Smoky Cove Ph-4 · Sevierville, Tennessee
MLS 3262013 · RealTracs
A permitted log cabin ten minutes from Pigeon Forge that paid its owners $55,291.90 — with their own vacation dates blocked off the calendar all year.
Gallery
The numbers
Nothing on this page is presented as fact unless it came from the county, the MLS, or the owner's own management report. Everything else is marked and sourced.
Reduced from $735,000 in February 2026. The owners paid $749,900 in October 2024.
MLS lists total structure area, total interior livable area, and finished area above ground all at 1,699 sf. The basement is unfinished and is not counted in that figure.
Appraised at $373,700, assessed at $149,480 — exactly 40% — at Sevier County's 2025 rate of $1.48 per $100. Flat for 2023, 2024, and 2025.
From the county's 2026 assessment change notice, in hand: appraised at $654,700, assessed at $261,880 — still 40% — at the preliminary certified rate of $0.89 per $100. The final rate is set after State Board of Equalization review, so this can still move slightly. See the tax note below.
$100 monthly. Covers the community pool, picnic area, and grounds maintenance.
Sevier County's fee for a unit sleeping 12 or fewer, renewed annually after a passed life-safety inspection. Assumes the property sits outside city limits — unconfirmed.
The owners' actual annual homeowners premium. A new owner's own short-term-rental policy may quote differently — worth pricing during due diligence.
Roughly $400 monthly for electric, propane, water and sewer, and guest internet on a 1,699 sf cabin with central heat and air. Seller's actual figures requested.
Standard short-term-rental allowance — roughly 0.5% of value for repairs plus consumables. Not a quote. Worth knowing: the owners' cleaner charges $160 per turn with all supplies included, and is willing to stay on with the cabin.
From the owners' property management dashboard. Net of all guest and host fees, with personal-use dates blocked off the calendar.
The two most recent months on record, earned while the cabin was already listed for sale.
Principal, interest, taxes, insurance and HOA at 25% down and a 7.25% 30-year fixed rate, quoted 25 July 2026. Investment-property loans were running 7.17%–7.67% and second homes averaged 7.45% that week. Adjust it yourself in the calculator below.
The 2026 reappraisal notice has arrived — and the bill barely moves.
Two things are happening at once. First, this cabin is already assessed at the 40% commercial ratio rather than the 25% residential one — that is what the 60% assessment jump in 2023 was, when Tennessee reclassified non-primary-residence short-term rentals. So there is no nasty surprise waiting on that front; the $2,212 already reflects it.
Second, Sevier County's 2026 reappraisal — the first since 2021 — is done, and the owners have the assessment change notice. The appraised value rose 75%, from $373,700 to $654,700, essentially confirming the $679,900 asking price. But Tennessee's certified tax rate law forces the rate down so total collections stay flat, and the preliminary certified rate fell from $1.48 to an estimated $0.89 per $100. Net effect on this cabin: roughly $2,331 a year against last year's $2,212 — about $10 a month more. The final rate is confirmed after State Board of Equalization review.
There is also a possible saving. Under T.C.A. § 67-5-801(b)(3), an owner may request residential classification at 25% on one additional parcel beyond their principal residence if the property holds no more than one rental unit, is used as a short-term rental, the owner stays there at least 14 days a year or 10% of the nights it is rented — whichever is greater — and an affidavit is filed with the assessor by September 1. On the new assessment, the 25% ratio would cut the estimated bill to roughly $1,460 a year. Worth pricing out with a Tennessee tax professional. It is also, quietly, an argument for using the cabin the way the current owners do.
Read this before the revenue
The owners live three hours away and use this cabin themselves — holidays, long weekends, friends staying over. Every one of those nights came off the booking calendar before a guest ever saw it.
So the revenue below is not what the cabin can do. It is what it did while sharing the year with its owners.
Rental performance
Read the top three rows together. This cabin's net payout came in above what the average Sevierville listing grossed — on a calendar the owners were sharing.
The honest other side: Sevierville revenue per listing is down 6.1% year over year and occupancy is down 4.1%. This is a softening market. The case here is a cabin beating a market that is cooling, not one riding a market that is climbing.
Unincorporated Sevier County has required a Short-Term Rental Unit permit from the Fire Marshal's Office since 1 January 2024. $250 a year for units sleeping 12 or fewer. Operating without one carries a $50-per-day penalty.
Interconnected UL-217 smoke alarms, CO alarms within 15 feet of every bedroom door, a tagged 2A:10BC extinguisher on each level, egress from every sleeping room including rooms with sofa beds, four-inch street numbers, and gas grills on a 60-minute shut-off timer at least 18 inches from the structure.
Units advertised for 13 or more guests face substantially higher fire code requirements, often including a full sprinkler system. This two-bedroom cabin advertises well under that line, so the requirement never comes into play.
Local management companies report the STRU permit passes to the new owner on transfer of the deed. Confirm directly with the Sevier County Fire Marshal's Office at (865) 774-3603 before relying on it.
9.75% state and local sales tax plus 3% local occupancy tax. Paid by the guest, collected and remitted by the host or the booking platform as marketplace facilitator. Not an owner expense.
All Sevier County STR owners must register with the County Clerk. Over $100,000 gross annually triggers a standard business license through TNTAP. A management company cannot lend you its license.
Under T.C.A. § 13-7-604, three documented violations for noise, trash, or parking can permanently revoke the permit.
The property
A true log build from 2007 on a private, wooded, gently rolling quarter-acre in Smoky Cove Ph-4 — an established community with a shared pool and picnic area, and grounds maintenance covered by the dues. Guests reach it without a white-knuckle climb, which is half the battle in this market.
Both bedrooms take a king, each with its own full bath, so nobody queues.
Floor-to-ceiling stone under a vaulted beamed ceiling and prow windows. The shot that sells the listing.
Pool table, foosball, a whiskey-barrel arcade system and two futons under the A-frame, open to the great room below.
On the covered deck behind a privacy screen. The single strongest search filter guests use in this market.
One level, covered on three sides of the cabin — log railings, rocking chairs and ceiling fans, looking into the trees.
Association pool and picnic area. Public water, with wastewater on the community septic system.
Spec sheet
Present in the listing photography with a privacy screen and its own step. It does not appear in the MLS amenity fields, so make sure it is written into the contract and that service history comes with it.
From the prior 2025 listing remarks, not the current MLS sheet. Confirm with the seller.
Range, oven, refrigerator, dishwasher, microwave, washer and dryer.
Private, wooded, rolling slope.
Public water supply; wastewater is handled by the community septic system — not public sewer, and not an individual on-site tank.
The roads in Smoky Cove Resort are county-maintained — no private road-maintenance agreement or fees — and access is easy with no steep climb.
Recent capital work
Location
Sevierville sits on the flat side of the mountains, closer to the Knoxville airport than either Pigeon Forge or Gatlinburg, and feeds directly onto the Parkway. Guests get the attractions without the mountain driving.
Est. Drive times and distances are approximate, based on road distance rather than measured routes. Traffic on the Parkway varies sharply by season.
Schools
Run your own numbers
Defaults come from the owner's payout report, Sevier County records, and the comparables above. Nothing is locked.
Purchase & financing
Revenue
Annual operating costs
Documents & links
Come walk it
Bring your own numbers — the owners will hand over the full payout history. All showings are scheduled through the listing agent.
Or reach the listing agent directly — Brett Shoffner, Century 21 Legacy, 865-966-2121.