All Forum Posts by: Eliza Sparks

Thanks for sharing! Our large Airbnb in the southwest mountains of CO stayed booked out all of last year. We also received feedback about there not being many options to choose from that fits a large sized group (ours sleeps 10), which allowed us to price competitively. 

Thanks for sharing! I'm in the Denver area as well but am always keeping an eye open to other markets that could make sense to invest in. I'm from Iowa originally and have thought about doing it there in the future. 

Here's a link to the Airbnb listing! We only list through Airbnb for now but I know people have had success listing on both Airbnb and VBRO, as well as even creating your own vacation rental website! 

Absolutely @Layla Steinwald!
We bought the house at $505,000 in August 2020, and the value is close to $700,000 now (Pagosa Springs has built some momentum in the last couple years and has low inventory similar to the rest of Colorado). 
In 2021 the home brought in a total of $75,221.97 on Airbnb. We account for about $36,000 in cleaning, maintenance, supplies etc, which brings our total revenue to just under $40,000. We did stay down there ourselves the month of January, and blocked off weekend's here and there for ourselves, including Thanksgiving. We like to spend at least one big holiday down there with family, but you can just about double your nightly rate during big holidays. The tourist mountain towns in Colorado bring in a ton of visitors over the holidays. Hope that helps! 

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

10 person Airbnb rental in mountain town of Pagosa Springs. Close to Wolf Creek Ski area, and home of Pagosa Hot Springs brings lots of visitors during all seasons.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Everyone in Colorado dreams of owning a mountain house, but the market is so competitive in the towns off I-70. We discovered Pagosa Springs in early 2020 and learned they have a very successful tourism and Airbnb market, with reasonably priced homes.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

We had our eye on this house that had been on the market for months, and just lowered in price. We weren't able to get in to the house to view it because it was fully rented out for weeks on Airbnb (a good sign!). We ended up putting in an offer sight unseen, and beat out another interested investor. We were able to negotiate all the furniture to stay with the house.

How did you finance this deal?

Traditional financing with 20% down.

What was the outcome?

We were handed future confirmed Airbnb bookings at the closing table, and were immediately able to have the short term rental business up and running. It's been an extremely successful rental. We were given the cleaner and maintenance resources as well to have people to trust on the ground there, who also knew the house better than we did.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

If ever looking in Pagosa Springs, CO, we'd recommend working with Anita Bowles with Jim Smith Realty. She also runs her own short term rentals in the area and is very plugged in to the community.