All Forum Posts by: Virginia Schilling

@Bill S. I did not realize some HOAs wouldn't allow you to rent. That seems silly as the only reason to buy a condo (to me) seems to be to rent it out later. I will definitely be careful if I go that direction. I also just bought Set for Life, and plan on reading that this week. Thanks for the suggestion!

@Matthew Cyriac I hadn't really thought of looking south since I don't enjoy driving on 93, but I will have to take a look. I know Golden and Arvada are a little better in terms of price, but I don't know if they would be good rentals?

@Jesse Daun that is my biggest issue with this entire search. I am used to living within 10-20 minutes from work, and I don't particularly want to drive forever to get to work, but I also don't yet have the money to pay $600K for a townhouse. For context, I have a couple coworkers that live in Berthoud and commute 50 minutes to work. So I would definitely want to stay south of there. 

@Dan Mackin thanks for the tip. I will try to steer clear of Erie then. I don't really know much about any area here other than Boulder county. Is there somewhere I could get information about the various neighborhoods, or do I need to get an Agent for that kind of info?

My job is closer to Louisville, which is why I thought Denver or somewhere along the Boulder-Denver corridor would be better than somewhere north like Loveland.

@Matt M. I did notice that duplexes were ridiculously high-priced (and I'm not even knowledgeable about real estate yet). I suppose I will have to expand my search to Longmont and beyond. 

@Bill S. you bring up a good point: more rooms equals more opportunity for renters. And I didn't know about the housing laws. I will have to do research into the specific laws in whatever county I end up in (I know Boulder has a "no more than 3 unrelated people per house" law)

I know this is probably market and personal preference dependent, but would you rather buy a 2-3 bedroom condo in Louisville or Broomfield and rent out the other bedrooms, or to buy a 4-6 bedroom house further away and do the same? I would think you would have more choices for renters in the Boulder-Denver area, but maybe that is just my ignorance?

@James Carlson, @Kevin Grinstead

Thank you both for replying so quickly! It sounds like I need to spend some time learning more about the Boulder/Denver area from a real estate perspective. I enjoy living close to work, but it sounds like there are possible house hacks if I'm willing to commute longer or take a different approach. I will spend some time figuring out what is most important to me, learn some more about what makes a good deal, and then try to find something in this area (probably with an agent) to do a house hack. Thank you for the help!

Hi I'm brand new to Bigger Pockets, and real estate investing in general. I've been trying to absorb as much information as possible and I am currently listening to David Greene's book on long distance investing. I live and work in the Boulder area as an engineer, and I know that in my industry I am limited to living in areas where rents and demand are high. I'm wondering: does it make sense to continue to rent and purchase my first real estate investment in a different market, where the prices are reasonable, or should I be saving for my own primary residence first, and then continue to save for out of state investments? I'm sure this is highly dependent on the market; I'm just looking for some rules of thumb, advice, or generally other factors I haven't thought about. It just seems unlikely that I will be able to purchase a duplex or triplex for the very high prices in Boulder or Louisville, Colorado as my first property (so that I could take advantage of house hacking), and it seems like trying to save for a second property will also be unlikely. However, with the rental increases (almost 10% per year), it seems ridiculous to be paying rent while also trying to start seriously real estate investing. Doe anyone have any thoughts on this dilemma?