way we did it. We’d come into town with a truckload of stuff and, uh, just, like, work nonstop for three days and set the place up. But my wife’s kind of ninja the whole taking a grandma cabin and turning it into something pretty decent to at least get us started just by, you know, know, getting rid of a lot of stuff and utilizing a lot. Most usually, we utilize almost all the stuff is there and then buy a couple pieces here and there. But, uh, so that’s kind of been our experience.

Avery Carl [00:05:22]:
Yeah, it’s. I think it’s much easier to do remotely when you’re not having to do everything from the ground up, so. And y’all’s experience, is it possible to get a cabin up and running remotely without coming into town?

Levi Trentham [00:05:37]:
Yeah, absolutely. So it’s easy for me to say living the smokey is. We haven’t actually done a remote setup ourselves, but we’ve helped a ton of clients do it. So I think you have to rely on people like Abby. And there’s other, at least in the smokies that I know of, there’s other vendors that will help do pretty much anything you can possibly imagine. So people, from switching outdoor locks to just replacing a couch or even just keeping all the main furniture pieces there and doing just the core, but doing it remote, I mean, just. You just have to rely on people in the market that know what they’re doing, like Abby. So maybe Abby can chime in.

Abby Goodman [00:06:17]:
I think it’s definitely possible to do remote. There’s a lot of local companies that can help, whether it’s. You’re changing out a couch, if it’s really worn down and you just need to replace something big like that, or if you just need to get some small decor, there’s definitely vendors out there that can help you set up. And just with a simple phone call, you can get it all set up.

Tim Grillot [00:06:41]:
I’ll piggyback on that and say, I agree, too. It’s. It’s. It’s really not. I’m gonna say it’s not hard. It’s not super easy the first time. It can be intimidating. And.

Tim Grillot [00:06:49]:
And what I tell people a lot of times is, look, this thing’s been ranting as is, you know, for a number of years. That doesn’t mean it’s ideal or it doesn’t mean you don’t want to update it, but it’s not like the end of the world that you get every little detail done on the first shot, because you’re going to be. You’re going to be changing things along the way. As you go anyway, you want to keep your place fresh and, uh, you know, between, you know, exactly what they said, a good handyman, and a lot of the furniture stores here are very accustomed to this culture of, like, if you need a couch, you don’t even have to really set up somebody to be there. You just give them the door code, and they’ll come take your old one away, set the new one up, beds, whatever, and then you take it, you know, a full nother level if you want to hire help, you know? Exactly. People like Abby, you know, there’s a lot of designers here that do a fantastic job, and they’re more of a turnkey service because they go in and they’ll do a lot of design work, and then they’ll actually handle some of the logistics of working with the contractors as well if you don’t want to do that part of it. So it’s very achievable.

Avery Carl [00:07:43]:
So let’s talk about what you can. When you’re buying a furnished cabin, what are the typical things that do come with the cabin and the typical things that don’t? Because there are some things that when it says fully furnished, that it actually doesn’t come with. So let’s talk about that for a minute.

Tim Grillot [00:08:00]:
Yeah. So almost always, it’s not going to come with sheets. I mean, that’s one of the big things. And, you know, so typically, linens are going to come with or not linens. Your comforters and stuff are going to come with it, but your, what they call linens, which linens includes towels and stuff, are typically owned by either the property manager or the cleaner. So, you know, that’s not going to be, you know, there. And then sometimes electronics do, you know, a lot of times electronics aren’t, even if they come with it is not what you want. When I say electronics, I’m talking smart devices, door locks, thermostats, and stuff like that.

Tim Grillot [00:08:34]:
I always tell people to count on just having buying a door lock, a camera, and a thermostat. That way you have exactly the stuff you want. If it’s there, you might get lucky, but most of the time, it’s something weird that you don’t want anyway. And, and then from there, you know, your modem and cable box, cable boxes aren’t going to come, but most of the core typically comes unless it’s something like, some of these are second homes that, you know, it might be a second home that somebody would use for themselves. And then there’s usually a list of some sentimental stuff that they want to keep, but other than that, usually everything comes with it. So, Levi or Abby, can you add to that? I don’t know if I’m hitting everything.

Levi Trentham [00:09:11]:
I think you. I think you hit it on the head, really. So, I mean, I don’t have too much to add, but a lot of the times, even, you know, like, the remote door locks and stuff, the cameras, a lot of times, those don’t convey if it’s with a property manager, but if it’s self managed, you’ll probably get to take those over. So you kind of just have to. Just have to see where you stand. At closing. It is difficult, I’ve found, to sometimes get codes and certain access information for the cameras at closing. So sometimes it’s better just to go ahead and replace them.

Levi Trentham [00:09:43]:
Don’t get too caught up on stuff like that. Just pay $200, get a new camera, and replace it. I think some people, they get frustrated when they’re like, why can’t they just give me access to this? But just. It’s a very small thing in the grand scheme of things, so just replace it and set up your own. Your own stuff.

Tim Grillot [00:10:02]:
That’s a great point, Levi. Don’t get hung up on, like, if something doesn’t work, just move on. Because I’ve seen it before where clients were, like, the thermostats and cameras did come with it, and. Exactly. We said, they’re locked out of it, they can’t get in. And now you’re paying a handyman, you know, whatever, $7,500 an hour to sit there and mess with it, and you end up spending more than you could have just bought a new camera and been done with it. So just, you know, sometimes it’s better just to. And keep moving forward.

Abby Goodman [00:10:27]:
Yeah.

Avery Carl [00:10:28]:
So let’s talk about, you mentioned, Tim, the devices that you’ll need to buy. So, typically, I would recommend three pieces of hardware. I would say you need a smart lock, which I think pretty much everybody agrees that the schlage encode is encode. However you say that is the best one. You do need a camera, a ring doorbell camera, a ring, a floodlight camera, and then also a smart thermostat. We typically recommend the Honeywell T nine’s because they’re just the easiest to use. Yes, nests look super cool, but they’re really difficult to use. And they’re designed to learn so that it learns your behaviors and patterns, so that it keeps the temperature where you want it.

Avery Carl [00:11:11]:
And you don’t want that when you have different guests coming in all the time. So let’s also talk about why it may not be a good idea to try to stay in the property and do all this stuff the day of closing, because a lot of people, when they, they know closing’s coming, they’ll show up with a truckload of furniture to the closing table and get ready and plan to stay there that night. So why might that not be the best idea in the world?

Tim Grillot [00:11:39]:
That’s almost always somewhat of a bad idea. There’s a lot of things that can happen there. One, you know, closing dates, you know, it’s a very special time for the buyer, and it feels like, you know, you’re the only thing that’s happening that day. And it’s very exciting. You’re taking on this awesome new thing. But the sad reality, or maybe it’s not sad, but it’s reality, is the banks and the title, the title companies, they’re doing this day in, day out, and it’s just a machine to them. And stuff gets delayed. I guess, quite frankly, you could have a delay.

Tim Grillot [00:12:07]:
That’s one thing that can happen, another thing that can happen in the smokies. And really, all of our markets, remote closings are very, very, very common. And the way it works is you sign the papers remotely and everything gets mailed in, and that’s your closing day. But you don’t actually get possession until it gets paid. And since it’s remote, there’s usually at least a day delay on that. So, you know, you don’t want to show up on a Friday if you’re closing dates on a Friday and, and have it be where it doesn’t fund until Monday. And, you know, the seller, by rights, doesn’t have to give you access to that property. So then you’re kind of stuck with your trailer full of stuff, and I, you know, kind of getting a pickle there.

