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All Forum Posts by: Ben Einspahr

Ben Einspahr has started 41 posts and replied 409 times.

Post: Housing crash deniers ???

Ben EinspahrPosted
  • House Hacking Specialist
  • Denver, CO
  • Posts 411
  • Votes 397

@Greg R.

My simple answer is economics 101. Supply vs demand. Recession, very possible. Crash, not likely.

Post: Looking to Move to Denver-considering options for how to do it...

Ben EinspahrPosted
  • House Hacking Specialist
  • Denver, CO
  • Posts 411
  • Votes 397

@Mark Singleton, Jumping in late to the party. One thing to keep in mind is to focus on the numbers after you move out, not necessarily while living there. You are buying this property as an investment so the 5-10 years you own it as a rental are much more important then the 1-2 while living there.

I guess I should have said this first but my vote is #2. Buy a SFH with some sort of separate income suite to rent out to offset your mortgage while living there. After moving out you have a couple different options, (all depending on city rules and regs), STR, MTR, LTR, rent by the room, or a mixture of the 2.

We just recently published a YouTube series with BiggerPockets called House Hackerz (link to series here) where we tour local house hacks (think of it as the MTV cribs version of Colorado House Hacks). This will help give you a good visual of what to expect.

Best of luck!

Post: Question about what I should do with my first Rental in Denver!

Ben EinspahrPosted
  • House Hacking Specialist
  • Denver, CO
  • Posts 411
  • Votes 397

@Emanuel Caldera, you have started looking in the right place. My answer will contradict a lot of suggestions mentioned above. I look like to look at 3 key metrics when deciding what to do with a rental property: 

1. Cap Rate, >4%

2. LTV (Loan to value) >50%

3. and my favorite metric of all!!!, ROE (Return on Equity) >10% (highly overlooked)

If your property failing to meet any one of these 3 metrics, it is worth looking into selling.  My personal opinion is to not get so fixated on $350/month cashflow or cashflow in general. That does not move the need that much from a wealth building prospective.

Now selling that lets say $500,000 asset and using that equity to purchase a +/- $900,000 asset that you will be receiving more dept pay down from your tenants, more appreciation, and more depreciation. That will greatly change your wealth building trajectory long term then $350/ month cashflow. 

I have a few case studies I have ran in similar situations. I DM you the details that will help you go into you next business transaction eyes wide open.

Thanks,

Post: Room rental home layout.

Ben EinspahrPosted
  • House Hacking Specialist
  • Denver, CO
  • Posts 411
  • Votes 397

@Ian Dale Ibrado, Rent by the room HH'ing is an excellent REI strategy and works excellent out here in Denver, CO with the high cost for rent (very similar to Edmonton). I like to call it recession proof investing. Numbers are different in AB but for Denver, a conservative approach is about $800/month for a room with a shared bathroom and $900/month for a room with its own private bathroom. And these are just standard run-of-the-mill 10x12 rooms. Nothing fancy.

So a few tips and tricks for RBR HH'ing:

1). 4+ bed house. Anything less does not see to do well after moving out in the Denver metro market.

2). Egress widows. For basement rooms, do not rent out any room that do not have proper egress. Others may disagree but my opinion, not worth the risk.

3). No more than two tenants sharing one bathroom. For example, if you have a 4bed/2bath and one of the bathrooms is connected to the master bed. That means the other 3 rooms are sharing a bathroom. May not be the best option at 6:30AM when everyone is wanting to shower before work :)

4). And the secrete sauce, as @Nicholas Coulter mentioned,  not furnishing living room with a TV. This will keep the tenants hanging out in there room and keeping to themselves. = less tenant headache.

Hope this helps

Post: Don't know where to start!

Ben EinspahrPosted
  • House Hacking Specialist
  • Denver, CO
  • Posts 411
  • Votes 397

@Eric Honas Welcome!

