All Forum Posts by: James Carlson

@Kelly Sennholz -- Just to add to @Kevin Dickson 's list of builders, you could also give Bello Homes (or Bello Custom Homes?) a call as well. I know they do a good number of carriage houses, so they might have an understanding of tandem houses as well. 

@Kevin Dickson Interesting to hear your perspective on the market value of the tandem homes. By the way, I'm going to PM you. I'd love to chat further about these.

As a corollary to your point, I have people at my Airbnb events ask me whether building a carriage house or putting in a basement apartment will help their resale value. I haven't seen it reflected yet. The homes I find for buyers wanting to live up top and do Airbnb in the basement (or vice versa) don't seem to be that differently priced than just a straight up SFH in the same neighborhood. Now, I could see that changing in the future as more people start to do Airbnb, realize the potential revenue and see that an ADU or basement apartment is the only way to do it full-time in Denver.

Thanks for notifying me of this, @Bill S. @Kevin Dickson - the U-RH zoning allows it as well, but again, there are better uses for that land than just a simple carriage house. I was interested in what you were saying about the basements. So I've got clients coming to me all the time wanting to do Airbnb. You can only operate a short-term rental in Denver in your primary residence. I help them find SFHs with basement apartments (or existing carriage houses) where they can legally rent on Airbnb full-time. 

Are you saying if someone found a home with a nice-sized basement and wanted to cut out a separate entrance and put in a kitchen down there, that that's not allowed in anything other than the TU zoning? 

Just as a gripe, when will the city open up the zoning code to allow to more areas to build new ADUs. All this griping about affordable housing, and at least one good tool has been taken completely off the table. 

HI @Timothy Church I would be interested in that report as well, if you're open to sharing it. Thanks. 

Welcome, @Lynae Chambers -- That's awesome to hear how you're using Airbnb. You're in a great location. I used to think that you could only profit from Airbnb in the heart of Denver, but I've consulted with people all across the metro area. I'm particularly thinking of a young couple who own a small home in Lakewood, not really near much. They were renting out their spare room at around 80% occupancy and doing great. So there is just such demand for vacation rentals or short-term rentals in Denver, it's hard to go wrong. (That is, if you've done up your space right.)

@Evan Miller -- Right, creative calendaring ... By that, I mean using Airbnb's tools to maximize your occupancy and the ease of hosting. Let's say you set a 3-night minimum stay. If you have Friday, Saturday Sunday booked and then the following Wednesday, Thursday, Friday booked, that leaves Monday and Tuesday in no-man's land. They won't show up in any potential guest's search because that's two days, and you have a three-day minimum. So, then you go into "availability settings," click on "add another requirement," choose those two days and make the minimum stay for that period "two days." Now someone can book it. 

It's just a way to pack in as many people as you can. 

@Chris Lopez -- This always depends on the specific place and the furnishings. (Totally outdated furniture can kill even the nicest spaces.) I did a little creeping through my MLS access and found Evan's place. I know this building. Newer build. Spacious. Underground parking spot. And in a prime spot for Airbnb in Denver. It's half a block to Steuben's and Ace and Park & Co. I have a friend who owned the same style unit and was Airbnbing the whole unit a few years ago. He was as full as he wanted to be.

If I were Evan, I'd live in the smaller front room and rent out the master suite with the double vanity and jetted tub, make sure there's a nice flat-screen in there with good cable offerings and maybe a little coffee area so that they don't have to come out if they don't want to. I'd also consider offering the underground parking spot. That would make this place very appealing. 

My thought would be to start around $60-$70 to undercut the immediately nearby competition. Once he has some reviews -- which pushes him up the Airbnb search rankings -- then you start to increase your rental rate. I think once he started rolling, he could conservatively get $90 a night during the high seasons. (And I bet more, especially for big events like the Great American Beer Fest.) From maybe mid-April to late October, I'd push for 80% occupancy. With creative calendaring, he could probably get 30 nights a month during peak summer (July-August). Come November, in my experience, demand takes a nosedive, so starting in mid-September, I'd post the room on Craigslist for a 3-6 month lease starting in November and try to get a traveling nurse/business person in there for the slow months. 

This is all depending on how he decks it out. Get some nice furnishings, deck it out. Make it a cool little city retreat. Offer the parking spot. Have a coffee area and a good big flat-screen. And get nice photos. 

@Chris Lopez , are you talking about avg. nightly income for @Evan Miller 's room as he's described it? Or are you talking about some other kind of Denver home? Maybe one with a basement apartment or carriage house for Airbnb?

@Rick Munoz I'm a bit late to this thread, but how do you feel about Athmar Park or Ruby Hill. Most of those homes are tiny 2 bedroom spaces. (Thought I just got a buyer under contract on a 3br space in Athmar Park for your price range -- We'll see once the appraisal comes back; it could be well under your upper limit.) I kind of like the smaller spaces. You live in it for a year or two and then move out. The location still really close to downtown Denver and as the young millennial couples who want to buy in the city get priced out, they're going to push to the next stop. A small 2-bedroom with a little yard 10 minutes drive to downtown will sound quite nice to them. My two cents, at least.

@David Graham Totally! There ARE a lot of opportunities that people aren't taking advantage of. But it depends on the city. There are plenty of cities that allow Airbnb in a lot of forms but not another form. In Denver, renting the other side of duplex or triplex, even if you live in one of the units, is not allowed because those other units are another address and therefore not your primary residence. Plenty of other cities, however, will totally allow you to do that. Check out the rules in Pittsburgh and wherever you're looking in Florida and see what they have to say. (BTW, finding the Airbnb laws can be difficult, so go direct to the source. Call the planning or zoning department and talk to someone.) Florida's probably a better bet for you as from what I've heard many of their cities have more lax rules. 

@Peter R. and @Kevin Lefeuvre Interesting discussion. We'll see how Denver feels once they see the tax revenue coming in. I'd love to think that it would change some minds about the city's current primary residence requirement, but that's foolhardy when neighborhood associations -- who loathe Airbnb -- are so tight with the city council.

Denver doesn't currently have an agreement with Airbnb, VRBO or any other short-term rental platform. BUT, what they are doing is rewriting their tax laws to allow third-party vendors to collect on behalf of hosts. (What the city tells me is that they don't want to have to strike deals with each platform. Instead, they'll open up their laws to anyone. Now ... whether Airbnb or VRBO will actually start collecting and remitting those taxes is yet to be seen.) The treasury department guy says it will be done by the end of the year. I can tell you that hosts will be quite happy about that.