Avery Carl [00:12:48]:
Yeah, and I do have a horror story about that. So keep in mind that sometimes the smart locks do belong to the property manager and that when you show up to want to stay in your property and you maybe you’re getting there from out of town late at night, that’s also probably not the best idea. I do have a horror story. One time, I think it was 20. It was either 2018 or 2019. I think it was 2018. No, it was 19, because Max was like one. So I’m in the bed with my one year old at 11:00 p.m.

Avery Carl [00:13:29]:
on Thanksgiving, and my phone rings, and it was way over there. And, guys, I wear glasses. I can’t see anything. Um, without my glasses on, I didn’t have them on. I couldn’t see who was calling. I was like, well, you know, whatever. It’s 11:00 on Thanksgiving. If anybody needs anything, they can.

Avery Carl [00:13:47]:
Whatever. So, uh, the next morning, I woke up, and I had a venomous voicemail from a client who showed up to their cabin. They’d done a final walkthrough. They’d had a handyman, or their. Not a handyman, an inspector do their final walkthrough for them. And the smart lock was there, had the code and everything. That was two days prior. And when they got to their property at 11:00 on Thanksgiving, there was a different lock, and they couldn’t get in.

Avery Carl [00:14:16]:
And I got, they called me and absolute and, like, lit me up, screamed at me for not having answered the phone at 11:00 on thanksgiving, when I had no way of knowing that the property manager took the lock after closing and after the final walkthrough. So, anyway, I called the next day, and we were able to handle it, but I’ve never forgotten that. Um, so everyone, I had a similar.

Tim Grillot [00:14:41]:
But not as bad, but kind of not as bad. But I had one where the, the. Let’s see, how’d that go down? Final walkthrough. They actually got there, and there was no lock on the door. And the, you know, the people weren’t coming to town. They were coming, like, four days after closing, and the inspector got there to do final walkthrough, and the, the door was pretty much swinging in the wind because the property manager took the lock and knob and everything, and it had no hardware on it. And so, you know, client freaked out a little bit. We were able to get it handled.

Tim Grillot [00:15:12]:
We basically, you know, hired a handyman to go out there and put a cheap doorknob on it with a lock until the buyer could get in town and take care of it. But, yeah, that stuff can happen. And circling back to devices a little bit, we kind of skipped one. It’s. I don’t know if you want to consider. I completely agree with Avery on the thermostat, camera and therm or door lock. But another thing is tvs, and this is just one of my, I guess, pro tips, is we’ve started, you know, make all your tvs the same and all the same. You know, we highly prefer Roku’s.

Tim Grillot [00:15:45]:
Roku’s have a guest mode, and then also the remotes are all the same and, and interchangeable. So the beautiful thing about that, as you scale, you’re not getting messages or calls or anything about people. Or if you do and they don’t know how to use the remote, you’re not having to deal with, like, trying to remember what cabin they’re in and what room they’re in because they’re all different, you know? So put all the same tvs in, and roku sticks are pretty cheap, and then you end up with a roku remote. You know, if you don’t want to change the tv, you can just put the Roku stick in. But anyway, that’s another little device tip that has been fantastic for us.

Avery Carl [00:16:21]:
Yeah. And I agree that you also need to have not only the same tvs everywhere, but you need to have a tv in every bedroom. I know it’s not good for you to sleep with the tv on. Actually, somebody came up to me at the gym a few days ago because I posted something on Instagram about needing to have a tv in every room. And he came up to me at the gym and was like, I don’t agree with that. But it’s true, because maybe you don’t. Just because you don’t sleep with the tv on doesn’t mean that other people don’t sleep with the tv on. Or it doesn’t even have to be about that.

Avery Carl [00:16:56]:
Or, like, you know, maybe we want to set the kids up with a movie in that room while we have, like, a nice adult dinner out in the living room. Or, you know, there’s any number of things. Or, like, people like to maybe binge watch a little Netflix before bed. So I really do think if you’re having to choose one or the other, you really do need to have tvs with streaming in every bedroom. You guys agree?

Tim Grillot [00:17:17]:
Couldn’t agree more. And on the top that, I’ll say, put the biggest one in there you can. Uh, when we first started, we were doing, like, you know, some of these we bought didn’t have tvs in the bedrooms, and we put 32 inch tvs, thinking, oh, they got a tv in there now. That sucks. You know, put. Put a 50 inch tv in the bedroom if you can, you know, whatever will fit. I don’t know. I just feel like people, when they’re going on vacation, and again, I know we’re talking about the core, but when you’re looking at pictures and there’s a big tv, it just makes it look more luxurious, if you will.

Tim Grillot [00:17:43]:
And they’re cheap. You know, you can buy a 50 inch tv for $300, you know, so get the biggest one you can. That’s my opinion.

Avery Carl [00:17:52]:
Same. Abby and Levi, you guys agree?

Abby Goodman [00:17:55]:
Yes, I would agree. Definitely a tv in each bedroom. And I try to accompany it to, like, the dresser size or the wall size. Just try not to get something. Don’t put a 60 inch tv in the bedroom, obviously, but put it, like, above the dresser and mount it so nobody can fly it off the dresser when they’re staying there. Just try to make it all very user friendly. And Roku tvs are definitely a must have in my book. Just with less remotes, less questions, the better.

Avery Carl [00:18:27]:
Yeah. Having them all be the same is very important. Then there’s only one set of instructions for all of the tvs. So we talked about tvs. We’ve talked about smart locks. Well, while we’re still. While we’re not too far off from that subject. So do you guys, what do you say about cameras? Like, what cameras do you guys use? We use rings because it’s pretty easy.

Avery Carl [00:18:49]:
But anything else? And where can they go and who installs them? Let’s go through all that.

Levi Trentham [00:18:56]:
We also use ring. I like it because obviously you can pull all your cameras up from all your properties on the app, so everything’s in one easy place to find it. And then also ring gives you, I think it’s like dollar 30 a year or something to video playback all your devices. It’s just. It’s good, especially when you start scaling to stick to a similar product, just because it makes it easier for you to keep an eye on things. Obviously, we preach not to watch your cameras, but every now and then I fall. I fall prey to it. I have caught a few parties, but.

Tim Grillot [00:19:34]:
I like watching my bears.

Levi Trentham [00:19:36]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Animals. But anyways, just. Just keep everything the same. Ring is very simple to set up. It walks you through it on your phone. It takes about, I don’t know, five minutes to set up, not long at all. And it’s just, it’s an easy interface.

Tim Grillot [00:19:52]:
To use as far as setup of all this stuff, there are more and more services like this, but there’s a lot of handymen out there that are kind of like the tv door lock thermostat, ring camera guy. And that’s all they do, you know, they’ll come in and they’ll set up all your tvs. They’ll put all Roku’s in if you want them. They’re kind of almost like an it guy for your I for your cabin, you know, so there’s more and more of that. And, you know, the Facebook groups are a great resource to find those people. But there’s definitely, again, doing this remotely. You can, you don’t have to hire a separate person to do each one of those things. There’s plenty of people out there now that will come in and do all that stuff for you and they’ll even switch out tvs if you want to get new ones or whatever.

Tim Grillot [00:20:32]:
They’ll do all that all in one shot. So it’s usually, you know, you can send a handyman out and get a lot done in one day.

Abby Goodman [00:20:38]:
So I would definitely recommend a handyman. We made the mistake on the first cabin that we purchased and we tried to do it all ourselves and we got a ring camera that was battery powered and we tried to utilize the, what’s it called, the solar panel for it. And we found out the cabin’s mostly in shade so it died within 30 days. So it’s just more of a headache. I feel like if you just hire a handyman from the get go and have them install it, wire it up, get it all professionally done so you just don’t have to worry about it and move on from that.

