[00:00:05] Speaker A: Welcome to the Short Term Show. The show about short term rentals and long term wealth with real property owners hosting real properties who are crushing it in the vacation and short term rental space.
And here's your host, Avery Carle.
[00:00:28] Speaker B: Hey, y'.
[00:00:29] Speaker A: All.
[00:00:29] Speaker B: Welcome back to another episode of the Short Term show. Today we are going to talk about the Blue Ridge, Georgia area. So this area, I don't feel like, in my opinion, does not get enough love.
It is drivable from a lot of big southern metros, Atlanta being the biggest one, Birmingham, Chattanooga, several of the North Carolina ones. It's beautiful. It's a great weekend destination.
[00:00:55] Speaker C: It's.
[00:00:55] Speaker B: And there are much fewer properties available as rentals than its neighbor Gatlinburg and Sevierville and Pigeon Forge and the Smoky Mountains. So the competition is much less. So I want to bring your attention back to this market because we haven't talked about it in a while and it is the Blue Ridge, Georgia area. And we've got our top agent in that market, Yock here to kind of talk to us about why people are still investing in this market. I feel like people have kind of forgotten about it. They get so on the Smokies train that they, they get tunnel vision and don't see anything else when it might be just down the road in Blue Ridge to have less competition.
[00:01:39] Speaker C: Thanks, Avery. And yeah, let me add one other area people drive to here, Florida. If you go downtown, like right now, probably 30% of the car tags are from Florida. So we love our Florida people. And it's very easy. You jump on 75, head north and you're here. You know, it's a half a day drive. So for us, you know, Florida is a, is a big draw and in the metro Atlanta and like you said all the other areas that you had mentioned. But yeah, it's, you know, super easy. I think. I think what people love about this market is it's easy, it's easy to buy in. You know, it's not hyper competitive and it's fairly simple to rent in as well because it's not hyper competitive. You know, there's not, I tell people there's not like, you know, these management sharks around every corner like they are in some of these really, really, you know, I guess you, if you want to just say more famous areas so you can come in here and not be a small fish in a big pond and you can be successful really quickly if you kind of just go through the things and do, you know, install the amenities and do the things that you And Luke and the rest of our team talk about, you know, you don't have to have an indoor pool, you don't have to have a pickleball court. You don't have to have some of these over the top things. But, you know, there is a, you know, I would say basics that people are looking for, and they're pretty, you know, they're pretty straightforward. You know, I tell everybody, hey, what do you want when you go to a cabin? You know, ultimately that's what you want to ask yourself. I want some fireplaces. I want a fire pit. I want to be able to see the mountains. I want to be able to see pretend or, or see a creek or a river or maybe, you know, just a, you know, a nice vista and then clean sheets and, and room to stretch out. You know, we're not, we're not a, a big honeymoon destination. We're not a big corporate retreat destination. So you don't really have to think about that. You know, it's mostly people just like us, Avery. They've got, you know, their family, maybe grandparents and grandkids, and they just want to load up, you know, six to 10 to 12 people, something like that, and go on vacation. And, you know, it's pretty simple. It really is. And that's the beauty of it. It is kind of small town America with a lot of people coming from metro Atlanta that are looking to spend money and do a little R R and relax. And again, they don't need all these over the top amenities, but they do want clean sheets and some basic stuff.
[00:04:02] Speaker B: Yeah, and I agree with that. And to your point about the Florida people, I've learned something in my six years of so far of being a Floridian. So growing up in Mississippi, as, you know, as someone else who grew up in Mississippi, everybody in the summer they're go, they, they were either a Gulf Shores family or a Destin. 38, Panama City beach, like Florida panhandle family. And that's just where they went every single year. Sometimes once at the beginning of the summer, once at the end of the summer, maybe a full seven days, maybe 10 days, they're going for a good, good length vacation every summer. What I have learned from being here in a tourist town in Florida, which basically the entire Florida coastline, even if it's a big city, is a tourist town in some form or fashion. So we have a high season when all the tourists are in town and it's impossible to get groceries and it's impossible to go out to eat. Everybody here when I'm sitting at my kids tennis lessons, talking to the other moms. They leave and go to the mountains for a week to two weeks or more during the summer, kind of at the height of the summer now, some of them go to Colorado, but a lot of them go to North Georgia or to western North Carolina. They don't want to have to load everybody up and get on an airplane and go across the country. They want to be able to get, drive up there, stay, you know, get away from all the tourists down here. It's less hot, cooler. They get to do different types of outdoor activities from what we do here. And then they're also only like an hour and a half from Atlanta, which, you know, the, the Tampa people, the Sarasota people. That doesn't mean a lot to them. But for those of us who live on the Panhandle, where we don't have any big cities, we can't go to Sachs, you know, we can't go. We don't have a lot of those places. It's nice for them to be able to pop down to Atlanta for the day and do a couple things.
