All Forum Posts by: Charlsi Kelley

Hello again!

Due to “life” happening, my husband and I need to move to Cleveland to be closer to support my family. Luckily both our jobs are ok with this and cost of living there is So much less than here in Denver- so we hope it will beef up our savings so we can finally get rolling with real estate.

We purchased a condo 1.5 years ago for 360k and comps in our neighborhood are selling for 425-470- so we feel good about the equity position. Our mortgage is 2k so not much room for cash flow if we rent it out- unless we try Airbnb.

The way I see it we have 2 options:

A) Do AirBnB which after running by a mgmt company should yield 2700-4500 per month. Use savings and Heloc to buy a property in CLE to house hack to max savings and make sure to be able to cover Denver mortgage if we have a bad month. Stockpile savings to start investing in more properties.

B) sell the condo to get approx 60-80k cash after RE fees/taxes and use the $ to buy 2 properties in CLE. My concern is cap gains tax since we have owned less than 2 years- also being in North City Park area... I see lots of potential and neighborhood is really turning around so would hate to lose out on even more equity - especially if we are able to cash flow with Airbnb.

What seems like the smartest move that will get us closer to financial freedom?? I really am 50/50 and have read and listened to so many conflicting opinions!

Thank you for taking the time to read this!!

-Charlsi

Hey Lucas! I appreciate that tip, but I am concerned because we will be in another state and I do have a FT job- and a toddler! I have nightmares that a guest will steal the towels and I won't be able to replace them before a booking the next day! I suppose I could look into a linen service but coordinating that with cleaning/maintenance/ etc seems like a lot of headache and room for error. I'd rather break even and have zero time commitment than a $500 profit and do all of that myself. 

@Thomas Cummings we have thought about this but don’t think there’s enough room for cash flow- this was our first home and only put 5% down so mortgage is fairly high. Perhaps an exec/ corporate rental so we could get a higher rate?

@Holly Kurtz thank you for the heads up and so sorry that happened! My job is still based in Denver and I will probably have to come back once a month or so. Also this house was purchased in my husbands name and our new one will probably be in my name - not sure if that matters but I think it could help!

I would love to find a local expert who could help analyze and see what our options are.

Hello!

Any fellow Denverites the LOVE their short term rental management company?

We are relocating in August and since we purchased our home less than 2 years ago, we don’t want to sell so we can avoid cap gains taxes.

I interviewed one company- but was “underwhelmed” with their knowledge of taxes, legality, trends etc.

I would love some recommendations and general insights into Denver short term market- especially legality. This house is currently our primary residence and we may not repurchase right away so I think we should be square??

Thanks Denver!

-Charlsi

@Michael Kiley I currently live in Denver and my husband and I are actually considering moving to Cleveland inAugust so we can start actively investing. I have family there and prices here in Denver leave us very few opportunities. We have some big RE goals and it’s just not feasible here with our high cost of living!

I will actually be in town next week and would love to connect and go over some neighborhoods that work well with BRRRR strategy. Right now I am honing in on S Euclid and Cleveland Heights but would love some local advice from a realtor who knows investing !

@Chris Lopez completion is expected Sept/October so we have some time. I just spoke to our realtor and she said that it might be a bad idea to walk away from it- if we can just live there for a year and sell it we should see a good return. I am so torn! I was looking at more affordable options and there are slim pickins in this market! I don't want to leave money on the table. I am going to spend some time tonight looking at the stuff you sent. 

Voices of reason!! @Jared Bouzek, @Chris Lopez, @John Leavelle, @Matt M. Thank you! My husband and I have been looking to purchase in Denver for a while now, and we have been unable to find anything in our price range....the market here is ridiculous. We do need a place to live and are sick of renting. When we saw this place- how nice it was- for only 360k we jumped on it. Our plan was to live in it for 2 years and sell it. Then I found BP, and we want to try and hold on to it and use it as a rental. Now I see that it is a risky choice considering the low cash-flow, and high-end rental market tapering off. We feel like we would be crazy to simply walk away from it at this point though. I know we will kick ourselves if we back out, and it's on the market for 410k next week. Maybe we will just stick to the original plan and live there for 2 years and sell. 

Good morning! 

Does real estate strategizing keep anyone else up at night!? 

I am going to lay all of my chips out for the world to see here....I need some feedback before taking the leap:

The place we are under contract for: MLS #5377681 (3030 Wilson Ct Unit 3 Denver, CO 80205) A high end town home, 2 bed/2bath, 2 car garage, rooftop deck, Kitchenaid appliances, Mahogany hardwood floors, the works!

We locked in over a year ago at 360k, same unit type sold in jan for 385k and broker says if there are any units left at time of completion, they will list for 410-415k. We literally beat out 90 other people in line waiting to make an offer on our place- so I feel good about that! 

So obviously it is winning in terms of appreciation and equity- however- our concern is cash flow. We think our mortgage will be about 2200 considering we can only afford to put 5%-8% down right now. We feel we could rent it out after 1 year for minimum 2800 per month. It is brand new, and likely won't require any major repairs in the near future, and rental market is strong so I don't foresee any long vacancy stretches.

Another idea I had was utilizing a creative investment strategy to get to that 20% downpayment in order to shrink our mortgage payments for that first year so that we can continue saving as much as we do now with our cheap rent. I was thinking of finding someone to lend us 50k with the understanding that after 1 year, when we cash-out refi- we will pay them back 60k. Is this something that would be attractive to lenders? Is this even legal?

Any advice would be much appreciated! 

-Charlsi

@Chris Lopez Thanks for the advice....I will do my best to steer clear of high priced gurus.  Your site is amazing....I will definitely be checking it frequently! 

-Charlsi