Tim Grillot [00:21:13]:
Another tip on that. Well one, I did the same mistake, kind of. I, I tried cheapening out in the early days and like I had a whole bunch of cameras that were like those uh, what were they, the Amazon ones, but they took batteries and it was horrible. It lasted like a month because you know, they turn on 9000 times with guests going in now. Um, but also when you have a lot of times when you put up the ring floodlight camera, a lot of times those go in place of an existing floodlight. Make sure that whoever does it, the switch is disabled so that they can’t shut it off. That’s another little tiny pro tip that you can ask. You know, ask the question in your handyman, make sure that they can’t shut it off by flipping the switch.

Avery Carl [00:21:49]:
Really good tip. You don’t want any guests being able to shut off everything. You don’t want them to be able to get to your tech like that. So circling back to the having to have tvs in every bedroom, what are some other must haves that you’re property needs to have in the smokies? I’ll go first. Hot tub. Um, you’re not going to make more money necessarily because you have a hot tub because you are doing something that nobody else is doing. You are just going to be, you have to have a hot tub because everyone else has a hot tub. So you need that to be just kind of on par with the market.

Avery Carl [00:22:24]:
Um, so just keep that in mind. Got to have a hot tub. If the property doesn’t come with a hot tub, you need to add it. Uh, what else do you guys see that needs to be in a. In a property?

Tim Grillot [00:22:37]:
Well, obviously, kitchen is a big thing. You know, having your kitchen stocked well, you know, I think, you know, all. Everything that you would want to cook at home, I like to have in the properties. And then some sort of a nice coffee setup. You know, people like their coffee. And. And then from there, the big thing for me is entertainment of some sort. You know, this can vary wildly on the size of the property.

Tim Grillot [00:22:58]:
You know, I mean, if you got a six bedroom house, you may have, like, a full on, like, arcade game room with all kinds of stuff in it, but if you just got a little one, you know, a little. They have the little arcade games where you can have. You can pick whatever. There’s different things that you can do there. And then another thing with the tvs that we’ve started doing because, you know, you know, kids these days, you know, they’re going to bring their own gaming consoles. So we actually started putting, like, HDMI extenders on all the tvs because it just kind of keeps people from messing with your tv because otherwise they’re, like, trying to yank it off the wall so they can plug in their PlayStation, you know. So we started putting extenders on all of them and having the stuff just make it easy for them to plug their stuff into it.

Abby Goodman [00:23:36]:
And also, if you’re having a cabin that can sleep ten people, make sure you have places to sit around. The living room for ten people, make sure you have a dining room table that can seat ten people. You don’t want a dining table that can only seat six. And then there’s four people just standing there. If your cabin is fully utilized at that point. But just make sure there’s enough seating in every big living space, whether it’s dining room, living room, or game room area.

Tim Grillot [00:24:07]:
Completely agree with that. And on the dining room part, a lot of these cabins, you will see that they’ll, like, have a. An eight person table for a ten sleeping thing. You know, a little work around that if you can’t fit a bigger table and is if it has some sort of, like a bar or something that you can put some bar stools on, you know, a lot of times the countertop extends or something like that, so that can. That can kind of bridge the gap there, you know, but you definitely want to have people. Yeah, I completely agree. People got to be able to sit down and relax and have fun.

Avery Carl [00:24:34]:
So, so I think that, well, let’s, let’s talk about the kitchen specifically, because this is always a big, a big conversation because people will say, well, you know, I’m, I’m a, some fancy chef and I like to have a well stocked kitchen and I need this and that. So I think there’s a very fine line between what is a well stocked kitchen for your guests and what might be too nice or to have in a rental because it might get up and walk away. So I think that a kitchen essential, especially in this market, is a crock pot. Um, or a good slow cooker, I guess. Crock pots, brand name, uh, because people love to, like, put some chili in the crock pot and then head out for the day to hike and then come home and it’s done. I think that that’s a really good one. A lot of people will get instant pots, which I like instant pots, too, but the whole steam thing kind of makes me nervous. I’m worried somebody is not going to really know how to use it right and burn themselves when they’re trying to let the pressure off.

Avery Carl [00:25:36]:
Uh, what do you guys think? Air fryers, coffee machines? What, what do you like to have in a kitchen that you think makes a difference?

Tim Grillot [00:25:45]:
Um, kind of piggybacking off what you said. I 100% agree on the, on the, on the crock pot. You know, obviously, you know, a blender. I think the blender is like, I don’t know. I don’t ever use a blender, but everybody else wants a blender, so. But kind of going back to what Abby said about enough stuff for people to sit, same thing with your kitchen. You need to have enough plates and glasses and silverware. We see that all the time.

Tim Grillot [00:26:04]:
You’ll go into a cabinet, sleeps twelve people, and there’s four plates in it. You know, it’s got to be, you got to do better than that. But I agree. You don’t need to. It’s a fine line. We kind of do. Like, I don’t know if you want to call it, it’s not low grade, but it’s middle grade cookware. I mean, we pretty much plan on, like, we’re going to replace it once a year, because if you buy really expensive stuff, it’s still going to get beat up.

Tim Grillot [00:26:23]:
So it’s kind of easy to beat up or people are going to steal it. So just get, like, medium grade stuff off Amazon or whatever and replace it once a year, and that way it stays fresh. You know how to worry about, you know, people complaining. Like the nonsticks all gone. You just use, replace it. So, toasters. Uh, definitely the coffee thing, you know, um, you know, I think obviously the single serve thing is awesome. You got to have that.

Tim Grillot [00:26:47]:
But a good old mister coffee, you know, the old twelve cup is like a staple in all of ours just because it’s, it’s simple. You know, you, we found, like with, with the Reynolds, you don’t want to over complicate everything because people like what you said with this, the, the, what was it called? The instapot. That’s a hard no for me. Just because, like, people, if somebody doesn’t know how to use that, it’s gonna blow their face off, you know? And same thing with a coffee maker. You could frustrate somebody if you got, like, a really fancy coffee maker and they can’t figure it out. So that’s why we have the dummy proof one, too. And same thing with thermostat. Everything.

Tim Grillot [00:27:16]:
I like it to be as simple as possible.

Avery Carl [00:27:18]:
So, yeah, the less buttons it has, the easier it is to work and the less chance there is that a guest might have trouble figuring out how to use it. Levi, you had something.

Levi Trentham [00:27:31]:
Yeah, I was just going to say that we’ve started adding air fryers to ours, but one thing that we’ve kind of found out is that, you know, if the guest cleans it, sometimes it’s not to the standard that you want it to be clean. So I highly recommend, you know, making sure your cleaners pull stuff out of cabinets from time to time. And just check on the cleanliness of pots and pans and your baking sheets and stuff like that. Because we’ve found that guests will sometimes clean it, but not very well because it’s not theirs. So they’re not going to treat it the same as you would. So just make sure every now and then you have your cleaners go through and pull stuff out just to check it. And air fryers seem to be an issue, although they’re awesome to have. And then another thing I was going to say, too, is if you’re buying a property that’s quote unquote turnkey, it’s been used as a rental, just have someone go through and check, you know what, all it comes with all the plates and cups and stuff, because a lot of times we’ve seen, like, properties that are with property management companies, they have, like, a lot of mixed match stuff, and it just looks kind of shoddy.

Levi Trentham [00:28:33]:
So I’d recommend going through and trying to get stuff that matches and just looks good.

