All Forum Posts by: Ben Rhodin

Hey @Dillon Kiley! Welcome to the business! I would say the biggest thing that will get your career jump-started is possibly thinking about joining up with a well-established team. I attribute almost everything I learned and getting my business off the ground to joining up with the FI Team early on. It helps with providing a boatload of knowledge, and support for you as a new agent, and you get the established namesake to get you traction and leads. While as a solo agent you may be struggling to get your first deal done within the first 6 months, you could be flying along with multiple deals if on a team. But make sure to find a team that supports you, and who you are as an agent.

Other than that, the best advice I can provide is to get your name out there! Post as much as you can here on BP and other places, attend meetups, and make sure everyone you meet and know knows that you are an agent that works with investors. Just provide value where you can and people will start recognizing you and come to you for help.

Hey @Ryan Kelley! Not a KW agent, but located in Boulder (for now) and more than happy to connect. Always happy to meet other agents around town!

HI @Andrew Dincola! You are a ways ahead of being a newbie I would say. Though you may be a newbie in property count, you definitely have a defined vision and goal that you want to achieve! This is the #1 thing I suggest anyone tackle before getting into investing. Now it is just figuring out how to best achieve this goal of $3k a month for you.

I agree with what David said above me, but I believe you can get to the goal that you have in mind sooner, and easier than you believe. If FI is your goal, and you want to achieve this ASAP, I would suggest you continue house hacking here in Denver each and every year. If you are not worried about loosing some comfort, I would suggest sticking to rent by the room, and really supercharge your FI.

If you qualify for a traditional mortgage, and you are able to acquire a 5-6 bedroom home here in the Denver area for between 450-500k (with the current prices of homes) then by renting out the other 4-5 rooms that you and the GF don't  occupy, you will be able to live for free, and producing cashflow. An average room in Denver goes for about $700 a month (some for more) so if you rent 4-5 you'll be looking at around 2800-3500 a month in rental income (while you live there, adding 700 when you move out). It is not unheard of for my clients to be making $1000 on top of their mortgage while they occupy the home, and are living for free. So with that you would just need to buy one of these properties every year for the next 3 years and you'll hit your goal. 

But remember, you are also living for free, and can accelerate your savings rate. So the way I suggest people strategize is after they get into their first house hack, begin saving for the next DP (about 25k for an average home here), then when you have that saved the rest of the year you can put the extra savings towards other investments like out of state. If you can purchase 1 house hack, and 1 out of state  investment each year that would get you to your goal in no time (relatively speaking). 

I would agree that you should keep your current place, if its able to cashflow as a rental, and you may be able to pull out the equity in other ways. But if you need to sell off that property in order to get into a more optimized property (whether because you can't qualify or whatever the reason), then I would say go for it. I would also say that while the small multifamily is the traditional way to go for a house hack, it is not the best way here in Denver. Our small multifamily properties tend to be old, torn, and over priced, there are other ways to achieve the multifamily feel of a house hack, without paying that high price tag. Say renting out a finished basement unit in a single-family.

Finally, as I realize I've been ranting for a while now. While the BRRRR strategy is great, and everyone wants to utilize it, it does come with the some drawbacks. The biggest one you already pointed out... If you are BRRRing then you sacrifice cashflow in order to pull your money back out, so you need more properties in order to achieve the same amount of cashflow. The other issue is that BRRRR is usually more suited for lower price areas, like the mid west, as adding 20% in value is much easier on a 50k property, than it is on a 500k property. So unless you get really good at finding off market properties here in Denver, a full BRRRR is probably going to be tough. But if you change your mindset, and are up for sacrificing some short term comfort for long term gain you can very quickly achieve your goal without having to acquire 20 properties.

There are also multitudes of other house hack strategies that work well here, and I'm more than happy to help you find the best pass to your goal!

Hey @Ronald Morris! Congratulations on the degree. It is never a bad thing to invest in yourself, you will find out that having a solid W2 job will supercharge your investing more than you know.

You won't be hard pressed to find numerous great people to connect with out here, I would suggest getting out to some meetups. The FI team hosts monthly ones that are great for new and experienced investors. 

You said that you want to get 2 properties in 2022, but what kind of investments are you looking at? Are you looking to get 2 investment properties, or a house hack and an investment. Really getting a grip for your strategy and what you need to accomplish it is going to be your biggest hurdle. I would work on nailing that down here by the end of the year, so that you are set to go. The Denver market works with a lot of strategies, and you'll need to figure out what your goals are in order to be successful. Investing for long term is going to be very different than wanting early FI. 

