All Forum Posts by: Koren Lavi

Welcome @Edward Segaar. This is the best resource for REI!

Hey Crystal, 

My wife and I have an out of state property in Florida and manage it ourselves. If you used a good investor-friendly realtor to buy your property, they should be able to give you their preferred list of vendors for any issues that may arise. Get good tenants that won’t likely cause issue (background check, credit check, references, pay stubs). If you have a good tenant and get a trusted list of vendors you definitely can get away without a property manager. 

@Tyler Capolungo Nope!

Thats the beauty of the nomad method. You do not need to notify your lender. You will get to keep your low mortgage interest rate on your current property, and will still be able to use the benefits of a primary residence (lower down payment, lower mortgage interest rate) on your next purchase, as long as you have stayed in your current home for 1 year or longer (and there some exceptions to this as well). 

@Meghan Begue

Welcome! This is a great place to start your real estate investing journey. Once you start you won’t ever look back!

Hey @Sara Valentine!

Any single building in which accommodates more than 1 family living separately is considered multi-family. The distinction is that 4 units or less is referred to as residential/small multifamily, and 5+ units is referred to as commercial multifamily.

Here are the CO state guidelines for "Motels, Hotels, And Multi-Family Dwellings": https://www.sos.state.co.us/CCR/GenerateRulePdf.do?ruleVersi...

These are the default guidelines IF there are no other specific requirements by the county, city (it would most likely be from the city). It says for these buildings "alarms shall receive their primary power from the building wiring”. Oddly enough in this document they define multi-family as: 

“ "MULTI-FAMILY" means a structure containing three or more dwelling units or a bed and breakfast dwelling that has six or more guest rooms. “

So tris and quads should be hard-wired.

@Sara Valentine definitely invest in a good/realisting looking turf. Aesthetics won’t be an issue and it will pay dividends in the long run with eliminating landscaping/lawn and water costs. I have a very good and reasonably priced landscaper in the Denver Metro area, I’d be happy to connect you with him if you’d like!

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Hey @Eric Honas, I just want to make the point that be careful listening to others regarding their investment properties/airbnbs. People like to paint a pretty picture about how their investment is going. 

You definitely need more than a 1 month history to determine if the airbnb is successful. You should have an agent with access to AirDNA to get a better idea or income. If your friend recently made 3x his mortgage, but it was a spring/summer month, he could easily struggle to cover the rent in the fall and winter months. 

Also if he is just taking PITI into the equation, he is missing/withholding info about utility costs, stocking/supply costs, cleaning costs, etc.

Definitely be VERY diligent with your underwriting on a deal like this.

Hey @Bethany Johnson, as mentioned it will depend on your state and city. I can only speak for Denver. Up until last year there wasn't even a licensing requirement for LTRs. They started requiring this for 2024, but the city definitely did not check for permits on any work done to the house. The city approved rental license inspector essentially just tested to make sure there was access to hot water, access to heat, no unsafe conditions like exposed electric wiring, CO/smoke detectors present/functional, fire extinguishers present/not expired, etc. I don't see how any city/state could possibly enforce requiring proof that all work done in the house was permitted. There could have been a slew of previous owners that did unpermitted work that was not disclosed, that you couldn't possibly know about. They can (and should) make sure there are no health and safety risks or hazards. 

@Heather Szucs oh boy that depends on a lot of things! What is the property’s current use?

Where is the property? that can be a big determining factor if something like AirBNB will or will not work (or will even be allowed by county/city)

What is the layout like? for example a 4 bedroom 2 bath could work great as a rent-by-room, but would be much tougher to fill as a mid-term rental. 

Your financing: not sure what that would look like, but your operating expenses and PITI could determine whether this place could be converted to LTR, MTR or might only work as rent-by-room or STR.

Rehab/remodel and selling is usually a decent exit strategy in Colorado, where good/quality inventory is always low.