New Member from the Mile High City

[Stephen Wilfong]

Hello investors!

My name is Stephen and I live in Denver, Colorado. My wife and I bought a SFH in southwest Denver nearly a year and a half ago, and over the last year we have become increasingly interested in investing in rental properties. So far I have read the free beginner's guide E-book, as well as Brandon Turner's Book on Rental Properties. We are still developing our plan, but our goal is to be able to both reduce our current jobs to part time (if not quit) within about 10 years (we are both currently 26 years old). We want to be able to travel, go backpacking etc without having to stress too much about money, and have lots of time to spend together, which is something we do not feel we have right now.

I see doing this largely through investing in small multifamily properties. I am torn between the idea of buying a tri or fourplex with an FHA loan (we do not have much for cash reserves at this time), moving in and renting out the house, or using a HELOC to help with a conventional downpayment so that we do not need to move out, OR selling the house and using our appreciation profit to get a solid downpayment (we would really rather not do that, we're quite attached to our house). I feel that waiting until we can save a 20% downpayment (which in this market could easily be over $100k) for a multifamily house in the area means waiting too long to get started. I am also considering investing in a smaller Colorado town to avoid Denver's high prices.

Where are my other 303 area investors at? I would love to hear how you all are overcoming Denver's inflated market!