So don't dismiss the Florida market when you get, when you're thinking about the North Georgia mountains, because not only do we all go to the mountains during the summer, we also go to the mountains during hurricane season if there's a, there's a hurricane in the Gulf. Floridians, you know, there's, there's two types of Floridians. There's the ones that are going to stay and go down with the ship no matter what, and then there's the ones that as soon as there's a hurricane in the Gulf and it looks like it's coming our way, they hit the mountains. So don't dismiss the Floridian aspect when you're buying in North Georgia.
[00:06:31] Speaker C: Absolutely. And, you know, a lot of them, they just want to come up here to escape the heat. You know, the fact that you can, you know, right now, I know it's hot, you know, in the Panhandle of Florida, but here it's still, you know, at night it's 58 degrees. Know, you're having to put on, you know, a light sweatshirt if you want to go outside and hang out. And it's, it's really nice and then it's warm during the day. You know, it's T shirt shorts weather during the day. So.
Absolutely. Our Florida people, we love them.
I said, you can go downtown and 30% of the tags will be from Florida. There are times of the year where 70% of the car tags are from Florida. So that, you know, the fact that you can jump on 75 and get here is a straight shot, super easy to get to. And we kind of are the first kind of significant mountain community you hit when you want to escape Florida.
[00:07:18] Speaker B: Yeah, it's another four hours, I think, to the Smokies in Tennessee and another two or three to any of the.
The popular North Carolina towns. And a lot of times we just, you know, we just want some mountains. We just want to stop. So I think that, yeah, the Floridians are a good market for.
For Blue Ridge.
So let's talk about what type of property you need to buy now here in 20, 26 in Blue Ridge to be successful. Because while there are a lot fewer properties, there's a lot less competition than in bigger markets like the Smokies. You still want to make sure that you're buying the right thing. You can't just buy anything. So what. What does that look like?
[00:07:58] Speaker C: Yeah, it's. It's pretty simple. You know, you got to have a cabin. You know, people aren't coming here. You know, I mean, look, we're all shopping on Airbnb and vrbo, and so we're kind of just, you know, looking at pictures. And people want a cabin. You know, they want a woodsided cabin. They don't want a brick ranch or, you know, a hardy plank house or anything like that. They do want a. A wood cabin. It could be the D logs or, you know, true logs or, you know, even kind of the. The rough hewn timber, just whatever, but a cabin. And then from there, you know, the basic amenities, you know, again, fire pit, fireplace, deck. You know, I don't. I tell people, you know, when it comes to bedroom count, that just kind of boils down to affordability.
You know, like, look, a two bedrooms can do well. Three bedrooms can do well. Four or five, six. Obviously, the bigger you get, the more your. Your earnings kind of go up. I'm not going to say exponentially, but, you know, there's just so few of those five and six and seven and eight bedroom cabins. So if you can. If you can own a six bedroom or seven bedroom or an eight bedroom, it's only probably 1% of the market. You know, there's very, very few of those really big cabins, and you really kind of have a monopoly on that market if you're able to own one of those.
