All Forum Posts by: Jenn N.

@Paige Kelsey We have a few Airbnbs (and LTRs) here in the Springs. As of now my husband and manage them but are trying to build a back up list for help. Would you mind if I PM you? Maybe we can share resources and help each other out. :-)

@Tony Hill Did you ever find anyone? I’m in the same boat.

Hi! My husband and I live in the Springs with our four kids. And get this...we lived full time in an RV for four year before settling and investing here! We absolutely love it here although we overall prefer road life. The Springs has been good to us. We own a handful of properties and are currently converting one of our LTR to short term. We also househack a duplex (best decision ever financially) but will most likely buy another property and turn our side into an Airbnb. Best of luck!!

We bought our first property (a duplex house hack) in the Springs at the end of 2015 and added three more properties (a few condos and a 4-plex) late in 2016. We’ve been very happy with the performance of our properties. They are all located in different parts of town and each one has been easy to rent with good tenants. Personally I prefer the condos because the cash flow is almost as good as the multi but the work is very minimal. (We have four kids and our own business so we are spinning a lot of plates.) Overall our experience has been similar to @Jenny Bayless’s and I agree with her insights. We are hoping to buy again this year but most of what I see on the mls is priced higher than I’m willing to pay or it goes under contract within hours. I’ve felt a little disheartened but I know there are creative ways to find properties. I just like the ease of using the mls and a great agent. 

We have rented out our primary residence on Airbnb (1/2 of the duplex) when we travel for the summer and a few holidays and it’s been a good experience. I’m amazed at how quickly it rents. We decided at the last minute (like a week before) to rent it out over Christmas and it was rented nearly the entire holiday. I can’t speak for the slower seasons but we are going to try Airbnb exclusively when our current tenants move out. I’m excited to see how it goes.

I personally don’t find any areas of the Springs “bad” but I grew up near Indianapolis and I spent a significant portion on my life in Southern California...both being places that have truly BAD areas in comparison to the Springs. It’s all relative I guess. 

I LOVE the Springs and think it’s one of the greatest places in the country. Before moving here we lived in an RV for four years traveling to 49 of the 50 States. My husband is a freelance web designer so we could have lived anywhere but chose Colorado Springs. We don’t plan on leaving anytime soon. My belief is that the city is going to continue to grow as more people discover how great it is and get priced out of Denver. 

We’ve used a few lenders here. One I loved...the other not so much. Our broker is awesome too.  If you are interested in getting their names send me a pm. :-)

We are househacking a large duplex on the north side of town. We Airbnb our side when we travel in the summer and over holidays. It's a bit of work but worth it to us. (We are minimalist and not very attached to our stuff.) It rents very easy. In fact, our summer tenants are moving in for 2 months tomorrow while their son trains at the Olympic center. When our tenants move out we'll probably make the other side into an Airbnb. 

@Account Closed Hmmmm...crime is my worry down there. Thanks for sharing your knowledge on the area. I've just started to research the area. I read your profile I was raised in Indiana too and my husband and I have four boys. We love living in Colorado Springs but with prices going up so rapidly we are not sure we are going to be able to keep investing here. 

@Robert Herrera Hi Robert. I've been reading your post with interest about Pueblo. My husband and I have been investing in the Springs but we are are interested in buying in Pueblo as well. I'm on PPAR right now and the least expensive SF I see is 115k. Do you mind PMing me with info and advice on searching in Pueblo? We have a super fast agent and I found all our properties up here in the Springs using Redfin, PPAR, and Zillow.  I'm just not seeing anything close to 50k properties but perhaps I'm looking in the wrong places! Thanks so much!

Hello. My husband and I moved here in 2015. We are new investors as well with similar  goals as you. We purchased a few properties last year. We are spending this year renovating and getting them up to speed. Hoping to buy again early next year. 

@Mitzmichael Sumilang Surprisingly I found out 4plex on Redfin. Even more surprising the previous year I found our duplex on Zillow. I can be pretty OCD and I was checking incessantly both times. As soon as I saw the properties I was texting my realtor while running numbers and we put in offers within hours of the properties being listed. I don't really understand how Zillow works bc most of the time properties on there are already under contract. I don't know why our house (duplex) popped up new 2 am that night while others are out of date. 

@Jon Pacitto I still keep an eye out but it will be a few more months until we are in a position to buy again. We are busy rehabbing our 4plex. We are trying to decide if our next move will be another multi or like the above poster mentioned something we can live in and AirBnb a portion of at the same time. We traveled last summer and AirBnB-ed our current house. AirBnB worked out great for us. One thing RV living taught us was not to get too attached to stuff. That mindset makes it easy for us to rent our place out short term when we are going on an extended trip. The 1% rent/sales is a bit difficult to find but we managed to get over that on one property and really really really close on two others. The next turnover we should be there.  Be persistant.