Avery Carl [00:28:39]:
Yeah. And also I recommend, and Luke is really good about this. In all of our properties, especially with any small appliances like coffee makers, we’ll use coffee makers. For example, we like to have an extra one somewhere under a counter or counter cabinet, somewhere where they’re probably not going to see it unless they need to, because coffee makers break, things happen. So we always like to have an extra brand new one where the guests can find it if we need to tell them about it. So that there’s not a, because people do not want to be without their coffee in the morning. And so we always try to have at least one or two extras in case something happens and it breaks. Then that way we could say, oh, no problem, there’s an extra one in the closet.

Avery Carl [00:29:24]:
This is how you get to it. Here you go. So that they’re not angry without having their caffeine in the morning.

Tim Grillot [00:29:30]:
Yeah. Another thing, back to the remote thing. You know, if you’re remote, it’s not a bad idea. Again, there’s all these services now you can hire like an inspector to go and do exactly what Levi said from time to time. You could do it once a quarter, go through all your cabinets and look at everything. And if stuff’s missing or whatever you need to update, you know, mid year, most of your cleaners are going to let you, you can buy it on Amazon and ship it to your cleaner and they’ll place it in there on the next turn. So, I mean, that’s just a pretty simple way to kind of keep up with your stuff. And, and your, your cleaner may even do the inspection.

Tim Grillot [00:30:01]:
You know, you can absolutely ask them, but there’s a, it’s pretty easy to get that stuff down here.

Abby Goodman [00:30:08]:
Also along lines of keeping up with your stuff. I feel like having an organized kitchen, just having a place for everything, and not having everything shoved in a cabinet where guests, when they open it up, they’re just kind of overwhelmed. I feel like having a place for everything, having to organize. I like putting drawer organizers just to keep silverware in its place and keep like, utensils and your basic necessities all organized and having the right placement for items in the kitchen.

Tim Grillot [00:30:41]:
You are speaking, you are speaking my wife’s language.

Abby Goodman [00:30:43]:
Yes, I’m all about organization.

Tim Grillot [00:30:45]:
She’s the one that should be on this podcast, actually. She goes as far as, and she just started this and I thought she was crazy because I’m like, nobody is gonna, who cares? But she started going in and labeling where every single thing goes. And I, I’ll be honest, I’m surprised people like, actually, when you tell them where it goes, it’s, it’s, our places stay in a lot better shape, but just don’t have a label there because, like, it says glasses. That’s where the glasses go or whatever. And I made fun of her, but it’s really helped a lot. So it, that’s not, that’s a great thing, is go in and organize it and label it. But, uh, it can look a little, I don’t know. She does it behind the doors.

Tim Grillot [00:31:19]:
So you open the door up, it’s like on the shelves or whatever. So it’s not like on the outside, but, um, that helps.

Avery Carl [00:31:24]:
Another thing that I hear a lot of questions about is what to provide in a kitchen in terms of like, food or spices. So my recommendation is. So we let me backtrack to the coffee again. We keep a keurig and a regular coffee pot like you do, Tim. So we do provide coffee grounds. We just have them like in a big, we’ll just get like a big, huge can from like Sam’s and have our cleaner, uh, in between guests just put it in like a cute, decorative clear jar. So people know that, that says coffee on it. So people know like, oh, this is our coffee to use that way, uh, it looks nicer.

Avery Carl [00:32:00]:
It’s not like a, here’s a big old can of folgers that other people have dug their hands into. Here you go. So she just refills that. Um, after each guest, uh, we also provide some spices. So your basic like salt, pepper. I think we have like a little pre filled spinning spice rack thing that you can get basically anywhere that has all your basics. Uh, and we may, sometimes we do. We aren’t always great about this.

Avery Carl [00:32:26]:
Provide cooking spray and then also like your coffee fixins, like a non dairy creamer so it doesn’t go bad. And then I. A sugar and a sugar alternative, zero calorie. So we don’t really provide anything that is not dry. And there’s a big debate, I think, about providing condiments or not. I remember one time we got a weird review and the guy said it would have been nice if there was soy sauce. And we’re like, that is a very.

Tim Grillot [00:32:54]:
Who uses soy sauce?

Avery Carl [00:32:56]:
Yeah, that’s a very specific condiment. But when you think about it, some people say that they keep, you know, big things of each condiment in the fridge. That absolutely disgusts me because you don’t know if somebody’s put their mouth on that if they’ve like, you just don’t know. So, um, if you’re going to do that, maybe, you know, packets of ketchup and mustard or something like that. But that’s the extent that I’ll go to, uh, what do you guys do?

Tim Grillot [00:33:23]:
Kind of the same. Honestly, if it, if it’s got to stay cold, it’s a hard no for us. And, and honestly, even to what you said about people get stuff getting gross even like the, what you said, those, the, the, all the spices that you buy, they sort don’t wait for them to go empty, you know, 8000 people are touching those things like throw them away every snowhow and put new ones in there, you know, just because it gets gross. But, and that stuff’s super cheap. But yeah, no, just super basics is all we provide. And then from there also, you know, again, going back to working with your cleaners have the people are going to leave stuff and you got to be careful of that because they’ll leave stuff that’s going to go bad. So you got to make sure your cleaners are like taking certain things away. Uh.

Tim Grillot [00:34:02]:
Cause you don’t want, you know, somebody leaving a bunch of cereal or whatever that’s gonna, cereal may not go bad, but something else that’s gonna go bad that somebody’s gonna eat and then it could reflect on you.

Levi Trentham [00:34:11]:
So, yeah, we keep it very basic. We do salt, pepper, olive oil and some cooking spray. It’s about it. And then like on our big four bed, it’s more of a luxury style property. So we started doing, leaving some k cups, but we just buy like a huge box of it from Sam’s and just leave it out at the cabin and I, and some sugar and stuff. Just more volume stuff. Just leave it there. And the cleaners can play some out each turn.

Levi Trentham [00:34:35]:
And we use the Keurig duo so, you know, they’ll have to bring their own coffee grounds if that’s what they want. But we do provide some k cups.

Avery Carl [00:34:43]:
All right, moving on from the kitchen. Are there any other must haves that you guys add? I know a lot of people like to add board games. We personally don’t because it’s just pieces are going to go missing and then people will be excited about playing monopoly or whatever and then it’s missing the hackath or the dog or whatever thing and, but I know some people are able to successfully do it. I haven’t figured out how to do games, but have you guys.

Tim Grillot [00:35:11]:
Our big one, we actually do have games in and same thing you just gotta, you just got a bank on, you’re replacing it often, you know, and you may get a complaint about it here and there, but we do our big. We have a six bedroom, and that one has games or board games and, like, playing cards and stuff, so we do provide some of that, but the smaller ones we don’t.

Abby Goodman [00:35:31]:
We provide board games and a few things in each of our cabins. We have a one bedroom that’s usually just couples. So we provide a few, just two person games. So don’t provide big games that require six people to play, but we have a few games in there, but we haven’t had any problems with people running off with them yet, but just bank on replacing them because it’s such a small cost at the end of it. So.

Avery Carl [00:35:56]:
Yeah. Levi, do you have something? You looked like you were about to unmute.

Levi Trentham [00:36:02]:
I was actually just wiping the dust off my computer because. I’m sorry. We’ve. We’ve started doing some unique stuff. There’s a game called. Gosh, what is it? It’s called a holes, and you mount to the wall and it’s like a mixture of cornhole and darts and so. And it doesn’t take up a lot of space, and it’s. It’s kind of fun.

Levi Trentham [00:36:24]:
So we’ve started doing that.

Avery Carl [00:36:27]:
Do y’all have any other, must have little indoor or outdoor amenities that you want to talk about or. Not necessarily amenities, but just must haves of a cabin in the smokies before we move on to decor.

