Buena Vista STR

Hi Grace, I have done it in Clear Creek and Summit Counties. 

Buena Vista is a fun one to look at for an STR. On the licensing side, Chaffee County has historically capped short-term rental licenses in unincorporated areas and splits them into tiers for owner-occupied versus non-owner-occupied properties, with the non-owner-occupied tier being the harder one to get since that is where caps and waitlists tend to show up first (Clear Creek mirrors this). Rules like this shift year to year in Colorado mountain counties, so before you write an offer, call the Chaffee County Community Development or Planning department directly and ask about current license availability for the specific parcel, since it can vary by whether it is inside town limits or the unincorporated county.

On the financing side, how you plan to use the home changes your loan options quite a bit. If you will occupy it part of the year yourself, some lenders will treat it as a second home, which usually gets better pricing than a straight investment loan. If it is purely an investment, a DSCR (STR specific) loan is worth looking at since it qualifies off the property's projected rental income rather than your personal income, though ask upfront whether the lender will use actual short-term rental income data or fall back to long-term market rent, since that changes what you can qualify for. I have successfully brought two properties to the top 1% in their respective markets. If I can answer any questions let me know. Good luck with the search.