All Forum Posts by: James Carlson

Hi @Alex Bock . If you're up for a little bit of work, I say go for it. I am Airbnb's biggest fan, and if you're in the right area, it can help you pay some or all of your mortgage. A couple items to consider:

Yes, you definitely want to check your local laws. These are never easy to find. Google will not help you much. I'd go direct to the source. Call the planning department or zoning department at city hall and ask them what their regulations are on Airbnb or short-term rentals (STRs) less than 30 days. Even if Davenport does have a law or is considering a law, you could very well still be okay. Most municipalities passing laws are allowing STRs only in your primary residence, so you should be fine. 

Also, you definitely want to check out short-term rental insurance. If you're relying on your homeowners policy, and something happens to a guest during a short-term stay, your carrier WILL deny the claim if they discover the purpose of that person's stay. Check out CBIZ or Slice.co for insurance.

About the dog or cat, don't worry too much about them. There are very few issues that are deal breakers for everyone. (Hairs on the bathroom floor are one, for instance.) The biggest thing I tell my Airbnb class in Denver is: Just be up front in your listing about what your space includes and does not include. Do you have a dog? Fine. A lot of people are dog people and will either be neutral about or excited about your dog. Do you only allow access to that downstairs space and NOT the kitchen? That's fine. Just be sure to say that in the listing.

Good luck with everything!

Hey @Dylan Grabowski . Welcome to BP! It's a great community of people who are generous with their knowledge. If you're ever coming to Denver, check out the meetup page to see if there's an event going on. Good luck!

@Myka Artis, No, I haven't heard of anyone using it. If I ever read about it or hear of someone, I'll post on here again. I would consider emailing a print-out of their policy to an insurance carrier and seeing what, if anything, it's missing. 

@Myka Artis & @Michaela G. Airbnb actually has two programs it offers hosts. One is the Host Guarantee. That covers damage to your property, but it is not insurance, and I believe it's secondary to your primary insurance policy.  The other is the Host Protection plan offers primary coverage for liability against third-party claims of bodily or property harm. (Someone breaks a wrist in your home or floods your bathroom which damages the downstairs neighbor's property.)

Truthfully, until I just looked this up, I only knew about the Host Guarantee and always advised my Airbnb students to get their own independent coverage to cover liability. The Host Protection plan seems to cover a lot of that, though I haven't read through the details. More due diligence is warranted. Here's a good breakdown of the difference between the two. 

@Nancy Bachety, I don't offer trip insurance, and I don't know of any host or short-term rental platform that does. 

Hi @Sky Moede. Welcome to Bigger Pockets! Others above have already mentioned taking the first step to talk to a lender. From there, you can craft a home search to meet your goals. As for a real estate agent (and as with anyone you have on your "team"), make sure they have an understanding of the type of buying/investing that you want to do. And make sure you feel comfortable with them. You're going to have questions along the way, and you want someone who you can be open and honest with about what you know and don't know and what you need. So poke around here, read forums and find people doing what you want to do, then reach out and connect with a few. Good luck!

Hey @Scott Lepore. I totally agree. My buyers lost two homes recently. On one, they bid $25k over and weren't even in the final two for the running. The other, they bid $50k over and lost to a cash buyer who also bid $50k over. On @Erin Shine's question, I agree with @Matt M. that Denver's not going down any time soon. Everyone seems to think that high prices mean bubble. IMO, the forces driving this market are simple supply and demand. We have thousands moving here each month and record low inventory of homes to buy. That equals higher prices. We've got low unemployment, a diversified economy, good beer, legal weed, the mountains and 300 days of sun. And we're still cheaper than the other "cool" cities on the coast. Will the 10-15% price increases continue forever? No, but I don't see the numbers supporting the idea that we're going to contract and stagnate.

Hey @Kevin Lefeuvre. I used to host at a couple different properties and used CBIZ. VRBO pushes for them because CBIZ and VRBO parent company, HomeAway, are partnered up. Don't let that deter you. They offer a good product. I don't hear great things about Airbnb's $1M back-up plan. It's secondary, so you have to make a claim on your primary carrier's policy first. 

You might also look at Slice.co. They're a startup with a different model. While CBIZ offers a traditional monthly payment, year-long like coverage, Slice is on-demand coverage. Fill out their information, and then every time you need it, you just text/email/call/etc. to let them know it's on. I think it's $5-7/day, and at least according to their modeling, you would have to host something like more than 270 days a year before it would be more expensive than a year-long policy.

