Michael Klein's Poconos build: $1.2M cost, $1.6M appraisal

Quick Summary

Michael's case for building is that the existing housing stock often lacks the kind of house guests want most. He calls indoor pools the number one amenity, and says they're hard to add unless it's new construction. Building from scratch also lets you plan for a golf sim, which needs 10-foot ceilings when a lot of game rooms run eight or nine feet.

His other lesson is speed. He offered on the lot sight unseen, drove out that day, and raised his offer once he'd seen the view. If you're weighing a build in another market, check how its bigger homes perform on BNBCalc Markets before you buy land.

Key Points

• The deal: about $100,000 for the land, roughly $1.2 million to build, and an appraisal of about $1.6 million done before anything was standing. Because the appraisal came in above the construction cost, Michael says he didn't have to put any more money into the deal, though he spent several unpaid months designing the plan himself.
• The $300,000 is a target. Michael says he'd be happy if the house does $300,000 a year, or even a little short of that, and bookings hadn't started yet when they recorded.
• Michael puts his 2026 sales at around $45 million so far, about 70 to 80 homes at roughly a $600,000 average. He ties the busy year to the July 2025 tax bill, since buyers have now had a full year knowing they can take 100% bonus depreciation.
• The house is laid out for groups: two first-floor primary suites for guests who'd rather skip the stairs, an upstairs kitchen with 18-foot floor-to-ceiling windows over the lake, and a pool room with a 20-foot ceiling.
• Michael calls big homes the hottest segment right now, because a six-bedroom earns more than a three-bedroom, guests split the cost, and investors get more bonus depreciation to offset income. He still thinks you can do well at any bedroom count.
• Get under contract first, then do the diligence. In Pennsylvania your deposit is refundable, and Michael says 95% of the time you have an inspection contingency, so a contract gives you more time to ask questions while, as Jeremy puts it, the house is now exclusive to you.
• On appreciation, Michael thinks properties that can earn a lot are rising somewhere in the 5% to 10% range, while an average older three-bedroom is probably only moving at the market rate.

Full Transcript

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Jeremy: We are with Michael Klein, one of the top short-term rental brokers in the entire Northeast, based out of the Poconos, and we're actually at his custom-built six-bedroom lakefront property, and I'm not going to lie, it's pretty awesome. He asked if I could give him some feedback on it, and to be honest, I walked around this whole place and I had like, I'd say, one and a half notes.

This place is almost perfect in my opinion. I mean, we'll see when the bookings start coming, but this is probably, I'll give it even more credit, this is better than I would have done had I done it from scratch. Like every little detail is thought of. So yeah, I'm very impressed, man. This is awesome.

Michael: Thank you, man. I really appreciate that. Yeah, we definitely put a lot of work into it, a lot of thought. I had been planning this. First you have to buy the land, obviously, and you have to do the diligence around that, and then you have to... We did this like a custom home, so we kind of designed the plan ourselves, obviously worked with an architect to stamp it. And so that whole process is just like, that's months where there's nothing really happening.

And then eventually we got a new construction loan on it, and eventually you break ground and that's cool, but there's still nothing there even at that point. And then the frame goes up, and then that's where you start to see like, okay, we actually have a structure here. And so yeah, there's so much thought, so much love has really gone into it.

And we are at that point where, like, I know it's going to do well, but you also don't know, because I feel like there's not a perfect comparable for this property. This is a lakefront property with an indoor pool. There's only one more of those.

Jeremy: Backyard putt-putt course as of today?

Michael: Yes. Based on your suggestion, we're going to do a little putt-putt right in front, like right front center here with the view.

So yeah, that's one of the interesting things about all short-term rentals: you try to do something so unique that you don't exactly know what it's going to do, but we're at that point where you put your love into it and you hope it's going to do better than you expected.

