All Forum Posts by: Eric Y.

@James Wise

Thank you. I appreciate the input, I really liked that house when it was finished. Some great contributions floating around on this forum, can't wait to see some more.

@Adrian Tilley I could see it happening for the right condo unit. Happens all day long (and then some) for anything SFH with a yard. You're absolutely right about being right off 16th or somewhere similarly close to the center of everything to pull that kind of money.

@Joseph Karbus what is your definition of cheap? Home Depot seems to be very different depending on location. I did some work in Wisconsin and if I recall correctly, all of the stores there carried a builder's grade argon filled low-e window called the "American Craftsman 50 Series" windows. They don't carry them locally for me in Colorado but they were ~$90-99 per window which I thought was a pretty solid deal (and easy to return/replace since there is a HD everywhere). They perform quite nicely and look good in the house. With this last winter being record-setting nasty out that way the person living in the house now was ecstatic that the windows were replaced in the summer.

@Brandon Pearsons

The others are right. I wouldn't recommend messing with breaking those laws. You may not get caught, but if you do you're totally sunk. Not worth it, IMHO. Just check the property out early and if it doesn't sell, have your offer ready to be submitted at 12:01 as soon as the 15-day (or whatever it is now) period is up. There are still plenty of non-homepath homes available, just be patient and work on networking in the mean time.

I remember being frustrated for awhile when it seemed like every single property out here (that wasn't a total dump) was homepath and going OO immediately, but it only lasted a short while and then it went back to the norm... no properties available to anyone ;)

@Matt Wagner

The house looks pretty good, to be honest. I'd consider white shutters (brighten it up, seem "bigger") and some simple bushes/flowers. I wouldn't change the paint on the vinyl, and doing concrete work is going to be expensive. It almost always comes down to price, maybe consider chopping some $$ off the ask roughly equal to the amount you'd consider spending on steps/upgrades? I don't know the market or specifics, but one of my properties ended up having to take this route awhile back. It was beautifully updated, but unfortunately the area just couldn't support the price I wanted (and people agreed was roughly fair). Tons of showings but no bites, lowered the price $6k and had a nearly full ask offer within the week (after 2 months of showing after showing).

Good info here. There is a reason we have credit scores and they are compiled from data points just like anything else. Are they the end-all-be-all? Absolutely not, but it is just one more piece of your investigative tool bag. I have one tenant with a ~560's credit score but before I even saw that I asked her and she was very up front and honest with me about the situation. It was some old medical bills that were in contention and she had prepared the information to back her case up. She wasn't bad on anything else and her previous landlord said she didn't miss a payment in 10 years. She struck me as a genuine and nice woman (using that 6th sense that @Rolanda Eldridge talked about has been huge for me) so I took a chance and I'm very happy with my decision.

Collect as much data as you can and don't ignore that gut feeling.

Thanks everyone for the very warm welcome. I definitely plan to check out the podcasts as I've heard tons of great things and you can never know too much.

It is because of a lot of reasons, but mainly because either the potential renters cannot get qualified (which is significantly harder to do now than it was 6 years ago) or because they want to feel an area out before they make a more permanent decision by buying a home. There is also a smaller percentage of people who like renting a nice place and don't want to deal with the hassle of maintenance and repairs that come with home ownership.

Of course the rent rate is (well, should be if you're doing it right) always more than what your mortgage/costs are--so by that logic, nobody should ever rent a property. The amount of free cash needed to purchase a house and how "illiquid" a house can be (not to mention if the value decreases) are huge deal breakers for a lot of people, especially younger ones.

Hey all,

Just wanted to drop by and introduce myself. I'm an investor/contractor in the Denver metro area and have all of my properties (sans 1) in Colorado. I'm looking forward to learning and contributing off this forum as well as possibly networking with other real estate professionals in the area.

My main goals are buy-and-hold in the Denver area. I may entertain a flip, but generally speaking I assess every deal as if I were buying a long-term rental.

I just saw a post about the local Denver meetup, so I'm looking forward to attending a few and meeting other investors.

@Kevin Fletcher

I briefly looked into condos as well early on (I see we're both in the Denver area). To me, the hassle of the HOA's killed it. Besides the fact that 60-70k (@ 20% DP) will still be ~$400/mo for mtg/tax/ins then you add in the HOA fee of 200-300 for a total of $700. If you can truly get $1400/mo rent it would probably work out well, but you have to worry about the HOA being friendly to landlords and things like building maintenance. If they need to replace the roof or do something major they will come to each condo owner and request a lump sum. The problem is when someone/a few people don't pay. Also a risk of an HOA going bankrupt. There are a lot of other strict rules for FHA financing on a condo (in regards to the condition of the HOA and % of non-owner occupied condos in bldg) which might play some into your decision if you're looking into unloading the unit at some point.

If the numbers work and the location is good, it is a very viable approach though.