All Forum Posts by: Jeff White

@Connor Ryan Hi, yes, I've done that here in Denver metro as well as many other investor friends of mine.

Denver metro is a market that has a lot of opportunity and you can still cash flow as long as you are within 20 minutes of downtown Denver. There are lots of great areas to invest in, especially if you are a long-term buy and hold investor. 

One sweet spot is finding a property that is single family that has a mother-in-law apartment, basement apartment, or a separate entrance to the basement. It gives you multiple options to utilize the rent by room strategy, Airbnb, rent to a long-term tenant, or a combo of two of those strategies depending on your comfort level and time. 

If you want the best cash flow, you can find a single family house with a basement apartment, and live in one bedroom, rent out the other bedrooms upstairs, and then Airbnb the basement. It is a little more work with the Airbnb portion, but you will achieve great cash flow, probably $1000+ net cash flow per month over your mortgage.

If you want good cash flow and less work than above, you can buy a 5+ bedroom/3+ bathroom single family house, live in the smallest room, and then rent out all the bedrooms. You will get $750-800 per bedroom that has a shared bathroom, and $850-900 for the master bedrooms with private bathrooms. Net cash flow will be between $500-$1000 per month. Of course, check out occupancy limits in the county/city that you choose. 

If you want the least amount of work but lowest cash flow, I recommend finding a house with a basement/mother-in-law apartment, and live upstairs and then rent out the basement to a long-term tenant.

It really depends on you and your partner's goals. Denver metro has experience terrific appreciation like most metro markets, and over the last 40 years, Denver averages 5% appreciation, so Denver is a great bet long-term. 

@Allemreh A. Smith-Daniels Congrats on taking the first step!  I wouldn't give up entirely on deals in Denver metro. It depends on your goals. You can easily get higher overall returns here compared to other states/cities, especially with our appreciation rates the last 50 years on average. 

There are still deals that work, but you won't get necessarily the get highest cash flow due to the higher initial purchase price. If you want cash flow, you can still achieve it with 3 bed/2 bath condos out in Aurora, CO on Section 8. Or, if you don't like HOAs, another strategy that has worked for myself and other investors is renting by the the room in a large single family house in Arvada/Westminster/Northglenn/Thornton area. Both of those strategies still work today in August 2021 in Denver metro. Another strategy is buying a primary residence with a basement apartment and living upstairs and Airbnbing downstairs. That won't bring in the highest cash flow, but it would minimize your cost of living in a premium area and maybe even live for free. 

Thus, there are many strategies that work today. 

If you are looking at premium areas only, those are much harder to cash flow. 

@Nathanael Jones Welcome to Denver! Denver is a fantastic market for both STR and long-term buy and holds. It has its challenges of course with purchase price, but there are ways to make it work whether you are interested in condos/townhomes/single family or multis.

The key things to determine are what are your short and long-term goals, and then, you can come up with a strategy that will achieve those goals!

@Mason Hofer Congrats Mason on your first one!  The first one will give you the most learning experiences, but you will become that much better of an investor going forward. Littleton is a sweet suburb too, and I know Airbnb is still legal there as an investment property, so you have that option as well after you move out.   

@Damian Cummings If you are goal is short-term rentals, I would avoid condos and townhomes since those are govern by HOAs, and 99% of them don't allow short-term renting like Airbnb.

Denver allows short-term rentals, but only as a primary, so once you move out, you couldn't Airbnb the basement anymore. 

Like @Kevin Smith said, Arvada, Littleton and Wheat Ridge allow short-term rentals as investment properties, but who knows how long that will last, so it would be wise to focus on those areas if you goal is short-term renting investing. 

@Kayla Givens Great stuff!  I'm excited to hear about the numbers on this one compared to renting by room to normal tenants. 

@Martin Rydder Hi Martin, I'm a local Denver investor. To answer your questions, it really depends on the scale and scope. Since you are coming from San Fran, labor costs are definitely cheaper here, but material costs are about the same.

It depends on what type of project that you are getting yourself into. Are you planning for a true fix and flip investment property?  Cosmetic rehab?  Something else?

Also, what's your budget for purchasing your home? Are you looking to house hack or more of a live in flip or fix and flip or BRRRR strategy?

@Blaine Martinez Depends on the Housing Authority and how backed up there are, usually 1-2 weeks

@Jill Valentich have you thought about a cash out refinance? Why not keep it as a rental? After that,, you can purchase another primary and then use the rest as a down payment on an investment property?

That way, you get the benefit of the low interest rates, hold your current house as a rental to benefit from more appreciation, buy another primary, and also use the extra money to generate even more income with a investment property. That will increase your ROI of all that equity sitting in your house.

@Nick Cooley I'm more than happy to help, I have a few Section 8 tenants, and I know how to navigate through it. It is based on HUD rental rates based on bedroom count that then applied to the county level and then to the housing authority:

Start https://www.huduser.gov/portal...

Search for whichever county that the property is located in, and then you can approximate the rents you will receive by bedroom size, and most housing authorities go 90-110% of that number depending on location, surrounding market rents, amenities, etc.