All Forum Posts by: Sarah Present

Hey all! I've been airbnbing my carriage house attached to our house - its a studio and simple and has done very well. We just got a letter from HOA going to our entire community posing a vote to restrict short term rentals - see photo of "important input from other communities " - the letter is totally biased. I'm outraged because our guests are always respectful and quiet and in town for things like friends, graduation, babies being born...and are so clean and quiet. This vote is not objective because the HOA themselves have this view! We are in a quiet suburb in Colorado amongst professionals and are always home when they stay in this attached studio with separate entrance and this has never been our experience!! I'm not sure if there is anything I can do to fix the damage of this letter for the vote. Unbelievably we came home to this letter with an attorney drafted amendment and voting page with a deadline of two weeks from now. Literally i don't think i have any options to reach out to my neighbors and affect their vote in time. I feel totally blind sided and have not had any complaints nor a chance to respond to this. We emailed the community manager about this letter and he stated that he himself has these concerns, basically admitting this is not factual and bias in his own email. I don't know if there is anything we can do.

My last renter smoked in the garage. I never realized this til they moved out - and apparently they did not consider it part of the house. I've actually repaintednthe walls, left it open for days but when I went back today after closing the door - it's so awful.   We cleaned behind the outlet plates and today we are going to scrub the garbage cans that were in there. Is it permanently ruined? Just curious if anyone has had to deal with this.

@Todd Rasmussen, @Jim Goebel and @Account Closed - thank you for your insightful replies!  It has really helped to have some thought from others who have been more involved with similar scenarios.  

Indeed - this isn't the most promising visual - however, a few things keep me thinking its worth a deeper dive.  This is a mountain town in colorado - an old mining town.  So lots of the buildings are from 1880s.  My aim is to turn it into a vacation rental - keeping that old mining town feel but totally adding modern amenitites and comforts - with gorgeous mountain views.  The ceiling really defies the vision of course.  

To answer to Todd - we couldn't find an access point to an attic when we were there - its super odd.  We plan to go back with permission and cut an opening so we can do just that - walk around and see whats really going on up there.  The lighting in the kitchen is as you describe - except that the lights hang below the ceiling - so still not full indication of what is there.   Jim - this was so useful - thank you!  And yes i think you hit it spot on to budget high.  Mike - i found your concept about the sun porch so interesting - i can actually see where this may have happened!  

Basically they are asking too much for this house with the state it is in.  We are planning to go in this week and low ball their offer, to compensate for a large renovation expense.  I'm not confident they will accept - as it will be a shockingly lower number than what they are hoping.  But the bottom line is i don't believe anyone will ever get them what they are asking.  I also noticed that the day we went and did our showing, our realtor gave feedback that there was a lot more work needed than listing showed and that we would think about it.  That very day, the price was reduced another $9,000.   So i believe they are motivated but still dillusional.  

Looking for insight from experienced fix-and-flippers or rehab-ers.  

We rent out a few properties at this point but recently have gotten approved for a home improvement loan, similar to that of a 203k.

We found a house in the right location - very old in a mountain town.  This house, being from such a long time ago, has some odd quirks about it.  Most of which do not frighten us but the low ceilings caught us off guard - they were not evident in the listing pictures.  Some of the house is fine, but the kitchen for example is ceiling of about 7 feet.  Noticeable but not a deal breaker.  There is a small room with the laundry machines that you have to go through in order to get to the bathroom and the other bedroom - i'm not kidding when i say this doorway sits at about 5 ft height and the room with laundry machines varies between 5 1/2 feet and 6 feet.  Definitely not comfortable for the average person.  We brought a contractor with us to the walk through per the advice of my mortgage guy.  He said there is no way of truly estimating the cost/extent of how to raise that ceiling and its costs until he pokes a few holes and looks.

I'm not sure i can actually do that until we've bid on the house.  So as a not experienced fixer upper at this point, i was hoping for some advice on the coordination of this - how can i estimate the costs in order to put in a bid, to get a more thorough inspection, etc.  Or would you say just estimate high and hope they accept our bid so we can go in and dig around?

Also - has anyone done this type of ceiling expansion?  there is no second level and its hard to tell by the roof and the age of house, if there was an expansion of part of the house at some point.  

Overall, i'm thrilled with the possibilities of this house and its location - and I really want to evaluate this thoroughly but not sure how to calculate this ceiling/roof situation.

Any thoughts?

Much appreciated!!

Sarah

Hi Everyone,

I'm looking for a general contractor on a project to renovate a home in leadville, CO.  I live 2 hours away, so I can't frequent the area or go to local events to meet people in that sense.  I'm not sure how far the range is typically for someone with a general contractor license and i definitely would prefer to get a referral of some kind.  This is for a 203k type improvement loan and the contractor would need to be lead base paint certified as well.  Any thoughts or ideas?

Sarah

@Teri Feeney Styers  Thank you for your reference, I did reach out - have not heard back.  I really appreciate you sending me the contact info though!

@Basit Siddiqi and @Lance Lvovsky Thank you so much for your responses!  I would have/and would consider remote CPA, I think my biggest worry was if they would be up on Colorado laws,details, or if that should even be a concern, I'm not sure.  Ive asked countless acquaintances at networking groups, including BiggerPockets, and the few references i've been given - I have reached out to and they have not responded, or have responded they are not taking new clients.  I'm very surprised, honestly, I had no idea it would be difficult to find an accountant - especially being proactive and diligent this early on.  @Basit Siddiqi - I had seen a reference to Linda Weygant and I did reach out to her, she is not accepting new clients.   Also - in terms of my rentals - I do not live in either of them, so they are fully rented out separately.  If there were not any additional risk/concern, I would certainly be open to non-local accountant if they had familiarity with vacation rentals and long term rentals, as I am not having any luck with anyone here in Colorado so far. 

I really need to find someone who can do my taxes this coming tax season.  I would be very interested in securing that person/company now and discussing my questions.  I want someone who is local (colorado) and has experience with vacation rentals.  This is the first year that I have had vacation rentals as well as one long term rental.  Beyond that I share some of these so I have some questions in regards to that I would like to go over before 2019 hits.  Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.  And if there is someone in this forum who fits this and is taking on new clients I would be very interested to talk to you.  Thank you!

Hi, does anyone have a real estate agent they would recommend in the Estes Park, CO area? I had one recommendation and he actually told me he only works on weekends "when necessary for clients". Wow! So I need someone who is actually able to work on evenings and weekends to show me some properties. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated!!

Sarah

Thank you @Bob Okenwa and @Chinmay J. !    I did end up finding a template here in the biggerpockets file place that fit the situation and only needed to tweak slightly.  I went ahead and sent the letter (to the home she owns and frequents back and forth multiple times per day usually) and also via email.  The odd thing is that she has not responded at all.  I received an email confirmation from USPS that the certified letter was left with "an individual".  I'm hoping this will be a clean break in 30 days, but its unnerving for her to not acknowledge it at all. Stay tuned!