All Forum Posts by: Erwin Groenendijk

Hi @Ali Nurmohamed, nice to be reading your post and seeing that at 18 years old you are already interested in real estate. For me that started way later and the earlier you start, the better.

So, let me be quick: yes, you can start with 5k. You could even start with 0 if you know what you are doing. We are for example investing in real estate with €0 of ourselves. The thing is that it looks like you are also missing some experience out in the field. You said that you learned a lot from real estate the last year, so my advice would be the following for your next step: make sure to connect with a more experienced investor and become an intern to do the jobs that he/she doesn't want to do, or apply for a position in a real estate agency in where you are from. 

There you will learn the game and gain experience from the side. Keep saving up your money for the moment and invest perhaps together with a more experienced investor in the beginning. 

Start small as a tryout and when it picks up (2 or more properties) make sure to structure your team well as coliving can be management intensive.

Important teams to start with: customer service, maintenance, cleaning, and room rental. Second phase would be marketing, community, acquisitions or leasings for new projects, etc. 

The same applies to having a good PMS software that can handle the growth and work needed.

Hi all, 

As we have been purchasing and managing multiple properties in Barcelona and Valencia for the last few years, we have been applying different rental strategies. For example, for us the room rental/coliving strategy is working well in Barcelona where we don't become the owner of an apartment but rent it and sub-rent it per room after. In Valencia, the room rental & tourist rental strategies are working well because there the property prices are not that high yet so investors can purchase the properties easier themselves. 

What are some other strategies in other parts of Spain that are working well?

Lease lengths are about 6 months in general and we try to manage the apartments ourselves to maintain the quality and the coliving experience we are after. For conflict resolutions, we are working intensively with the customer service team and we will be hiring a community manager who is constantly managing the more complex situations. 

Curious to hear how you guys have been dealing with this. 

Not talking about the social impact coliving can have with creating living spaces for many people that normally would not be able to afford to live in these locations 

Guys, the thing is that room rental is an old concept that is known as something students always did and managed themselves with all the challenges that bring. 

Yes, it is more management intensive. Also right on higher turn-overs, the drama of more people living together, and yes they also wear down furniture faster than a normal family would do that buys their furniture themselves. 

The thing is that coliving is based on the room rental strategy and yet at the same time something completely different management-wise. If you want to manage coliving spaces in the right way it is important to set up a proper structure that is including customer service, maintenance, cleaning, and community management (and more). Including weekly cleaning for example which is not only for cleaning purposes but also for maintaining the quality of the apartment with direct communication with the maintenance and customer service team. The margins coliving brings should be invested in these teams to maintain control.

The entry barrier to start a coliving space is low, the next steps to make it a steady, bigger thing is the tricky part.

We own a coliving business in Barcelona (Spain) with over 300 rooms (aiming at 1000 rooms in the upcoming three years) and had our fair share of **** coming at us in the last two years 😉 

And using this threat to create leads 😉

Hi @Karl Sanft, with BTL we are referring to a buy-to-let property (property to rent out vs. to live in yourself or a combination of the two). 

There are many regions where your criteria could fit, just have in mind the differences in regulations per region to request a tourist license when the property still doesn't have it. In Barcelona where we live it is for example not possible anymore to request it.

@Gerardo Gallardo, we have been talking in detail about the part on the taxes in another forum. Let me know if you need any more information after that. Regarding the property management companies, it all depends on where you decide to reside. We are active ourselves with these services in Valencia. 

Hi @Andres Martinez, where exactly are you based in Spain? We are active in the Barcelona/Valencia region and hosting a meetup there with a lot of interesting individuals. If you are able, feel free to come over