All Forum Posts by: Dan Guenther

@Gary Neely - welcome to the community! 

Your answer will vary from city to city quite a bit. In general, the main issues that come up with city regs are adding a full kitchen (stove/cook=top), completely separating the units with a wall vs a door, and not having egress windows (big safety/liability hazard). When you put a wall up (not a door) to split your upstairs and downstairs, you are creating two fully separate units and most cities will consider this the same thing as a traditional duplex. 

I'd dig into your local laws a bit more and reach out to other investors and agents in those specific markets to see what they are doing to make deals happen. 

Hey @Cody M Byre - here's a great tool for researching demand in a given market. 

https://www.furnishedfinder.com/stats

The stats page on furnishedfinder.com will let you put in the city and then give you the number of searches or housing requests plus the number of property listing page visits in that are for the last 12 months. 

Denver for example:

Map Searches and Housing Requests for the Denver area (last 12 months): 327,125
Map and Property Listing Page Views for the Denver area (last 12 months): 1,997,673

While this is one of the many steps you should take to analyze an area, it can be a quick way to determine if it's even worth it to continue doing further research. 

Reach out if there is anything I can do to help you out on the journey and good luck to you! 

@Steven Nieves - welcome to the community! 

There are a lot of different factors involved here to consider. I'm not sure where you are interested in investing but here in Denver it looks like this. 

1) Location: What is the demand for STR in the target location? Is it close to frequently visited spots (hospitals, national parks, stadiums, convention centers etc.).

2) STR Regulation: Is it even legal to run as STR in the desired location? Can you run the STR as non-owner occupied aka when you move onto your next house hack can you still run the place as STR. A lot of areas restrict STR to strictly owner occupied properties meaning you have to live there to run it. This is a big factor to consider when thinking long term goals.

3) Property type: Here in Colorado we have a lot of single-family properties that can be easily split into two units making a non-conforming duplex. This is a great way to start house hacking as you can still have some privacy while bringing in income from a separate unit. This will also allow for a low-down payment option to get started (3%-5% down for owner-occupied loans). 

Reach out if you want to dig deeper into all of this!

Hey @Bella Batal - Welcome to the community! I'm very interested in hearing more about this one. I'll message you! 

Hey @Grant Otting, welcome to the community! 

For your situation, I'd try to change your focus away from CoC ROI and focus more on Networth Return On Investment (NWROI). This metric is really helpful when looking at house hacking, especially for your first deal. House hacking and real estate investing in general come with a lot more benefits than just cash flow. With NWROI you take into consideration more than just the return on the cash you invested. These include tax savings, depreciation savings, loan pay down (increasing equity), cash flow, appreciation, and one of the most important for house hackers is the amount you will save yearly by paying reduced or no rent. When you look at this bigger picture I think you'll find that the returns on your first house hack are going to be much greater than what you are currently looking at.

Best of luck to you!

Hey @Jason R. Besanceney!

Congratulations on your recent college graduation and getting ready for your first house hack! House hacking can be a great way to start your real estate journey, especially in an expensive market like California. Here are a few of my thoughts/suggestions.

Sourcing Deals: Consider networking with other investors and real estate professionals in your area. Attend local real estate meetups and events, join online forums, and explore social media groups related to real estate investing. Additionally, you can work closely with your real estate agent to keep an eye on the market and be notified of potential deals.

If you can get good at finding off-market deals, you can use this skill to not only find good deals for yourself but also have the potential for extra income via wholesaling. Popular strategies for finding off-market deals include sending out mailers, driving for dollars (look for beat-up houses and then skip trace the number or door knock), and using sites like Propstream.com to get lists of properties that you can cold call.

Picking Markets: When selecting a market for your next property, look for areas with potential for growth and strong rental demand. Factors to consider include job opportunities, population growth, local amenities, school ratings (if targeting families), crime rates, and overall economic stability. You can gather data from websites like Zillow, Trulia, Redfin, and local government sources.

Making Extra Cash: Since you work long hours, finding additional sources of income might be challenging. If you do have spare time on the weekend though, you might consider some of the strategies I mentioned above for finding off-market deals. If you can find off-market deals you will have no shortage of investors that would be willing to pay you a "finders fee" for a great deal. This can be anywhere from a few $1000 up to $40K+ for a great deal.

Best of luck on your journey, and I hope you find success in your first house hack and future investment endeavors!

Hey there BP community! Just a friendly reminder that our next real estate investor meetup will be this Thursday 7/27/23 @ Oskar Blues Homemade Liquids & Solids, 1555 Hover St, Longmont, CO 80501

Be sure to reach out with any questions you might have and I hope to see some of you there!

Dan 

Hey @Arsh M. !

I don't know many people that make the move out here to Colorado and don't love it! House hacking is a great way to get into an expensive market like Denver, especially with interest rates these days. There are some creative ways that we make deals work here in CO that might be different from Connecticut. 

If you are looking to connect with an investor-friendly realtor I'd love to talk more. I've got a great network of investors, contractors, sub to students, property managers, etc that I'd be happy to provide an introduction to. 

Hey @Kelly Sparks , welcome to the BP community! 

I'm not in Flordia, but I have been running a REI Meetup in Longmont, CO (Northern Colorado) for the past two years now. I'd be happy to talk with you more about getting up and running. Reach out if you want to get on a quick call.

Best of luck! 

@Harita Konjeti

Do you have a lease in place?