Jeremy: All right. So two things I want to touch on today. One, I want to get into the actual numbers behind this particular deal. Two, I want to get into the decision, and you mentioned that you want to get more involved with custom-built properties like this. You think that that's just a way to drive alpha personally for yourself, but as well as for clients. So using this one as the testing ground. So I want to get into what your hope is with this and how this plays into your business and how you work with clients moving forward. And then third, yeah, just generally what the last year has been like with inventory, how you've been finding deals for clients.

So first things first, just to give a little bit of context, I'm here today. I have a client that I work with who's under contract with Michael on an off-market deal, what, 15 minutes from here?

Michael: Yep.

Jeremy: So we thought we'd stop by here and just check this out on the way. But something I've been working with Michael on: right now, it's the end of the year. We're, what, October 20th. You've got everybody trying to buy for taxes, and there are so few properties on the market that are turnkey, meaning they can be rented by the end of the year. So what we're trying to find, or why Michael's been helpful, is actually getting deals that aren't on the market.

I guess, question: have off-market deals become a bigger thing for you, given maybe the lack of inventory and the fact that everybody's chasing the same thing?

Michael: Yeah. I think finding a good deal, there's a lot of effort that goes into that on so many different levels. So I think most of my deals are still on market. But in a competitive environment, I think if there's a seller that's posting a deal on Facebook, and I can reach out to them and establish a relationship and have a direct line of communication, and it's a good deal, that's one of the things that I think I do well, and I try to do well: communicate the deal so well to a client that even if there's not a listing, they understand it. They have all the information they need to make a decision. And obviously, they understand that it's a good deal.

So yeah, I think being off-market sometimes helps you because you don't have four other offers in place. You can work with a seller directly, give them a fair offer, but then also get a great deal for your client.

Jeremy: So how many have you, just on-market and off-market, how many deals have you sold? And what's your volume in 2026 so far? I think you've had a pretty good year.

Michael: Yeah. Honestly, this year has been crazy. I think what we're coming off of is the big, beautiful bill passed in July of last year. And so last year doesn't really look totally like this year, because we've had a full year where everybody realized that they can get 100% bonus depreciation. And so naturally, that would mean that the market's probably going to be up, but I didn't really go into the year with a target thinking that my sales were going to be up as much as they are.

But I think we're sitting at around $45 million in sales as of now, and this is busy time. So I'm sure there's going to be quite a lot of other sales before the end of the year.

Jeremy: Was that 60, 50 homes?

Michael: That's probably going to be about 75, 70 to 80 homes.

Jeremy: So 700K, 650 average?

Michael: Yeah, around $600,000 average.

Jeremy: Got it. So with all that, what led you to decide to build for yourself from scratch instead of buying something?

Michael: That's a good question. I think I was just really... I've been in the Poconos now since 2020, and I'm so passionate about real estate and short-term rentals, and you want to see these amazing homes exist. And when I look at the market, a lot of times the housing stock doesn't always have what I think is going to be the coolest property out there.

A lot of properties, like indoor pools, for example, the number one amenity, but most homes don't have them. And if you were going to do that in a resale environment, like adding a whole other addition... So indoor pools, I think, are hard to actually add to a property unless it's new construction.

And also, I think you get the ability to just kind of design something from the ground up with the guest experience and short-term rental income in mind from day one. And I think that kind of is just a total paradigm shift. Because what you see with a lot of builders today is they're just building the same property, right? Basically, they have the same model, it looks kind of the same. And then people come in, they close on the property, and then they add a bunch of amenities in the backyard, or they add a bunch of design to it. And that works pretty well, but it doesn't work for everything, right? Because there's so much wasted motion in terms of not thinking about how much space you need for...

Jeremy: Yeah, your neighbor has a big bear on their porch. And I just looked, I just thought it was a legit bear. Sorry, I had to...

Michael: You should get a picture of the bear.

Jeremy: I had to call that out. I just got scared for a second. All right, you need a fence to protect your guests from that massive bear.

Michael: Yeah, it's a little much. It's a big bear, and it looks realistic too.

Jeremy: It's a little too much probably, a little extra. We're doing a privacy wall. That's my next recommendation. I got two good recommendations today. All right, successful.

