Colorado Walkout Basement House Hack Short Term Rental Tracking

[Dan Mackin]

Just wanted to create a thread where I post updates on our basement apartment that we had built out from an unfinished basement with the full intent of it being a rental from the start. This build was fully laid out to be a higher end rental with minimal concessions made for cost savings and more focus put on comfort both for the tenants and for my family living upstairs. I will post updates as we have them and will attempt to be very transparent with our numbers so others can get a realistic view of what a project like this may involve and our specific lessons so far. 

Here is the basic timeline:

- Purchased property in late 2019 for $490,000

- Property was a 2 story 4 bed/2.5 bath house with a full unfinished walkout basement

- Premium for the property compared to one without the walkout was somewhere around $30-40,000

- Basement was around 1200sqft unfinished space and the apartment was best setup to be around 800sqft

- Started initial framing in early 2020, but COVID put a stop to some plans due to cash reserves becoming more important

- Project was on hold until late 2021 when framing resumed (all framing was done by me)

- Jan 2022 had a tankless water heater installed (had 20 year old tank already and don't want to run out of hot water with tenants) $3500

- Jan 2022 had main electrical panel upgraded to 200A setup and also had 100A sub panel installed in basement and charger for car in garage $6000

- Feb 2022 finished 95% of framing and GC began plumbing work

- Feb 2022 HVAC work began (We installed a fully separate Mini Split Heat Pump for the unit) $5,400 for all fans and mini split install

- March 2022 Electrical Rough In was completed

- March 2022 Rear Door (Entrance) was swapped from a small slider to a full 36" exterior door

- March 2022 Passed rough inspections and given the go ahead for drywall

- Late March 2022 Drywall install completed

- Walls are standard 1/2" single sheet

- Ceilings were done in the following order for sound insulation (Fiberglass batting, resilient channel, 5/8" drywall, Green Glue, 5/8" drywall) $7500

- April 2022 Primed all walls and ceiling

- April 2022 Carpet and Vinyl flooring installed

- April 2022 Trim installed

- April 2022 Kitchen cabinets installed

- Mid April 2022 Interior doors arrived and were installed

- Mid April 2022 Shower pan was built out

- Mid April 2022 Butcherblock counters cut and fitted with sink and oiled

- Mid April 2022 Puck lighting installed

- Late April 2022 Appliances arrived

- Late April 2022 Painting continues (biggest regret here was not hiring a painter. Anyone can paint, but pros are so much more efficient)

- Early May 2022 Backsplash installed

- Early May 2022 Shower tile installed and fixtures fitted

- Mid May 2022 furnishings and finish items begin arriving

- Mid May 2022 Couch arrives after 8 weeks of waiting and proceeds to not fit through the door. Window has to come out to get it in while it's snowing

- June 2022 Shower glass finally arrives

- June 2022 Project Finalized and ready to post

- July 2022 Listed on VRBO

That's all for today. I'll begin doing the monthly update posts shortly to show our numbers and also do a full breakdown of project costs and things we like and what we would change as well.