All Forum Posts by: Kristofer Kersnick

Quote from @Kayla Givens:

@Kristofer Kersnick so cool that you have the VA loan in your back pocket - it's a great way to get started with real estate investing! I know you said you're planning to live in the homes for the first year, is that right? Have you thought about implementing a house hacking strategy so you can cash flow while you're there? A lot of folks in the Denver area get started that way - they'll find a single family property than can be split up/down, add a kitchen/washer & dryer to whichever unit needs it, and rent out the additional unit either as a long, medium, or short-term rental! I'd be happy to chat more with you about it - just sent you a PM!

@Kayla Givens We house hacked our current property for about a year and a half. We lived in basement with our two dogs and rented the up stairs by the room. Since then all of our roommates have moved out and we started renovating the house. Once the basement is finished we want to look the traveling nurse strategy. We live within 5 miles of a large hospital and if it works well while we are living in the house, we may continue to rent by the room when we leave. Definitely a great way to reduce our living expenses. 

Quote from @Jane S.:

The VA requires holding a property for a minimum time i think? If you plan to buy and live in it while remodeling I think you'd be better off with a conventional loan or maybe even hard money? The VA might catch on to what youre planning and might not approve of it. The VA low interest rate is designed to help folks become homeowners for the medium term or longer. … That said I have lenders pestering me to cash-out refi my VA loan into another one so maybe there are a lot of folks doing this.

Jane, I have been told that for the VA loan you have to "intend" to live in the house for 12 months. I was told that the occupancy requirement is somewhat flexible considering military personnel don't get much of a say in how long they live in each location. Either way we would live in the house for at least 12 months and follow any other VA requirements. 

We did a cash out refi out of our VA on our current property at the end of last year. We liked where interest rates were and we knew we had to free up our entitlement to purchase the next property so we felt like it was a good time.

@Erin Church Thanks for the reply Erin! The refinance is necessary if I would like to use my VA loan on the following property. With the property values in CO I would not have enough VA entitlement to purchase 2 at the same time. So when we are ready to move out, we would run the numbers with a conventional loan to see if it would cash flow.

I couldn't agree more on the sweat equity! I actually have a degree in construction management and have experience managing both residential and large multifamily new builds. I believe this is somewhere I can excel and I do plan on taking on larger renovations as I become a more experienced investor. 

You made a great point about it being impossible to predict rental prices. It will also be impossible to predict interest rates. That's why I am struggling to evaluate properties. I want to take advantage of my VA loan but how do I know I am purchasing a strong property? We grew up in the area and we know it well so we are confident that we can select a good neighborhood. I'm just not sure what else we can really evaluate. Without a good way to run numbers on this situation, it feels like we are guessing/hoping.

@Mindy Jensen

I would love to get your take on this given your experience with live-in flips in Colorado!

My wife and I are planning to use our VA loan to acquire SFRs and rent them out once we have met the occupancy requirement. Living in Denver makes it difficult to find properties that would cash flow immediately, but rental prices will most likely go up over the 1-2 years that we are living in the property.

We have also considered using a VA renovation loan to tackle a live-in flip. We would evaluate it as a rental once we are ready to move out and if it doesn't cash flow, we could sell it and reinvest some of the capital in another market.

We would like to purchase our next property soon, but I am not sure how to run the numbers on properties that I do not plan on renting/selling for 1-2 years.

I know other markets will cash flow better than Denver, but we would like to take advantage of our VA loan and we are not interested in moving out of the area at the moment.

How would you run the numbers in this situation? Are you doing anything differently considering the current market? I would love to hear from anyone investing in the Denver area or anyone in a similar situation.

Any advice would be appreciated!

@Lia Martinez

Hi Lia!
I would love to pick your brain about your Denver properties. My fiancée and I are trying to decide how we would like to approach a house hack in the Denver metro area.

Where have you found the most success listing your rooms?
Do you have any tips or tricks to attract renters or allow you charge a higher rate?
Do you have a go to website or method you use to accurately estimate the rental income per room?

We would appreciate any advice you have!

@Ryan Riches

I have looked in the area to see what similar Air Bnb rooms are going for and decided that I would need about a 50% occupancy rate to hit the numbers I would like. Keeping rates low to build reviews is a great idea. How long do you typically do this for? Do you wait for a certain number of reviews before you start to increase the cost? Other than the typical amenities similar to a hotel, have you noticed any small cost efficient amenities that help boost reviews or occupancy?

Thanks for the advice!

@Paul Sandhu

I suppose that isn't completely out of the question either! You hit the nail on the head with "more risk" simply because I already have two renters lined up. Having the two renters lined up makes it a lot less stressful and risky while I test the Air Bnb market with the other room. If the Air Bnb room ends up working out well, I would consider Air Bnb for the entire property as the leases end.

Yes! I have told them my plan and they are fine with the idea. If I move forward with a duplex that has two rooms in each unit, the Air bnb room would be the spare room in the unit that I am living in and the two tenants I have lined up would live in the other unit.

Hello!

I am hoping to find someone that currently does short term rentals with Air Bnb in the Denver/Lakewood area.

I am searching for small multi- families and single family detached properties to house hack in the area . I have two tenants lined up to rent two different rooms, but I am curious as to what I could do with the remaining room or two. It is my hope that Air Bnb will provide flexibility as well as increased cash flow compared to a long term renter.

My questions for you are:

How often does your room get booked?

What kind of amenities do you offer?

What is the going price per night for one room?

What kind of tenants do you typically get?

I would also appreciate any other advice you may have!

Thanks!