Hey @Lashaw Salta. Welcome to BP! And to Denver! Cool city, the mountains, 300 days of sun. I'm a total geek for Denver. You couldn't come to a better site if you're looking to invest, especially for the Denver metro market. This place is flooded with Denver area people who know any niche of the industry. 

I think @Whitney Hutten asks a central question: What are your goals? As she said, if you're looking for big cash flow, Denver probably isn't going to cut it. You might look in the midwest. 

But if you're moving here and are going to have to live somewhere anyway, what about house-hacking? You could take a few roommates and have them cover most or all of your mortgage. Depending on your price point, you could also look for a duplex. Or a home with a basement unit can work the same. You get a home, you get someone else paying a lot of your mortgage and it serves as landlord pre-school for when you want to expand to other properties. Just a thought.

Good luck and welcome to Denver!

@Bryan Tench. Interesting post. I love the idea. (I actually put in an offer for a buyer this weekend for a SFH in Englewood with a basement in-law suite.) Others have offered some great insights about zoning issues, so I won't wade into that area.

I will reiterate what @Bill S. said about Airbnb laws. While the Lakewood code doesn't currently address short-term rentals like Airbnb and VRBO, in all likelihood it will soon. Many cities are following Denver's lead here. Aurora just passed a similar law. Edgewater just put a moratorium on STRs while they figure it out. Arvada doesn't address it in their code, but their planning department director has issued a letter opining that STRs are not allowed. Castle Pines city attorney has issued a similar letter. This is all to say, if rules aren't promulgated yet in your city, they will be soon.

So ... how are you to plan? I look to Aurora as an example of what might come. Officials there said they looked at Denver's new law when drafting their ordinance. The end result was that STRs are allowed but only in your primary residence. I'm guessing this primary residence rule will become the norm. So this would allow you to do what you proposed (at least under the STR rules; again, not sure about zoning.) But a big caution: If you plan to move on to other house-hacking opportunities or just move into another place, then you might not be allowed to rent one unit as an STR, as it would no longer be your primary residence. So be sure that when you run the numbers that it would still work if that potential STR were a long-term rental ... because some day it might be.

Congrats on getting out there. Good luck!

@Jake Walroth. Congrats! What a nice looking space. That will show well on Airbnb. As @Sean Walton said, use Airbnb's free photography. Check out the below example from a "garden level" unit I used to rent on Airbnb. The second is what Airbnb can do for your place. 

There are plenty of threads on here about Airbnb, so instead of reinventing the wheel, I'll just copy from an old post of mine:

Staging and photography

Maybe the most important step. You've got to remember that potential guests are looking at 18 listings per page and making snap judgments based on a quick glance. Remove everything that's not necessary and use Airbnb's free photography to get some nicely lit photos. (You wouldn't believe the dimly-lit-sheets-askew photos some people throw up there and hope to get booked.)

Pricing

Positive reviews are one of only a few factors Airbnb has publicly said affect where your listing lands in the Airbnb search results. So getting a couple good reviews quickly is key, and to do that, you need to get people in quick.

To find your base price, play like you're a guest and search for similar homes in your immediate vicinity. (Don't put in any dates. That will filter out people who are booked, and you want to see the prices for people who get booked.) Be sure to look for ones that have similar features as yours, similar design and space and ones that have a good number of reviews. (You don't want to base your price off a listing that never gets booked.) Then start your prices 20-30 percent lower. That's the only way you'll differentiate yourself in a tight market with other listings that already have reviews. Treat those first few guests like royalty. Get some great reviews, then start bumping up your price.

Calendaring

If you're looking to fully book your place (and watch out what you wish for; it's a lot of work), then learn to manipulate the minimum-and-maximum-stay feature. When you start out, for instance, you might pick a 3-day minimum stay. So then you get a booking for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and another booking for Saturday, Sunday and Monday. You're left with 2 days floating in between these stays that, because of your 3-day minimum, will not even be seen by anyone searching. As soon as you see that two-day block, then you'd go into the calendar, click on "Availability Settings" then "Add another requirement" and change your minimum-stay requirement to only 2 days for those floaters.

Be nice!

I can't emphasize this enough. Be enthusiastic and nice in your first message, in all subsequent responses, in your first face-to-face interaction and in any phone calls/texts you have during your guests' stay. This is both an offensive and a defensive tactic. It's offensive because your kindness may spill into the good review they'll leave. That's a good thing! It's defensive because I've found that even if a guest has a bad time at your place, if they like you, they don't want to leave a bad review. I've hosted tens of people who I know had something go wrong during their stay, and they either don't leave a review or leave a review that simply says the host was super attentive and nice.

Good luck!