Buying in/near Boulder, CO with a VA Loan

[Sean Murphy]

Looking for some advice: I'll be changing duty stations this summer and will be working out of Boulder, Colorado. Fantastic place to live but home prices are something that I have never experienced before. I have been waiting for an opportunity to use my VA loan through my military service to capitalize on purchasing a property that I could either house-hack out of with a multi-family or buy a single-family and either convert it to a multi later on or just rent it out as a SFH when I get orders to move again.

Buying a home in Boulder proper seems unrealistic right now based on home prices. My max VA loan that I will qualify for as I understand it will be $626,750 in Boulder County. I'm looking at surrounding areas and towns for better priced options, but was wondering if anyone had experience with real estate in this area, handling tenant/landlord laws, overall experience of renting to University students, and anything else that would be of value. I'm assuming that my experience with property taxes, county taxes, utilities, etc will be much different in this area than from what I've experienced in the Midwest.

I appreciate any advice or opinions. Thanks for your time. 

Sean

[Steve K.]

$600k will get you a fixer in Boulder neighborhoods like Martin Acres, Gunbarrel, East Boulder (Single Family Home that is, MF will set you back ~$1M and up). It will be tough to find a SFH that with positive cash flow as a pure rental (if you were to get orders to move), unless you make a large downpayment. Also Boulder has pretty strict occupancy limits and rental laws. With your budget and plans for the property I'd look at Longmont, Lafayette, Westminster, Arvada etc. where you can still find B/C class quads in that price range, or solid class B duplexes and triplexes. I'd personally look for a nice duplex as close as possible to one of these downtowns: Longmont, Lafayette, Golden or Arvada.

Property taxes are low here (4th lowest in the country), utilities are cheap, rental demand is high, and landlord/tenant laws favor landlords heavily (even in Boulder as far as quick evictions however the rental licensing/ordinances are strict). Prices are also high and it's a competitive market with low inventory so knowing the right people is critical to find off market deals. The market is softening however compared to the last few years. Good time to buy in the right area and if you buy a fixer and make it nice you can create a lot of equity quickly here.