If maximizing your growth and getting yourself there as quickly as possible I would suggest house hacking your first property. Not only is it less capital out of your pocket, its also a great way to get your feet wet, and minimize your living costs. Then you'll have more capital and less risk moving into another investment property.

Happy to connect and chat strategy, it's always good to get a second opinion to understand your goals and how to best get you there. I will also put it out there that you shouldn't limit yourself to the belief that you need to wait until 2022 to get started, while you might have the higher income, you'd be surprised what you might be able to get into as a house hack earlier on. Then you might be able to have 3 properties by the end of 2022. Always think bigger than what you think is attainable.

Hey @Dave Michael! While I do agree with @Jeremy Gaal that Colorado springs still has plenty of room to grow, and most of Colorado in that fact, I believe that their are some factors to take into account in your decision. While I usually lean on keeping properties, the biggest factor that I would weigh is the chance that the 1031 will be taken away in the coming few years. This is on a lot of investors minds this year, and I know a lot of them are taking advantage of it while it is still secured. So if your goal is to begin to scale up, I might think about selling your single families, since you are able to take advantage of the 1031. I would also factor in the current state of our market, and that it is beginning to slow down, so now might be a good time to take advantage of that and hopefully cash in for more than you'd expect in a normal market.

Just my thoughts, and I think with your end goal in mind its more beneficial to off load the single families and begin your scale up to bigger properties. Depending on the outcome, you may be able to look into a multifamily here in the Colorado are as well. Though we have the same issues with our multifamily being older, and in need of work.

@Damian Cummings, the most popular website for these medium-term rentals is FurnishedFinder, or Airbnb still.

Hey @Damian Cummings! 

What is your reasoning behind wanting to stick with STR? The only reason I ask is that as you've heard from others the STR market is a bit of an uncertain maneuver and does bottleneck (most times) into a single strategy. I don't want to discourage you from doing it, and it can be a lucrative endeavor, but I would make sure the properties you do look at will work in other ways, in case things change with regulations.

The step down from STR that I personally love is medium-term, or executive rentals. The typical one is renting to travel nurses, you still get a premium on rent, and you avoid STR regulations as they are longer than 30 days. So you aren't pigeonholed into what properties you can buy, as you open up townhomes and condos as the HOAs won't care. Also opens up locations, as you don't have to worry about the city ordinances.

If you want to maximize your earning potential and lessen your COL when you move out here, I would also suggest looking for single-family residences with a separate living space, or mother in law suite that you could Airbnb, or medium-term rent while you occupy. Then when you move out you can rent both areas and increase your cash flow.

STR can be a great strategy here in the Denver area, but over the last years it's getting tougher and tougher, so it is just best practice to make sure that you have a backup, and a backup for your backup in case things change.

Hi @Aaron Vinnik! Welcome to the community, you will find no shortage of people to connect with on here! I would push you to figure out exactly it is that you are looking for, that will help you connect with the right people. Being more specific and letting people know what it is that you can offer them will help bring them to you. 

I would be happy to discuss market trends out here, and can dig into many of the investor strategies that me and my clients use to invest out here. Are you looking to house hack, or do a traditional investment property. I would push you to begin your journey in a house hack, as it is investing with training wheels and will help propel you in the right direction without a lot of risk. Along with a multitude of other benefits, that I think any investor will agree outnumber the benefits of a traditional investment. 

But the most important thing to do is solidify your goals, needs, and capabilities as this will steer what strategies will fit best for you. There is no one size fits all strategy, especially here in Denver, so figuring out what direction works for you should be your number one priority. Happy to help with this if you want some guidance!

Hey @Mathew Fuller! I would push you to keep nailing down exactly what it is that you want to do. It will help you in the long run when you focus on one course and stick to it. Otherwise, you will continue to bob around. 

We are hosting our monthly House hackers meetup this Wednesday the 16th in Longmont, which can be a good resource to network. I am always happy to discuss possible partnerships and help you get that plan nailed down!

Hi @Kailey Wilderman! Welcome to BP and I honestly love your why! Having my own rescue pup I can relate to wanting to help them. I would keep that at the forefront and push hard to get yourself there!

You've already received some great advice here, and I would definitely push you towards the HELOC route, and make sure that you get it before you move out. As you get the best rates being an owner occupant. After you get that going you'll be able to use that to further your investments, either for the downpayment to a new primary, or an investment property.

If you really want to kickstart your investing I'd suggest keeping your condo as a rental, and purchasing a new property as a househack. This will get you a cash flowing rental, and lower your living expense, giving you the freedom to enjoy what you do, and help those Pups!