All Forum Posts by: John Barrett

@Mindy Jensen I ran into the same thing in Aurora. I know there are exceptions but I looked in it looked like a laundry list of things. I found out about the dog in my background check, tenant was calling the pitbull a "terrier". At the end of the day it was a pet so I wasn't going to get much more rent or deposit and I was going to be taking on more risk, so I decided to pass. I liked the tenant too, but figured didn't want to get into a fight or potential fight with the city.

@Michael Warinner It took me 3 years before I bought my 1st property. Then it took me another 4 years after to get my second and third. Then 2 years to buy my 4th. I averaged 1 a year for a couple of years. Then I was buying properties ever 6-9 months or so. In 2018 I sold 1 bought 6. I'm still fairly small. I like SFH, duplex, triplex, and quads. I recently started a short term rental / Airbnb. It's an area investing that worked for me. Any time I ran across some "old timer" I asked him/her to tell me her story and if they had any tips or tricks for me. I've meet some shady people as well. One real estate investor/agent sold me a property with a bad tenant and then at closing screwed me out of the deposit he got from the tenant. Then tried to take one of my good tenants away. T

@Kenneth White I agree with John B...ask him to tell you his story and listen

@Michael Warinner If college isn't for you and you're taking out student loans to pay for it. I can understand your logic and reasoning for quitting. College wasn't for me but I did get a degree. I couldn't tell you 1 thing I learned from a single class or test, and the only paper I can remember was my last one. The only reason I remember it was because the 1st line was "By my calculation I need 5 more points to pass this class and if this extra credit paper isn't enough here's my phone number call me and let me know so we can work something out" I started College with something like a 3.5 and by the end I had something like a 1.8. I took the stance D's get degrees. By the end I was DONE with school I knew what I wanted to do and realized that the degree was nothing more than a piece of paper. I will say that the life lessons I learned in College are priceless. College is fun, exciting, and about exploring. Joining the working class/force is about work. RE can be a lucrative career and IMHO is the easiest way to get wealthy. But as someone who started out with negative 80k in net worth and now has an excess of 4mil its NOT easy and there is NOTHING glamorous about cleaning / fixing toilet's, paying bills for repair costs because a tenant destroyed a property, or dealing with a bad tenant or HOA, going to work for 8-10 hours at your day job and then going back to work again for another 6-10 hours on your RE, giving up vacation, fancy cars or clothes or dinner, Being covered in paint and drywall dust after working 16-20 hours knowing your just going to do the same thing tomorrow and next day and the day after that. I used my degree to get a job. I used my paycheck from that job to fund my real estate purchases. No one has EVER asked me about my GPA, about some book I read or supposed to have read, about fact a teacher told me in a lecture, etc. BUT I have been asked MULTIPLE times about how I built my wealth. It always starts the same...."I was poor and just finished College" In my opinion you only need 4 things to succeed in anything: 1. Desire 2. Time 3. Tools / place to work 4. Cash If you don't have cash or access to it your desire and ideas are as worth as much as the paper they are written on. My advice is to finish school while working, just so you can have a safety net or insurance policy. In this case taking on more risk doesn't increase your reward. Earn as much cash as you can protect your credit and reputation as if your life depends on it.

I sold another house in Park Hill that i had for about 13 years this past year (2017) and with the profits I bought 2 in Highlands, via 1031 exchange. I only had about 15k in that house including the down payment and the rehab costs (it was my 1st) 

As a long term without s single dollar I know as it on the low end it would rent for about 26-28k a year, as a short term it looks like 40-65k a year. Its 3 blocks off Tennyson st in the Berkley / Highlands area. The view out the front door is GREAT actually. Currently it's 3/1 about 1800 sq ft. I'm getting ready to add a 2nd bathroom. If all goes well and I hit my numbers. I'm debating on adding a roof top deck. With the roof top deck i could get as much as 80k a year. 

So to negate my risks, I got my short term license made sure it all legal, got a little extra insurance policy, any of furniture and decorations I bought I'm sure I can sell if need, and I'm currently looking at different software packages/ platforms that I can host the property on the various channels (VRBO, Booking.com, Expedia, etc) to get a more exposure. I want to make sure I can run it a from 1 app but I want it hosted on as many as possible, and I  teamed up with a co-host that has Super Host / Airbnb Plus status. I figured worse case I can always just turn it back into a long term rental. 

I know for fact it will cash flow as a long term rental. I'm fairly confident that the area will appreciate or shouldn't take too much of a hit IF the housing market goes down. I don't know for certain that this will pay off. Simply because I've never done it before and I don't know what I don't know. Plus my crystal ball these days is a little murky. 

I recognize I'm still new to short term rentals and I'm still a relatively small investor too but I figure if I don't push myself to learn / try something new then no one else is going to do it for me. 

If you have any ideas or suggestions I'd gladly take and appreciate any advice or words or wisdom you can provide. 

Thanks 

John Barrett 

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment in Denver Metro.

Purchase price: $370,000
Cash invested: $125,000

Venture into the Short Term Rental Market Airbnb

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

I have several long term investments around the Denver Area and I could still rent this as a long term rental, but wanted to expand my property management skills to include short term rentals