All Forum Posts by: Ben Rhodin

Hey @Liam Alvarez!

Welcome to the community, and congratulations on taking your first step towards real estate investing. First I would dive right in and start learning as much as possible. Get out to meetups, talk to other investors, and read as many books as possible. Want to get started with absorbing as much as you can to figure out where and how you might want to invest. 

There are endless methods of investing out there, and not one of them is the right one. The right one will depend on your specific goals, skills, and financial situation. There is no one size fits all.

Being your first deal, I would always recommend investing in your backyard (meaning Colorado), and getting set up with a solid team as far as a Real Estate Broker, Lender, and possibly PM. That will give you baseline guidance and possibilities for where your trajectory might take you. Find someone that is looking out for your best interests, and not just simply trying to get a sale done. I've dealt with enough investors trying to return from that situation.

If you want to connect, we are a boutique brokerage here in Denver that focuses on being an all-in-one solution for Investors, we provide in-house sales and PM services and help countless investors each year achieve their unique investing goals.

Hey @Jaime Ponce! Welcome to the community, you are already light-years ahead of most people with getting into real estate at your age. As most people have mentioned there are numerous ways to invest, and get into the the real estate world. However, not all are well suited for the beginner route, especially if you don't have the lending ability or funds to get into them. 

My personal recommendation after helping numerous investors in your situation is to begin right now by just surrounding yourself with other investors and learning as much as you can. 

Then I would focus on either the active side of investing with finding deals and providing value to other investors, with the possibility of partnering with them on a deal. Or plan to get into a House Hack when you graduate and half a good-paying job. This will be the lowest barrier of entry into investing, as well as help minimize your living expenses.

We are located in the Denver Metro as well, so if you do want to chat and explore options or just start planning feel free to reach out!

Hey @Ever Olivas!

You are experiencing what pretty much every flipper is experiencing. and let me start with that the 70% rule is only a guideline, and in a market like Denver, it will rarely happen. It depends on too many factors to only work off of the 70% rule, just like you can't just count on the 1% rule for buy and holds. It's different for every market and investor. Right now what we are seeing investors buying flips between 75-82% ARV here in the Denver market, and some are leveraging less to make the margins better, or they are going for volume.

If you find a 70% deal on the market or even off-market, unless you are the only one getting that deal, it will easily be bid up by other investors. However, we are still doing deals with our investors either on or off the market, if you want to find those home run deals, you have to do the leg work and find those off markets yourself. Any wholesaler, or listing will not be at 70% ARV.

Hey @Chance Noffsinger! Welcome to the forums and community. You definitely have some solid work in your portfolio, and hopefully your flips have been profitable! 

Would love to connect, we are always looking for great GCs to put into our database. We do fix and flips, buy and hold renovations, along with serve numerous investors that are always completing work!

Hey Austin! Welcome to the BP forums and the Denver Market! Would be more than happy to connect, we own about 10 units in and around Denver and also serve TONS of investors in the area. 

As for your question, we are a boutique PM firm as well, and we manage our properties for other investors the same way we do. If you want to chat feel free to reach out. Currently, we are simply LTRs, so if you are looking for STR or MTR, we have some good recommendations for you.

We’re hiring! Are you a newer real estate agent? Looking for a part-time steady gig in the industry with great growth potential!? And do you live in the Colorado front range!? Look no further.

This role will empower us to help even more purpose-driven people achieve financial independence with smart real estate investing. So that even more of us can live our best lives.

You have the right combination of people skills, marketing experience and organizing prowess to join me as SWG’s first Manager of Ops & Client Relations. Part time to start, and perfect for a newer real estate agent or someone considering licensure, but sky’s the limit for growth into leadership with us, for the right fit.

The ideal candidate is looking for a role with longer term growth potential, and is someone who digs managing the behind-the-scenes. While the role is 98% remote, there will be occasional in-person events and service tasks locally, so we prefer a Colorado front ranger.

This is an amazing opportunity to really help grow an already-successful new business, and to support, learn from and collaborate with a successful investor agent who has achieved financial independence and loves helping others do the same (ahem, that’s me!).

Are you or someone you know right for the job? Check it out here. We’d love to hear from you.

Hey @Justin Segarra! You've already got most of it covered in here. Ill also throw in that there are usually a bunch of Facebook groups specifically for finding roommates. I would search your cities name and "roommates" or "creative housing". Here in Denver I think we have 3-4 groups that have numerous posts a day.

Hey @Account Closed! Already some great info in here, and take it to heart. The best advice is don't wait, make the connections, and put the pieces together now... that way you will be ready when the time comes. A loan officer will be able to run your situation as if you had hit those two years even before then unless your income drastically changes in the next couple of months. They can also help you prepare to get into the best situation possible if there are weak points in your profile. They should also have info on all the loan programs and down payment assistance programs for you. Don't try and do all the heavy lifting yourself. Lean on the experts and your team to develop a viable strategy that works for you, and then execute it.

Hey @Caleb Graham! Not sure what exact city here in Colorado you are looking at, but welcome to the neighborhood! You've already got some great advice here. At the end of the day House Hacking isn't necessarily about cash flow. Those days are gone since rates aren't at 3% anymore... and they will never come back. House hacking is about subsidizing your housing payment and eliminating or lowering that monthly burden which is your biggest expense. It also provides you with all the great tax benefits and appreciation. This is where I have a lot of House Hackers go wrong, as they are just focused on the cashflow aspect. 

Sure, you don't want the property to be negative after you move out, but likely with rent growth, and a possible refi, you should be fine for that. and even if it is slightly negative your appreciation, and loan paydown are probably still outperforming that.

Have you looked into other rental strategies for the property? Would be helpful what city you are looking at, but you could see if STR, MTR, or rent by the room are viable options to increase that rental amount.

Hey @Meredith Ogden!

That will be a great lump sum to get you started on your journey, but I am going to agree with everyone above... Don't put all that capital into your first deal. We do TONS of fix and flips here in Denver, and I help numerous STR clients as well. Both are great strategies but you do need to be able to navigate them correctly otherwise, you could loose that 100k real quick.

I wouldn't wait until you receive the money to get in. I would find other avenues to start getting your feet wet in the industry and make sure you enjoy these strategies. Flipping, if you are willing to do the work, you could find a deal and partner with someone who has the expertise and the funds, and work together on it. As for an STR, you may start somewhere smaller. Not sure what your current living situation is, but you may have an opportunity to get into a new home with a Mother in Law suite, or an ADU that you can STR, just to see if that rental strategy works for you. This would be a house hack, and you'd be able to get in with 3-5% down.

I will also disagree with everyone above, you could make both of these strategies hands off, with the right moves.

These baby steps during the next year will gain you the confidence and the knowledge, to best utilize that 100k, if that is the best case at that point. and you may be able to stretch that 100k into a few deals, or limitless deals if you have the right pieces to play

Happy to chat more and give my guidance!