How Dave Homyak makes killer returns in the Smoky Mountains

Dave Homyak is a former engineer that quit his job to go into short-term rental properties full time. Dave runs Smokey Mountain Cabin Realty, helping investors maximize their returns by investing in rental properties in Tennessee. In this episode, Dave shares his investment journey, how he quit his job, how he 1031s his way into bigger properties, what his returns look like, the most powerful price points to get into, and some tips for investors thinking about getting into this game.         https://www.facebook.com/dave.homyak https://smokymountaincabinrealty.com/ --- Transcript Before we jump into the episode, here's a quick disclaimer about our content. The Remote Real Estate Investor podcast is for informational purposes only, and is not intended as investment advice. The views, opinions and strategies of both the hosts and the guests are their own and should not be considered as guidance from Roofstock. Make sure to always run your own numbers, make your own independent decisions and seek investment advice from licensed professionals.   Michael: Hey, everyone, welcome to another episode of The Remote Real Estate Investor. I'm Michael Albaum and Today we have with us Dave Homyak, who's going to be talking to us about short term rentals out in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, and what he did to leave his job is under two years with these types of investments. Without any further ado, let's get into it.   Hey, Dave, thanks so much for taking the time to hang out with me today. Really appreciate it.   Dave: Yeah. Thanks for having me.   Michael: Now, my pleasure. For our listeners who don't know you give us a brief background, who you are, Where'd you come from? And how'd you get started in real estate?   Dave: Okay, so basically, I was an engineer, I did engine calibration for a living, I worked for Chrysler, Detroit, diesel, General Motors, bunch of companies like that, and always wanted to do something in real estate, but quite honestly was afraid to do it. So my first investment property I purchased at 53. And the reason I purchased it is because I wanted to be able to get away from my W2 income. And I had had some money saved up I thought I'd pretty good saver. But I was like, what would it take to make me feel like I can walk away and not have any anxiety whatsoever?   And the answer was pretty easy. It's like if I replace my income, then I can walk away and do anything I want. And it's gonna, I will not have to ever worry. And so basically, I set the goal for myself to replace my engineering income in two years with real estate. And I was able to do it in a little bit under a year. And that was due to getting into short term rentals. And I ended up doing it in what I had kind of researched somewhat to the best of my ability at the time. But then what ended up is that an independent third party which is airDNA they ranked it as the best market in 18 best market in 19. It's three of the top six large cities in 20 and I'm waiting for the latest report to come out and I'm sure it's going to be in the top again.   So bottom line is I happen to buy in the one of the best markets and my research indicated that was a good plan. I had no idea that it was going to work out the way it did as quickly as it did though.   Michael: That's incredible. And so we've got to ask Where is that market?   Dave: Said market is in the Smoky Mountains, which is Eastern Tennessee, the three major cities are Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, and Sevierville. So Sevierville is the one that people haven't heard of as much but it's equally profitable and made the air DNA dotco list basically ended up you know, I made the decision looked into apartment syndication knew I could replace my income with that didn't know if I could add it to your timeline, ended up deciding on the Smokies. I looked at the Smokies panhandle of Florida, which is also a good choice. I think Smokies are a little better. Less hurricanes there. I really wanted to go int