All Forum Posts by: Lia Martinez

@Carlos Varum Jr

I also use Roomster ($10/week), Facebook marketplace, and post to neighborhood or city- specific Facebook rentals pages.

@Erwin Groenendijk

I'm a member of both groups for many years now. I'm glad you joined! Both have members who are very much the thought leaders of this movement and put out great content.

@Erwin Groenendijk Apologies for the delay, I took a month break from work to visit family in Peru. 

It would be nice to boost coliving and I would certainly read anything that others publish. But to be honest, I'm not huge fan of writing anything longer than a few sentences. I guess that's part of why engineering was appealing as a profession. 

There is certainly enough coliving content being put out right now by other companies; I wonder if we could/should re-post coliving content that's been shared elsewhere? Or perhaps just link to their publications and articles?

@Joicey Poo Airbnb only works in Denver if you are living there and apply for short term rental licensing through the city.

@Erwin Groenendijk It would be nice to have a forum, but BP can sometimes be a little behind-the-times in these areas. It may have to wait until more active investors begin chatting about it organically on BP. 

For now, most of the discussion comes from the Operator/ Property Manager side of the business. 

@Mindy Jensen I would suggest googling "coliving" and seeing what comes up. You would be surprised at how much is happening worldwide in both residential and commercial real estate related to coliving. There have even been books put out on the subject. Check out X-communities' ground-up development being built here in Denver near Coors Field: https://xliving.co/communities.... 

It is different from House Hacking in a variety of ways. Coliving is geared towards "real estate as a service" similar to coworking for office space. It also includes a large Community component, which House Hacking does not include at all. 

Similar to what @Erwin Groenendijk was saying, Europeans tend to view to view it from a commercial housing/student housing perspective. But here in the US, coliving is also commonly applied to residential properties (such as mine here in Colorado). If you would like to chat more about this offline or come see one of the houses, please let me know!

I agree, it is a good way to get your foot in the door as a first-time investor similar to House Hacking. But it's a bit more work to develop the community, in all honesty. So it may not be for everyone. Erwin is also right that when scaled in multifamily, it can bring great returns because the $$ per sq ft is higher (as are the amenity and management costs). 

@Erwin Groenendijk Thanks for posting this. I've been keeping my eye on coliving within the BP forums for years now and while there are some people like you and I who are active investors in coliving, there are still too few of us on BP. 

This may be because BP is based in the US and coliving has yet to really hit the US with the full force that we are seeing in Europe and India. But I think that will change rapidly in the next few years and (hopefully) lenders will begin to see it as its own asset class. For now, most active US coliving investors still need to be creative to get financing, especially when trying to scale up. 

Luckily, there are some good groups out there dedicated towards cultivating a coliving community of operators, developers, and investors. Co-Liv has great weekly meetups and podcasts. The Coliving Hub is another good, active group. Both groups had annual conferences until the pandemic. 

The Coliving Code podcast is another useful source of information, as is the Common Knowledge series put on by Common Coliving in NYC and free to access on Crowdcast. The Coliving Insights magazine and Conscious Coliving consultants also put out some great reading material and weekly newsletters. There are more, but I wont go into the weeds. Just wanted to give people who are interested some places to start diving in. 

Thanks @Bill S., yes I do use a month-to-month room lease and have a set of House Policies for each new housemate in all of my coliving homes. We do not split utilities, that's too much work. There is enough work trying to manage a house of 5+ separate residents, no need to add more!

I just include internet and all utilities in their flat monthly rent rate. @Toni Baca Please don't hesitate to reach out to me if you would like a copy of any of my documentation or to chat about the benefits/pitfalls of this kind of rental arrangement, especially if your home is in Denver. My husband and I also live in one of my coliving homes. 

Hi Johnny, yes,  I think there is a growing group of real estate investors who invest in coliving. The returns are great,  but as I'm sure you know,  these properties are often not easy to operate.  Creating community is hard. 

I enjoyed your podcast episode on Christine's Coliving Code show.  Being located in the Denver and the Rocky Mountain markets,  I think you are the closest coliving investor/ operator to us. Currently coliving is technically illegal in Denver because of antiquated and racist group housing laws,  so we can't do much more until that changes.  

But in the meantime,  we are slowly expanding into the high cost mountain markets.  I would love to chat or meetup sometime if you're passing this way. 

Best Regards, 

Lia

@Jeffrey Tufenkian

You're right, community building is key to having a successful coliving property. I own and operate 4 coliving properties in Colorado and am always looking to connect with fellow investors/ operators in this space.

Christine's podcast is a great resource, as are the various coliving communities online like Co-Liv and the Coliving Hub. Let me know if you would like to chat in more detail offline!