Opinion on STR and VR in Denver and surrounding areas

[Roman Puzey]

Hello,

We are looking for our first house-hacking primary residence to buy and its been hard to try to find a property that cash flows based on BPR calculator. Does anyone has experience with short term rentals in Denver as of recently such as Airbnb, VRBO, Furnished Finder? How effective is it to SRT an ADU or a basement that's fully redone? We are having trouble to committing to one due to not being able to break even and not having 3-6 months of mortgage payment in case of vacancy which would wipe out most of our savings. I know there are laws around SRT in certain cities/counties, which ones would you recommend to look for SRT but also have it be your primary residence? We are planning on buying the property with FHA loan (850k) and using HELOC as down payment and keeping the residence which we are currently in and rent it out as LTR

[Michael Baum]

Hey @Roman Puzey. Ok, well if you approval number is 850k but you can only afford 650k, what is the reason for that?

I don't disagree with @Ben Einspahr as he seems to know more about the region, but words like nuances make me nervous. I don't like to navigate nuances and peculiarities of a region unless the profit margin is pretty huge. 30%+ CoC for example.

And he isn't talking about Denver, but surrounding communities. Is that something you want to do?  Everything Ben said makes sense. Get out there and meet some people and see what's what.

What I am most worried about is you getting in over your head and you can't make the mortgage on your primary home if your STR doesn't do as well as projections.

I am more conservative than a lot of investors. Many roll the dice and win. And lose.

So, make sure you have all your ducks in a row. Research everything and try to buy in an area that is more stable when it comes to regs.

Good luck man!