All Forum Posts by: Jordan Malara

@Kelsey VanSleen great to see you on here and you’re welcome! Glad that was at least a little helpful!

@Dan McDermott looking forward to it!

@Kelley Louden Everyone is welcome, including newbies! The more, the merrier and the greater the community!

@Kelley Louden We have been so happy we chose to invest locally and have benefitted immensely. Over the years we have found creative ways to find properties that we can add value to through renovations and adding units. We have also found ways despite the high prices to cash flow, primarily through furnished rentals and house hacking. So I would recommend starting locally if you have the ability to. 

I do not expect prices to come down significantly, if at all, in the near term for many reasons including the military presence in the area, but ultimately it comes down to the shortage in supply of properties. It would be hard for this to change in the current market as many do not want to sell and take on a higher interest rate. On the flip side, I think even with the high interest rates there are opportunities to find deals and continue to invest. My wife and I have slowed down some, but have not stopped because we continue to find deals that still make sense.

@Jason Hawkins Sounds like the best option could be to sell your current primary and keep the Rental based on the following factors:

- Lower Interest Rate

- Great Cash Flow

- Existing ability to tap into equity (which you may have an opportunity to request an increase)

- Established rental history

- On the sale of the rental you may have to pay taxes, but on the sale of the primary you may not have to

I might be missing some advantages...

@Kelley Louden I'm in CO Springs as well! My wife and I have been investing in the area for about 5 years now. When I was first starting out I also looked into investing through with Roofstock, but as I spoke to more people I found that it wasn't a good match for my real estate goals. It provides more of a basic return like a stock would. However, it doesn't provide much of an experience to learn from or many of the best benefits of real estate - Long-term fixed rate debt, appreciation, principal pay down, tax benefits, etc. 

As far as the best way to go for your first purchase, I think that depends on your goals. Many of the easiest and cheapest ways involve purchasing a property as a primary and converting it to a rental after living in it for a year and/or house hacking, but these strategies aren't always the best fit for everyones situation. The key is to find what works for you and then do it.

Best of luck as you get started and if there is anything I can help with, please let me know! You got this!

@Jason Hawkins As with all things real estate, any advice I would give would be based on what your goals are. Without knowing that I will simply provide some of my thoughts/questions for your consideration. Before selling your rental property I would first ask what your current interest rate is on that property and also how that property is or isn't contributing to your goals? Debt is far more expensive than it used to be and one of the greatest parts of real estate is maintaining long-term fixed rate debt, so I would think carefully before trading a 4% for an 8%. You're also making $1700/month (not including expenses) on that property which would be hard to find right now in any high appreciation market like CO with its high prices and high interest rates. But if your goal is cash flow and not appreciation then maybe selling and buying in a market that is opposite of CO is what makes the most sense. Again, it just comes back to your goals. 

I personally don't love the idea of trading an asset (your rental) for a new primary (a liability), but I'm married as well and can understand that sometimes you may not have much of a choice. But your rental is making money and renting your current primary would likely not net you as much cash flow, so what if you just sell your primary and take the money from that to buy your next primary. If you lived in it for 2 of the last 5 years, then you don't have to pay taxes on the sale.

If after all this consideration you find you do want to sell your rental, I would highly recommend doing so through a 1031 Exchange so that you can defer the taxes on the sale.

That's just my two cents, hope that helps. If you every need any help looking at deals in Colorado Springs, let me know. I'd be happy to help you out or just point you in the right direction!

@Dan McDermott welcome to CO Springs! My wife and I have been house hacking in the area for about 5 years now and I truly think it is one of the best ways to get started. Location wise, it really depends on your overall strategy and comfort level, but overall I think there are 3 great areas to house hacking in CO Springs - central downtown, Old Colorado City, and Ivywild. All 3 areas have homes zones for multi-family (AKA you can convert a SFH into more units) which make them great for house hacking. Additionally each of these areas is growing and in the path of progress. Of theses areas mentioned, Ivywild is the area that is south of downtown like you mentioned, and is pretty safe. My first house hack was in this area. However, if you go 5-10 min further south you would hit B Street, a notorious street that wouldn't be as safe. This is where an agent more familiar with the downtown area can help you out because there are similar cases in other parts of the Springs as well. There are other places that you can house hack that would feel more suburban, but due to zoning you would need to get a little more creative with the approach.

Hope that helps a little bit! It’s hard to wrap up each area in a short message so feel free to reach out if you have more specific questions. I specialize in helping people invest and house hack in the area and would be happy to assist you in any way possible. Best of luck!

@Shirley Kocho I think it's hard to provide advice without knowing your full situation and more specifically your goals financially and in real estate. Without knowing what you want to accomplish it's hard to say if investing in CO or any state is right for you since each state and investing strategy offers different benefits and risks. For me, building long-term, multigenerational wealth is the goal while acquiring modest cash flow over the next 5 years to ensure that basic things like maintenance and CapEx are taken care of. Colorado, and more specifically Colorado Springs, provides me these investment opportunities, which is why I choose to invest there and it helps that I am also local so I know the area very well.

If it is your desire to invest within CO and prices are holding you back then I would look at secondary and tertiary markets such as CO Springs and Pueblo, but keep in mind that CO in general is a growth/appreciation market, not a cash flow market for the most part. Outside of being an active investor in the area, I am also an investor-focused agent so let me know if you need any help or would like to chat more in depth.

Good luck getting started! The first deal is often times the toughest, but leverage the BP community and you will be successful!

Next military real estate meetup in Colorado Springs is this Wednesday! We will have some drinks for everyone to enjoy during the meetup. Should be a great time of networking and discussion. Hope to see some of the BP community there!

@Joshua Lurz I would say it depends on how much cash you have available to you. If you have enough capital to do the renovations, then try to find a partner to bring the down payment for a DSCR loan.

Seller financing would be a great option if the seller is open to it. You could propose a short term seller financing note where there could be balloon payment to ensure the seller gets his money back sooner if he doesn't want to provide long term seller financing.