Michael: But yeah, so I think just building the experience from the ground up, whether it's an indoor pool, or whether it's an outdoor pool, or whether it's how you site the house on the lot so that you have room for those amenities down the road, or whether you're making sure that you're building the spaces in a way that's going to accommodate a large group if it's a larger property: bonus rooms, space for game rooms, all those different amenities that people are going to want.

Golf sims are a huge thing right now, so people are doing detached garages. You have to have enough space for a golf sim, right? You need 10-foot ceilings, and a lot of game rooms are only like eight or nine feet. So just thinking through all those little things about what the guest wants, and then how do you actually create that from the ground up?

Jeremy: So I like to tell people, people always ask me, what's a good market? What's a bad market? And I tell everybody there's a nuance, and generally the nuance boils down to this: every market has a certain group of people who are going there, or different groups of people. Some of those groups of people are underserved, like there's not enough for what they're looking for. So golf, as you mentioned, is an example. Maybe there are groups of golfers who go to specific markets, and there's not a lot of inventory that appeals to that demographic. What is the demographic here that is underserved?

Michael: I think it's, definitely I think the large groups with like... Let me take a step back. I think everybody's just looking for really, really cool experiences. Airbnb did a report on guest travel in the Poconos, and there are a lot of interesting findings, right? One is that travel is skewing younger, there are actually more Latino travelers. But the most interesting one is that people are actually willing to spend more if the experience is really, really cool, right?

And short-term rentals have come so far in terms of the operators and the design and all this stuff. And so I think that in and of itself is actually the biggest thing: how do you create something that's just really novel and is going to be a reason to come out for the... If you're coming from New York or Philadelphia, come out for the weekend.

So I think that's number one, because I do think you can do well at any bedroom count. And I think in a lot of ways the bedroom count kind of determines who your avatar is, right?

Jeremy: Sure.

Michael: Because the Poconos gets over 30 million annual visitors. Everybody's coming up, whether it's couples or whether it's small groups or bigger groups. But I think it really comes back to... We're sitting on a lakefront lot, right? Obviously, that's a unique experience, just being waterfront, having that view. So things like that, I think, are what set you apart, regardless of what the bedroom count is.

Jeremy: So essentially here, you want to catch all. There aren't specific groups: it's families, it's younger, it's younger friends. So you want to kind of appeal to the masses and have a unique experience that's going to capture as much attention as possible. So what's one example of that?

Michael: Being lakefront. Pretty much everybody... Would you rather be lakefront or not be lakefront?

Jeremy: I don't know.

Michael: Exactly.

Jeremy: Probably rather be lakefront.

Michael: Would you want a nicer house or a less nice house?

Jeremy: I mean, you've put a lot into actually making it nice. Not saying higher-end finishings, but in the pool, you have a 20-foot ceiling. I mean, somebody else might have an indoor pool, but you have a nice indoor pool.

You walk in here, and I really liked the way he did the floor plan. You have two primary first-floor masters, for grandma and grandpa. They might not want to go up and down the stairs all that often, so put them on the first floor. You do have your kitchen upstairs. However, you come off the stairs and you have massive 18-foot floor-to-ceiling windows that look right out over the water. So that's awesome for everybody. It doesn't matter who you are. If you're on a bachelor party, bachelorette party, golf trip, that's cool. No one's going to complain.

Michael: It's interesting. I have a builder, and he's like, it's kind of like your second home has to be nicer than your primary home in some ways. If you look at people that own properties in the Hamptons, a lot of people that own in New York City, in Manhattan, they'll have a $30 or $40 million penthouse, and then they'll have an $80 or $100 million home in the Hamptons.

But I think it's that concept of: this is where you go to have fun. This is where you go to have that experience. And so that's why we have these high ceilings. You may not even be able to afford to live in a home that's this nice, but if you're coming for a special occasion or a birthday or an anniversary, you're willing to splurge.

