All Forum Posts by: Jenn N.

My husband and I are newer (18 months) to the Springs. We are currently house hacking (a duplex) in D20. It was a fantastic choice for us. I feel like we got lucky finding a big enough duplex for our family of 6. When we bought it we had no idea it was called house hacking. We just thought it would be nice to have a lower mortgage payment. We've not had any trouble renting out the second unit and our mortgage is almost covered by the rent next door. We also own a multi in the south by Ft Carson. It's not in a great area (personally being from southern CA they bad areas here aren't really all that bad) but our tenants pay on time every month and it's our best cash flowing property so far. We also own a couple condos. One cash flows well. The other cash flows but nothing to write home about. I will say the HOA is annoying to pay but on the other hand the condos have been significantly less work and they still cash flow. It seems like there is always something with the multis like sidewalk repairs, tree limbs, fences, roof repairs, etc...all things the HOA takes care of. We weren't planning on buying condos but ended up needing to do so because we were running out of time to complete a 1031. In hindsight, I don't regret it and would consider buying more if the numbers worked. Our plan was to pay off the condos off as quickly as possible to exchange for a multi but they've been so easy to rent and maintain that we may just hang onto them. Good luck. We love it here in the Springs. We traveled full time in an RV for 4 years before settling here in the Springs. We could have settle anywhere and are glad we chose here. Our teenagers love it as well. There is so much to do and the views never get old! :-)

I'm not a professional but we just got a few properties under contract and from my experience it is a good time to sell. Things have been moving so fast and we got outbid a number of times. Almost every property we put an offer on received multiple offers. We offered over asking price on two of the three that we have in contract. We would have rather waited to buy but we are doing a 1031 exchange so we didn't have a choice. Anyway just my experience of the last 40 days of searching for properties here.

@Account Closed Hi I'm Jenn. :-) We just moved to Colorado Springs after full time RVing for four years!!! How are you liking the full time RV life? My husband and I loved it but our two oldest (teens) were done and ready to be "normal". We couldn't convince them that normal is overrated. Anyway we bought a duplex in the Springs last year (house hacking) and are currently in escrow (selling) our old house in CA. We are actively looking for properties here in the Springs for a 1031 exchange. We are also considering buying something in the Indianapolis area where I'm from.

@Erin Donlan Thanks! I'm from Indy or actually Greenfield and my whole family lives there but I've been gone for some time and it has changed a lot. (I worked in the Gap in Circle Center when it first opened back in the mid 90s and the downtown was still kinda sketchy but now it's so great down there!) So while I'm somewhat familiar I don't have a good enough grasp to feel comfortable buying without more input and research. My cousin (who works in real estate but not as an agent) mentioned Bates-Hendricks over by Fountain Square. What do you think of that area? I'm also thinking about buying "back home" to Hancock County. Thoughts? 

@Edward Rhoads Thanks I had not thought about that. I don't know a wholesaler but I have a cousin who works in real estate maybe he does. I'll ask him. I was thinking about staying out of the 465 loop with the exception of possibility looking into Fountain Square or maaaaaybe Irvington. 

@Edward Rhoads Thanks I had not thought about that. I don't know a wholesaler but I have a cousin who works in real estate maybe he does. I'll ask him. I was thinking about staying out of the 465 loop with the exception of possibility looking into Fountain Square or maaaaaybe Irvington. 

@Norberto Villanueva Thank you for the kind response. :-) I'm trying to learn how to run numbers to analyze the two markets. I'm practicing a bit every day and getting better. Glad to hear what you said about the COS market. Well not glad it's a seller's market but glad to hear what I've gathered from my own personal analysis matches what you said. :-) When you mentioned the returns on COS real estate where you talking about flips or buy and hold rentals or..? Forgive me if it's obvious...like I said I'm totally a newbie when it comes to analyzing deals. As far as the Indianapolis market goes...from what I can tell there is a higher cash flow but I wonder about long term equity and the quality of tenants vs COS. Houses are so cheap there that it seems like most people I would want to rent to would buy...of course I know there are plenty of exceptions but the rental market here in the Springs seems stronger and less of a headache since we live here.  All of my family is near Indy so we would be there a few times a year to check up on things. I just don't know and don't yet have the confidence to make big decisions but we have to since we will be doing a 1031 and the clock starts ticking in October.

@Leslie Pappas Thank you for the advice. I'm afraid I'm not an accredited investor. In fact, I had to look up what that meant. My husband and I are really just a couple of free spirited gypsies who are trying to turn a bad investment we made a long time ago around. We sacrificed a lot financially while we waited for the CA market to (mostly) recover. Now we are trying to figure out what to do with our equity. I really want to buy around the world plane tickets for our family and spend a year living out of backpacks but a small voice tells me I should invest and wait until we build some passive income. :-) I'm spending every free moment educating myself because soon that 45 day clock will be clicking before we need to indentify a new property.  

Hi my name is Jenn. My husband and I are currently living (house hacking)  in Colorado Springs after traveling the country for 4 years in an RV. I've been around real estate my whole life (my dad and grandpa are land developers in the Indianapolis area) but until recently never had much interest in it. My husband and I refinanced our old house in CA in 2005 to fix and flip a house down the street. Given the year you can guess how that went. ;-) We finally sold that second house last year for a loss but took what we had left after the sale and bought a duplex out here in the Springs. We love house hacking so far...tiny mortgage and our tenants have been great. Our first house in CA is in escrow after renting it out for the last 11 years and we are getting ready to do a partial 1031 exchange. My head is about to explode crunching numbers. Both my husband and I are more creative types running a web design and media company but we are doing our best to educate ourselves this round. Currently we are going back and forth on whether to reinvest in the Springs or Indy. I think the numbers look better in Indy but we would like to stay where we live. Anyway we are mostly new to this...or at least new to researching and learning about real estate instead of being impulsive...and I'm loving the Bigger Pocket site and just read one of the books on rental properties. Anyway hi from Colorado Springs.