Tim Grillot [00:36:40]:
This kind of sounds silly, and I don’t know, I don’t know if this really helps any rent better or not, but somewhere for people to put, you know what, hiking is so big here, you know, somewhere to put, like, hang your coats up and put your shoes and stuff like that. So we have started doing, like, shoe stations and stuff, and it seems like people like it. You know, we’ve had some comments on it, but, you know, I don’t know, that’s pretty little.

Avery Carl [00:37:02]:
Yeah, I think a lot of hooks are a really nice thing to have. So people have a place to hang their jacket or a place to hang their towels by the hot tub or, you know, any number of things. So I’ve. I’ve heard good reviews that and positive feedback on having a lot of hooks.

Tim Grillot [00:37:17]:
Different places on that same note, lighting, you know, around your hot tub, you know, having the, you know, twinkly lights, I call them. But, you know, having some cool atmosphere type stuff, you know, anytime you can kind of create. And again, people are on vacation, they want something that’s different than at home. So any kind of atmosphere stuff that you can create, even if it’s not even. It’s just a front porch, you know, where people have some lighting when they sit out at night. You know, people. A lot of times there’s people coming together that don’t hang out all the time, so they want to. They’ll sit up till two in the morning talking or drinking or whatever.

Tim Grillot [00:37:44]:
And so just giving people atmosphere. Atmospheres to do that is. Is big. So. And. And the. Along with that, the pictures to go with it, you know, some of the magic in pictures, you know, getting people to come to your property, is you want to create something in a picture that people, like, can envision themselves in that space and doing something in that space, whether it’s the game room or the hot tub or outside, whatever it is you want them to. Like, you want the picture to grasp, you know, whatever work you put into it.

Tim Grillot [00:38:11]:
Like, man, I want to go there because I want to sit in that spot or do whatever, you know. So.

Avery Carl [00:38:17]:
Do you guys provide coat hangers in any of your properties? No.

Tim Grillot [00:38:21]:
Yes, actually, the actual hangers? Yeah, yeah, some. It depends on the property, again, but, yes, we have it in some of the properties, and we get the. I don’t know. Again, this is yours. All my wife’s territory. I don’t know why I’m on, but it’s like the. They’re Amazon ones. They’re thin, and they got, like, a black felt on them, so they look kind of nice, you know, the metal hook.

Tim Grillot [00:38:44]:
So she just buys, like, a gajillion of them, and then, you know, they disappear and you just replace them, so.

Avery Carl [00:38:50]:
All right. Yeah, I think that’s one that’s often overlooked, but it’s definitely noticed when somebody goes to hang something up and there’s nothing to hang it from. So y’all don’t forget that one.

Tim Grillot [00:39:00]:
On that same note, you know, I got to have an iron board and iron, you know, that, you know, some basics for people, you know, getting ready mirrors. Mirrors is another big thing. And I’m. Again, this is totally my wife. I am ignorant to all this, but full length mirrors, you know, girls like to get all, you know, when you’re going out, they want to be able to see themselves. And so we started doing a lot more full length mirrors, like, as many bedrooms as we can. That way, like, if multiple people are getting ready, they don’t have to rely on just the bathroom. And we’ve actually played around with doing some, like, makeup stations where, you know, putting, like, a little vanity in somewhere with.

Tim Grillot [00:39:34]:
With a mirror, then a stand up mirror and just some stuff like that. And that’s gone over, like, fantastic. So.

Avery Carl [00:39:41]:
Oh, that’s a cool, a cool thing to add.

Tim Grillot [00:39:46]:
Yeah. Again, my wife should be on this, not me. I’m trying to remember all the stuff she does.

Avery Carl [00:39:51]:
We’ll have her on the next one. All right, so moving on to decor. So this will be more Abby’s territory. So I hear a lot about, you know, setting your listing apart. Setting your listing apart. And I think that a lot of new investors follow a lot of Instagrammers and YouTubers and they see these people doing these really, really crazy products that or projects that are so, so cool, and then they get a little discouraged, like, well, I’m not going to be able to do something that cool and that creative or that expensive. So, you know, maybe I’m just not going to start. If that’s where.

Avery Carl [00:40:22]:
If that’s what you have to do to be successful, then I’m not able to do that or, you know, I’m not talented enough to do that or whatever, you know, insert limiting belief here. So, Abby, I want to hear from you on what are some inexpensive ways to set a cabin property apart to where that makes it photograph really well? Because you really don’t have to go, like, really, really crazy to have a property that is a little different and stands out.

Abby Goodman [00:40:51]:
There’s definitely a lot of inexpensive ways, especially if you’re local. You can easily pick up something or hire somebody out to pick up just something as simple as, like, little plants everywhere just to make it look more livable and kind of help with the photographs. I like to mix and match a lot of my furniture. I don’t like to get it all from one furniture store. Definitely get your higher quality. The stuff that’s used a lot like beds, couches, dining room tables, all that has to be higher quality. But sometimes I like to mix and match different end tables just so it doesn’t look like every other property out there. Like the full cabin style.

Abby Goodman [00:41:33]:
Like to mix a little bit of modern touches to things. Throw pillows are easy way too. Just a cheap way to add some extra. Look at lighting lamps, little plants, pictures on the wall. Just kind of fill your space so it doesn’t look empty and just help with the photography aspect of it all.

Avery Carl [00:41:59]:
I have a question about accent walls in the smokies. Most of the properties have tongue and groove wood walls and the old school agents and decorators et cetera, will absolutely pull your hair out if you talk about painting over any of that, quote, beautiful tongue and groove. I disagree with that. What do. Abby, what do you think? Do you think accent walls or no accent walls in. In cabins?

Abby Goodman [00:42:26]:
I love accent wall, especially in bedrooms. The wall that the bed goes up on. I love doing an accent wall there. Just if everything’s wood in the room and you either paint it white or black, kind of contrasts with the bed color. There’s tons of places you can do accent walls besides that in a bathroom. The wall that the toilets on, just like, the main focus point, like, when you walk into the room, what’s the first wall that you look at and kind of play off of that. And if you don’t do an accent wall or you don’t have the time or money to paint and you’re just trying to get it up and running, you could do a headboard that’s different color, just kind of play off of the wood look. Do like a fabric if you’re willing to go with fabric, headboards or whatnot.

Abby Goodman [00:43:12]:
But I definitely love accent walls. They’re a must have. And even if you have all drywall. Cabin. We had a cabin that was mostly drywall. And we just. We added a lot of wood on the ceiling and wood tongue groove on the accent walls and the bedrooms. And that really helped the look of the cabin turn into more of a cabin than just, like, drywall.

Avery Carl [00:43:35]:
Are there any pieces or colors or things that you are always going to remove when you’re buying a cabin? Like, I don’t know, maybe bear themed stuff? One time when Luke and I closed on a cabin, one of the toilet paper holders was broken and he came back from the store with a toilet paper holder that was a bear that you’re pulling the toilet paper out of its butt. And I was so horrified. I’ve like that. I just can’t with the bears. But is there anything else that you watch for like that that screams, okay, this is dated. We need to update this.

Tim Grillot [00:44:13]:
Snow, shoes, snowshoes, quilts hanging on the walls. Sorry. Go ahead, Abby.

Abby Goodman [00:44:20]:
Yeah. Anything that’s bear related? Very. If there’s mixed match of themes like bears and you have very country look, I just kind of try to keep it all one theme. Make sure everything matches and is cohesive throughout the cabin. If you have, like, super modern stuff in one bathroom, but then you’re, like, bare in the other, I just try to keep it all flowing and the same. I’ll usually remove the rugs and grandma looking items out of the cabins just to replace and refresh, just not knowing what went on before that cabin was being rented. But, and, like, comforters, just trying to replace all of that is important.

