All Forum Posts by: James Carlson

@Chris Zhang

First off, congrats on taking a big step. It's exciting to get into the real estate world and when you do, you realize it's not as crazy or complicated as it might seem. We love the rent-by-the-room model and just had some clients do it successfully in Aurora, just outside of Denver. We've also had some clients do it in Colorado Springs, so we see it work in different locations. To your questions ... 

-- Roomster can work pretty well. So can Roommate.com. Also, get into any local medium-term/furnished rental Facebook groups in your area. There's usually a group for those seeking housing options. (Airbnb, Facebook mareketplace and Zillow are also good options.) Hit all the platforms at first and after a few tenants and a year or so, you'll start to see which platforms work best for you.

-- It's certainly more work to manage multiple leases, but it's not hard. Just find a good lease, be clear and firm about enforcing it with all parties and generally, you'll be okay.

-- The best house for this model depends on a few things -- prices of bigger homes, how many roommates you want to have, how many unrelated people are legally allowed to live together in your city, etc. In general, it seems like a 3-4 bedroom home works really well.

I wish you luck!

Definitely give Proper Insurance a call. They're the best out there our book and cover both sides of our duplex that we Airbnb/short-term rent in Colorado Springs. Always better to go with a company that specializes in short-term rental insurance so you have the comfort of knowing for sure that you're covered. 

@John Collins

Interesting question. Can't speak for other markets, but we're here in Denver and Colorado Sprigs. While there are searches you can do on the MLS for rentals, so few landlords list their properties on the MLS that I don't think it gives an accurate portrait of rental prices.

As someone else said, we use -- and have many of our investor clients use -- Rentometer. We also use Facebook marketplace and zillow. Just be aware that none of those sites give you prices that people actually received in rent. Those sites are all based on the average price of rental listings. They won't know what they actually got. So sometimes you'll see a similar unit for, say $2,200, when you've heard it should be closer to $1,800. On closer inspection, you notice that that the $2,200 listing has been on for 55 days. Hmmm...no one's biting at that price? Tells me you can't charge that.

So just keep that in mind.

@John Mayer

No fancy new info here. Just confirming what others have said. Maybe some lenders in Denver have trouble with this but many do not. If you're doing 3-month furnished rent-by-the-room rentals, I'd still get year leases for the lenders but include some sort of opt-out clause for the tenants.

Yes, please. 

@Catie Lawrence

Great post. I think you're at the right place. My wife and I are getting our employing broker license here in the next few weeks so we'll be interested in hearing from people like you. 

I think what @Aaron K. said is correct. If you're looking for any kind of actual direction and input on deals and the process, I'd go with a brokerage that will actually hold your hand along the way and make sure you succeed. Some of the bigger box agencies in Denver are really all about volume. They'll take anyone and if you make a deal, then great, they get some money, but you're really just a number. A smaller/medium agency is better in my opinion and make sure you know who it is that you'll talk to about deals and that you know they're going to be there when it counts.

If you don't need any direction at all, then go with a discount brokerage that charges a small monthly fee and a small portion of any deal. We've been with Broker's Guild. They take $25/mo and $195/deal. But you get what you pay for with that as well. 

I wish you luck. 

@Susan Grinde

That must be a tough decision to make. There are probably too many variables left unsaid to give any good advice on a public forum. I think there are two ways of looking at this:

As a pure investment
Any property owned for a long time in Denver will probably make your mother good cash flow, and it sounds like you already know this.

As a potential workload for ... you? her? to handle
You could definitely put a property manager in charge of this, and a good one will make it feel like you don't have any work. But you will have to make decisions, and at certain points, it will be a bit of a headache. I imagine that will fall on your shoulders.

In the end, the decision will likely be you weighing which of the above are more important. As others have said, reach out to a broker in the area and get some advice. I wish you luck. 

@Jon Hill Loved your goals, too, especially date night. Gotta set priorities for the ones we love. If that falls apart, a lot of other things go by the wayside. And congrats on the engagement! Been married now for four years (and to my business partner, no less).

If I'm ever up in Firestone, I'll buy you a beer. Cheers!

@Stephen Broadus

Sounds like you're in a good position to do a furnished rent-by-the-room model, as @Roni E. said. With a university and a base nearby, you have a built-in market for it. (Add a hospital in there, and you have the holy trinity!) We just had some buyer clients do this model near a hospital here in Denver, and it's going to do well for them. (You can read the deal diary of that one here.)

Good luck!

Great post! Goals below, both real estate and non-real estate:

1. Buy two properties
Okay, we kind of jumped the gun on this and just closed a week ago on a SFH in Colorado Springs, which we're going to house hack for a bit before moving back to Denver and then renting the whole SFH as an Airbnb short-term rental. I'm cheating and counting that as one and we want to add an out-of-state property as well.

2. Become an employing broker
Through hosting real estate classes the last three years I've found that I love teaching. As an employing broker, we can bring in younger real estate agents in Denver and Colorado Springs and educate them about and guide them through the industry. 

3. Read 20 books, five of them non-fiction
For me -- a political junkie who falls heavily on one side of the spectrum -- 2019 was a bit of a rough year and therefore I read only fiction that took my mind off world happenings. I think it's time to reacquaint myself with non-fiction in 2020.

4. Win a pickleball tournament in singles. 
It's not just for old people! Luckily, my wife bought me a pickleball machine for Christmas so I'm going to get to obsess over my forehands for hours at a time. Also, any serious singles pickleball players in Denver or Colorado Springs, reach out!

5. Remember the name of everyone I meet the first time.
Connections are important and remembering names right away is a great first step to building stronger connections.

Hope everyone has a happy and prosperous 2020!