All Forum Posts by: Ryan Williams

I hope so! It's interesting, I looked at houses in the median ($500-600K) with a buyer this weekend, and one home goes for $80K over and another home with similar finishes in a similar neighborhood, priced pretty fairly (maybe overpriced $10K) didn't get any offers. I think rates have made people slow down and really think about what they want to buy, but when multiple buyers love the same home, the bidding wars are still happening!

@Tyler Edens, awesome situation! My wife and I are doing basically the same as you are planning to do, and it's working out really well! @Kayla Givens gave all the advise I was about to give! I used a 0% interest credit card on mine to do some repairs and furnishing purchases and it was paid off after 2 months of launching our airbnb. I would also add the advice of just doing everything you can on your own if you are up for it and have the time. The sweat equity will pay off! And for the HELOC, you can definitely see how much you could get once you close, but with only 3% down, you may not be able to pull any or very much money out as most primary HELOCs will only let you go up to 90% Loan to Value on the credit line, and a lender/bank would probably require their own appraisal or use their own appraisal software (That has been my experience at least). Regardless you are doing it right and are going to get ahead going for this route!

Thanks @Mike Dymski and @Ron Brady!

Hello all, I am a short term rental host here in Denver, but only have experience in STR's 30 days or less. I feel like I have a good analysis system for those kind of listings, but I am coming across a lot of people who are interested in Mid Term/Corporate rentals (aka 30-60-90 day rentals), and I'm struggling to come up with a good pricing strategy for that. I haven't come across a good software for mid term, it seems like airdna and mashvisor are geared more towards daily rates (I could be missing something). When I compare properties side by side on the platforms when looking in "book for a month" view, prices are all over the place for the same type of property in the same neighborhood. Wondering if someone has a system for comparing on multiple sites that allows them to come up with a "monthly rate", or a software they would recommend. Thanks!

@Ryan Schildroth Like everyone else has said, book the pro photographer and get it totally ready to go before uploading/launching the listing. The platforms (Airbnb/VRBO) boost your listing in the first month it is on the market and depending on the views and booking it gets in the first month sets your "ranking" in the algorithm. You don't want two weeks of that time being "coming soon" with just a couple pics.   Also, back to pictures, I don't think you have to spend $500 on photos unless it's a large luxury style property.  We use one of the larger listing photo companies here in Denver, and they charge about $150 for 25 photos and they are great.  I'm sure KC has something equivalent to that, I hope this is helpful! 

Hi @Adam Gonzalez, I use the Yale Assure Lock. It syncs to Airbnb within the app on your phone. Using a wifi bridge you can control the lock from an app on your phone from anywhere as long as it is connected to the wifi. It can send out the auto codes for just the duration of a guest's stay, and it has the option to send codes or have someone download the app for "codeless"/"no touch" entry, but I opt for the code to make it as simple as possible. I also like this version better because it has buttons rather than touch screen as the interface.  I had the touch screen one first, and I had a lot of problems with it timing out, battery issues, touch screen not working etc. I haven't had a problem since I switched over to this one. Also, it has a key option, which is great to have for back up in case the batter dies while a guest is there.  I have an extra key in a lockbox by the door just in case, so someone can still get in. I hope this helps!

Hey @Adolfo Herrera, I love what you are trying to accomplish!  With rising interest rates, the margins are definitely tighter than what they were a few years ago.  For a situation like this it's all about your goals. Goals will keep you focused and help you say "yes" or "no" much easier to any house you come across.  Your goal could be - "I want house hacking to cover 100% of my mortgage" (or 75%, or 50% etc.) My wife and I had the goal to house hack and it pay 100%+ of the mortgage, we were able to do this setting up airbnb in the back half of the house and it pays out more than our mortgage, you can check out the whole story on my forum post about it. 

I'm in Denver and would love to be a resource in any way I can, feel free to reach out!

Hi Shaydon, everyone else's input has been great. You may have done this already, but it's key to see if your property is zoned to have an ADU in Denver. From an equity/appreciation stand point it definitely depends on your neighborhood on how much an ADU would increase the value of a property. If your primary home can be rehabbed from old to modern finishes you would likely see a lot more sweat equity there. Here is a link to the bigger pockets podcast when they brought on an ADU expert, and they give some insights into your exact scenario and when it is best to build an ADU.

I would love to see a philanthropic book about leveraging real estate investing success for the good others.  This could include success stories of people and what they chose to do to give back, mentors helping newbies become successful, rags to riches stories, creating generational wealth through real estate with people who don't come from much.  There are a thousand books on how to do real estate investing, and creating vision for what success can afford you, but I think there would be an audience who wants to cultivate a vision of how you could give back and be generous once you have found success. I would read that in a heartbeat! 

Investment Info:

Single-family residence other investment in Denver.

Purchase price: $485,000
Cash invested: $25,000

This is our House Hack / Airbnb that we currently live in. We live in the front half and airbnb the private entrance 1 bedroom, 1 bath, living room (hotel suite style) back half that is separated by a door that we deadbolt. We launched the Airbnb Jan 31, 2022 and it has outperformed my goals already. We've had only 5 vacant nights from then to present (May 2022) and our income ranges between $2500-3000+ a month which more than covers our mortgage.

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

Our goal is to acquire 5 properties by age 35, and we want as many of them as possible to be in Denver. The best way for us to do that currently is to purchase new primaries with low down payments and rent our previous ones. We don't have kids yet, so we knew this would be the most comfortable/convenient time in our life to house hack. We know the benefits of house-hacking and how it can afford someone to get ahead in real estate, so we wanted our next purchase to pay for itself via Airbnb.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

I was the agent on the deal and it was on the MLS. It was an i-buy that Open Door had purchased. It fell into the window of i-buyer purchases that were purchased for too much and slightly overpriced when put back on the market. It sat for a couple of weeks which is a long time in Denver, but interest rates were still low, so I went in at list price and wrote $5,000 in concessions into the offer to cover the majority of my closing costs, and I pocketed the buyer agent commission as well.

How did you finance this deal?

Conventional loan at 5% down since it was a primary residence, but being the agent, after getting paid commission and seller concessions, I only had to come with about $10,000 of my own money on a $485k property. We also had to get a lease signed on our old home before we closed on the house, but we had everything set up and ready to list as soon as we got under contract.

How did you add value to the deal?

It was a unique deal, a 2-2 single family that had a weird layout - but for our purposes it was perfect!

What was the outcome?

We have a great 1-1 with updated finishes that we currently live in, and a 1-1 unit that we Airbnb that has an income of $2500-3000 a month covers more than our mortgage!

Lessons learned? Challenges?

If you get creative you can find solutions. I wanted to rent out our previous home and get another property that we could afford, and that would essentially pay for itself via house-hacking - Searching through that lens as my goal helped me be creative to make the deal happen, and it kept me on track rather than being persuaded by any house on the market. It also taught me perseverance because there wasn't a ton of those deals just hanging out in Denver!

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

I was the agent on the deal, and I worked with Dillon Evert and The Rueth Team at Fairway Mortgage who are great to work with, especially for investors. They knew and supported what I was trying to achieve, and worked to find solutions with me to make the financing work.