All Forum Posts by: Lia Martinez

@Catie Lawrence I know a great CPA who used to live in Denver but is now based in Portugal. Ask @Linda Weygant if she is taking on any new clients.

@Kristofer Kersnick

Apologies for the late response, I've been traveling out of the country. To answer some of your questions, I use Craigslist to figure out what I should be charging for each room. Then, I price it just under what most are charging. I list the rooms on CL and apps like Roomster or Roomi. I've found Facebook to be useless except when posting directly on the neighborhood Facebook group page. If your using apps, you will likely only get responses from millennial renters.

Common areas need to be furnished in general, but to charge more, you would need to have a higher level of rehab finish. Granite countertops for example. If you are able to budget in a weekly common area and bathroom cleaning, that will make everyone happy and alleviate some common household issues.

I'll be back in the US on the 18th if you'd like to call.

@David Lowe

I have run 3 coliving homes (as well as other standard rentals) in the Denver area for the past 4-5 years. I am unfamiliar with the rules and regulations or rent rates in your area, but I can give some basic advice on owning and running communal living homes.

1) Coliving in the residential or small multifam market tends to break up into three groups: digital nomads (who pay more, but want all the amenities), traveling nurses, doctors, students etc. who will stay for 1 to 6 months (this group had been well known in real estate investing for a while), and people looking for affordable housing (often millennials and retirees).

This last group is the largest in size and the group most able to weather changes in the market. You need to figure out which group you are marketing to. This is sometimes very dependent on location. i.e. Millennials and digital nomads want to live in city centers or hip neighborhoods. Retirees trying to live on a tight budget are often okay with suburbs.

2) Never give up bedroom space for more communal space. You need every bedroom you can get. From experience, I recommend at least 1 bathroom for every 3 bedrooms- but keep in mind that this only works if you charge a lower rate per room (affordable housing). If you're renting to digital nomads who are paying premium, they may require 1 to 1.

3) I rent mostly to millennials in the Denver city center and most often find my residents on Craigslist. Although more and more I'm finding them on apps like Roomster and Roomi. Word of mouth is also great. Facebook has been a waste of time except for posting on local neighborhood group pages. There are also not enough listings on coliving.com to make it yet viable and it is only geared towards digital nomads.

4) I strongly recommend renting month to month. This gives enough flexibility that bad apples can be weeded out while still getting around pesky STR rules. It also allows people to stay long enough that real community can develop. Denver is also anti STR and we have group housing laws that make it 'technically' illegal to rent to more than 3 unrelated people at a time. However, they have now realized how these group housing policies limit the ability of low income peoples to live in the city center, so are in the process of rewriting them.

If you would like to know more about any of my homes and how they function, please let me know. The cash flow in coliving is significant per sq ft, but based on what your describing, I don't think the $7k per month is realistic.

@Joe Callantine I focus in coliving homes, but am also interested in tiny homes. At the very least, I would love to meet you and hear more about this project. I get back into Denver after the 18th.

@Brandon Bonfiglio I agree with and support everything @James Beckman said. Longmont is not the place to buy student housing for CSU. I live in Denver and can also help if you have any questions about investing in Colorado.

@Alain Haug The work permit comes in faster than your green card. My husband got his in about 6 months time from the application submission date and he got his travel card at the same time (i.e. you can't leave the US or work in that time period between application and the receipt of the travel card). Then, he walked over and applied for a social security number the same day we recieved his cards in the mail.

@Steve K. I have 2 rentals in Cole and live in the neighborhood. I wouldn't say that it's rough around the edges anymore. It's pretty far developed now and the few houses that aren't are long time residents. New builds are on every block.

@Jeremy M. It is possible to find good SFR's in Cole for under $400k, but you would have to put in the work. Not just browse the MLS and select at random. My most recent home here was purchased in the last year for $380k with 5+ bedrooms, for example.

@Alain Haug

Yes, a spouse can apply for a green card. But it's a long 8-13 month long process from the date you apply. I would also highly recommend contracting an immigration lawyer to help with the paperwork and interview. Overall, it can run $2-5k, so I would budget for it.

Hopefully your work experience will count with a US company. We did use savings to invest initially, but also did 6 fix and flip homes with hard and private money (but it become too much work with a full time job). Now, we use conventional financing to buy, then private money to rehab, and then refi the investor money out. Typical BRRR method.

@Diego Furlan

If you're going to go the coliving route, I would just be sure that Plan B also works:

That when/if you eventually move out of the home or the city cracks down because of group housing laws (set to be changed this coming January), you can rent the whole house and still cover your mortgage. Coliving is a great way to increase your cash flow per sq ft. But it can also be more management intensive and/or run afoul of Denver housing laws if you have terrible neighbors. Also good to have a Plan B (and C for that matter).

@Alain Haug

My husband is Peruvian and we only recently got his green card and social security number. From everyone I've talked to, in order for him to invest, we have to wait for another 2 years so that gre can build a work history in the US. His work history abroad does not seem to count. Luckily I have a solid work history, so we've been investing under my name. But it would be useful if he could invest as well with a conventional loan, instead of having to pay all cash for a property. He also had no credit history here, so it's been difficult even getting a credit card.