Rental Market in Cheyenne

[Aimee Lawrence]

Hello everyone, 

I live in Fort Collins Colorado but I work in Cheyenne, Wyoming. I have one rental in Fort Collins but man these prices are steep! I'm thinking about buying a rental in Cheyenne and was wondering anyone has had any experience in that market. I was also thinking about purchasing it as a second home and using it to stay in for work at times and an Air BnB/STR for the remainder. It would save me on the down payment. Any thoughts are advice? Thank you so much!

Aimee

[Jesse B.]

Hi Aimee,

I have both rentals and do airbnb in Cheyenne.  I'm not currently looking at anything myself as I believe prices have outran rents at the moment.  But if you can justify it by not having to travel back and forth sometimes it may make sense to you.  You probably need to define if you want to do airbnb or a rental as you probably have different buying considerations at that point.

My rentals are generally at the low-upper/high-mid side of the Cheyenne market.  I just filled 2 in February with no trouble and plenty of qualified applicants, these were places with 2 car garages, stainless appliances, front loading washers and dryers, nice flooring, central AC, etc, and allowed pets.   A LOT of people don't allow pets in Cheyenne, so allowing them makes a big difference in the pool of candidates.  Garages are a big plus for rentals here as well, I couldn't see buying another without at least a single garage.

I think a person could still probably get some cash flowing houses at the very low end of the market. I just don't have anything in that market, so don't know as much about it. 

For Airbnb, here are the things I get asked about the most.  How close to downtown/shopping/restaurants, etc.  How close to Frontier Park during Frontier Days.  Private bathroom, laundry and kitchen privileges, parking situation, pets, and how easy to get to from I80/I25.  Arrival times is another one, but using a programmable front door lock and good house manual can fix that.

Do you do airbnb currently?  Keep in mind you will need to provide wifi and cable (or netflix) and will have all the utility bills.  And you will have to furnish the place.  You will have a good headstart on long term stays if you are not there all the time, but will want to consider how many rooms you are going to rent.  Long stay people like to have a lot of private space, and not just in their bedroom.  If you pick up a lot of overnighters, this can be a lot of work as well.

We had an airbnb at a cheaper condo and were able to do about 60% higher cash flow than renting, but it was a major headache as it did not have the parking for it and was a lot of work cleaning and changing bedding and keeping the common areas shared among the guests.

Another option would be just to get a roommate.  You could probably get 600-650 for a roommate with a private bath in a nice place, possibly even shared utilities.

If there is anything I can help answer for you just ask - Jesse