Especially, I think the one avatar that is just easier to make work from an investment perspective is the bigger homes, because it's like you're in the hotel business. So a six-bedroom is obviously going to make more revenue than a three-bedroom. And if you think about it from the guest perspective too, they're splitting that however many ways. So it actually isn't quite as expensive as you might think.

But that seems to be a sweet spot for everyone in the market right now. There's not a lot of those big properties that are really nice and have those resort-style amenities. The guests really love it, and that group travel dynamic's growing. And also, even on the investor side, the bigger homes give you better tax advantages, because you get more bonus depreciation to offset more of your income. So that's probably the hottest segment, but I do think you can do well at any bedroom count.

Jeremy: Yeah. So I'm going to speed run through this particular deal just because we... How many more properties are we? We're going to look at the one we have a client.

Michael: I think we got two more.

Jeremy: Two more. And I got to get back to my baby girl. So I'm going to speed run through this particular deal. And honestly, this has gotten my wheels turning for a multitude of reasons. One, I live in New York City and I've been looking for a project that's within a couple hours. Look, I like the concrete jungle, but it is nice for me to actually get out of the city and be one with concrete and trees. So I'm like, d*mn, this is appealing to me. I like the model. So I've been taking notes.

So I'm going to speed run how the deal came and then the numbers on the home, if you're cool with that, and then just correct me where I'm wrong. The property hit the MLS. You saw it. You said, holy crap, this looks awesome. Called them, put an offer in, sight unseen. And then you drove to the property same day, right?

Michael: Yep.

Jeremy: Which is... People who have the most success in different markets are the ones who, when they see something they like, just get in their car and go. Got to the property, you saw the view, essentially got to the point where you saw the view, you called them and said, all right, my offer is going up. What do I have to do to get this under contract today? And you got under contract.

Michael: Yeah. So I mean, again, I made a sight unseen offer. I did come out and see it. And then as soon as I confirmed the view, I actually raised my offer. All-cash offer; obviously it's land, you're normally using cash. But I tell clients that, and they're always... If you see a good deal, my posture changes from "what's the most I can negotiate the price down" to "what do I need to do to secure this win?"

Jeremy: Get it under contract. I mean, that's what I tell people too, it's just like, get it. Look, you don't really have the right to buy a house until you have it under contract. You can back out once you have it under contract. But if people are like, well, is 590 the right price or 610? I'm like, it doesn't really matter, because you got to just put the offer in at 600. If something comes up where it's like, all right, this is clearly not going to work, tell the seller and you might figure out how to make it work. But if you never get under contract, it doesn't matter anyways.

So I'm not going to say overpay for things. The leverage shifts from the seller once you get in a contract. Because when it's on the market, everybody's looking at it, you're not exclusive. Once you put it in contract, now you have it exclusive. You do an inspection, issues come up or you figure out some other problem with the place, whatever. If you can't fix the issues, the numbers don't work, you just back out. There's literally no penalty, right? Other than paying for the inspection.

Michael: In Pennsylvania, yeah, your deposit is refundable. As a real estate agent, I work really hard to make sure that if we're going to put a deal in contract, it actually makes sense. But yeah.

Jeremy: And I agree with that. It should, but you're not going to know perfectly. Because you have the contingency. Yeah, just back out.

Michael: Yeah, exactly. 95% of the time you have an inspection contingency. So you always have more time when you're in contract to do that additional diligence or to ask that other question, and you do have that protection.

Jeremy: Exactly. But if you never put an offer in, it doesn't matter. You got to actually be willing to... I mean, you put in an offer, maybe put in a lowball. You don't get it. Okay, fine. Next one, you put in an offer. Okay, you get under contract, inspection comes back bad. All right. But if you keep sitting and waiting, and, oh, I need to have someone go tour it again for the fourth time, you're just not going to get it. So it's like, what's the point?

Don't get me wrong. Get a good deal. We're both very much on the... We only put deals in front of people, at least me, that I genuinely think are good deals. But if you're not willing to sign the offer to purchase, the OTP, then you can look at every property in the world. It doesn't matter.

