All Forum Posts by: Ryan Riches

My wife and I own two STRs in Colorado Springs and have two others under management. Two of the issues you mentioned are easy to mitigate! We had an issue with some guests checking out late - we found this was more an issue of communication that of mal-intent. They simply just didn't look on the Airbnb website to see what the checkout time was. So we put a welcome sheet on the table right inside the unit, it has the wifi instructions, and the checkout time on it. We are also sure to send them a message on their check-out day to remind them. This has worked so far!

The second is not paying for additional guests. Again, I try to believe that this is not an issue of mal-intent, simply someone booking for their family/group and not realizing you need to change the number of guests in your reservation. We adjusted to this by making our rates the same no matter how many guests someone has. 

The others: Air-conditioning, internet, electricity, reviews, messy, damage. Its the cost of doing business in the STR world. If people don't want to deal with it, get some long term tenants.

My wife and I own 2 STRs in Colorado Springs and have 2 others under management. Definitely investor friendly, and is the second most visited city in Colorado next to Denver! The Airbnb market here is pretty localized though, certain areas really only rent out in the summer, while others have pretty good year-round demand. 

My wife and I have lived in Fort Collins, Denver, and we currently live and invest in Colorado Springs. I second that each city has its own subculture, and even areas of the cities are unique. If you are moving to Denver I would ask what you value? Proximity to the mountains? Live on the west side. If you are looking for nice suburbs with good schools, look to the south Denver area. If you like city living, look into Washington Park, Platt Park, or the Highlands neigborhoods. A big reason that we, and many we know, left Denver was due to the housing prices. 

Fort Collins is a great town to live in, has the small town feel with the big city benefits. Tons of parks, close to outdoor recreation (Horsetooth Reservoir), and a charming downtown strip with great restaurants, shops, and nightlife. All of Northern Colorado is blowing up with new developments and an influx of people. 

Colorado Springs has been my favorite place to live so far. It has the best proximity to the mountains of anywhere I have lived in Colorado. You can see Pikes Peak from anywhere in town. The city is rapidly expanding north and east, and the downtown area has a long term development plan that is pretty exciting. There is a reason that is has been one of the top places to live year over year. It has its own unique subcultures as well, the Old Colorado City and Downtown areas attract many Millenials, and has a similar feel to Fort Collins Old Town area. North and east take you into sprawling suburbs. We chose to live and invest here in part because it is the most affordable prices compared to most areas on the front range (besides Pueblo), and it is a hub for tourism and transplants. I can't even go to the grocery store without meeting someone from Minnesota, so you would be in good company. 

Hope this helps!

I ran into this same issue in Colorado Springs, CO. Wanting to house hack a duplex but finding inventory tight, and high competition for any on the market. On top of that, you have to consider areas that YOU would want to live one top of it being a good investment. 

My wife and I ended up finding a SFH in a great area of town with a walkout basement. We are renting the basement out on Airbnb which is providing better cash flow for us than a long term renter in the space. Downside of Airbnb is that it requires more work on your end. But everything has an opportunity cost. You just need to decide what is most important to you.

I would definitely recommend using a tool like rentometer in conjunction with the calculators that BP provides. The biggest thing is that you want to be sure to calculate things like maintenance and repairs, cap-ex, and vacancies into the equation. Looking at it just based on what they can get for rent vs. what their mortgage payment is could put them in a tight spot - thinking that the property is going to cash flow because they are not seeing the whole expense picture is what you want to avoid.

A great way they could bolster their cash flow if they wanted to keep it could be running it as a Short Term Rental. My wife and I manage several around the city and depending on the area of town they can provide a great ROI, especially in the summer.

My wife and I recently closed on our second property. We purchased a house in 2017, lived there for a year, then purchased another house that we are owner occupying while house hacking through STR and renting out our other house at the same time. On top of that, we have had several people approach us about managing their STR in the area while they are traveling for the summer. We also started an LLC that all of the income will go through for these properties.

My question is, what would you recommend for expense tracking for our new business? We want to make sure that we are setting ourselves up well come tax time next year. I have heard about Stessa through the BP podcast and am aware of QuickBooks. I am trying to figure out what the best system is for our situation. 

Thanks in advance!

@Alanna Schroeder Colorado Springs, CO. We rent out our basement apartment while living upstairs.

@Polly Feeney Welcome to BP! I was unaware of the "nomad" method until this thread, but apparently that's what my wife and I are doing! We bought a SFH in 2017 in Colorado Springs (5% down), rented our spare bed on AirBnb in the summer and had a friend live with us in the winter. Great way to supplement our income and increase our ability to save! We just closed on our second property (also 5% down) near downtown COS. It has a walkout basement that we have turned into a guest suite. We are renting that on AirBnb as well! I would definitely recommend House Hacking to get started. It is the best way (in my opinion) to lower your cost of living to save up faster for the next deal.

While CO overall is a competitive market, there are still some great growing areas. I lived in FoCo for 5 years and loved it! I don't know enough about that market to speak to the ROI at all. I do belive that Cos is still undervalued compared to the rest of the front range.

Overall it is tough to find a property that you could buy with 20% down and cash flow right away. Which is why I recommend house hacking to get started. It is a great, low-risk way to get your investing started.

Cheers!

@Peter Ricca hey peter! My wife and I also recently closed on our first house hack in Colorado Springs. We are taking the AirBnb route on our unit. In my opinion, the purpose of a house hack is to lower your housing expenses. If you wanted the BEST return, then sure - living in the 1br or renting out both units would get you more return. But it sounds like that’s not your goal! You were able to find a deal that you would want to live in AND would lower your housing costs while getting your first experience in landlording.

Well done!

Hey Daniel,

Finding a duplex/multiplex that will cashflow especially on the MLS/Zillow/Redfin is going to be a tough go. I also recommend house hacking but my wife and I didn't want roommates especially as we talk about starting a family. We just closed on a single family house in Colorado Springs with a walkout basement, we put on a locking door on the stairwell and are renting the basement out on Airbnb. This could be a good route for you to go, if you find a property that is zoned R2 or R4 you can even put in a kitchen and make it its own unit.