The Aggravated Owners of Deer Ridge Resort

Update Coming Soon!

See the new Deer Ridge Owners Blog and have your voice heard! Click Blog.

To All Deer Ridge Owners

This site is dedicated to all Owners at Deer Ridge Mountain Resort of Gatlinburg, Tennessee who are aggravated and outraged at the dictatorial, arbitrary and unresponsive management policies of the current Board of Directors and Ridge Management Ltd.

Are you tired of non-responsiveness by the Deer Ridge Mountain Resort Board?
Are you tired of having your suggestions for improving the property, and increasing property values, ignored?
Are you tired of Employee Joe trying to illegally enforce draconian, self-serving, self-important "decisions" about what owners can and cannot do at Deer Ridge Mountain Resort?
Are you tired of the Board and Employee Joe trying to illegally control all owner contact with other owners and guests at Deer Ridge Mountain Resort?
Are you tired of arbitrary decisions by the Board and the management company affecting your own use and enjoyment of YOUR property?
Are you tired of excessive management fees and pass through expenses that are above market charges for your Gatlinburg rental unit?
Are you looking for another, more cost-effective alternative to the current on site management company for your condo rental?

If your answers were "YES", then this site is for you!

The purpose of this site will be to provide an alternative forum for new ideas and approaches - to protect and enhance both our enjoyment and the value of our properties.

WARNING - MAJOR ASSESSMENTS TO OWNERS COMING SOON
TO SUPPORT THE RML MOTEL BUSINESS!

Please see Deer Ridge Mountain Resort - An Economic Prediction For 2008-2010 - An Open Letter to the Deer Ridge Board of Directors and All Owners. Read this to find out the consequences we all face because the Board continues to insist that we stay in the motel business.

I've looked in the crystal ball at Deer Ridge and foresee a quickly coming confluence of economic factors that will most probably have a major and very dire impact on all of us owners at Deer Ridge Mountain Resort. The purpose of this open letter to the Deer Ridge Board is to alert the Board, and all owners, to these "perfect storm" trends and propose how we can best defend against them to protect all of our economic investments.

UPDATE - MY ECONOMIC PREDICTION - AND THE DISMAL PERFORMANCE OF RML

Luther and The Board of Directors of Deer Ridge:

On April 12, 2008 I copied you on my Deer Ridge Mountain Resort - An Economic Prediction For 2008-2010, asking that you take immediate steps to get us out of the "Little Joe's NoTel MoTel & Mountain Resort" business and reduce the risk to all owners. The owners have enough to worry about with this recession and the impact on property values - without having to also worry about all of us being forced into the motel business and all the increased risk factors that go with operating any business.

Since GGRC owns RML, ALL owners will continue to suffer these unlimited risks that go with RML - even those of us who do not use RML and receive no benefits whatsoever from RML.

I invite you to re-visit my web page at Deer Ridge Mountain Resort - An Economic Prediction For 2008-2010 to see how accurate my predictions have been so far.

In addition to that data, I've also generated the following analysis of the actual collections at Deer Ridge for the first seven months of 2008. This data is based on the monthly newsletters sent to all owners.

Deer Ridge Collection - Shortfall Impact on RML
Assumed RML Management Fee		40%

Month	Collections	Variance Over	Last Year's	Dollar Change	RML Mgt	RML YTD	RML YTD
		Last Year	Number		Fee Loss	Loss	Loss + Dec

December 2007	$ 58,122	-20.1%	$ 72,743	$ (14,621)	$ (5,849)	$ (5,849)	$ (5,849)

2008

January	$ 15,118	-0.6%	$ 15,206	$ (88)	$ (35)	$ (35)	$ (5,884)
February	$ 28,777	5.2%	$ 27,360	$ 1,417	$ 567	$ 532	$ (5,317)
March	$ 52,502	-20.1%	$ 65,734	$ (13,232)	$ (5,293)	$ (4,761)	$ (10,610)
April	$ 64,438	-23.6%	$ 84,354	$ (19,916)	$ (7,966)	$ (12,728)	$ (18,576)
May	$ 47,317	-39.9%	$ 78,730	$ (31,413)	$ (12,565)	$ (25,293)	$ (31,142)
June	$ 87,785	-22.7%	$ 113,564	$ (25,779)	$ (10,312)	$ (35,605)	$ (41,453)
July	$ 140,504	-18.6%	$ 172,567	$ (32,063)	$ (12,825)	$ (48,430)	$ (54,278)

As the above numbers CLEARLY show, every month of this year except February has been a loss over last year's numbers. For all of the last five months, this loss has been double digit!