Avery Carl [00:45:07]:
Yeah, I think it has to be removed.

Tim Grillot [00:45:11]:
We do a lot of extra, like, blankets and stuff, too. We do it like patty does baskets, like a basket with extra blankets in it in the living room. A lot of times in the bedrooms, just extra throw blankets and stuff. And then another thing we do a lot we’ve changed in the bedrooms is, and this is simple, but chargers, charging stations, a lot of these cabins, when they were built, people didn’t have 14 cell phones and tablets and everything. So a lot of times there’ll be, like one outlet, and it’s like in the middle behind the bed, and people are, like, yanking your bed out and trying to plug their stuff in. So we’ve started, you know, running either one of the alarm clocks with the charging stations in it, or we’ll get an end table with the charging stations built in, or they have those other things. But we actually, if it’s like the alarm clock or the, I think that’s a cubie or something, it’s like a charging station with a cord on it. We’ll actually screw it to the, to the end table so it like, so people don’t move it, you know, and, uh, so it just keeps, you know, one, it’s convenient for your guests, and it keeps them from, you know, yanking your bed out and moving stuff around and trying to find a plug in and stuff like that.

Tim Grillot [00:46:13]:
So that’s another thing we’ve really upped our game on, is charging. I mean, it sounds simple, but everybody needs it. So.

Avery Carl [00:46:21]:
Yeah, I agree with that. And I see a lot of people post on Facebook asking about, like, separate, standalone alarm clocks, and I just really don’t think that that’s necessary or needed because it just, a, I don’t think people use them. I think everybody uses their phones as an alarm clock now and then. B, if someone does set the alarm for, you know, 05:00 a.m. because they got to get to the airport or something, and then they accidentally set it to be recurring, it’s going to make the next guest mad when it goes off at 05:00 a.m. so I just don’t really see any redeeming qualities in having alarm clocks. But I can stand be corrected if anyone disagrees with that.

Tim Grillot [00:47:00]:
Don’t tell your husband that he loves alarm clocks.

Avery Carl [00:47:03]:
Yeah, he, Luke loves a lot of things that make sense. To me, but, yeah, I don’t like alarm clocks.

Tim Grillot [00:47:11]:
Abby, what do you think about, like, like, themed rooms? Like, doing different themes in different rooms? We’ve done, like, we have one cabin. We did, like, a dolly parton room. And, you know, where the rooms are a little different, you know, I definitely.

Abby Goodman [00:47:26]:
Yeah, I love having themed rooms. I think that can, like, help draw the guest in when they see a photo. Like, oh, that looks cool, Dollywood or a Dolly Parton theme room or, like, sasquatch, like, cool basement room. I think that can draw somebody in, like, oh, I want to stay there, or my kids would love that. Or, I’m a huge Dolly Parton fan, so I want to stay there.

Tim Grillot [00:47:51]:
I agree. We’re just playing with it, but, you know, that’s a huge thing. And some of these other markets is like, you, like, in the Disney market, for instance, you like half to theme your house, to rent it almost, you know, or not. You shouldn’t say that. You don’t have to, but, uh, I don’t know, that’s never really been a thing here. But I think that could really, uh, be something kind of going forward here. And again, that’s something kind of inexpensive you can do and you can do it, like, a little bit at a time. You know, do one room and take some photos of that one room and change your photos around.

Tim Grillot [00:48:15]:
And I don’t know, I think it’s cool.

Abby Goodman [00:48:16]:
So I don’t think it’s a must have to have a theme for sure, in your cabin. But, um, because we have a few cabins that don’t have themes in them and they do just fine. But I think a guest isn’t going to complain if it isn’t theme.

Tim Grillot [00:48:32]:
So we have way more that more than that are not than ours. So I should be clear about that. We just kind of started playing with that. I think it’s kind of a cool thing, but, yeah, I agree. It’s not necessary at all.

Avery Carl [00:48:42]:
So, yeah, none of ours are. One thing we haven’t touched on is finishes, especially in kitchens and bathrooms. I mean, there’s only so much you can do with tongue and groove walls, but I do feel like I used to not feel this way, but I do feel like you do have to go ahead and update with light colored, like, modern granite countertops. We had a few properties that did really, really well up until, like, last year that had terrible blue or khaki colored laminate, like, old school laminate countertops that we just stayed so booked that we didn’t ever bother updating they’re updated now. And I think that you do have to update, and a lot of the smokey’s cabins will come with, like, a dark granite. But I feel like that is very early. Two thousands, and it might be time to update that to something lighter. What do you think, Abby, about countertops, backsplashes, cabinets, all that?

Abby Goodman [00:49:42]:
I like to keep a lot of that neutral. Of course, if you don’t want to change out cabinet color or you don’t have the means to right now, you just play off that color. But I like to keep everything neutral and light. Anything that is bright that photographs well. You don’t want to have a super black cabinets, black countertop, super dark kitchen, and just kind of looks like a dungeon, but just something that brights and draws your eye and that photographs well. I think lighting is very important, which that’s kind of playing off something different. But I think having updated granite or, like, something very durable in the bathrooms and kitchens is just going to hold up really well. And it looks good and just.

Abby Goodman [00:50:29]:
Yeah.

Avery Carl [00:50:32]:
Well, you mentioned lighting. Let’s talk about light fixtures. So are we automatically removing all boob lights in a house, or are those okay? Can you get away with that?

Abby Goodman [00:50:43]:
I tend to like to remove them. I just like something that’s a little bit more modern looking. Just updating. I feel like it’s pretty easy to hire somebody out to update all the lighting in the house and making it bright. It’s something especially in, like, older cabins, they can be kind of dark and have the dated lighting. But I would definitely update your lighting especially and make sure your light bulbs are changed out and good to go. If you change them all when you first start running now, they should be good.

Tim Grillot [00:51:17]:
I love that you just said booble light.

Avery Carl [00:51:20]:
Oh, boob light. Yeah. Well, that’s that Luke sometimes puts like.

Tim Grillot [00:51:24]:
That’s a technical term, so, yeah, sometimes.

Avery Carl [00:51:27]:
He will take something out and put a boob light there to cover it up because, you know, the boob lights kind of extend further than the hole does, so you can hide something pretty easily. But we got. There’s a few places we have to update our lighting here coming up. So it was on my mind.

Tim Grillot [00:51:43]:
I get crazy about lights, and I like mixing, you know, some, like, fixtures that disappear. And when I say, like, recessed lights and I, we’ve really gone to a lot of led stuff. They make some really good, you know, the little puck lights that are recessed, you know, are fantastic and led. But then, you know, there’s also getting to be a lot nicer led fixtures. And so we’ve been doing it. You know, you want some decorative fixtures and you want some that just kind of blend in with the rest of the tongue and groove or whatever. So I think it’s just a good mix. But I think updated lighting fixtures is huge.

Tim Grillot [00:52:13]:
So I think it just, the overall look, I mean, you almost don’t, can’t pick it out in the photo like what it is, but when it’s the updated ones, it looks a million times better.

Avery Carl [00:52:23]:
Yeah. And maybe I don’t know how to light bulb shop. Right. But for me, leds, and maybe I’m just not picking the right color. You can, you can mess up pretty easily and end up with what I call, like, basement or doctor’s office lighting where it feels very fluorescent. How do you avoid that? It teach me, because maybe I’m not buying the right thing.

Tim Grillot [00:52:42]:
So when I’m talking about leds, I’m not really talking about the led bulbs. The, a lot of the, when you buy an led fixture, there’s usually a switch on there and you can actually change the color of it. There’s a lot of them. It’s like ten or seven. Seven colors or ten colors. And you can actually flip it so you can actually sit there and play with it. What color you like on the fixture. So, like the bigger kitchen fixtures, and we use these disc ones in a lot of the bathrooms and stuff.