Jumping in late to the party but I figured I would add my 2 cents since I am a fan of Pueblo!

Depending on your timeline you next steps should be connecting with an investment friendly lender to get an idea what your buying power looks like. If you would like a couple recommendations I would be happy to help

After that, I would find an investment friendly agent that is familiar with your desired location. BP is a great place to start.

Additionally, I just finished a rough draft report with 6 different REI case studies for Denver, Springs, and Pueblo with the new higher interest rate environment. I'll shoot you a DM so you can take a look.

Best of Luck!

Post: Short Term Rental Property Manager Recommendations

Ben EinspahrPosted
  • House Hacking Specialist
  • Denver, CO
  • Posts 411
  • Votes 397

Just spoke with owner of https://bnbmonthly.com/yesterday. Sounds like he is a good business setup and only 18%

Post: First Property : Cash Flow Rental

Ben EinspahrPosted
  • House Hacking Specialist
  • Denver, CO
  • Posts 411
  • Votes 397

@Martene Clarke Denver/ Colorado is an excellent market to invest for long term wealth building. This is a market where you will see high appreciation but low initial cash flow. On the other side of the coin, there are markets that have high initial cashflow but low appreciation overtime similar to Indianapolis. Orlando seems to fall in the middle of the 2. 

I have invested in both types of markets ( Denver and Omaha, NE). My Denver properties have been the anchor to my portfolio and give me the most options from an equities position and leveling up (going from green houses to red hotels).

Depending on your timeline you next steps should be connecting with an investment friendly lender to get an idea what your buying power looks like. After that, I would find an investment friendly agent that is familiar with your desired location. BP is a great place to start.

Additionally, I just finished a rough draft report with 6 different REI case studies for Denver, Springs, and Pueblo with the new higher interest rate environment. I'll shoot you a DM so you can take a look.

Best of luck!

Post: How This House Hacker Started Investing Before Graduating College

Ben EinspahrPosted
  • House Hacking Specialist
  • Denver, CO
  • Posts 411
  • Votes 397

This is a great podcast! Excellent job @Miller McSwain. You do not hear too much about house hacking in the Springs. Mostly in Denver where I am located and investing. Personally working with Miller from day 1 before he moved to the Springs, it is very impressive to see his progress and growth.

If you are wanting to house hack and can work remote, check out COS if Denver is too hight of a price point. 

Post: Legal Issues & Alternatives with Denver STR

Ben EinspahrPosted
  • House Hacking Specialist
  • Denver, CO
  • Posts 411
  • Votes 397

@Patrick Farley way to think outside the box and provide a win win for both you and your tenents. Question, is this for the city of Lakewood or Denver? If Denver, then as @Kevin Smith mentioned, you have no option but to go to a 30 night min stay. 

If this is for Lakewood. There currently is no regulations on STR's or a permitting process. So, in theory, you should have not issue having your tenant sublease your rental.

There are rules around registering ADUs, but given that Lakewood hasn’t figured out how it wants to regulate STRs, it is worth holding off until they figure that out.

Hope this helps.

Post: Attorney and CPA recommendations

Ben EinspahrPosted
  • House Hacking Specialist
  • Denver, CO
  • Posts 411
  • Votes 397

Hello @Logan Ashley. You have picked an excellent place to start. Here are a few we have referred out to clients in the past that are investment friendly:

Option 1

Geoffrey N Geever, CPA

Managing Partner

GCK Accounting, LLC

1776 S. Jackson Street #212

Denver, CO 80210

Phone: (303) 222-1616

Option 2

https://singularcpa.com/

However, before reaching out to these recommendations, I would first connect with an investment friendly lender to help create a business plan from a lending prospective. That way you will have an idea what your buying power is our what you need to do in order to reach that buying power goal. After that, I would connect with an investment friendly agent that is familiar with the area and strategy in which you are looking to invest.

If you would like, I would be happy to send a couple your way.

Hope you find value in this message!