But with this one, really interesting is you care, like, can I just get my perspective on the numbers?

Michael: Yeah.

Jeremy: All right. So you got it for roughly 100 for the land. Give exact numbers. What was the land cost? What was the appraisal pre-construction? What are you all in at? And then what do you think it's worth after?

Michael: Yeah. I mean, definitely, I think we kind of did this, like, we used a lot of our own time. So I'll caveat all the numbers with that, right? Like when I was talking about designing the plan, I mean, I spent like several months.

Jeremy: A lot of attention to detail here, I must say.

Michael: That was just free time. I did it on nights and weekends, but I wasn't getting paid for that. So just keep that in mind. So this is a little bit more custom than a normal project, and your results may vary depending on how you set up your new construction. But yeah, land...

Jeremy: I'm taking the same exact model. Niko, did we get videos of this entire house? We're fine. We're getting land. We're getting land. I'm buying your... I like land.

Michael: I think if you buy good land, then I think in the Poconos, new construction does have good comps, right? Like you have the sales prices.

Jeremy: I'll switch the pool to the other side. I'll switch it up a little bit. It won't be a perfect clone.

Michael: Remind me not to send you the blueprint.

Jeremy: Sorry. I got it in the head. Don't worry. That's why we're filming right now.

Michael: But yeah. So quick numbers. I'll just highlight what I think is interesting. So we got the land for 100,000. Then we did a new construction loan. So you come out and you do an appraisal, which is kind of funny because they did the appraisal before anything was here. So I don't know how he really was able to tell how much it was worth, but that came in at like 1.6 million. So it came in higher than the construction costs.

And the big reason for that was because you have a good plan in terms of square footage and amenities and bedroom and bathroom counts and all that, but also the lakefront: it has higher comps than non-waterfront properties. And so, because the appraisal value was higher than what the construction cost was, which is around 1.2, we actually didn't have to put any more money into the deal. So I was able to close on it with basically no money.

Jeremy: Not bad. Not bad. Good deal. And then what do you think it'll do once it's done, now that it has putt-putt down there?

Michael: The putt-putt's going to help for sure.

Jeremy: It was going to fail. He was going to go into foreclosure without the putt-putt. Glad I was here today to help you out.

Michael: Yeah. So I don't know. I would be happy if it does 300,000, even a little bit short of that.

Jeremy: I think it will. You're not going to have trouble. I'm guaranteeing it, unless you don't respond to guests and price it at $150 a night. I think you'll do just fine.

Michael: Yeah. I think definitely this is trying to cater a little bit to a higher-end customer, so that's one. So...

Jeremy: Hey, the New Yorker is going to go to the Hamptons. Maybe they say, oh, maybe we don't go to the Hamptons this year. Maybe we go get a lakefront property in the Poconos.

Michael: But people have been coming to the Poconos for so long, whether it's for summer getaways and being on the lake. So waterfront properties do really, really exceptionally in the summer. And then the indoor pool is kind of the ace in the hole for the winter and when the weather's not quite as nice.

Jeremy: So what I like about the Poconos is you're in between so many population centers. Whereas people go, oh, why don't you do the Hamptons? Why don't you do the beach? Well, I'm like, well, think about if you're going to get out. And I live in New York City. So people, friends I talk to, that's where their head's at. Obviously experts in the industry, they're not. None of them are ever going to ask me, why don't you buy in the Hamptons? That's never going to be a question you would ask me.

But if you think about population: all right, I'm going to go out to the Hamptons. It's going to take me three hours. I'm in New York City, so I'm pretty close to there, but I have to go three hours out. If there's traffic, it might take me five or six hours. Whereas it's taking me two hours to get to the Poconos. And it's not only taking me two hours, it's taking Philadelphia two hours to get to the Poconos. It's taking, what, Pittsburgh? How long are we from Pittsburgh? Three hours?

Michael: Pittsburgh's a little further, but you got...

Jeremy: I don't even know. Where are we?

Michael: We're in Pocono Summit.

