All Forum Posts by: Greg Weik

Hey @Justin Sherman, my vote (and how I vote with my own money) is to buy a SFR and put 20% down.

Your payment will be around $3100-$3200. 

Buy a SFR in Littleton (I see one that's a 4/3/1978 sq ft for $525k) and rent it for $3500/month.

Why I suggest this over the up/down duplex you're considering or house hacks as being suggested:

-Better quality tenants.  When you've been doing this as long as I have, you realize the value of quality tenants.  It may not show up on a spreadsheet but it's one of the most significant factors of owning rental property (and I rarely see it mentioned.) 

-One set of systems and appliances to worry about instead of multiples.  Those repairs and replacements add up fast. 

-Stability. SFR tenants stay year after year. I've noticed newer investors underestimate the cost of a vacancy every year (turnover costs, vacancy costs, etc.)

-Easier appraisals if you want to take out a HELOC. A single lease, showing stability on a SFR is going to make a HELOC a rubber-stamp for your bank if you ever want one.

-Exit strategy. Also underestimated by new investors. If you buy any flavor of multi-family, you'll have a hell of a time getting out. The only buyers are... yep, investors. A SFR on the other hand, now you have a huge demographic of buyer and you can push top-of-market pricing and the asset is far more liquid than anything with >1 door associated.

If you have the 20% to put down, and can qualify for the loan, this is the smart move.  It's what I've done over the last 10 years and while it has not been easy to put 20% (and in some cases 25%) down on every rental, it's absolutely worth it if you consider the above points and the huge increase in net worth. 

People who can invest in SFRs, invest in SFRs. 

100%. SFR is the gold standard of building wealth, especially if you value your time.

Hey @Olivia G Gonzalez I'm not sure the current business (and specifically real estate) situation lends itself to any specific category. 

In my corner of the world, I interact with clients who own rental properties going up and down the I-25 corridor.  It's business as usual.  

Houses are renting, all my tenants (in nearly 1,000 doors) have paid rent in March, and some of my current clients are looking at adding more doors to their portfolio to have us manage. 

Given this (admittedly anecdotal) snapshot of a few thousand people, and how they are going through life at the moment through the lens of money (as in, do they have it and how to they spend it), it does not seem we are in a recession or a trough.  To use your categories, macroeconomically speaking, we are either enjoying business-cycle expansion or a peak at the moment. 

Of course, this could all change almost overnight.  The impact of tariffs, the impact of massive layoffs, and the impact of stock market uncertainty all have not hit Main Street yet.  These things all tend to have a delayed effect, but I suspect as John Snow would say, "Winter is coming." 

My crystal ball suggests we will hit a deep recession within the next 6 months as all these factors coalesce.  Inevitably, there will be a significant impact on goods and services across the economy. 

Variable: AI could kill us all in the same timeframe. 

Hope I'm wrong! :) 

We've managed a number of SFRs with ADUs and my takeaway is that landlords who want to either live in or rent out the ADU separately dramatically underestimate the level of deterrent it is to have a stranger living in the backyard. Particularly at the price point the landlord typically needs/wants/expects for the SFR; most tenants who qualify won't readily accept a stranger in the backyard.

Yes, I do mean the best rental properties require the most capital.  SFRs are the best rental investment vehicle in my experience when evaluated in terms of appreciation (which is where wealth-building occurs), stability, and liquidity.  

Low barrier-to-entry properties suffer from three main issues:

1) They are far (FAR) less liquid.  Buyers down the road are also going to be investors looking for a deal...

2) They won't appreciate as well as a standard single-family residence (SFR) in a desirable area.

3) Tenants will be a constant source of stress and, frankly, a PITA to deal with. 

There are no free lunches. I'm not sure what "high income" means exactly, but if you can swing it, you should be buying SFRs in Centennial, Littleton, Englewood or nicer parts of Aurora.  You will need to put a lot of cash down to make the numbers work, but that's life in 2025.  It's worth it.  

Every SFR I've purchased, I felt like I overpaid at the time. Now, with 5 SFR rentals under my belt (all bought in the last 10 years) I get to enjoy stability, nearly zero turnover, relatively low operating costs, steady appreciation.

FWIW, I see a lot of posts here from people advocating strategies I flat-out see fail on a daily basis.  Most people here have their own andecdotes as their experience, and those anecdotes of course are going to be limited. The nice thing about owning a PMC for the last 20 years is that I've had a front-row seat to thousands of clients and their strategies, from house hack, to multi-family, to S8, to condos to SFRs.  I see what works and what doesn't.  

Unfortunately, what works the best also requires the most capital - by far.  

Best of luck. 

@Antonio De Llamas 

In industrial/commercial, make sure you advertise on loopnet.com.  This is the main site for tenants looking at office or industrial spaces. 