Tim Grillot [00:53:05]:
They’re like this thick and they got like a little bit of metal or whatever on them. But you can actually pick the color that it is when you turn it on. So, and then it’s like I said it and you’re done. It’s like, you got to do that before you finish putting the fixture up. So that’s, that’s, that’s the ones that I like using. Because I agree, if you do the wrong color of light, it drives me crazy. So. And even like those recessed ones, I’m talking about the leds.

Tim Grillot [00:53:31]:
A lot of those, if you get the right ones, you can buy them on Amazon. There’s, again. And they have a little switch and it’s just, you change the color. So.

Avery Carl [00:53:38]:
Now, Levi, did you have something on that?

Levi Trentham [00:53:41]:
Yeah, I was just going to say, you know, earlier we talked about, you know, so easy to get caught up in social media and people and these influencers and stuff, posting these wild rehabs and stuff. But one thing you can do is just go in and have a handyman change out all the light fixtures, the fans in the kitchens, the bathrooms, the bedrooms of it’s. Really not that expensive. Most. Most of the quotes that I’ve seen come through for, like, replacing a fan or a light fixture in the bathroom or something, it’s usually like 100, $150 a fixture. It’s really not that expensive to do. Obviously have more cost in the fixture itself, but it’s something that you can really, you can do to really update the space. And doing that with, like, new comforters and curtains and throw pillows and some wall decor, like, like, those are pretty simple things that you can do to really update your property.

Tim Grillot [00:54:32]:
We’ve really switched a lot more curtains, too. That’s another good thing there, Levi.

Avery Carl [00:54:36]:
Oh, yeah.

Tim Grillot [00:54:36]:
Everything had that we bought has had, you know, blinds. And again, this is my wife thing. She was right, I was wrong. I’m like, no, blinds are awesome. Leave them in there, you know? And she’s like, no, the curtains look a million times better. And she’s right. So we’ve really. And in that, we’ve invested in, like, the better curtain rods that don’t get, like, yanked down the first time somebody touches them, you know, and put up good stuff.

Tim Grillot [00:54:57]:
And then the curtains really add a lot of look to the room, in my opinion. And again, all credit to my wife.

Avery Carl [00:55:05]:
Yeah. What else? What have we not talked about that we might need to hit on?

Levi Trentham [00:55:11]:
I was going to mention, and the smokies, you know, I think back in the day, table were huge, and so I’ve had that discussion a lot with clients, especially if you have, like, a one bedroom with a loft and it’s got this massive pool table in it that’s taking up a ton of space. So I kind of just wanted to see what Abby and Tim thought about the. About that, because I know a lot of people are taking those out and replacing them with arcade systems and then doing, like, you know, sleeper sofas or something to expand their sleeping capacity. But what do y’all think?

Tim Grillot [00:55:41]:
I’m mixed on it. I still like a pool table, and I’m not a pool player. Again, I think. I don’t know, I think something. Entertainment is important. What it is, I think is less important, you know, because everybody likes something a little bit different. For me, a lot of it comes down to, like, it’s the same thing. If you have really good pictures of whatever it is, and people can picture themselves doing that, whether it’s a pool table or an arcade or whatever.

Tim Grillot [00:56:04]:
That’s. That’s what makes them click it. You’re like, oh, my gosh, this is cool. It has x, you know, or we can we’ve never really played pool as a family. Now we can do it or whatever it is, air hockey or whatever. But I think you, especially in bigger cabins, you have to have something, you know? And because, again, it’s. It’s something they don’t have at home. You know, it’s not just a house with nothing in it like at home, you know, that you want to have something that’s there that they don’t normally do.

Tim Grillot [00:56:27]:
So.

Levi Trentham [00:56:29]:
So I guess my question there would be, from the investment side of it, as the investor, would you rather have. Let’s just say it’s a one bedroom with a loft. Would you rather have the loft just be an entertaining space, or would you rather take that pool table out and maybe create some more sleeping space up there but less entertainment?

Avery Carl [00:56:48]:
For me, it’s the bed all the way. You’re creating more sleeping space because that creates income, and you can still have game stuff. You can have upright arcade games rather than a pool table. So, to me, the sleeping space is more valuable than an actual game table.

Tim Grillot [00:57:07]:
I agree. And it goes back to how big the cabin is and what’s comfortable. I don’t want to put, you know, ten people in a one bedroom with a loft just because you can physically put stuff there. But I completely agree. If you got a pool table taking up the entire loft and you can make it sleep two more people, I 100% do that.

Levi Trentham [00:57:25]:
So, yeah, I agree with that, too. So, yeah, I just wanted to see what everyone else thought.

Tim Grillot [00:57:32]:
But again, like, a six bedroom, and there’s a lot of people there. Like, our six bedroom sleeps 16 people, and there’s, you know, we’ve got, you know, multiple gaming things for them to do there because it’s. It’s big, and it’s. Again, you got to have something for them, all those people to do and sit at and keep them occupied and something like that. So it just depends on the size cabin.

Avery Carl [00:57:54]:
Okay, here’s a question. What size beds do you put in each bedroom? My vote is all king, all the time, unless it’s, like, a big cabin. Maybe you want to have a couple rooms that has sets of bunk beds, but I can’t. Even me and just one of my small children do not have enough room in a king bed because they sleep sideways and whatever. Or if it’s me and Luke, he’s really tall, and there’s just. I don’t even think a king bed is enough room. I’m actually buying an alaskan king bed so that we have enough room. But so I’m I’m all king all the time.

Avery Carl [00:58:26]:
What do you guys think?

Tim Grillot [00:58:28]:
As long as it fits. I mean, we put a king everywhere king will fit otherwise, you know, we have some rooms that are too small, so we had to put a queen in, but no. Agreed. And even our bunk beds, we’ve put. We have some queen over queen bunk beds in some of our. So it’s like a bigger bunk bed.

Abby Goodman [00:58:47]:
I definitely say king all the way. If it can fit in there with optimal walking space on each side, then I would definitely put a king. And then in other bedrooms, if they’re smaller, just try to utilize the space as much as you can. If you can do queen over queen bunk beds, or if you have a larger cabin and you just want a kid’s room, do bunk beds there just to optimize the sleeping space.

Avery Carl [00:59:14]:
All right. Anything else that we have not hit that you think people need to know about? The smokies?

Abby Goodman [00:59:24]:
I think going back to the curtains, I love adding curtains to every room, unless it’s like a dining space or a kitchen. I don’t like adding curtains there. But in the bedrooms, I found a lot of my clients love having blackout curtains because people like to sleep in when they’re on vacation. So blackout curtains or just having blinds along with curtains there is important.

Tim Grillot [00:59:51]:
This is kind of creeping outside, but I think outdoor seating is important, too. You know, outdoor games get brought up a lot, too, and that’s it kind of goes the same thing as the board game. It’s awesome, but at the same time, it’s hard. It’s not super manageable to keep up with cornhole and stuff like that. But seating out outside, to me is a must, even if it’s just on a porch or something, because that’s a big part of why people come here, is to enjoy outside. So you got to have something.

Avery Carl [01:00:21]:
Yeah, I agree with that. And I think, Tim, what’s the name of. I can’t think of the material that you have. Have to get that last basically forever with Adirondack chairs. Polywood.

Abby Goodman [01:00:31]:
Yes.

Avery Carl [01:00:32]:
Yes. It has to be polywood. Don’t even try to mess with regular wood. It’s just going to the finish is going to wear off quicker. Got to go polywood. It’s expensive, but I think it’s totally worth the investment.

