All Forum Posts by: Erin Spradlin

@Maria N. - I would look in the Widefield and Security areas. It is supported by multiple military bases and has a large population open to having roommates and needing temporary housing. Added to that, it is between Colorado Springs and Pueblo, both of which have been hot markets the past few years, and Colorado Springs is getting an Amazon facility on the south end (close to Widefield/Security). Right now, this location is cheap, but it has very good mountain views and you are seeing business interests move in that would suggest more money is coming (aka, Starbucks.) 

@Chris Lopez - Excellent post with some great points about what is happening with Denver real estate across condos, single family homes, entry and luxury properties. Additionally, the info on how Denver rents and Denver tenants are responding is useful in studying the markets as people consider investments in Denver and rents on that investment.

Re your comment about pushing for a discount on homes sitting for 60+ days, it has been my experience that this push can actually come closer to the 21 day to one month mark. Certainly in 2019, I think sellers expected a 2018 crush of offers, etc. and would start to negotiate far more after it sat for a few weekends and they had the absence of those offers... Even though that was sort of the norm across the board, I feel they had been primed to expect lots of offers and a certain insecurity set in fast. 

While I think everyone is trying to be smart about the Denver homes and Denver condos, I also think Denver sellers are still having difficulty shedding the mindset of the past 5 years and the expectation of multiple offers. The onset of uncertainty is also creating a need to dump homes. Trying to be sensitive here about people's circumstances but as someone that primarily represents Denver buyers and Colorado Springs buyers in what has been a sellers' market, it has been refreshing (and honestly more fun as an agent) to see my clients get a little more bargaining power. 

Hey @Noah Gregory

I had an investors' meeting yesterday and no one had a vacancy in their place (we had 9 people on the call that owned investments) and no one had had a major issue. Someone had to slightly reduce their price to secure a year long renter, and we, personally, had a vacancy for about three weeks at a place we have in Colo Spgs, and then another vacancy in Denver for the month of May. Obviously, we'd like to have those filled but none of that is catastrophic. 

Hey Everyone! We have an event coming up on 4/21 at 6PM mountain standard time. We typically limit this event to Denver locals, but are opening it up to everyone since we will be online for a little bit. Please feel free to join. All experience levels welcome. 

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/521/topics/825333-denver-women-invest-corona-real-estate-socializing

Hey! We are missing connecting with our fellow real estate cohorts, so have decided to continue with monthly, online Denver Women Invest.

This month, the agenda will be:

- Prompt: describe the best/worst thing about corona virus and/or alternately one positive thing you hope comes from this (your answer doesn't have to be real estate related)

- lending updates/local trends

- socialize and bond over our new reality

@Chris Lopez... interesting. This is a quote from my source, Lonnie Glessner (loan officer):

Fannie and Freddie yesterday released guidance on appraisals from now until May 17th. They both will accept a desktop appraisal in which an appraiser does not view the home or a drive-by appraisal and will not require a physical interior inspection of the property. The appraiser may rely on public records and the MLS pictures and descriptions instead of their own personal observation. However, if a borrower is buying a second home with less than 15% down a full interior inspected appraisal is still required.

@James Carlson - appraisal in at over $40K? Shouldn't you be bragging about this more in our Monday meeting?? Anyway, this is awesome and very happy for Savannah and John on this property. This will be a great first buy and I think it must be nice to have someone else paying the mortgage right now. 

This was a news story on March 21st. It's anecdotal, but I think speaks to the fact that people are still buying and there is still a lot of demand for Denver real estate, despite the corona virus scare. https://denver.cbslocal.com/2020/03/21/real-estate-coronavirus-colorado/

@Gray Hall - just saw that about remote appraisals as well. Looks like if you put less than 15% down and it's a second home, they require an in person, full appraisal, but otherwise have really loosened the requirements. 

@Chris Lopez, @James Carlson, @Colin Smith, @Craig Curelop, @Gray Hall

(tenants, being together, medium term, appraisers, not predicting, sseattle, 

I'd like to echo Gray's comment that the "do this together" comment is nice. I've heard a few people get pretty negative about the extension on the tenant lease, but I hope we all recognize that this is an issue for everyone and the best and fastest way our is civility and helping each other. @lizziecarver commented to me (before any of this) that she would never evict a tenant as long as communication continued and the relationship was good. I think that's a smart way to approach all business.

Re medium-term rentals, they are in demand at the moment, but that is because all of our properties are fairly close to hospitals. (We feel pretty strongly that any/all of our investments need to be close to hospitals or colleges so that if we move out of short-term rental, there are other options.) All of our Denver properties were already medium-term, and now we are converting our Colorado Springs properties as well. It is not that difficult- you just extend your minimum stay on Airbnb, and we also added our links to Facebook and Furnished Finders (which is $99/year, and which did result in one paying tenant.) The others came from FB marketplace. 

That's a great point about appraisers. They do tend to skew older right now, and completely understand why they would be the bottleneck/want to hold off. 

My personal client set has resulted in two closes since March 12th and one client dropping out. Most of my married couples or female investors want to lay low. I completely understand that feeling.

Agree with Craig that you can't predict the market. I'd be suspect of someone that does. We are doing two things though: 1.) looking to Seattle, since it is heavy on tech, an attractive place to live, expensive like Denver, etc. and has been hit pretty hard; and 2.) studying trends in 5 day increments to see if there are still listings and also if homes are going under contract. 

Anyway, again, thanks for starting this thread, Chris. It's helpful to have community and share info during this situation.