All Forum Posts by: Stacy Rozansky

Hi Danya!

Welcome to BP! You have found a great resource to start your investing journey. I am local to Denver and there are a lot of great monthly meetups, books, and podcasts about Househacking and flipping in Denver. Househacking is definitely one of the best and easiest entries into real estate investing.

I would love to grab coffee to chat more!

@Tyler Hedegard Welcome to BP, you will find a it to be a great resource on your investing journey. As the others have stated, the rules in Denver are very strict and from what you are describing this would not qualify as a primary residence, so I would not advice going the STR route with this property. It would definitely be worth it to look into the thorough list @Steve K. provided of areas nearby where STR is allowed!

Hi @Blake Jones

Welcome to BP! If your around come out and join us at our meet up this Thursday evening, the link is below. If you can't make this one we host them monthly and rotate between Thursday happy hour and Saturday morning coffee! It is a great meetup for people like yourself that are just starting out!

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/521/topics/1135112-beer...

Hi Jesse,

Ultimately, as with most things it depends! Determining if an ADU is worth it will really depend on your strategy and goals as an investor. Staying outside of Denver should increase your chances of permits getting issued faster. Financing an ADU at the same time as a purchase would probably look like a renovation loan. I can connect you with some lenders that may be able to offer some better information on that.

The best advice I have gotten is to pay an appraiser take a look at your plans and estimated costs before you start, to see if they think it will appraise at what you are expecting. Zoning will be an important factor in your search as well. 

Overall right now it is the time and expense that is keeping people away, but for the long term I think it will be a good investment. 

Hi Jason,

You explained your situation really well, so I am going to try and address each part.

1. $40-$50K is enough for a down payment for a house in Denver. Potentially even, if you and your wife are open to it, to get you a place with rental capabilities on site to help you off-set a good chunk of your mortgage.

2. You should definitely still be able to get an investment HELOC for minimal closing costs. I know of local places in Colorado, but unsure if they would work for a home in Georgia. I can send you some contacts to see if they know more. Terms will not be as good as a HELOC on your primary but should still be worth it. Unfortunately as others have said 1031 has to be for a "like-kind" trade investment to investment.

3. Is your house in the town of Fairplay or outside? That will determine the short term rental rules, if you choose to go that route (which will help your cash flow, but is more work). Inside town limits has its own rules vs. outside follows Park County rules. I have property in Alma and prices are still going up, where are you getting your home valuation from? I would be happy to run a CMA (Comparative Market Analysis) just to be sure on valuation. I agree that the rental situation could be a seasonality issue and you might want to consider a 3 month lease for summer and 6-9 month for someone that wants to be out there for the winter months. Although, most lenders will only be able to use a 12 month lease to help you qualify for your next property so that is also something to take into consideration on your search.

Hopefully that is helpful! Always happy to chat further

Best,

Stacy

Hi @Charles Frazier, welcome to BP!

I own STRs in Park County and have helped clients in Evergreen and Grand County. Each area has a different set of rules and regulations so really figuring out which makes the most sense for what you want to accomplish with the property, and where you want to be will be the first step. In the mountains, many places do come furnished so it shouldn't be too much extra depending on the look you are going for etc. but it good to budget for that as well. 

Happy to hop a call to go over the different restrictions in different areas and what you can expect for cash flow. 

@Madeline McKune have you considered house hacking? You can get much more favorable loan terms and put down less of a down payment if it is your primary residence. There are loan programs that help subsidize down payment and closing costs that could help you get into a home for around that $10K mark. Happy to discuss this with you further if it is of interest.

@Asare Nkansah welcome to BP! This is a great resource for house hackers. Our team has a monthly house hacking meetup to help you get started in Denver. Here is info for the one in June. July date is TBD https://www.eventbrite.com/e/d...

Would love to connect to help you get started in the Denver market!

@Winny Wen the west side (southwest in particular) of Denver as well as East Colfax area are both areas that the City of Denver have set their eyes on to pour some money into. In my opinion they would be good areas to look into for buy and hold properties.

@Alexander Mears The Ultimate Guide to House Hacking Denver (https://www.denverinvestmentrealestate.com/house-hacking-denver/) is being released as we speak and would be a great place for you to start to get a in depth understanding of our local market. It goes over a lot of the specific questions you asked above.