You know, right now, the, you know, prices have kind of leveled out, and it's so easy to buy here. You're not going to get into a multiple offer situation or going to be very rare. So you have the opportunity to kind of pick out that property you want with a great view. I tell everybody your view is your, is your number one amenity. That is what's going to make you the most money right now. People come to the North Georgia mountains to see the North Georgia mountains. So, you know, have a deck where they can walk out the back and look out of it and go, hey, that's cool. You know, they can see the mountains or you know, if you want to have something on the water, that's fine too. Whether it's on the Toccoa river or, you know, any of the tributaries or fighting Town Creek, any of our big noisy creeks, you know, that's hot right now. I would say if anything's expensive right now, it's things with noisy water, as we call it next to it. That is, I would say over the past six months the desire for that has kind of exploded. So if you want to go kind of get something that's a little, I don't know if trendier is the right word, but what's hot right now is getting, getting properties on the Toccoa and all the noisy creeks because that just, there's fewer of them. You know, there's not a lot, there's a lot less water than there are mountains. So if you can tie one of those down, you'd have a, you're going to have a really good rental for the foreseeable.
[00:10:39] Speaker A: This program has been brought to you by the Short Term Shop.
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[email protected] all right, so water is important.
[00:11:55] Speaker B: What about views? Let's say there's, you know, there are very few on rivers and creeks and stuff. So if you can't get that in your time frame, how important is it to have a view?
[00:12:04] Speaker C: It's the most important it's the most important view. You know, again, your view, I would say, is the most important thing. And then the second most important thing is the age of the cabin.
We are, you know, we are so close to metro Atlanta. I feel like we're a little trendier and I feel like the more modern a cabin is, the more easy it's kind of, it's easier to get your rental return snowball building up and rolling downhill.
You just tend to make more money a little more quickly with the newer build. So I would say view is one A newness of the cabin or age of the cabin is one B.
Gotcha.
[00:12:41] Speaker B: So you want to have not just a Mamaw brown box cabin, you want one of the Chip and Joanna modern, really nicely decorated, those kinds of things.
[00:12:52] Speaker C: Well, let me add this, yes and no. There's nothing wrong with a cabin built in, you know, 1997.
Those do really well. But don't decorate it like it's 1997. You know, to your point, go in. You know, I tell everybody if it looks like Joanna Gaines waved her magic wand on the inside of it, you're going to be successful. So again, you don't have to have, you know, a million dollar brand new new construction. You can go for that cabin, you know, built in, in 97.
But just, you know, pay attention to your decor and your amenities and you know, the dogs smoking, playing poker picture that's been there for, you know, 27 years.
Please get rid of that and replace it with something a little more timely.
[00:13:42] Speaker B: Gotcha. And we'll, we'll drop a link to this in the show notes so that y' all can easily access it. I can't remember what the name of it was or what we titled it on YouTube, but we do have a YouTube video from about two years ago with a really good example property of this where Yak and I walked through, through a client of ours, property, excuse me, that it was not a brand new build, but she did some things like some white accent walls and some really nice updating of the cabin so that it felt brand new and nice and really, really upscale when it wasn't a brand new build. So I'll put a link to that in the show notes. And guys, definitely check that out to get a good idea of what Yak is talking about because that one really was a great, great option.
[00:14:27] Speaker C: Yeah, for sure. You know, going into a cabin, sprucing it up, I tell people, just adding polish, you know, that that's what it boils down to is again, getting rid of the plaid paisley velvet couches and, you know, the, the shades on the lamps that look really, really old and, you know, maybe it's moving, you know, light fixtures, you know, replacing light fixtures from the old, you know, plastic antlers again from 1979, 1997, and replacing it with some, you know, kind of quirky led.
I think here we are kind of a quirky town because again, we're close. We're, you know, 90 minutes depending an hour or two, depending what you call Atlanta from a very large metro area. So, you know, quirkiness goes, you know, flies really well here. So anything modern, any modern touches you can add goes a long way.
[00:15:23] Speaker B: Totally agree with that. Now let's talk about the areas. So when we say Blue Ridge, we mean basically the entire North Georgia mountains because that's just kind of the most recognizable name. But in terms of submarkets, where are we talking about?
[00:15:36] Speaker C: Yeah, so there's Blue Ridge, the town which is kind of ground zero for short term rental properties. I tell everybody, if you can, if you can buy Blue Ridge property, buy in Blue Ridge proper.
Outside of that, there are other areas that rent. Okay, but Blue Ridge just has the best regulations. It's regulation friendly.
