Wow, what a WILD few months it has been! I have so many things to update you all on. Our goal was to get both of these properties live by May 2022 without ever stepping foot in them. Yup, you heard that right, we've never seen these properties in person!
Let's dive right in!
Smoky Mountains - Sugar Bear Chalet
We closed on Sugar Bear beginning of February 2022. We knew there was a fair amount of work we wanted to do to get it up and running...
Switching out furniture & decor
Some painting
Replace front door
...but it ended up being a little bit more than expected.
We had an interior designer come in to help us with some of those items and a handyman to help us with smart tech (i.e. smart lock, camera, etc). The designer was "fine", she did end up going over budget and didn't complete all the things we agreed on, but overall she did a good job on the things she DID do.
The handyman is another story...
We set the listing live with booking available for 4 weeks out, plenty of time to complete the remaining items before a guest would book. A guest ended up booking for April 14th. Prior to this we needed to do a deep clean and photos after the handyman finished which should have been no problem. However, the handyman ended up telling me that he was "on my way", "will be done tomorrow", "will be done Monday"for 3 weeks...
This was totally my bad. I should have been more on top of the situation, but lesson learned. Five days before the guest arrived I finally sent in a different handyman to find out that the original handyman hadn't made any progress in weeks... Toilets had not been reset, walls weren't painted, no shower curtain, no smart lock or camera, no trash barrels, etc.
The guests were arriving on Thursday so the new handyman worked at the house all day Wednesday and prior to the guests arriving on Thursday to finish it. He saved our BUTTS.
Lesson learned - if communication is NOT happening, move on to someone else and move ahead.
We're now in a good place, professional photos are scheduled and the new handyman will be headed back in to wrap up some additional items before our next guests arrive!
Crystal Beach - The Cranes Nest
We closed on March 22nd and given that it was essentially rent ready, we thought it would take 2 weeks! Lolz.
Day one our handyman was in there taking inventory and found a spray for bed bugs...uh oh. We had a pest person go in and they could not confirm, but since we found that spray we figured it was better to be safe than sorry and spray anyway.
But what does that actually entail? Welp, that meant we had to throw EVERYTHING away. All the linens, all the pillows, things in the closets, decor, furniture.
On the plus side? Now we don't have to go through all the excess decor in the closets. Even though we had that bit of a setback, the handyman is going to be complete with his items this weekend, the cleaners are going to do a deep clean next week, and then we'll get the professional photos taken! This means we should be able to go live by the beginning of May!
Conclusion?
Every opportunity is an opportunity to learn. We'll take the loss and move forward, because we will see the benefits VERY soon! Can't wait to share the professional photos once they come in from BOTH properties!
xoxo,
Taylor