Jeremy: No. Okay. Pocono Summit. But what are the other cities around here?

Michael: I mean, so you got New Jersey, which is the big third one, because there's a ton of...

Jeremy: And Northern Jersey in particular.

Michael: Yeah. And so the other one. And then I think as you go a little bit further, you do get the Long Island crowd, you get the Connecticut crowd. Sometimes you even get people from Maryland or DC. The Poconos is just, like you said, right in the middle of so many different population centers.

Jeremy: You even get Ohio, right? You get Ohio, get a little Pittsburgh.

Michael: Yeah.

Jeremy: I think Mark Shay, shout out to Mark, he said that there's 30 million people within six hours. More, probably. Did I make that up? Was I wrong?

Michael: No, I think it's 25 million within two hours.

Jeremy: That may have been. It may have been 30 million within two hours.

Michael: I think it's 35 or 45 million within three hours or four hours.

Jeremy: Then I was definitely wrong. It was probably, yeah, within three. I digress. There's a lot of people who can get in their cars and drive here just as we did today. And it'd be really easy to get here. And also they have a lot of these random lakes too, for whatever reason.

Michael: Yeah. I think that's the thing. You have a captive audience nearby. So then it's kind of like you work backwards from: what is the cool experience that I can build? And I don't know, people say if you build it, they will come. But I do think that is true to some extent, especially with these unique experiences.

How hard is it for somebody to send you an Airbnb link with something that's really cool with an indoor pool, and you're freezing in New York City in January, and be like, that looks fun. How much is it? Yeah, let's get a group and go. So yeah, the Poconos is always going to have that. That's not going to change anytime soon that I know of.

Jeremy: I agree. I agree. Well, with that, we have, yeah, two more properties. We've already seen two properties today. One of them is an off-market lake house, not the property we're at right now, where, we'll see if someone... I think it'd be an interesting... Again, you only have so many lakefront properties. It's natural scarcity.

I mean, I think with the Poconos, there is a lot of competition. A lot of people with money have come in here and spent a lot of money buying houses that five years ago were $250K. You're now buying for $600K and then you're putting $250K into the property, houses with one-acre lots. There's a lot of them now. So there's a lot of competition, but there's nothing... I mean, I probably could maybe find one or two properties like this, a lakefront house with an indoor pool that's six bedrooms and modern, in the entire Poconos. The lakefront in general, I think that might be a takeaway for today.

Michael: That's true. Yeah. One other thing, just to add to that. That's true, there's a lot of competition and it's definitely leveled up, but at the same time, how many other markets out there... And you can even expand this to other real estate asset classes, long-term rentals or whatever else. How many other markets can you find this type of revenue relative to...

Jeremy: Guys, no, no. It's still unique. Even with having gone up a lot, it's still a case. I mean, there's a lot of revenue here, and it's because you have so many people who can get here in two hours. You have a ski resort. You have Great Wolf. We drove past Great Wolf Lodge. And I always say, follow the water parks, honestly, because they spend millions of dollars on research to figure out where to go. So if Great Wolf Lodge thinks this is a good location for families, chances are you build a house for families and a few of them will want to come here.

But yeah, I mean, I didn't know anything about the Poconos growing up, and even in my days in New Jersey, I don't know if anyone really talked about it, but there's a lot of random crap here.

Michael: Yeah. And I think with the prices going up, I mean, there's one thing that's embedded in that. I'm a real estate agent, so I'm constantly... One of the properties we saw today, I actually sold that a year and a half ago, and then they did some improvements. And then we go there and we're like, hey, you could still do so much. It was on two acres and they're not doing anything with that land. So the prices are going up.

Jeremy: Hey, they did take that garage and turn it into a game room.

Michael: They did.

Jeremy: I was like, they did the hard part. They took out the garage door, put in sliding doors, they put in a mini split, and then it's the most vanilla-looking game room I've ever seen. I'm like, you spent 30K, you told me 20, and you made it actually nice, like you temperature-controlled it, you insulated it, and then you just... This is the most boring game room ever. Who wants to play games here?