We have the most kind of things to do for tourism. There's, you know, you can go to Blue Ridge and spend three or four or five days and have a really good time. A lot of the other areas in North Georgia, around the state, they're kind of like, I can do everything in half a day, you know what I mean? So your stays are generally a little bit shorter. But refocusing back on Blue Ridge, I would say Blue Ridge right there. And then, you know, the easy thing to do is just kind of drop a pin at the middle of the town of Blue Ridge downtown. I tell everybody there's McDonald's, you know, is a great place. It's kind of center mass a Blue Ridge proper and be within 20 driving minutes of that and you're going to be in really good shape. Now that's going to, you know, that's going to catch the south part of Epworth. It's going to catch Cherry Log, Mineral Bluff, Morganton, the ASCA adventure area.
You know, those, all those little, if you want to call them, sub markets, whatever, you know, they still show up when you type in Blue Ridge, Georgia. And I guess ultimately that's the most important deal because you don't want to, you don't want to find yourself because of a. Maybe you found a great property that's 45 minutes from Blue Ridge. But when people, people don't know what to do, they don't know how to find it. Right. Because if you type in Blue Ridge, Georgia, your property is not going to show up in the results. So again, the closer you get to Blue Ridge, the more searchable, findable your property is for all the renters that are coming up here.
[00:17:18] Speaker B: Gotcha. And you can't buy in Blue Ridge proper like inside the city limits, can you? Or can.
[00:17:24] Speaker C: Great point. So no, they're not releasing any, you know, and that, that's been a long time. You know, it kind of loosely revolves around sound ordinances. So no, you won't get anything inside the city limits at anything out in the county for the most part. There are a few neighborhoods that don't allow short term rentals. But I'm going to say anything that you find outside the city limits of Blue Ridge and the town of Blue Ridge is tiny. Less than 3,000 people live there. So again, everything you see, 99% of what you find on, let's just say a Zillow quick Zillow search is going to be runnable.
[00:17:54] Speaker B: Gotcha.
[00:17:55] Speaker C: It's super easy.
[00:17:57] Speaker B: Is there anywhere we want to avoid that is maybe a bad place to buy or too far out or not ideal?
[00:18:05] Speaker C: No, I mean there's not, you know, I jokingly say we don't have like a bad side of the tracks. You know what I mean? Like you can, you can get anywhere, get, get where you can afford. Sure, there's going to be little pockets and communities that are just, you know, more expensive houses because they have bigger views.
But at the end of the day, there's not a really a bad place to be.
You know, the, we don't have, you know, like the Smokies and you, you've sold them. You know, there's communities there where all of a sudden there's 60 new cabins. You don't have that here. You know, these communities here are, you know, anywhere between three and 25 houses, cabins at most. But I would say most of these communities are eight to 12 houses. So they're small communities that got built, you know, over the course of maybe six or eight years, you know, maybe one, you know, two cabins a year. So it's not, you know, these, you know, big expanse or, you know, it's just a little bit different, you know, it feels a little more natural, you know, a little more organic the way Blue Ridge is grown in the, in the neighborhoods that you'll find, and I use the word neighborhood loosely because there's
[00:19:12] Speaker B: not really just pockets areas.
Yeah, yeah, best areas. Not, not full on neighborhoods because it's mostly just, you know, one off properties.
[00:19:25] Speaker C: That's it.
You know, maybe a developer bought five acres and put six houses in it.
[00:19:30] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, we see a lot of that.
So we've talked about what the property needs to look like, where it needs to be. You want to have water access if you can or a view if you can.
What are we looking at price range wise for these things?
[00:19:49] Speaker C: So I mean I've got a listing with a great view, you know, an older home right now at, you know, 4:30, you know, a good 3:2 with a view at 4:30. It's not a brand new house but you know, you can find stuff now, you know, in that 4 to 5 to 600,000 range fairly well, you know, stuff with a good view at that price point, you know, if you can, you know, if you really want to start getting something that's not going to give you trouble. I tell people, you know, the stuff that was built on water, you know, a lot of times it's, it's kind of weird. It was kind of wild west, you know, it still is the wild west here for that matter. And there's a lot of, you know, older houses built on the water. I tell people, you know, look, if it's something, you know, if it's a house from 1980 built on the creek, like it's going to be like old owning an old boat. And if you're from Florida, you know what I mean, you got an old boat and you're kind of like always chasing issues and this, that and another. But you know, if you want something on the water right now, I'd definitely say get something less than 20 years old and you're going to have a great property.
