All Forum Posts by: Brittany Guimond

I'm not a lender so this isn't exactly my lane (feel free to check me here @Andrew Postell) — I believe Fannie/Freddy updated their seasoning requirements on refinances from 6 months to 12 months, so you would have to bake that timeline and holding costs into your total budget and project plan. I have not done a BRRR myself yet, but I remember when this change happened earlier this year, it threw a wrench into flippers timelines.

@Maryam Mostafa This might be worth investigating!

@Gavin Malcolm Eek! So exciting, good luck with the exam. All good! I'd still love to connect with you in real life and geek out on this stuff (buy+hold, redT, etc.) esp since you're local, so let's try to sync up some time in the next month or two. I'll DM you.

Congrats @Gavin Malcolm! This is exactly what we did — buy and hold our initial primary and move into our next primary. You're on a good path and it sounds like you have great resources supporting you along the way. I also have to say, I LOVE what redT is doing in our marketplace. I'm a GREEN-designated realtor and wholeheartedly believe in your company's mission to build intentionally and sustainably. Y'all are at the top of my preferred builders list. :)

I'm happy to help you hunt for a replacement property if you're not already looking in the MLS. Shoot me a DM if you'd like to peep what's on market!

Exciting stuff, @Jessica Ewanic! The scariest part is pulling the trigger and jumping in, so I applaud you for reaching this milestone! What everyone has already mentioned here is on par with my thoughts, but here's my take:

1. It costs me around $3K/year for all of the necessary realtor fees. In Colorado, you need to complete 168 hours of education before you can sit for the exam, which is among the highest amount of education needed of the 50 states. That said, if I were you, I recommend focusing your efforts on building your team (realtor, lender, wholesaler, etc.) so you can be searching for deals while you're still in NY and moving right into the place you land. 

2. Best way to build a team is to be here in this space and start convos with experts in the Denver investment market, like all of us! Kayla is spot on — start with a realtor and a lender, and we generally know the rest. Don't exhaust yourself, we've already done the work building our own teams and generally only recommend our go-to folks.

3. Deals are everywhere and there are just so many places to look. I have relationships with wholesalers, flippers, lenders, commercial brokers, community members (read: neighbors and friends) etc. and just staying in touch with these folks is how I find deals for myself and my clients. For digital searches, I like BiggerPockets, MLS (residential + income) and LoopNet (commercial). I usually recommend starting small with a modest sized house-hack or duplex and working your way up from there, unless you're confident you can take on a larger multi-family while maintaining your budget and lifestyle.

Happy to share some deeper insights if you'd like! I'll shoot you a DM and we can chat.

@Christine Cho Another vote for MTR. Denver is getting SERIOUS with their STR enforcement as of late and really drilling down on license holders to ensure they're meeting all criteria (which is sounds like you would make every effort to do that), but if you get any bad reviews/complaints because your LTR tenants aren't putting in as much care/love as you did, that impacts you. It may be more headache than it's worth to STR, so I'd go MTR if I were you.

So exciting! I am not *yet* an investor outside state lines (we also LTR our properties in Colorado), but some things we've considered for ourselves:

- Make a list of cities you like to visit yourself, you'll be able to market it better if you fully believe in the product/destination (plus it's nice to have a place to visit if it's vacant)

- What are your goals? If you want to cash-flow, look at midwestern cities with good jobs/growth. If you want appreciation, look at cities that are already booming or on the brink of it (I've heard good things about Kansas City and Oklahoma City)

- What's your exit strategy if you invest in STR and rules/regs change, can you comfortably MTR/LTR and still achieve your goals?

- If you're all in on STR, look at cities that have really friendly/strong tourism with little possibility they'll change (Destin, FL)

@Marcus R. good point! We've also got a solid B class property and most of the surrounding properties have central A/C. I like your point about investing in it and enjoying it while you can to justify the cost. I think we'll at least explore the mini-split option and budget accordingly. Thanks!

@Marcus R. keep us posted on what you decide to do. We're househacking a duplex and currently living in the swamp cooler side. We don't love it, but it gets the job done. We were JUST talking about this last night and are strongly considering the mini-split/heat pump option. We don't have central duct work on our side (but the other side does). Would love to hear what you end up doing!

Congrats!! We just wrapped up a flip. We were capable of GC'ing it ourselves, however we were tight on time and didn't have the capacity to find subs ourselves. We hired a GC because he knew all the subs, and it was def more $$, but also we look at it as paying for our sanity. Good luck!