Brandon new to Colorado/ Buy & Hold

[Brandon Bell]

Came across a windfall & the opportunity to continue my goal of building cash flow for freedom. Love my job and colleagues, but not the large time commitments & travel. Started 2 small companies in the past so comfortable with business risk. Just moved to Denver, bought a house (30yr fixed; VA loan). My wife & I have run a joint budget for over 5 years. We have calculated a freedom number with FI 5-7 years away. I want to reduce that to 1-2 years and now we have the opportunity to throw some jet fuel on it; very excited! Introduced to Bigger Pockets by a friend 1 mo ago & have listened to at least 15 podcasts on the bus to work. Bought 1st rental property (Mar 2017) at $200 cash flow/ mo. Buy and hold strategy for cash flow. Assuming 50% required for reinvestment, $200 is only $1200 bucks/ year - not enough. REIG in Denver, anyone?

[Jared Bouzek]

@Brandon Bell Welcome to Bigger Pockets and to Denver as well. It must be exciting that you're so close to your freedom number at a young age. If your intention is to buy & hold in Denver, I think it will take a lot of strategy in how you deploy that cash to really move the needle on your cash flow. Putting more money down will help you increase that cash-flow but at the same time sacrifice some of your overall return because you are choosing not to use the leverage to your advantage.

There have been a number of discussions lately on the topic of "wealth building" vs "income building" in Denver. Right now the market here is not built for a lot of cash flow unless you have a competitive advantage to source off-market deals.