All Forum Posts by: Jenn N.

Hi! I have four kids and we house hack! We started doing it before I ever heard of the term "house hacking". It just seemed like a good idea to to reduce expenses. Here is our story in brief. We used to live in southern CA. We almost turned our house (back in 2002) into a two unit by putting up a door separating the addition. (It was a decent sized for the area 1750 square foot ranch house.) The rental would have been a small one bed one bath unit and we would have had a 2 bed one bath unit for our family. The way the house was built it would have worked very well. We only had 2 kids at the time. However we bought an RV and decided to live it in full time for a year that turned into 4 years bc it was such a fun lifestyle! It also taught us we don't need as much space as we think we do. :-) Our family grew on the road to 4 plus 3 pets!!! We all lived in less than 400 square feet and LOVED it! When we settled down we had fallen in love with living with less and simplicity. So to keep expenses down, we bought a duplex in a fantastic neighborhood. (We did get lucky and we were patient.) Each side was 3 bed 2 bath...a little over 2000 square. It felt HUGE to us after 4 years in the RV. We rented the other side out and that almost paid the mortgage (it would fully cover it now since rents have gone up). Our next move was a SFH with a walk-out basement. We have 4 beds and 3 baths upstairs. We are in the process of converting the basement to a 2 bedroom unit that we will use for a combo of short and corporate rentals. It's the perfect set up for us. The basement unit should cover the mortgage plus some and we get to live in a fabulous neighborhood with amazing views. It's a little work managing it but it allows me to homeschool the kids. I consider it my part time job. I'm so incredibly grateful! Again we were patient while looking for the perfect property. Our criteria for this one was: walk out basement, easy access to the unit through a separate unit, no HOA, 4 bedrooms for us, and the ability to FULLY separate it from our place since we have kids and pets. Another idea would be to buy a 4-plex. I've seen many with 2 units on top and 2 on bottom each 2 bed 1 bath. In most of these it wouldn't be too difficult to turn the top floor into one single unit and keep the bottom two units as is. My advice is to be patient, look creatively at each property (also know your local laws but that's a duh!). So many houses have the potential to be "house hacked" with a little creativity and compromise. Garage apartments, carriage houses, walk out basements, sprawling ranch houses...so many possibilities. Good luck! It totally can be done with a large family! :-)

We’ve been house hacking in the Springs since 2015. When we bought our duplex I didn’t even know “house hacking” was a thing. It just seemed like it was an easy way to live for “free”. The day before we made an offer on the duplex we almost put an offer on a horse property (I loooove horses) but had just come off the road after traveling full time in an RV for four years and wanted to keep our life as simple as possible. (Horses are a lot of work!) House hacking has helped us maintain that goal by keeping our expenses down. I love it! I should note...we even have four kids. So many people say it’s not possible with a family. That said I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t have a property with a separate entrance and private spaces.

I was talking to someone at the last meeting. (The one before the actual last one where they weren't supposed to discuss STRs. :-/) I was told that the city legally has to grandfather existing permits? I don't know how true this is though. I'm sure you've seen all the emails from Morgan where she reassures us that we will be grandfathered. Interesting that you mention affordable housing. This does not seem to be our city's main concern. That rarely comes up at meetings...it's always about "preserving neighborhoods". I could/can understand concern about rising housing costs. (I still disagree with government intervention. ;-)) However, I don't sympathize with people who are afraid of "transients" (their words not mine). These "transients" are here enjoying our city with their friends and families and spending money. STRs makes vacationing here for many a reality. Large families who couldn't afford multiple hotel rooms can afford an STR and have more room in their budgets to spend at local businesses. STRs also provide a decent income for families like mine who contribute to the economy here. We invested thousands of dollars into our STRs based on what we were told last year. I am able to be a SAHM bc of our STR. I'm trying to keep faith in our city council but after watching the last meeting online it's hard. Last year's regulations were reasonable. If I'm understanding correctly (someone from COSSTRA pointed this out at last meeting) there are less STRs this year than last...so why the sudden new potential regulations? Was this the plan all along? Did they intend to slowing chip away at our rights each year? I'm planning on being at the meeting on the 26th as well as writing the council members. Jill Gaebler and Andres Pico are the only ones who I will support in the future. The other ones are fear based and instead of working with the sharing economy trying to find win-win solutions it seems they want to work against it or shut it out completely. That's my two cents. :-)

I live in the Springs. We lived full time in an RV for four years traveling the country before settling here. My husband is a web designer so we could live anywhere and chose here if that tells you anything. I'm not sure what crime rate you are talking about. I'd like to see data to back that up. I find the city very safe even "bad" areas aren't that bad IMHO. Alas, I have lived in LA and Indianapolis where there really are "bad" neighborhoods so perhaps my perspective is skewed. I own a couple of multi family down here. One is is a great neighborhood and the other not so much. We actually lived in one side of the duplex for 3 years before buying SFH. Our SFM has a walkout basement that we are in the process of converting to a STR. What I love about the Springs: proximity to mountains, not too much traffic, cool little pockets of town (downtown, Old Colorado City, Manitou Springs), tons of hiking even in the city, lots of open spaces, and lots of things to do with kids. The restaurant scene is getting better all the time too. It's also not to far from Denver (love that city too) for "big city" activities. Good luck!

