All Forum Posts by: Jarrod Deines

@Account Closed - Thanks for the reply. With all of the military bases in the area, I think it makes sense to focus on military rentals, but again if the numbers make sense elsewhere, I would look at that also. I consider myself new to this even though I've owned a rental property in DC for six years. I want to make sure I take my time, get to know Colorado Springs, and invest correctly.

Jarrod

@Norberto Villanueva - Thanks for your reply.  I'm really looking forward to getting settled there. Once we find a place to live and get stabilized, we are going to start looking for an investment property. My wife and I will be at the REIH next week.

@Aaron Moore - Thanks for your reply

Jarrod

Good morning BP,

I'm Jarrod Deines and I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself. I'm not new to the forums, but am new to Colorado Springs. My family and I will be moving to Colorado Springs in the next couple of months and we are very excited about getting involved in Real Estate Investing in the Colorado Springs area. I do own a rowhouse in Washington DC that I have been renting out since 2010, but since we originally purchased this house as a primary residence, I still consider myself very much a beginner investor. I will be transitioning from the Navy in a little over a year, so we are looking at REI to supplement my retirement income.

We are currently working with a realtor to find a primary residence in Colorado Springs using a VA loan, but once we get settled, my wife and I are very interested in expanding our rental property portfolio using a buy and hold strategy. We will be in the Springs next week looking at some properties. We are viewing our yet-to-be purchased primary residence as an investment property, as we are buying the house with the intention of eventually putting it up for rent at some point after the 12 month VA residence requirement is met.

We are very excited to get to Colorado Springs, put down some roots, get involved in Colorado Springs, and just enjoy everything that Colorado has to offer. After 20+ years in the Navy, this will be my final duty station after living in nine other locations around the world over the course of my career.

Thanks,
Jarrod Deines 

@Bill S. Thank you and I do look forward to being able to attend some meetings when I move back to the States.

@Bob Vollmer Where we are going is a bit of a moving target right now, but we are pretty settled on Ft. Collins because I may use some of my GI Bill to attend CSU. There is a very slim chance that I could get to Colorado Springs for my last 12 months, which would be great, but we probably won't stay there much past those 12 months if it does happen. I appreciate your honesty about the Front Range market. That's become painfully apparent over the last year or so that we've really started talking about where to live. Hopefully my plan to purchase a home to live in to get into the market will work. My ability to act fast isn't much of an ability right now, but if I can get the basement of my DC house finished up as a separate apartment, that should really help my property value and I can look at a HELOC to take advantage of the increased equity. My purchasing experience so far has been limited to a VA loan, so I'm trying to get smarter on using the equity in my current home to give me more maneuverability when I'm ready to buy.

I still have some time left to go in the military, but I can't tell you how the prospect of moving to Colorado and starting the next adventure of our lives is.

Thank you for your reply and I'll definitely be in touch.

@Ezinwanne Hawkins

Small world.  I really enjoyed living there. Literally the day I left the first restaurant opened in the neighborhood. My next door neighbor had lived in her house since she was three months old.  Her family moved in there in 1948.  She passed away a few years ago, but it was always interesting talking with her about the neighborhood. I would love to get another house in Bloomingdale, but I'm pretty much priced out of it now.  I was incredibly lucky to get the house when I did.

Thanks for the welcome.

@Ezinwanne Hawkins

My house is in Bloomingdale.

@Mark Nolan

Thanks for the welcome. I couldn't agree more about the site.

Hello BP,

My name is Jarrod and I am currently in the military, living in Guam, but will be retiring in about two years. I count my location as DC, since that is where my property is, though I most likely won’t move back to that area. I hope to use Real Estate Investing to supplement my military retirement. I’ve been lurking on the site for a couple of months, and already have learned a lot, but I know that I’ve just scratched the surface on Real Estate Investing and am eager to learn more.

I own a rental property in Washington D.C. that used to be my residence. I have made a lot of mistakes over the past five years of being a landlord, and will probably make many more, but I have enjoyed the highs and lows of owning a rental property. Just the short amount of time that I have been on BP has opened my eyes on what I have been doing wrong and what I need to change in order to be a better landlord and maximize my cash flow. I was extremely fortunate in stumbling into the purchase of a DC rowhouse in a neighborhood that has exploded in popularity and have benefited from the increased property values that come with that popularity, as well as having mostly fantastic tenants.

My family and I will be moving to Colorado next, so that will be my next investment location. I will most likely try to replicate what I know so far, which is to buy an older home as a residence, renovate it, and eventually rent it out, realizing that not many markets are like DC, which has been very good to me the last few years. Once I can build up more equity in my home(s), then I will look at purchasing more buy and hold properties. One step at a time.

I apologize for not posting a picture on my profile yet. As soon as I’m near a working camera, a picture will be provided.

Thank you for taking the time to read my intro and I look forward to some great interactions on this site.