So far, total rent collections at Deer Ridge are down over $121,000 for the year...a fact that is obviously hurting everyone who is in the rental pool. Beyond that, according to my calculations, this means that RML's Management Fee loss (assuming a fee of 40%) compared to last year must be down more than nearly $50,000 SO FAR this year. If you take December's short fall into account, this number goes up by another $5,900.

When I brought this coming shortfall up last April, my concerns were dismissed by the Board - and I was assured that all of this was already fully taken into account in the budget numbers that were distributed to all owners at the Annual Meeting. At the time, your budget predicted a 2008 bottom line cash flow for RML equal to a positive $1,973 for the year. My prediction page showed, and still shows, a $50,000 negative cash flow for all of 2008.

Now that we are over 60% of the way through calendar year 2008, I and many other owners would like to know the answers to the following questions:

In response to my April Forecast, you and Board member Larry Ohm, responded that the 2008 RML budget properly predicted the above numbers and that both of you stood by the RML budget that was distributed to owners at the Homeowners Meeting. Do you both still expect that the RML budget's $1,973 bottom line positive annual cash flow reflects the same reality?
If not, what is your current 2008 prediction for the total negative cash flow from operation for RML for the entire year?
If there is a significant variance from budget, where is the working capital for RML coming from?
Has there been any discussions about any kind of owner assessment being required for calendar years' 2008 or 2009?
What steps are the Board taking to minimize the risk to all owners of continuing to be in the motel business?
How many units at Deer Ridge have sold so far during calendar year 2008? What have been the actual selling prices?
How many units are currently being managed by RML?
How many of the total of 84 units are now owned by folks who are using it as their full time or primary residence?
How many units at Deer Ridge have been posted for foreclosure during 2008?
How many owners are currently in arrears on payments of any kind to GGRC or RML?

Many of the owners, including myself, would appreciate receiving your answers to the above questions. I hope what you and Larry Ohm originally told me back in April is still true - that the budget of RML took ALL of the above negative reality into account and that we are still right on the original target. Nothing would make me happier than all of my predictions at Deer Ridge Mountain Resort - An Economic Prediction For 2008-2010 to be wrong.

However, many of us owners are concerned about the above, huge negative variance. We are also concerned when in the July 2008 newsletter, we read, "Room Revenue for July 2008 was down by -18.58% as compared to last year." - and then, instead of discussions about the consequential impact of these numbers to all owners, we get with the next sentence the "Polly Anna" report that we are top ranked on the Expedia.com website! The "News from the Ridge" needs to be a serious status report to all owners - and not just a fluff piece of propaganda. I strongly urge editorial redirection for the only regular communications most owners receive about their investment at Deer Ridge.

I would appreciate you also emailing me the monthly financials on RML that shows all the same line items as the budget distributed at the homeowner's meeting. Please email me financials that show actual vs. budget so that the owners can see exactly how good a job was done with the budgeting process. Please also provide me with any and all updated budgets for both RML and GGRC.

Thanks,

Robert

Selling RML

Note: Even though Deer Ridge Mountain Resort now has a new Board, there is STILL no focus or attention on the fact that Ridge Management needs to be sold NOW.

I strongly urge ALL owners to do all they can to bring this issue back to the top of the queue - so ALL homeowners can benefit from the remaining, quickly closing, small window of opportunity to sell RML BEFORE it becomes an a huge liability that will cost us all - instead of making us money! If we do NOT expedite the sale of RML, be prepared for more assessments that will be forced on all owners just to fund the RML deficit!

_________________

As a member of the Ridge Management Committee appointed by the Board of Directors, I wanted to report to all owners about the current status and the results of the Committee meeting on February 10, 2006. During the meeting, I presented several relevant documents. I present those to you, all owners, for your consideration and comments.

See How Selling RML Could Give Every Owner A One Time Distribution =
$5,000 to $10,000 Per Unit!

As I think you will see from all of the attached, selling RML offers ALL owners a tremendous opportunity to generate a VERY significant amount of money – including the potential for a large, one-time cash distribution to ALL owners, perhaps in the $5,000 to $10,000 range to each of us - depending on the eventual selling price and how much is kept back for reserves.

This could be a HUGE deal for ALL owners plus those in the rental pool end up with better management AND much less management fees impacting their own net rental income.

If you want to see why we should sell RML and how we can make so much per owner, click Sell RML.

In the meantime, please direct any information, proposed content and issues, etc. to Robert@DeerRidgeOwners.com

Thanks!