Michael: It might not have been a short-term rental designer that did that. They didn't do a bad job. It was nice. I mean...

Jeremy: You're being kind. It was your client, I guess.

Michael: It wasn't my client. But what I was going to say is that the property prices are going up, but the properties are getting nicer. So that means your resale value and your comps are getting better. And the revenue is also going up, because the experiences are getting cooler. And so the properties are actually just generating more value for guests.

So that's one thing in the background. Yes, the prices are going up, but there's kind of a virtuous cycle going on in the Poconos right now, where things are just getting nicer, things are getting better overall.

Jeremy: Yeah. And appreciation helps everybody. If someone wants to sell, all right, they can sell. If somebody wants a higher basis for tax benefits...

Michael: Or refi.

Jeremy: Refi the property later. Pull out cash.

Michael: Yeah, it helps you, because now your average transaction is bigger.

Jeremy: So yeah, this market is appreciating. And probably, I don't see what will stop that. I mean, I don't think it's crazy COVID appreciation, but it is what, like 10% a year appreciation right now, maybe?

Michael: I think... I mean, it depends on the property. I think if you buy the right properties, and I think primarily that's aligned with properties that have the ability to do a lot of income, those properties are probably appreciating in that 5% to 10% range. An average, like an older three-bedroom property, is probably just appreciating at that market rate.

Jeremy: Or even a house that can't be a short-term rental due to permits.

Michael: Right. Then that's probably not appreciating.

Jeremy: All right. Well, I'm going to appreciate this view right here. And also, the white sand beach, which is awesome. That was a great touch. You've got the kayaks and canoes. You're just going to put them on a holder, so when you look at the photos, they look real nice. You've got a big fire pit. You put in a lot of pavers for the fire pit, but kept some permeability. But from a property value perspective, that's probably the way to do it. And he has a massive flat area out back here, which is going to have some putt-putt. Has a hot tub under this deck. It's going to be rainproof or something.

Michael: Yeah. Rain guard underneath the deck. So you'll be in the hot tub and you won't get wet if it's raining.

Jeremy: The sauna is just on the right of the pool room. Sauna near the bear. So maybe that's how you'll block out the bear. And it looks like it's a custom-built sauna.

Michael: Oh, actually that's the deck for it. It's in a crate in the front.

Jeremy: Take it back. So that's the custom-built deck for the...

Michael: Correct.

Jeremy: Okay. Because you pointed it out earlier and you said that's the sauna.

Michael: Yeah. This is just the platform.

Jeremy: Got it. Sauna platform. No, it's going to be awesome when it's finished. You have one Adirondack chair, I guess, for that. So you can sit there and sip on a beer or something.

Michael: Yeah. Before it's ready. It's still a construction site, but yeah, I think we were using it for sizing for the fire pit.

Jeremy: Good call. Good call. All right. Well, with that, we're going to keep moving. Thank you guys for being here. Any last words of advice in 2026 for our listeners of the Short-Term Rental Pros podcast?

Michael: No, just stay focused and get your deal done. If you're working on something, you've got to be really focused right now. Otherwise, I'm already starting to think about next year. And especially with the new construction we've got going on in the Poconos, I would encourage people to think earlier in the year. I know a lot of people like to wait until the last minute. One piece of good news about new construction is that you can actually build it through the year and then have it ready to go in fall. But definitely don't wait, for fall, if you want to get a new construction property.

Jeremy: I need to find some land.

Michael: Let's find some land.

Jeremy: We're going looking. I'm scratching these next two properties and we're actually just going to go looking for land. Put flyers on doors. I don't know.

Michael: Yeah.

Jeremy: We're swimming. That's where, swimming for lakefront land.

Michael: I didn't know that's what you're doing today.

Jeremy: I think I brought a bathing suit. Cool. Well, if you don't hear from us, it's because something happened in this lagoon. Just kidding. We'll be safe. All right, guys. Appreciate y'all being here. Michael, thanks for coming on today.