I own a 4-plex in the Springs. That's about what I pay for water/gas/trash. My units are between 950-1000 per month (rent includes utilities). One is lower bc it hasn’t been updated. We completely updated all the units except one bc tenant was already in there. I’ve owned it for 3 years and we’ve had a few problems but nothing major. I haven’t heard about meth being a major problem down here. It’s not the Midwest (I’m from Indianapolis area originally.) for sure. I screen tenants heavily and talk to them (ask a lot of questions) a lot to get a sense of who they are. For the most part they are good tenants. Sometimes rent is late but they always catch up. I’ve not had a lot of turnover. The market is somewhat tight here so that helps. People talk about what a “bad” area it is and I have to chuckle a little bit. I also used to live in LA so I know what bad areas are...the worst areas in the Springs are nothing compared to LA or Indianapolis. I’ve worked over there by myself and wasn’t scared. Unfortunately the property owner across the street doesn’t maintain his property at all but we knew that. We got a good deal and knew what we were getting into. I’d like to get another 4-plex myself But the cost has gone up so much in the last 3 years. Good luck!

I own a handyof properties in COS. It’s a tight market right now. People will give you areas to avoid but personally I’ve not been in any area that I find “bad”. Mind you I grew up in Indianapolis and spent a significant amount of time in Los Angeles so my idea of “bad” May be different. One of my properties is in a “bad” part of town and it cash flows the best. It’s a little more work but not that much more work. We have good hard working tenants who I have a lot of respect for.

@Ryan Riches I've gone to a few. I'd like to go to more but with four kids, a business, multiple rentals to manage I, unfortunately, don't make it to many. I hope your friend finds what he's looking for! Maybe we'll cross paths at a meet up one day. :-)

Hi Ryan! My husband and I also live in COS. We house hacked (before I knew there was a term for doing such a thing) our first property here, a duplex. It was a great decision for us. We recently moved and plan to house hack our new house as well. It's a large SF that we are turning the walkout basement into at STR. I LOVE LOVE LOVE house hacking. It has worked wonderfully for our family of 6. It's so nice to have the (mortgage) covered. I think the hardest part is finding a property that will work. We got really lucky with our first property and found a huge (for us) duplex in a wonderful neighborhood. We have handful of properties here but are starting to think about going out of state as well because it cost so much to get into a property. Good luck! It sounds like you and your wife are on the same path my husband and I are! :-)

My husband and I have been talking about doing this forever! I totally think Colorado could support it. We were full time RVers for four years and we've owned a few vintage campers. Currently we are renovating an Airstream. About the winter...we stayed four months during the winter in Breckenridge in our rig and didn’t freeze  to death. There are lots of things you have to do to winterproof trailers but it’s not that difficult especially in lower elevations where it doesn’t get as cold. Google El Cosmico. We went there is 2011 and it was super cool! One of my worries would be the hail in Colorado. It could destroy a fleet of vintage RVs in minutes.

I went to the meeting last night at the library. Nearly every seat was taken and most of them by STR owners or managers. I felt like the city was listening. There had been a 7 day rule that was going to limit rentals to one reservation every seven days and she (assistant director of planning) confirmed it had been removed from the proposal. They did explain that the one STR per "building or property" means one per parcel and followed with examples: A multifamily, a house with a cottage, or a house with an in-law quarters will only be allowed 1 STR. There was a good amount of of discussion regarding this. Personally speaking, I'm not super happy about that limitation but I can work with it. We moved out of CA so we would have less regulation and planned to turn the other side of our duplex into a STR but if this passes as it is written we won't be able to get a permit for it. We didn't originally buy it for a STR and the numbers work just fine without it so it's not that big of a deal...just a little miffed about property rights but on the other hand I can see the other side. I could see how this ordinance could hurt people who bought properties based on Airbnb numbers. She urged everyone to come to the City Council hearing next Thursday the 21st. It starts at 8:30 but they likely wouldn't get around to this ordinance until 10-ish. The one this morning  is just a discussion and owners won't be allowed to speak up.

I'm mostly bummed because I was hoping for a 1000% return on that tent in my garage.  ;-)