But anything with a mountain view, you can, you can find them less than five right now. Just be nimble, be ready, have your financing lined up.
The cheaper stuff tends to go.
We haven't seen bidding wars here in a long time. But you know, if something's priced very fairly, just, just be prepared, there might be another offer on the table. That's what I tell people. So starting in the fives and then you can go up from there, you know, Toccoa access, if you want, you know, 300ft of Toccoa river, you're going to be looking at a million dollars.
Even if it's a one bedroom, I mean it just, it's just expensive, you know, but there are two and three and four Bedrooms on the river that you can find for, you know, less than 1.5.
[00:21:41] Speaker B: Okay, that seems reasonable. And maybe for somebody who's from Florida or Atlanta or Chattanooga, that makes sense for them because they can buy that 1.5 million dollar house, use bonus depreciation, get that 100 bonus depreciation and deduct a lot of taxes.
A lot. I mean, that's a technical term, but they can deduct, you know, roughly between, I like to say, and guys, I'm not a cpa. This, I just see this every day. Just in my experience, you can expect right about the down payment of the house and what you can write off of your, or the amount that you can lower your taxable income. You're not saving, that's not, you're not saving that whole, let's say 20%.
That's just what you're able to reduce your taxable income buys. So do that. And then you can use the property some yourself, have a place on the river for you and your family to
[00:22:35] Speaker C: go, you know, and when I, when we say river, I want people to know what Toccoa is. This isn't the Mississippi river, you know, this isn't the cold water, Avery, that you and I are used to. This is beautiful gin, clear water, you know, great trout fishing, you know, that type stuff. You know, that's what people come here for is to, you know, sit out, look at the, you know, look at the, you know, the water is clear as it is, you know, in the Bahamas because it's, you know, it's, you know, mountain fed water coming out of, you know, coming from underground and streams and coming from the bottom of the lake as well. So that's what people want. The water is cold, but I mean it is absolutely beautiful and it's why people come here.
[00:23:16] Speaker B: Got it. So before we sign off, Yak, is there anything else about your market that you feel like our listeners need to hear?
[00:23:26] Speaker C: You know, other than it's just real easy, you know, like if you want to come here, we've got, we've got great infrastructure to support your short term rental.
It's not ultra, ultra competitive like some other markets. It's, it's, you know, and, and I say that from two perspectives from the acquisition standpoint of buying a home and also from the rental perspective.
You know, there's probably, you know, a significant less properties here than they are in the Smoky Mountains.
And again, if you're, if you're kind of wanting to jump, you know, a good jump off place is here Especially if you're a 30, 40, 50 year old person and you know you've got a family. That's what comes here. You know, we don't get again, it's not a honeymoon deal. We, we're not a big corporate retreat destination or anything like that. So I think it's a very relatable area for a lot of people. So if you're just wanting to get into this a and buy your first one, Blue Ridge is a great place to be because I guarantee you 90% of your business are going to look just like you. They're going to be just like you, they're going to think just like you, they're going to want what you want. So if you can build your your cabin the way you want it, you will be successful because it is what everybody else wants.
[00:24:37] Speaker B: Okay, perfect. So guys, if you are interested in buying a short term rental in North Georgia, learning more about really is a great place to consider. Especially if you're shopping in that million dollar range like in the Smokies. I kind of call that no man's land in the Smokies because you're looking at maybe a three bed, not nothing differentiating. So shoot over to Blue Ridge. There's less competition. You can get a better property in that price range and you're able to to do roughly the same thing that you're doing in the Smokies. But I feel like people just get such tunnel vision about the Smokies because it's everywhere and it's been the biggest short term rental market for so long. But Blue Ridge is a great, very well established short term rental market for decades and decades and decades. And it's definitely worth considering if you really want to be in a mountain market.
So definitely check that out. If you're interested in buying a property in Blue Ridge, you can email
[email protected] and we'll get you connected with Yock Yach. Thank you so much for coming on to talk about your market today and listeners. We will catch you next week.
[00:25:40] Speaker C: Sam.
