BRRRR AND HOUSE HACKING IN COLORADO SPRINGS

[Jeremy Babin]

Hello! I'm getting closer to purchasing a potential single family that I would like to house hack and BRRRR. I still have alot to learn, and would like to connect with investors in town who are doing this. Looking to get a feel for this process, and to see how you guys do it!

Regards, 

Jeremy

[Daniel Haberkost]

Originally posted by @Jane S.:

After making really good offers on about 10 nice SFR properties and losing all of them (offered $20K over list on one, lost it), I have decided this market is a waste of time. Here in Colorado Springs the inventory is nonexistent and no matter the location or condition, houses get dozens of offers as soon as they hit the MLS. I have my suspicions, since I think the houses are already sold to friends or family before they even get listed, the seller is making sure they get the best price. My goal was to house hack, move in & use my VA loan for low down payment, but there seems to be a lot of cash out there and I cant compete with that. (Although my broker says cash buyers offer less.) Local wholesalers have nothing to offer. Sellers dont need to respond to any direct mail asking to buy their house. All they need is a Craigslist post & they will be buried in responses. Brokers are also posting fake FSBO ads on Zillow to snare buyers, pretty fraudulent. Lots of sneaky game playing. Glad I grabbed a couple rentals last year. Curious what some others think.

 The fact that inventory is extremely low and the the market is so desirable is as much as a positive as it is a negative (referring to your goal of house hacking). Sure it's hard to get in but once you do you'll be able to rent rooms for $700+ a month and have no vacancy. As with everything, it's a matter of how you look at it. 

If it were easy to get in and there wasn't competition for everything that comes on the market then keeping individual rooms rented would be much harder and rates would be lower. 

Additionally, we bought a great deal from a wholesaler early this year and there have been several others we made offers on and were barely beat out (i.e. they still went for prices that allowed for profit). 

Plenty of people are regularly getting deals via direct mail (yes, it takes significant volume and follow up). 

As far as your comments about fraudulent listings and nepotism (I'm sure that goes on as it does in any market) that is the exception, not the rule. 

Investing in a hot market is not easy. But if the market wasn't hot we'd have people complaining about low rents and too much vacancy.