Introduction and Short Term Rental Question

[Bill Olivent]

Hello everyone,

I just posted my first question on one of the forums and figured I needed to introduce myself to the BP community. I’m new to BP and real estate investing in general. My wife and I recently moved to Santa Fe, NM and are looking to begin our journey into real estate in this area. We are from Austin, TX and relocated to Santa Fe to improve our quality of life for ourselves and two small children.

I work full time at a design-build architecture company in Santa Fe and have nearly 20 years of experience working in high-end residential construction and design. My wife is a licensed architect with nearly a decade of experience in multifamily design. Although I have a construction background, I have decided not to personally rehab properties. Running a job site and managing sub-contractors is hard work, so be kind to your contractors.

We're working on finding our first deal but technically it's our 2nd. We sold our 3/2 house in Austin after renovating it for 4 years. It was a foreclosure we bought secondhand off the MLS and was in terrible shape. After a long fairly extensive rehab we sold it for 2x plus what we paid for it. Lots of sweat equity and late nights. It was tough because we "house hacked" the project and lived there during construction with two small kids. But, financially it was worth it. Now that we have some equity built up we're looking to invest in either single-family or small multifamily, as short-term rentals. We are weighing the pros and cons of either SF or MF with regards to short-term rentals. Does anyone have any input on this specific topic? Your help would be very welcome.

Also, your suggestions for investor-focused contractors, realtors, and property managers in Santa Fe and Albuquerque, NM would be appreciated.

Thanks everyone, looking forward to learning more and getting our 1st (2nd…) deal underway.