House hacking a single family home

[Anthony Bratina]

My wife and I are trying to house hack in Northern Colorado and the inventory for multifamily homes in our price range is zero right now.  We are trying to think of how we can house hack in more creative ways to open up our options.  What kind of home layouts are easy to turn into two different living spaces?  We do not like the idea of a renter having access to all of our property.  If you have any information on zoning and other details that factor in that would be helpful too, thanks!

[David McFarland]

Hello Anthony,

The market in Fort Collins area (where I live) is crazy right now and it's difficult to get in and make numbers work for rentals. SFHs are selling for $350+ / sq. foot. I currently have a SFH that will likely sell for $400,000+ but rent is only $1800 - $1850 / month. If you have flexibility, I would consider Greeley as some feel this is an up-and-coming market. I recently read the 2020 Milken Institute report which pegged Greeley at #20 nationally:

https://milkeninstitute.org/si...

Just be aware that Greeley is a big oil and gas town so I'm thinking that some of the wage growth cited in that report was from the 2018, 2019 oils and gas boom that has slowed significantly.  That said, it only makes sense that Greeley will continue to grow as Fort Collins is totally built out and rapidly expanding to the east toward Greeley.  Greely is also host to University of Northern Colorado so the opportunity exists for student rentals which could be more stable.  I'm not sure about pricing there as I currently do not own anything in Greeley.

Feel free to message me.

Dave