Tim Grillot [01:00:44]:
Agree.

Avery Carl [01:00:45]:
Anybody else want to chime in on outdoor? Oh, let’s talk about fire pits for a minute. Because a lot of people want to add fire pits to their property. I personally do not like that just because we’ve had some fire. Wildfire problems in the smokies in the last. Well, two in the last ten years. It doesn’t happen all the time, like in California, but I just don’t like that. And I think both times it was man made the fires. And I just don’t want people right next to my wood house potentially drunk, potentially with lighter fluid starting fires.

Avery Carl [01:01:22]:
But what do you guys think?

Levi Trentham [01:01:26]:
I love them.

Tim Grillot [01:01:27]:
Yeah, I was gonna say.

Levi Trentham [01:01:28]:
Go ahead. I really do like, our four bed we just bought has an awesome outdoor entertaining space with a pavilion and a fireplace, a stacked phone fireplace. And we get tons of great reviews about it. And there’s a tv mounted on it and everything. It’s a place that they can hang out, enjoy nature, and I don’t know, I think it separates us from. From the crowd. I don’t think it’s 100% necessary, don’t get me wrong. But, you know, especially in some of these cabins where you don’t have a ton of space inside to entertain, if you have some space outside you can utilize, I think that’s a great thing to do.

Levi Trentham [01:02:00]:
But, you know, there’s definitely some risk there. So you just have to weigh the risk first reward.

Tim Grillot [01:02:06]:
And it’s another system. So I agree with Levi. I think people love a fire pit. I think there’s not hardly anybody come here that doesn’t like a fire pit. But I also agree with Avery that it scares the crap out of me, you know, because the thought of people building fires while they’re drunk on my property. So, you know, it’s another system. You got to decide if you want to manage or not. And, you know, because then you have to, you know, do they bring firewood? Do you supply the firewood? We’re actually getting ready to put a gas fire pit in, in one of ours, and it’s.

Tim Grillot [01:02:32]:
The setting is perfect for it. You know, it’s got a lot of big open yard and stuff. So we’re going to run a gas line out there and make it to where they can’t move it, you know, so it’s going to be super secure so they can’t move the thing and. But I think so we’re going to try that. It’ll be our first time having any kind of fire pit. But I do agree with Levi. People love to sit around fire, and, uh, so it’s just, you got. You got to be careful, because, again, fire hazard, you know, if you got something that’s in a congested area in the woods, it’s probably a really, really bad idea.

Tim Grillot [01:02:59]:
Uh, that’s not, you know, and. And, you know, the wind can pick up here, and that’s all it takes. So it’s. I don’t know. I’m mixed on it.

Abby Goodman [01:03:08]:
I feel like I’m 50 50 on it, too. One of our personal cabins, we have a fire pit, and sometimes we have guests that complain there’s no firewood for it. And so it’s just kind of something else we have to go back and forth with a guest on. I’ve done a few where we run gas lines to gas, like, smaller fire pits for guests to use. And they love it, and it photographs really well, and it looks like a really inviting space for, like, an outdoor area that’s maybe smaller or you don’t have as much land to deal with. So you can do a smaller gas fire pita. Pretty. They’re a little expensive, but it kind of just depends on what you want safety wise.

Abby Goodman [01:03:49]:
And for your guests.

Avery Carl [01:03:52]:
Yeah, that might be a happy medium where it’s gas and you turn it on and turn it off, rather than people squirting lighter fluid and try to light things. And then people do stupid things. Like, I follow an Instagram account called. There’s two that I follow. One is drunk people doing things, and the other one is idiots doing things things. And there are so many, like, people partying around a fire, and somebody’s like, watch this. I’m gonna squirt lighter fluid all over myself and jump over. So that just, like, all.

Avery Carl [01:04:21]:
That’s all I see when I think about.

Tim Grillot [01:04:22]:
I’m so glad that that stuff didn’t exist when I was in my twenties.

Avery Carl [01:04:27]:
It’s a great. They’re hilarious, but, yeah, that’s. That’s what I think about. So maybe that gas is a really good idea because it doesn’t tempt people to do that kind of thing as much. What else, anything else we’re missing, we’re about to wrap up. I just want to make sure that we hit everything that we. That we. I think we’ve hit most of it.

Avery Carl [01:04:49]:
But anything jumping out at anybody in terms of cabin make ready, maybe processes, et cetera, before we go.

Abby Goodman [01:04:58]:
I feel like at the end of it all, capturing your property is really important. The photography of your completed property, making sure that you’re getting enough photos of each space and getting good quality photos, and getting the details of your coffee station that you work so hard on, like, get a good photograph of that. Get a great photograph of. If you do decide to put a fire pit of that and just getting all the details. And there’s a ton of great photographers out there, especially in the smokies. So at the end of it all, that’s what your guests will see before they book. So I think that’s really important.

Avery Carl [01:05:36]:
Yeah, good photography is definitely very important. And one thing that I want to say in closing is a lot of people do the whole thing remote. They never come see the property. And that’s totally cool and fine, it’s totally doable. But if you can, I would recommend coming and staying in your property for a few days or like a weekend before you get it live, just so you’re living in it for a couple of days. And you might say, oh, you know, we don’t have this. When you go to make your coffee, you wish you had this. And it can give you some ideas on, you know, be a guest in your own place and it’ll give you ideas on what you need to add, where there are potential bottlenecks and processes that are going to cause you problems later.

Avery Carl [01:06:14]:
So it’s a good way to get upstream and make sure that you have everything that a potential guest will need. Again, you can do everything remotely. I know we’re all busy and sometimes you just can’t make that work, but if you can definitely come stay, be a guest in your own property before you get it live.

Tim Grillot [01:06:30]:
Completely agree. And, uh, I’m going to add to, you know, all this we talked about. It’s all great stuff, but don’t overthink it. You know, uh, don’t think, like, when you’re first starting out, like, you don’t have to nail all this stuff all in one shot. Don’t take three months to get your cabin life, you know, get, get, get the basics down, you know, get it as good as you need to, to get it going. And my opinion is get it going. Let it start making you money, then keep improving it because even if you make it all perfect out of the shot, you’re going to have to redo stuff. So you’re, you know, you just got to plan on that.

Tim Grillot [01:06:57]:
And I, and to that, you know, a lot of the stuff we talked about, keep it organized. Like, this is not anything like, anything that’s going to, like, be in the cabin, but, like, know what plates and glasses and stuff you use. And that way, when you do need to reorder, it’s quick and easy. You know, I mean, we, we have a, we use a Google Drive and we have like, every property’s got like a, we take pictures of stuff and we’ll just take pictures and have it in there. So that way, like, if it’s a model number or whatever it is, you know, coffee, whatever. And keep it organized, though. That way, when you need to replace it, it’s super easy and fast. Amazon lists are great.

Avery Carl [01:07:29]:
So, anything else before we sign off from Levi or Abby?

Levi Trentham [01:07:34]:
Keep it simple.

Avery Carl [01:07:35]:
Yeah.

Levi Trentham [01:07:35]:
Don’t get caught up in the social media. You know that your property has to be this unique unicorn thing. Just hire people that can do what you need to. Update the small things. And like Tim said, just keep adding as you go.

Avery Carl [01:07:48]:
Well, guys, if you want to buy any properties in the smoky mountains with the short term shop, email us at agents@theshortermshop.com or if you just want to be a part of of our community, you can join our public Facebook group called Short Term Rental, long term wealth. And we also have a weekly free call where you can zoom call where you can come ask us questions. It’s strquestions.com to sign up. Thanks so much, guys. We’ll catch you on the next one.

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