Make sure you have good pictures and video walkthrough video tours.  Doesn't need to be anything fancy, the idea here is to save clients from a wasted in-person tour for both you and the prospective tenant.  

Be sure to highlight positives that might not be apparent in photos: upgraded HVAC, common amenities, if it's south-facing (so snow will melt quickly) and general turnaround times if you work with contractors who can help on a build out.   

Hey @Adele Tegger, I wish you the best of luck with your goals!

Fort Collins is a tough market to park $60k and make it really work for you.  

Underwriting guidelines are typically 20% down (minimum) and showing cash reserves of 6 months for all your properties.  

Assuming you also have the cash reserves, $60k is 20% on a $300k property.  That doesn't get you much in Ft. Collins, especially with current interest rates.  Your only real hope to cashflow would be to get a small condo or townhome and VRBO/AirBnB it. 

This would be the cashflow play, but those units do not tend to appreciate at a high rate vs. a SFR, as I suspect you are aware.

You honestly might be better served investing the $60k outside of real estate, unless you find a really strong deal.  I also agree with what @Jacob St. Martin said about flips as a way to turn $60k into $120k faster (but with far greater risk.) 

@Dominic Gilbert Mini splits all the way. 

Even high-end new construction homes are built with mini-splits vs. HVAC these days.  I think this is what the market is moving towards, for many reasons.   

Anyone who has been around and dealt with the inefficiencies and costs of traditional HVAC would easily prefer mini-splits.  

I'm not sure any price point would see an impact (ROI) from HVAC vs. mini-split, but $800k is not particularly high in the Denver area so I would pocket that $10k or so and move forward on mini splits.

The answer will depend on state law as @Greg M. alluded to but also what your lease says. 

Seems to me proper notice was not given and no refund is owed. 

Rent is always pre-paid, not paid in arrears.  If the tenant had possession on the 1st, they owe rent for the month, regardless of when they decided to move out. 

The tenant having paid full January rent is evidence they intended to occupy for the month of January.  That they changed their mind on the 6th and decided to move out 10 days later is not your problem. You were not afforded a reasonable (in most states, 30 days) amount of notice to re-market your property. 

A wrinkle in this story, in terms of what is owed, would of course be if you re-rented the property on the 17th, but I would suspect that's not the case.  If you did, you cannot collect double rent. 

Hey @Melissa D., best of luck as you start out with investing. 

I'm a local investor and I've owned rental properties in Florida as well as Colorado.  Now that I've been investing in rental properties for 20 years (and running a local PMC), I have learned a thing or two. 

Re: your questions - 

1. If you're local to the Denver area, what is your favorite networking group/meetup and why? Are there any you would avoid?  

--Unpopular opinion on BP, but I would skip the networking in your situation. I've experienced enough of this to know that the people who have real credibility don't usually go to these.  There are exceptions, but generally I would say this is a waste of your time.  

2. If you have purchased an out of state investment property, what were your biggest lessons learned and were there any surprises during the process? (I'm currently reading David Green's Long-Distance Real Estate Investing book.)  

--You can get a "great deal" buying property in Alabama, or Oklahoma... I guess?  But you will never see the appreciation that truly builds wealth, because those low-barrier-to-entry properties will stay flat on the metric that matters: appreciation. 

There are SOME exceptions to the extremes of Colorado and Alabama.  Probably Idaho.  If you do your research, an out-of-state investment can work, but you need to know exactly how to hire a PMC (most get this part wrong) and you need to ask a vetted PMC what they would buy in the area and what it will rent for.  Don't buy and then hire a PMC, find the PMC first.  They know everything about the local market that you want to know. 

Yes it's very expensive to buy in Colorado, and that's not changing anytime soon. People want to live here, demand will remain high, and appreciation is how you build wealth (not cashflow.)  Building wealth in real estate is a long game, there are no shortcuts. 

3. What is your favorite real estate resource (i.e., book, podcast/episode, tool, etc.)?  

--Again, unpopular BP opinion, but books are written to sell, podcasts are made to generate subscribers, etc etc.  There is knowledge to be found in these media forms, but knowledge isn't their first motivator.  

If I start a property management podcast or YouTube channel tomorrow, it will be to make money not to educate you.  I will provide useful information along the way, but getting subscribers is the number one goal, and to that end, most of the talking heads are going to make investing sound FAR more sexy and lucrative than it really is.  

The money is in selling a dream, not selling a map. 

Final bit of advice: if you can, steer clear of house hacking and multi-unit.  I could write an essay on why, but as someone who manages nearly 1,000 doors up and down the I-25 corridor, I can tell you these are not the investment vehicles I recommend to my clients and they are not what I personally would ever own.