Full-time RV'r looking to establish primary in HOT Colorado

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Full-time RV'r looking to establish primary in HOT Colorado

Mark Billingsby
Golden, CO · Member since 2017 · 4 posts · 1 vote

Hi Everyone,

Long time lurker....first time poster. My wife and I live full-time in our RV converted school bus (@topobus). We left the Golden/Boulder area about a year ago and are currently traveling and living wherever it is warm. We are looking to do our first house hack in Colorado. My wife legally needs to establish residency there for her job. 

We have an agent and preapproval and are ready to pull the trigger when we find something that will work for us. I'm reaching out to see what people's thoughts are on how they might tackle our situation. 

We don't actually need a home to live in. Our current expenses are next to nothing, we have no debt, and we are fairly decent income earners. Because we need a legal residence, our thoughts were to buy multi-family with a low down payment (FHA) and claim one of the units as our own. Then after a year repeat the process. With the current prices in the market, it looks like we will probably be paying our share of rents. Living rent free looks out of the question.

Any thoughts or approaches to our situation would be appreciated. One idea would be to do some STR on our unit. Not sure how legal that is. We think we may use it some as an office space more than anything, but don't necessarily need to be there full-time.

Thanks!

Mark

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  • Joseph Firmin
    Rental Property Investor · Smyrna, GA · Member since 2018 · 974 posts · 645 votes
    5y

    Do you have any friends in the market that would let your wife's name be on their water or gas bill? I know it would be an odd request and perhaps you could pay them for the privilege, but since you don't need to buy a house, but really an address - this could open up other solutions.

    I like the STR option, especially in an overpriced and hot market. A long term rental may not cash flow as well.

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  • Mark Billingsby
    OP
    Golden, CO · Member since 2017 · 4 posts · 1 vote
    5y

    Hey Joseph,

    We do have the option of using a friends address. We are currently using a virtual mailbox company with it's physical address located in Fort Collins. We can have all of our mail scanned and forwarded to us if necessary. It bit us in the butt earlier this year when we lost our auto insurance because we couldn't provide utility bills for a physical address. (We have insurance now...just a higher premium)

    We probably won't cash flow as long as we are occupying one of the units, but we also look at it as a way to build our portfolio and are willing to "pay to play" if that is our only option at this time.

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  • Jennie Ballard
    Brazoria County · Member since 2020 · 69 posts · 24 votes
    5y

    Did being a fulltime RVer cause issues with preapproval? We are fulltime at an RV park right now and looking to get started with real estate.

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  • Mark Billingsby
    OP
    Golden, CO · Member since 2017 · 4 posts · 1 vote
    5y

    It did not. There are some concerns when we get to underwriting but nothing has come up yet. The biggest issue will be consistency with paying rent or mortgage which we haven't done in a while. Our income and DTI should have us in a good spot though.

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  • Jennie Ballard
    Brazoria County · Member since 2020 · 69 posts · 24 votes
    5y

    Thanks!

    0Reply
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