Rental Property Investor · Thornton, CO · Member since 2017 · 4 posts · 7 votes
Hello! I have recently purchased my first rental property here in Denver, CO and will be househacking while I add value to the place over the first year. I previously househacked in Savannah, GA where the landlord/tenant rules were more relaxed. I have two questions about Colorado renting to make sure I’m doing it right.
1) Do I need to disclose to my "roommates" that I am the landlord and owner? Or can they simply pay me, assuming I am then paying the "landlord". Should I get an LLC for this purpose?
2) How do you recommend all roommatesshare utilities? In Colorado is the landlord responsible for certain ones (like trash pickup, sewer, or water)?
Rental Property Investor · Thornton, CO · Member since 2017 · 4 posts · 7 votes
8y
Excellent advice. Thank you to both.
I had noticed in the past while house hacking that if I didn’t disclose I was the landlord, everyone was shockingly well behaved. When I switched over to telling my tenants I WAS the live-in landlord, chaos erupted with fights, late-payments, and a lot of mistreatment of the property with a “well the landlord is right here and can fix it for me” mentality. I didn’t know if the later could be avoided for convenience purposes.
Rental Property Investor · Denver, CO · Member since 2013 · 4k+ posts · 2k+ votes
8y
@Sidney Reed a bit late to the party here but some thoughts on the LLC issue. Having them write checks to an LLC might help keep the separation from the tenants. You can also present yourself as the live-in manager and collect the money via a debiting service or an on-line payment system. Without a lot of planning, it's really hard to keep a nosy tenant from finding out you own the property.
Investor · Colorado Springs, CO · Member since 2016 · 64 posts · 17 votes
6y
@Sidney Reed, would you mind updating us on your progress? i noticed you mentioned you purchased this in Denver; are you still there? your profile says Thornton. just curious about where you're at on this! I'm in Colorado Springs and I plan on house hacking SFH's