Looking for a Mountain Cabin

[wyolady]

Originally Posted by ElkHunter

I took my 5 year old grandson fishing a couple years ago. Was pointing out tracks in the snow and explaining them to him. On the way back he pointed at some tracks and said, "Look Grandpa." I looked down at our tracks with mountain lion tracks on top of them. We were being followed. hahaha

Boy did that make the hair on the back of my neck stand up. haha

Ooh ElkHunter. Made the hair stand up on the back of MY neck - and I just read about it. Definitely reminds me animals are much more intelligent than we often remember.

[sunsprit]

Originally Posted by HoustonHostage

I'm trying to keep it around $300K. I will probably use something like cyberrentals.com. It need not be a 5 star facility. Mostly just for hunters, recreationists, etc...

Areas that I'd look at would be around Story, Sundance, or over to the Flaming Gorge area by Green River.

While cyberrentals.com may be a way to contact potential renters, I'd say that ... based upon the bad experiences of friends/property investors ... you're looking for a lot of troubles by renting to hunters in your absence.

It's not uncommon for hunters to use your cabin for a processing plant, or to just plain "trash" it out with their equipment and housekeeping priorities. This is a real serious problem for many in the hospitality business in the region ... and they're "on site" to monitor these activities.

I'd advise you to locate a property management company/realtor in the area you're seeking to buy a cabin as a priority issue over the cabin and/or location and amenities. Absent that local control/representation (and overhead expense), your cabin will most likely become a disaster. Especially if you plan on renting it out back-to-back to folks at a reasonable cost per week without any inspection/visit management/follow-up.

We'd also looked at an "ideal" property in the Esterbrook area a few years ago ... backed up on three sides of public lands with limited access, our own private lake, live water stream, equine facilities ... an absolutely idyllic 3 Bed/1 Bath "cabin" with 80 acres of woods. Outbuildings, garages, large automatic propane powered generator for the well, lighting, small appliances, and refrigerator/freezer, beautiful wood stoves for heat ... all the amenities we could possibly want in an "end of the road" isolated location. We'd also planned on renting it out for hunters, trail equine enthusiasts, vacationers, fishermen ... until we realized that all of the infrastructure that made it so amazingly comfortable was all the stuff that required a knowledgeable operator to run it and keep stuff going. Not only that, but the place was 3.5 hours from our ranch ... so being able to assist or "clean up" after a visitor and prepare for the next visitor was a real hassle at a day long time commitment.

Nobody would be happy to show up for a stay and find dirty dishes in the sink and the woodstoves needing cleaning out and the bathroom looking like a war zone .... or the place not swept out and dead insects and spiders throughout the place, or stale food spoiling in the turned off refrigerator.

There was no locally available person to take on those responsibilities in our absence ... even a small inconvenience like someone intimidated and not being able to turn on the propane system and start up the generator plant would turn into a real emergency for them if the refrigerator wasn't working, or the well wasn't pumping water for the toilet/bathroom. Serious consequences could result from somebody not turning off the propane when not in use, or properly draining the water system on shut-down when the cabin wasn't going to be heated in the spring or fall nights ... and so forth.

Getting a remote cabin into rental condition and keeping it that way is a business .... I've known folks with cabins in Aspen and Vail and Jackson to give up on the idea of casual rentals of their "vacation retreat" cabin because it was too much work when they showed up to enjoy their own property. Out of a typical week-long visit, they had to work on the place most of the week. If they used a local property management company, the % split for the services, plus the mark-up on work they contracted to have done (emergency plumbing repairs, electrical repairs, roof snow removal, minor carpentry repairs, etc.) took a huge bite out of the anticipated cash flow to help pay for the places. Wasn't worth doing that, either ... and they've been in the $5-7,000 per week price range in the non-ski weeks of the year. I've helped clean up the places after they were rented out for a month to a client family ....

IMO, you'd be better off with a condo or townhome in a property managed development than to have a remote cabin that's infrequently used by you and then rented out to generate cash flow in your absence. The only way the cabin can work out is if you buy it and keep it for your own personal use.

[Happy in Wyoming]

There are properties like this over a large part of the state. Pick some areas you like and look over the listings carefully. Some of these places aren't described well.

I've seen a few west of Wapiti that are isolated and remote, but some have no land. They are, however, surrounded by government land. If you are willing to build, check raw land. There was one piece of 320 acres that sold for 115k. It was in a treeless area, so no fires.

I don't know about the state as a whole, but around here burglaries of unoccupied vacation homes are rare. In two years here, I've never heard of one.

300k is plenty. But if you need to rent it out to justify that price, I'd spend less.

[wy0dude]

[quote=ElkHunter;4509911]Cabin in the mountains? Big bucks. Not easy to come by. But you can get close.

You could spend a week at a dude ranch in wyoming and pay A LOT less money AND be a cowboy for a week at a time! There is a great one right next to Yellowstone, UXU Ranch, they provide both the rustic side of being a cowboy and the gourmet taste of a "city slicker"! they are apart of the dude ranchers assoc. and they have a lot of info for a ranch to fit just you!