Newbie - House Hack STR Mountain House in Colorado

[Daniel Bourdeau]

The Lazy Bear Lodge | Golden, Colorado

Mountain House AirBnB

This is my first RE investment. I've always loved mountain properties, so I jumped at the opportunity at the start of COVID-19 to buy a house in a more secluded location. I figured, if there's a pandemic...being as far from people as possible would be ideal.

I found the house on Zillow, and offered list price (432,000) in April 2020. There was another offer, so I then bid $1,000 over theirs, and was accepted. I later discovered some issued (roof, furnace) and negotiated 9,000 back on the closing to compensate. The seller need to move in short order and it seemed they were asking too much for a 1 year increase (+30k).

I only put 5% down (roughly $30k with closing costs), buying as a primary residence using mainly stock units I receive at my job outside my normal salary and pulling a 12k loan from my 401k. The primary residence loan (2.99%, $411k, 30 year) has a 1 year residency requirement, which worked perfectly for me.

I coordinated the renovation of the house almost top to bottom, with big ticket items being the roof, floors on 2k sqft, furnishing, concrete entrance way, appliances, and more. I learned to be handy and installed tons of things. My wife helped locate contractors through friends of friends, which helped avoid the large contract company overhead.

Next, I wrote out the business plan for the unit after researching extensively the local market, and launched at the 1 year mark of my residency requirement on the loan

After launching last week, I've booked out the next 2 months pretty quickly at an ADR of $315, which includes some direct bookings to coworkers for a discount. I should be on track for gross revenue of $85-95k with costs of $35k as I self manage remotely.

I did most of the renovations in about 4 months, hiring people that could mainly only work weekends outside their main job. I should have had contractors do the cabinet renovation, because that was a back breaking project to strip, sand, and refinish 45 cabinet doors. I got quoted $7k for it and decided to just do it myself.

I recommend building a local network of trusted cleaners, repair people, and neighbors to help look over your property. This is probably easiest via the house hack as you actually live in their community for a while. I would recommend being open about your plans and listening to their concerns, and you will build their trust.