Househacking in Denver, CO

[Asare Nkansah]

Hey all, this is my first post. Looking for help with house hacking in Denver, Colorado - no idea where to start. My wife and I are moving to Denver in July and we'd like to buy a duplex as soon as possible so we can house hack the property. Would love tips/tricks. Thank you! 

[Ryan Williams]

Hi @Asare Nkansah. I love what you are trying to do by house hacking into a duplex! I think you are on the right track by setting yourself up to house hack in that method! If it's not a duplex, maybe it's a house with a separate entrance/basement. Finding something like that you can house hack using a short term rental strategy (aka airbnb/vrbo) will probably put the most cash in your pocket.  

My wife and I had the goal to house hack and it pay 100%+ of the mortgage, we were able to do this setting up airbnb in the back half of the house and it pays out more than our mortgage, you can check out the whole story on my forum post about it.

I'm in Denver and would love to be a resource in any way I can, feel free to reach out!

[Stuart Grazier]

@Asare Nkansah This is such a great strategy! I did something similar with my first house purchase in San Diego back in 2005 and is what I recommend to anyone that wants to start investing in real estate. The best place to start is to build your team of real estate professionals that can help you. You'll want people on your team that know the area, know the strategy, and will make sure you have all the tools you'll need to be successful. 

[Stacy Rozansky]

@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!

[James Carlson]

@Asare Nkansah

A premature welcome to Denver. Awesome city. Great restaurants and bars, beautiful city parks, good beer, legal weed, 300 days of sun, proximity to the mountains. It's a good place to live. 

I'm sure there are actual tips and tricks, but I'd say the biggest piece of advice I give our first-time clients is just, Don't overthink it. Keep it simple. You have the right idea. Buy a duplex or a house with a mother-in-law suite. Rent the heck out of it. Save up that extra income. In two years, move out, rent the old place full-time, buy a new place, house hack that, rinse, repeat. 

A few other thoughts:

-- I take it you're talking about an extra rental suite -- and not a rent-by-the-room scenario -- because you and your wife want some privacy. If you are open to the rent-by-the-room, you can definitely do well with like these two. 

-- A word of caution about buying a home with a separate basement entrance in the city of Denver. If you plan to Airbnb the extra space, be aware that the city of Denver seems to be cracking down on basement-unit and carriage house STR setups.)

-- If you like the short-term rental model, be aware that at least in the city of Denver, it has to be your primary residence. And if you buy a legit duplex (not a home with a basement rental space), you can't rent the other side of a duplex as an STR under the rules.

-- Also, if you like the short-term rental model, you might consider buying in one of the Denver-area cities that allow for non-owner occupied short-term rentals. (Most cities here require an Airbnb be in your primary residence.) That way, if/when you move out, you can turn the house into an STR. (See this post about Arvada, this about Wheat Ridge, and here about two other Airbnb-friendly cities.) 

Good luck!

[Kayla Givens]

Hey, @Asare Nkansah! Congrats on the move to Denver - I'm a native and as many times as I have tried to move away, I always end up back here.. It's home!

Duplexes in Denver are pretty hard to find BUT, that's not to say that it's impossible. There are quite a few other strategies you could consider when looking at house hacking... Medium-Term Rentals, Short-Term Rentals, etc. Have you thought about the strategy that works best for you??

[Zierry Eme Carl T. Tagbas]

Quote from @Asare Nkansah:

Hey all, this is my first post. Looking for help with house hacking in Denver, Colorado - no idea where to start. My wife and I are moving to Denver in July and we'd like to buy a duplex as soon as possible so we can house hack the property. Would love tips/tricks. Thank you! 

 This is so awesome that you guys are considering into purchasing a MFH, it is honestly a great way to get started with real estate. My 0.02c would be, make sure you do work with an investor friendly realtor in the area that you want to invest in. Always have the LOCATION in your mind when looking at properties and see whats the rents too. 

Good luck out there! Please feel free to connect with me if you have any questions and I'd be happy to answer them!

[Dean V.]

Quote from :

Hey all, this is my first post. Looking for help with house hacking in Denver, Colorado - no idea where to start. My wife and I are moving to Denver in July and we'd like to buy a duplex as soon as possible so we can house hack the property. Would love tips/tricks. Thank you! 

Hey Asare!  Welcome in advance to you and your wife!  And as others have said already, HUGE kudos on getting into househacking - in my opinion it's the MOST powerful strategy in real estate investing by far (at least when starting out ;-) haha).
I've been picking up as many househacks as I possibly can on my journey, and believe in it very strongly as an outstanding tool for building wealth and financial freedom.

Is there a particular area or neighborhood around Denver that you're interested in, already looking at, or curious about?

Multifamily properties here in the Denver area are in super high demand and as such are typically pretty overpriced right now in my opinion.  I believe that you can still have privacy and comfort (and actually cashflow even better than MF in most cases) with a single family househack if you find the right floorplan and property, but it really all depends on your goals and what level of effort/expense you're looking to put in (definitely a sliding scale of comfort and elbow grease vs profitability).

I work closely with @Craig Curelop and shameless plug if you haven't read his book, it is in my opinion one of the best and most concise resources for househacking knowledge and strategy out there.

If you have any other questions or there's ever anything I can do for you, don't hesitate to reach out, always happy to help out however I can!
 
Cheers,
Dean