Help Analyze Denver Duplex for Cash Flow/House Hack Potential

[Katie Hoffman]

Hello all, I live in the Denver area and am interested in living for free through a house hack. I found a property on Zillow in the Westwood area (which I believe will be a high appreciation area). It is already in turnkey condition, however, could still be updated a bit to force appreciation eventually. It is a 2 BR, 1 Bath duplex going for $262,500 but there is the option to buy the other side of the duplex and have both units for $510,000. If I put 3.5% down, I would be paying $3235 a month for both units. Zillow estimates that each unit would rent for $1800 a month. However, this seems high to me? How can I be better sure of what kind of rent I could expect out of the unit and does this sound like a deal that would be good to invest in? I'm 100% new to this and don't know what to look out for. Any resources/guidance appreciated! Thank you. Ideally I would like to only live in the unit for a year myself and then use the money from renting both units to pay for a home in the Highlands Ranch area for myself or invest back into out of state turnkeys that cash flow. If I rented out both sides of this property at $1800, I would be cash flowing about $365 a month. If I lived in one unit and rented out the other, then I would have a mortgage payment of $1435 which also seems high to me for 717 square feet of space. What am I missing? Thanks! The address is 2841 W 3rd Ave, Denver, CO 80219 listed here: https://www.zillow.com/homedet...